Fires, climate emergency, and trees
Australia continues all possible valiant efforts to stop the wildfires. The death toll is rising, the destruction of nature ongoing. Nations have responded, sending firefighters, sharing whatever can stop the fires. Prayers are lifted for the fires to stop, for protection of the brave firefighters, for an end to death and damage to people and nature.
Close by, Jakarta drowns in floods just as destructive to the life of people and the environment. We are just at the start of the first month of 2020, about a decade before 2030, the deadline given to us all to either win versus or lose to climate crisis. Expect worse scenarios where typhoons, cyclones, floods, rising waters, global warming will threaten people and communities locally and globally. Or expect a more protected, protective world and planet to support people and lives.
Everyone everywhere is expected to do his/her share to create a better, prosperous and peaceful world and planet through partnership. We all MUST NOW do our daily little acts of love and stewardship for others, for our world, for our planet. Time is racing towards 2030! Let us combat the climate emergency together NOW, not a second later!
One immediate act you can do is joining and supporting local and global campaigns to halt tree cutting. Start in your own location. In Cebu, please help stop any further tree cutting in Naga and elsewhere.
Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a scientist and author, shared these beautiful reminders in her most recent book “To Speak for the Trees: My Life’s Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest”:
“The climate crisis poses the most significant threat to our future that humanity has ever faced. We are better equipped than ever before to take on that challenge. To do so, though, we need to understand and respect the natural world as people once did. We need to see all that the sacred cathedral of the forest offers us, and understand that among those many offerings is a way to save the world.
“The forest is far more than a source of lumber. It is our lungs. It cleans the atmosphere. It recycles water. It is our collective medicine cabinet. It is the regulatory system for our climate and feeds our oceans. It is the cooling mantle of the planet. It is the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren. It is our salvation.
“Trees offer us the solution to nearly every problem facing humanity today, from halting global temperature rise to defending against drug-resistant bacteria. And trees affect our lives, our cultures and spirit in many other ways. The tapestry of life, worldwide, depends on trees.
“Trees and forests are good for health, especially mental health. Forest bathing, an ancient technique, fine-tunes the health of the entire body...Tree aerosols act as anti-cancer shields, improve circulation and decrease high blood pressure. They have antibiotic, antifungal and anti-rheumatic effects.
“All this is known, yet science has barely scratched the surface of the immense gifts trees bring us. With the Amazon burning, and the global temperature rising, stopping climate change in its tracks can seem an impossibility.
“But every one can fight for and save the global forest, our planet and ourselves. It’s not complicated; it is as simple as protecting the trees we have and planting one native tree each per year for six years.
We will save our forests and our trees. The trees are telling us how to do just that - all we need to do is listen.”
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