A Call to Everyone

I watched "An Inconvenient Truth" twice already. The experience was the same for both times, a combination of fear and anger. Fear because when someone says that your country's existence will end in less than 50 years, a figure well within your lifetime, one can feel nothing else but fear. Anger because people are fooled with the real dangers of global warming.

I was never an environmentalist. I am guilty of contributing to the amounting waste in the atmosphere. Upon watching the film, however, the impact of all my misdeeds slapped me full-force. Like everyone else, I thought that the world was capable of handling all the "little wastes." I kind of forgot that we live in a real world; however majestic and magical the world may seem, it is still vulnerable.

I first learned about global warming when i was in elementary. At that time, it was nothing more than a hazy concept of the world inside a microwave. Didn't care much, didn't understand much either. High school and college went by but no change with me. Global warming was still an abstract idea. Until now.

These days, the movie has changed me so much that I am very conscious of how I conduct myself. For one, I try my best to wake people up about this phenomenon. I require my students to watch the film and encourage others to watch it as well. I also include global warming in casual conversations. Awareness for me is the key to action. Now that I'm aware, I'm trying to make others aware as well so that, as one, we can all move to combat this problem. I'm also thinking of communicating with Al Gore to give the very same slide presentation here in the Philippines. God knows how I will be able to do it, but I will try my best.

I can only hope that we would all wake soon enough. I want to continue living my life in an ecological balance. I think others have the same disposition. We just have to act.

We have truly entered a period of consequences...