When traveling to a distant place, taking a bus ride could both be an eye opener and a wake up call. As you traverse along the road, you are faced with the piteous picture of a torn and ravaged environment. It is like rummaging to a collage of distorted images of a once harmonious scenery. When you stop before a red light signal, all you need to do is to look outside, and you can almost see the walls screaming as it is drowned into the ocean of vandals engulfing it. If that's not enough, take a deep long breath and it would be like giving your lungs a kiss of death. It is ironic that we tend to fix ourselves too much, we go to the gym and become health buffs; but we forget to look after the one and only home we have - our environment.

    To be an environmental crusader these days would be like venturing into an endless fight with a formidable foe. This is because some people don’t have a single ounce of care in their system. It would be like fighting a thousand battles with a kitchen knife. It is like playing Hercules and being the strongest man in the world in order to have the guts to face this one of a kind villain.

    I had a sad experience facing this menacing villain. It was a humid mid-afternoon and I was wandering around downtown, when I was bumped by a middle-aged woman who was busy throwing her garbage onto the streets, while puffing on her cigar. It was such a frustrating sight because here we are trying to mourn the sad plight of our surrounding, while others are unaffected even if the urgency of preserving it is so pressing. I wonder how some people could be insensitive and irresponsible as to how they treat the environment. It is evident from the way people keep on dumping their garbage on the streets or throwing into our precious waterways. As a result city drainages are stuck with plastic and other non-biodegradable materials, causing great environmental harm. Pollution is everywhere; it's like a viral disease spreading all over without a known cure. If you look around, vandalism, pollution, and smelly garbage are a natural sight. Factories emitting smoke, smoke belching vehicles, and burning of plastics are common scenarios in urbanized areas. But this is the high price that we have to pay to achieve industrialization and technology. The marine life too is not spared by destruction, as illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping are rampant.

   I wonder if the world will ever cope up with all of these or much more survive after all the hard beatings. It is alarming that the effects of our indifference have now taken its toll against our environment. We don't need a scientist to tell us that the world is undergoing enormous changes. All we need to do is to go out of our homes and witness how the days are getting warmer than before. The facts of these worldwide changes are documented and can be seen on television and, or heard through the news. We often hear about the effects of global warming. It is a worldwide phenomenon wherein extreme climate changes are happening in different parts of the world. The sea level continues to rise due to melting polar ice because the Earth continues to get warmer due to all the trapped heat from pollution. It is not unusual to see on evening news devastating hurricanes, typhoons, heat waves and droughts. We saw how different countries suffered the wrath of nature. Many people in the U.S. have died due to the hurricanes and the heat waves that ravished their country. Properties were also destroyed together with the dreams and hopes of some residents.

    Here in the Philippines alone, we are currently experiencing the effects of a polluted environment. The dry spell has continued to destroy fields of crops and other vegetation. Global warming has not just affected our climate, but also rocked our economy because of the bizarre effect it has on our livelihood. The country's water supply also suffered. Dams or dikes which are sources of our water and electricity cannot anymore supply the needed voluminous needs of the population. Due to this extreme climate change, various diseases also emerged. One of these is the hog cholera disease that affected our meat industry. Indeed, the consequences have a domino effect and could eventually be at our demise in the end.

   What have we done to avert this situation? It is worth while to note that there are people who still value the essence of our environment. These are the people who took time and effort to awaken in us the consciousness to be environment-friendly and to take responsibility in rehabilitating our mother nature. We see these valiant crusaders in the person of an NGO foundation, the government, and our schools or in ordinary people who happen to care. There are also environmentalists who devote most of their time in this crucial mission. They were even featured in the evening news, making noise by posing nude amidst the cold snow, just to be heard and noticed. Moreover, although ours is not a perfect government, some local government units in their little ways have eventually come up with ordinances to protect nature and lessen the effect of pollution. A popular move is the segregation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable materials. Schools also practice this segregation process and constantly remind their pupils of the need to protect and care for the environment. Cleanliness campaigns were also launched to instill awareness to everyone. There is also concerned citizens who report abuses committed against the environment. They brave the danger especially if influential personalities are involved with such illegal activities. Some fast-food chains are also contributing help by serving food and drinks through ordinary plates and glass containers, getting rid of the Styrofoam and plastics from filling our landfills. There are also NGO's who conduct tree-planting activities in order to replenish our ravished rain forests.

    Through the united effort of everyone, we could still draw a silver-lining of hope for the future. It's not yet too late to save what could be saved, and from there, start a cleaner and healthier environment. I recall a superhero back when I was a little girl, it was Captain Planet. It's funny because now, I realized how much we needed that kind of superhero; but on second thoughts, who needs one, when we can all be superheroes and save Mother Nature?