A Torch to Your Porch

Picture your house or your apartment, all the years you’ve spent in that home whether
you’ve lived there almost your whole life or moved in quite recently, all the things you own and
the memories you’ve had in that place. Now imagine you pouring gasoline all over the floors and
walls and setting a match to it, would you do it? I like to take that idea and put it in a global
perspective, seeing how that’s us humans setting a fire to our own home: The Earth.
Recently, typhoon Ompong struck the Philippines and caused floods in several areas; of
which one province; Itogon, Benguet, was devastated by two landslides with a total of 53
casualties. The main culprit found was that the soil on the mountains was loose and soggy, which
was a result of unregulated, illegal small-scale mining, even when they were warned, they
responded with outright refusal. An even more tragic landslide occurred in Naga City, Cebu last
September 21, with at least 29 killed and 60 missing. This accident has also been caused by the
quarrying by the CEMEX company.
These are just two of the dozens of minor landslides that have occurred in the Cordillera
Administrative Region but one common factor that most have had was mining. CAR is known
for being mountainous and thus being jam-packed with resources. Miners often come for
gathering resources while some come for excavations, but in any case, they all destroy our home
and in effect, us.
You may sometimes hear people saying that Mother Nature is taking revenge on us for
destroying her, that she takes it out on us with climate change, typhoons, earthquakes, landslides,
and any other natural disaster. While that may be the partially right, the truth is that we ourselves
are killing ourselves. The damage that we cause to Earth as a collective has gathered up and
taken form in scientific and life-endangering anomalies.
Take into consideration the common idea of a person throwing away a plastic bottle into
the sea because they believe that “It’s just one bottle.” However, if a whole community of people
were to think the same way, then the number of plastic bottles in the sea would amount to the
thousands, to the millions. That is the main cause of pollution: the fatalistic attitude that most
people have.
People litter thinking it’s just one bottle, cars spew out smoke as drivers think it’s just a
few puffs, factories spew out smoke as companies think it’s just small for the scale of the world,
and companies send out miners, thinking that the rock they pick out is not detrimental enough to
the Earth. The problem with this mindset is the amount of people in the world who have the
same idea, and the time that could pass by as these practices continue, and gradually speed up.
I’m glad that President Duterte had given notice to these recent incidents that have caused
much grief to the families of the people that have fallen victim to the acts done by ourselves. If
we do not stop ourselves from our own acts against our planet, then we may as well set a fire to
our homes.