Dan Michael N.

Nacua

David Attenborough is world-renowned naturalist released a

documentary entitled “Life on Our Planet” which he calls it as his “witness
statement” for the environment. The documentary shows how suddenly the
health of the planet has deteriorated in his lifetime. In the documentary, it
shows how humanity’s cruel destruction of nature will make the planet totally
ruined and barren that would make it uninhabitable for us people, other
creatures and resources here on Earth.

However, all hope is not lost as said by David Attenborough. We still

have time solve the damage we have caused to the planet by starting living
sustainably in our own community. Here in Iligan City, the LGUs are taking
their role seriously by providing programs in relation to the health of our
planet. There are ordinances which prohibits people to use plastic materials
such as straws, cellophanes and plastic cups. However, I believe that if we
really want to help, we should start it within ourselves. We should choose to
live sustainably or to live within our means. One of the problem mentioned in
the documentary is the scarcity of our resources because of our too much
usage. DENR or the LGUs can plan and have a symposium on what is it like to
live sustainably so everyone can have an understanding on what are the ways
the people can live a sustainable life.

Another problem mentioned is the high rate of deforestation. Here in

Iligan City, people could never forget the horrific calamity brought by Sendong
wherein a lot of people died and infrastructures were damaged. In my own
opinion, the Sendong calamity here in Mindanao is not a collateral damage or
even the wrath of nature but it is a murder. It is murder committed by national
and multi-national companies. They have murdered our environment; they
have murdered our people and they will continue to murder our future unless
we the people of Mindanao and other parts of the country should act upon this
by exposing the rotten system that brought catastrophe on the lives of the
majority poor victims. The Sendong calamity was our wake up call sadly up till
now we are still not awake how these companies murdered our people and our
environment. The solution to this is of course to rehabilitate what are lost but
this is still useless if they would still continue to cut down trees illegally. It is
just a never ending cycle – deforestation then reforestation. What we can
significantly do is to make sure that those people behind this problem pay for
what they have caused. For in the end, as Attenborough says, “it’s not really
about saving the planet. It’s about saving ourselves.”