Digging our own grave

We all know that we are slowly destroying the planet we call home. We have been doing it for years, but we’ve finally begun to see that this is a problem that we may no longer be able to fix and that we are on a very slow march toward the eventual point where the planet will become inhabitable.

We have seen how climate change and the increase in the world’s carbon footprint have impacted the world in the past. In the form of the changing seasons, the loss of natural resources, and extremely bad natural phenomenon like super typhoons, earthquakes, and so much more. These things will only continue to get worse unless things start to change.

Recently, the US science organization Climate Central put together a report saying that the effects of global warming may impact us much sooner than predicted and affect far more people than they initially thought. Under a new system of predicting land elevation, Climate Central has estimated that up to over 150 million people live in an area that could be below water level by as early as 2050.

Thirty years may seem like a long way off until we think about it in terms of our kids or grandkids. They will be in their 30s and 40s by the time many of the globe’s cities could potentially be underwater. In Asia, there are eight countries in danger and one of them is the Philippines. After all, we already know that several coastal cities in Manila, Malabon, and even Navotas are sinking. The accelerated sea rise caused by global warming could speed this up and threaten even more of our islands.

Other areas of concern include Vietnam, India, Japan, and China to name a few. But this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. While other cities may seem safe from rising tidewaters in the next 30 years, it will only be a matter of time before they face their own crisis as well. Whether it’s loss of natural resources needed for survival, rising temperatures, or rising oceans remains to be seen.

That is why it is imperative to keep trying to reverse decades of damage that pollution has done to our planet. Ration out our resources better and make changes to how we live our lives. What seemed like unnecessary precautions before are now important and must-dos. Big changes like better resource management and more strategic population control are important to ensure that there is still a future left for our children.

In fact, population control is an important aspect that needs to be better addressed in the Philippines. I have been saying this for years now and I still believe it to be true. We have far too many people and too few resources. Or if population control is a sensitive subject for a highly religious nation then perhaps looking deeper into better resource allocation is what needs to be done.

Either way, unless we make changes and soon we are all going to be suffering the consequences. The gap or the divide here in the Philippines between those who have and those who don’t is just too wide. Sooner or later we are going to collapse and fold in on ourselves.  And if we don’t do anything about it now, that’s going to happen sooner rather than later.

I read another piece of news recently that is connected to all of this. Through a global poll, Waze has determined that the Philippines is one of the worst places in the world to drive. That makes complete sense to me. Driving has always been bad in the country, but over the last few years, it has gotten even worse. Too many people, too many cars on the road, not enough other transportation options have turned our streets into Carmageddon day in and day out.

Not only has it killed productivity – seriously wasting two - four hours daily on the road is ludicrous – but it has also increased our carbon footprint and emissions. Instead of decreasing, as we should be, we are just exacerbating the problem. We need to address this. There are several solutions; the government just has to be willing to be agile and flexible when it comes to implementing them.

We all know that our infrastructure has to be addressed. Better public transportation is important to get people out of their cars, buses, and jeepneys and into trains. This will only work if we have ample trains running and a reliable system. We need to give incentives to companies that allow work from home. With a strong internet connection, anyone can work from anywhere and we have to let go of the antiquated notion that a person needs to physically be in an office to get the job done.

We need to incentivize providing jobs outside of Metro Manila as well. If we can work toward decongesting the metro and allowing people to stay in the provinces and still get the same opportunities they would if they came to Manila, then we could get even more people off the streets.

Solutions like these are not hard. They are not impossible to implement. And I’m sure there are several more that can go hand-in-hand with them to make a big enough difference. If we start here then our efforts will snowball and make a big and positive impact.

But these are just big things. We also need to do our part in the small things. Use less plastic, reduce, reuse, and recycle. We may have done a lot of damage, but I’d like to hope we’re not past the point of no return  at least not yet.