BY SHAY CULLEN
WE TREASURE many possessions in this world but for the vast majority of people, there is one most valuable of all. What is it for you: love, gold, money, security, peace, family, happiness?
Yes, all are precious but without the one most precious of all, which we take for granted, we cannot have any of the rest. The most important thing that we expect to be always there for us is water.
When I go to visit the remote villages of the Aeta people in Zambales to join them in tree planting and developing their water resources, there are some long walks and hiking to do and very soon, I am reaching for my water bottle. When it is empty, I feel anxious. I know that no human can survive two or at most three days without water.
Since our bodies are already 60 percent water, we need to replenish our body’s water to keep our other 40 percent functioning. Water is essential for life and, believe it or not, there is a huge shortage of clean potable water in the world today.
Twenty years ago, the city where I live had enough from a running river. It became a trickle because of logging and environmental destruction by greedy politicians. When there are no trees, there is no water but there is more CO2 to fill the atmosphere, causing global warming and climate change. The planet is 70 percent made up of water.
The vast oceans cover most of it and it’s good for the fish but we humans can’t drink it for the salt. Yet, it is vital to our climate.
Global warming evaporates the sea water faster and in greater volume, creating vast, rain-filled clouds. The warmer water causes currents to change direction and hot air rises to mix with the descending cold air and we get more powerful, more frequent and more massive typhoons, hurricanes and rain storms as is happening around the world.
This is why there are massive floods everywhere except in parts of Africa. They suffer the extreme greater droughts because global warming evaporates the water on the land and rivers. When there is no water, the crops fail and starvation is next.
Now we humans are clever and smarter than most other creatures on the planet. We may have the larger brains and intelligence and many of us are really trying to be good, to do good deeds for others and be decent, honest, compassionate people willing to help others in need. But, it is not enough if we don’t act to love the planet, too, and be more active in trying to save it and people, animals and wildlife.
If we are all going to survive and that is not likely, we humans need to have greater human caring, compassion, sharing and peaceful co-existence and pressure our governments and their big business corporations to back off polluting the earth and change from burning coal, oil and gas to building renewable sources of energy. (To be continued)/PN
