BY JULIA CARREON-LAGOC
AS you read this, I sing with John Denver, my favorite country singer, and I change his words as I please.
The time has come for me to leave… I dream of the days to come, playing with the smartest granddaughter in the world, any grandmother would love to say…Yes, I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again… But every word I write, I’ll write for you…
The cyber postman will deliver my words across amazing leaps through time and space, and when you hold this paper, I am there only a page away even if I did leave on a jet plane and on wings of a song to the heartland of America.
April and May got me moored in the beloved home country. My two-month stay reached epic heights with the centennial jubilee celebration of the school of my childhood, the San Antonio-San Nicolas Elementary School (SASNES) in Oton, Iloilo. Much I have written on how we alumni have tried to stand by the jubilee theme: SASNES Celebrates 100 Years of Success and Excellence.
My brief sojourn couldn’t be complete without a visit to SEAFDEC (Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center), where being a staff in its AV-Print section was my source of livelihood. It was great bonding with old friends who continue to make SEAFDEC a research organization to reckon with in the international community. To SEAFDEC AQD Chief Felix Ayson, et al., I can’t be more proud of you all.
Preserved in my personal archives is a cherished piece: When the Atmosphere Goes, So Do We, reprinted from Towards a Viable Environment: WHAT INDIVIDUALS CAN DO prepared by the SEAFDEC Environment Action Group of which this writer is a charter member. Read on and do your bit of protecting and conserving the environment before it’s too late:
A layer of air, the atmosphere, surrounds the earth and extends far outward into space. Only the first few miles of the atmosphere contain the mixture of gases, mostly oxygen and nitrogen, that all humans, plants, and animals need for life. This is the air we breathe from the time we are born until the time we die.
The atmosphere provides us with much more than the air we breathe; it is a vital part of the life support system of our planet. Indeed, without the atmosphere, the earth could be as cold and barren as the surface of the moon. The atmosphere has an ozone layer that protects us from the damaging rays of the sun, and provides a natural greenhouse effect that warms the planet’s surface. The atmosphere’s wind and weather systems shape the earth’s climate.
The major gases of the earth’s atmosphere are nitrogen (78 percent by volume), oxygen (21 percent), argon (0.9 percent), carbon dioxide (0.035 percent), water vapor, and ozone. It has taken billions of years for the earth to produce the relatively constant composition of the atmosphere. Sensitive natural cycles normally maintain this delicate natural balance.
The carbon dioxide-oxygen cycle is an example of the delicate balance that exists between living things and the gases of the air. Basic to this cycle is photosynthesis, by which plants make food for themselves and for all other life on earth. Plants use energy from sunlight, and water and carbon dioxide from the air, and release oxygen. Animals including people take oxygen from the air and release carbon dioxide during respiration. Carbon dioxide is also released by bacteria acting on dead plants and animals. Carbonate rocks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and transfers it to the streams and oceans by weathering. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants for photosynthesis, used by animals for skeletons, or goes back to the atmosphere.
The composition of the earth’s atmosphere is undergoing a major global change. Human activities such as air pollution, deforestation, the burning of fossil fuels, and even agricultural practices are now altering the delicate balance of gases in our atmosphere. Scientists are predicting major changes in world climate, including a rise in sea level and shifts in rainfall patterns. The chemicals we have added to the atmosphere are causing health problems, damaging lakes and forests, threatening the earth’s ozone layer, and contaminating even the most remote areas of the earth.
It isn’t easy to clean up the atmosphere. The problems are huge, interconnected and so complex they are not yet fully understood, even by scientists who have studied them for years. But the pollution keeps increasing, and today people understand that it is better to work to limit pollution today than to wait until damage to the atmosphere results in greater problems.
Air pollution, global warming, and ozone loss are global problems that demand international solutions. Today, scientists from many countries are working together on these problems, and international groups are drawing up laws to protect the atmosphere.
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From our simplest end, the most we can do is to do away with the plastic and styrofoam habit. Avoid polluting the environment in every way we can. Only then can we shout to high heavens Long live Mother Earth! (juliaclagoc@yahoo.com)/PN
