EARTH DAY

EARTH DAY was a recent global event that linked concerned citizens together in litter clean-ups,
festivals, meditation sessions, tree-planting events, theater presentations, rallies as well as bikathons all
over the world. Even Mt. Everest,which has not been spared from global garbage was scaled by fifteen
mountaineer ecologists who cleared the junk dump on its summit.
Suddenly, we are experiencing an Earth Renaissance-an awareness that the earth and its bounties
which we have so long taken for granted might be running out on us. Jolted by water shortages, pollution,
floods,erratic weather, brownouts and other not-to-be-ignored occurrences such as famines and floods,
earth citizens are realizing that their concern might even be too late. Nature, too long ignored and abused
has began to falter and now seems to be in its death throes.
The forests are shorn of their trees-and their wildlife; thousands of animal and insect species have
become extinct. Our seas have become dumping grounds for waste-the once-blue waters turned poison,
sea creatures dead from toxic substances are washed up on shores littered byCoke cans and plastic junk.
Even the air we breath has turned harmful,fraught with carbon monoxide and in the worst cases,nuclear
waste.
Where before our forests gifted us lavishly with fruits and flowers,our seas with glistening pearls
and the air with pristine, life-giving oxygen-now our only entitlements are the yields of our
malignancies,the plunder that our industries and technologies have wreaked on nature,all in the name of
progress.
It is time we made peace with the earth.
Over a hundred million people on one hundred fifteen countries took part in Earth Day, touted to
be the largest global demonstration in history. There were then, those who adopted beaches, transplanted
forests and ate organic food. “Who says you can't change the world?" was the slogan. Yes, indeed, who
says you can't change the world with emphasis on the YOU, singular, for though mass action is emphatic,
it is still the individual concern and action that fuels the environmentalist movement.
In fact, the global move towards an ecologically balanced environ-ment only reflects an inner
awareness that decries the personal imbalan-ces that have come about because man has neglected to listen
to the inner voices that called for a tempering of greed, for a gentling of the spirit. The spirited race to the
corporate top which results only in more resources for consumer goods, a strong profit-orientation; the
"me" generation at its hilt has blinded consideration for other forces which are integral to life on this
planet. Now, more and more people, sensitive to the New Age, are quieting down enough to listen to
voices closer to one's core, more aligned with their environment—with the trees, the soil, the.rains, the
stars and planets even.
For so long now, it has only been a take-take situation as far as the earth was concerned. We built
factories, and dams and nuclear reactors; we killed off whales and dolphins and fish; we slashed and
burned entire forests—all in the name of the great consumer society. Now, having abused nature's
generosity, we find that it is us who will be consumed by the results of so-called development, if we don't
do anything about it. It's got to be give and take now. And it is an individual commitment.
Governments, nationalist groups and the multi-nationals are slowly growing towards awareness
but these efforts are insufficient. A proposal by the United Nations Environment Program to package a
treaty among nations limiting the release of carbon dioxide has been stymied by US President George
Bush who says that global warming is a problem that needs study, not immediate action. Industrial giants
such as Union Carbide have promised to plant half a million trees, the leaders of the US and Australia
have pledged a billion trees each—but up to now people are asking "Where's the funding?"
The earth cannot wait for the governments and corporate giants. It is up to you and others like
you who can make the difference in your own environment. And you will not be alone—there are those
children who filed a suit against DENR Secretary Jun Factoran to cancel all timber license agreements in
the country; the citizens of Calaca and Lemery who picketed the local Napocor plant against pollUtion
from the coal-fired power plant. Across the globe, there is Jose Lutzenberger, an ecologically oriented
agronomist in Brazil who aroused the ire of his government when he called for a halt to the destruction of
the rain forests. Today, much to the surprise of the people in the environmentalist movement, Lurzen-
berger was named Secretary of the Environment by the newly-in-augurated President Fernando Collor de
Mello. Then a tourist to the Texas Gulf coast, Linda Maraniss was appalled at the flotsam and jetsam that
floated down the formerly pristine waters. She organized the first Texas coastal cleanup which has since
then become an annual event; last fall more than 8,000 people bagged 158 tons of trash. Twenty four
other states hold their own cleats-up.
In ancient times, our ancestors worshipped nature. They felt the manifestation of Divine Power in
the trees, the sun, the air, the waters. They believed in a unity with these powers (for they are powers);
valued and respected that oneness. The rivers were gentle sisters, the winds, an emphatic brother. There
were the spirits who inhabited the mango trees from whom one had to ask permission in order to partake
of its fruits. There were the anitos who protected mountains and hills. There were Mariang Makiling of
the Laguna mount, Mariang Dolores of Banahaw. There were the cycles of cold and heat, wet and dry and
in their wisdom, they realized that for as long as they kept close to these rhythms, nature would
continually share its bounty with them.
You need not go into the ancient rites of Pantheism to give back to the earth its due. In fact, it is
not high-flown rhetoric and great intentions that will turn the tide but mundane, everyday stuff: just make
sure that your plastic and styrofoam junk are properly disposed of. When you do your groceries don't buy
aerosol sprays, use lotions, gel or non-aerosol sprays. Use rechargeable batteries since "dead" batteries are
non-recycl-able. You don't need sprays to clean up your house--homemade mixtures of baking soda and
white vinegar can do the trick with windows, rugs and carpets. Little things, insignificant almost. But
every effort counts. The important thing is to care—and care is always manifested in little things.
And the earth will give back that caring to you; for in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins:
The world is charged with the grandeur of God
It will flame out like shining from shook foil
It gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil crushed
Why do men then now wreck His rod
Generations have trod, have trod
And wears man's smudge and share man's smell
The soil is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod
But for all these, nature is never spent
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things
And though the lights off the black west went
Morning at the brown-brink eastward springs
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World-broods with warm breast
And with… ah, bright wings.