It used to be warm typical of summer during this time of year. We should also be having summer rains in the afternoons. Thus, being up and about by 5.30 a.m. was usual.
These days are atypical of summer. As if we were still in the cold BER months. Curling in bed is still the best thing to do early mornings.
Climate change is the handy explanation. If such a major thing can happen unpredictably, what are we to expect these coming months? Will the dry season characterized by parched farms be prolonged as expected due to el nino? Everybody is now crying for rain. Water deliverers are hard put to satisfy the acutely high demand.
Will the coming rainy season be deadlier with stronger typhoons as surmised? Will it be prolonged as the dry one we are going through?
Nobody will be prepared enough if the likes of Super typhoon Yolanda will again visit us. Lowlanders and their livelihoods and belongings will be swept away or drowned by killer floods. God forbid what will happen to us here in the highlands? Will villages be erased through massive landslides?
Sadly, the government will not be prepared enough despite numerous pronouncements to the contrary. Once again, just like during the Covid-19 pandemic, it will be caught flat footed. People’s sufferings will be immense.
As always, we will have to take care of ourselves individually in the short term.
In the long term, government seems not to be doing enough to lessen greenhouse gases, particularly, to achieve responsible forestry and agriculture practices nationwide.
Individually, we are as greedy as ever to achieve short term profits even if it means killing the soil or denuding forests. And there are no conscious efforts to lessen our carbon footprint.
In short, we continue to be living willy nilly with no discipline as if everything will always be OK in the future. And then we will be surprised when disasters happen. We are actually building up the causes of their occurring everyday.
It is high time we reformed our ways.**