Legarda: It’s Time to Reflect on How We Treat the Environment

SENATOR LOREN LEGARDA ENCOURAGED FILIPINOS TO INCLUDE IN THEIR LENTEN REFLECTION THE STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND HOW THEY CAN IMPROVE THE WAY THEY TREAT MOTHER EARTH.
“As we celebrate this year’s Earth Day, which coincides with the Holy Week, we must rekindle our relationship with nature. As stewards of God’s creation, let us reflect on how we treat the benefits we receive from our natural resources,” Legarda said.
The Senator lamented that the formerly abundant and healthy environment that Filipinos were blessed with is now in a sad and waning condition.
“We have destroyed the balance of our ecosystem to provide for our overly consumptive population at the expense of depleting the capital – the land, air, water that took billions of years to form and perfect.”
“The air we breathe—we have polluted it to alarming levels that we have exposed ourselves to respiratory and pulmonary diseases.”
“Our waters — what have we done with the source of life? We did not only use it and used it up. We even dirtied it.”
“What about our minerals that took 55 million years to form? We intend to extract these minerals in 30-50 years even if future generations of Filipinos will have nothing left.”
Legarda said that Filipinos need not wait for anothernatural hazard or witness another environmental disaster of biblical proportion to understand the current sad state of the Philippine environment.
“Let us all work, in our own and simple yet big and determined steps to help resuscitate our ailing environment. Let us turn away from extractive and consumptive way of living and strive to make a positive impact on our natural resources—may it be by saving on fuel, energy and water consumption, recycling, proper solid waste management, or growing trees,” Legarda concluded.