Damianus
Abun
Several times I have
published my research papers in the peer-reviewed international journal related
to the environment. The first paper was about the environmental attitude and
environmental behavior of Catholic colleges in Region I, Philippines. This
paper was published in the Texila International Journal of Academic Research,
Vol. 4, issue 1, 2017. The second research paper was related to the same topic.
It was about the environmental attitude and environmental behavior of Senior
High School Students of Divine Word Colleges in Region I, Philippines. It was
published by the EPH-International Journal of education research, Vol. 1,
Issue, 2, 2017. The two studies have found that most employees and students are
influenced by the anthropocentric attitude in which human beings view the
environment as the instrument of human pleasure or welfare. The environment is
treated as an object to be used by humans. This attitude has affected their behavior
toward the environment. They do not respect the natural environment and they
throw garbage everywhere. They do not save energy, etc. Such an attitude
affects the natural environment. The third paper that I published was about
solving environmental problems is changing cultural perception toward the
environment, published in the International Journal of Current Research, Vol.
10, Issue, 8, 2018. This paper is a kind of summary of the two previous papers.
The paper saw the root cause of the environmental problem in the human attitude
or cultural perception toward the environment. There is a need to change our
attitude and cultural perception of the environment.
I wrote these papers
and published them with the hope that I can contribute ideas on how to save the
environment. I believe too that many researchers out there have conducted
researches in line with the natural environmental issues because of the same
concern to save the environment. Readers have sent feedbacks to me that through
my research, they have opened their minds to see that solving the environmental
problem is a holistic approach. The positive feedback that I got emboldens me
to believe that I have contributed ideas in saving the natural environment. Governments
everywhere have discussed issues on natural environmental problems and have
instituted legislation to protect the environment. The latest was the Paris
Climate Change Agreement to convince all countries to put in place policies to
protect the environment. Individual persons, NGOs, and the government are worried
about how to save the environment. The ecosystem has been damaged, the climate
has changed and naturally, human life continuity is in danger. This is the main
concern of why people are calling for the government to curb the use of fossil
fuel and go for green energy because of its negative effect on the natural environment
as a whole which affects the ecosystem. People have been calling to save the
future generation. Again all these efforts to protect the natural environment are
motivated by the concern of human survival. If human life is not affected,
probably people will not be bothered and call for the protection of the natural
environment. Again human is the center of the concern. People have not learned
and have not seen themselves and the natural environment as one ecosystem that is
interconnected and affected one another.
The question is: are we
saving the natural environment or are we saving ourselves? Gary Pekas (2011) in
his reflection contended that we are not saving the environment because the
environment will take care of itself but actually what we are doing is to save
ourselves. Jeffrey Shaw (2016) also had the same kind of reflection that nature
will take care of itself. Before human beings occupy the planet, nature or the
natural environment has been there. Animals and human beings may disappear or
maybe evolved into a different form of human beings to adapt to nature but
nature will be still there. No matter what humans will do to nature, nature
will heal itself (Reynolds, 2010). Reynolds contended that the earth has been
going through many cases of abuse but the earth is still here. Reynolds quoted the
idea of professor Laughlin, Stanford
University physicist, said, “ "The geologic record suggests that climate ought not to
concern us too much when we gaze into the future," he says, "not
because it's unimportant but because it's beyond our power to control." “Whatever
humans throw at it, in other words, Earth will fix things in its own time and
way”. Taking from the ideas of Laughlin, Reynolds advises us to
remain calm because nature will take care of itself. He took an example of
rain. The rain has been falling since the beginning of time and yet the amount
of water in the earth’s ocean has not changed significantly. Ice melting
happened 15,000 years ago but the sea level rose by one centimetre a year for
10,000 years. The earth does not care what we are doing, what the government is
doing, it will take care of itself.
Based on geologic time,
we would argue that climate change is not only happening in our time, it has
been happening ever since. The earth has gone through dramatic changes in its
history throughout its 4.5 billion histories. It has gone through climatic
changes and the history of life has been influenced by these climatic changes
which may alter the course of evolution. Life is a causative effect of these
changes (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Recently there is good
news that the ozone layer is healing. National Geographic (n.d) defines the ozone
layer as “one layer of the
stratosphere, the second layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. The stratosphere is
the mass of protective gases clinging to our planet”. When the ozone layer
is damaged, there is no protection over the earth and nothing can survive on
the planet. According to the study posted in Science Alert (2019), the ozone
layer above Antarctica has recovered much, and scientists have acknowledged
that this recovery is probably caused by the Montreal Protocol (1987).
According to them, this could reverse some troubling changes in air currents around
the Southern Hemisphere. However, many have also doubted that the
healing of the ozone layer is due to the Montreal Protocol. And so Kundhu
(2020) wrote in India Today that this change has nothing to do with the
lock down. Despite these denials, one cannot deny that one of the biggest contributors
to the ozone layer depletion is China. Because of Covid-19 and lock down, China
had stopped everything, all industries are shutting down, all cars and airplanes are not
moving and flying. As a result of these changes, the air above China becomes cleaner and less polluted. The water becomes
clear and animals can go back to its habitat. It is not only true in China but
throughout the whole world. All kinds of industries have been shutting down. It brings great impact on the healing of the ozone layer. Can we still deny that lock down had brought healing
to the ozone layer? The nature through COVID-19 has healed the ozone layer. Though human denies that nature can defend and heal
itself from human encroachment but the fact is that COVID-19 has shut down all human activities and because of that the environment is getting healthier.
Covid-19 is a zoonotic disease and therefore it comes from nature which
passes from animals to humans. It is believed to be originated in bats before
passing to humans. Covid-19 could be nature’s way to defend itself from
damaging. Last May 14, 2020, Paula Ramon posted an article on yahoo news about
Amazon that could be the next virus hot zone. She quoted David Lapola, a
Brazilian ecologist, “human encroachment on animals’ habitats- a likely main
culprit in coronavirus outbreak. Amazon forest is a huge reservoir of viruses”.
Human encroachment toward nature has been too much and nature could not stomach
it any longer. Nature has its army in the forms of viruses to protect itself
and this is also true to human life. There is a natural system in our body to
protect itself from anything that threatens its existence but humans have not
discovered its natural system to cure itself.
Finally, the war is ongoing between human beings and nature through COVID-19 and the
losers are definitely human beings. The streets are empty, manufacturing companies are empty and all kinds of industries are shut down and
human beings are hiding inside their home. the nature slowly is healing itself, the ozone layer is healing, the air
becomes clean, and the animals come back to their habitats. Nature has won the
battle. Now, how do we protect ourselves to survive? Life should change and align it
with nature and nature will become our friend. COVID – 19 will change our lives
and the way we live. We need to live in harmony with the environment.
