MELTING POINT =(

For all those who regularly follow my blog, you'd know these two. The pic was taken by Mama Mi, my cousin-in-law, two Christmases ago. Genius Patita and Adorable Ray*-B. I keep thinking and I can't shake it out of my head: if the summers are already this punishing for our generation (really, 37-39 degrees?!), how much worse would it be when they get to our age?

Just last week, I was in Cagayan de Oro for work. I've been in and out of the place over the past 14 years. I've never experienced rain that hard, it flooded parts of the city. (Heck, the area was actually handpicked in the 1920s because it had the perfect balance of sunshine and rain, needed for growing pineapples. More sunshine. Less rain. It isn't the case anymore.) Last Friday, there was heavy rain AND thunderstorm. At 3:30 p.m. In the middle of summer. The rain got so bad, I was told flights were cancelled, so other colleagues who were supposed to fly back to Manila that afternoon had to turn back.

Last year, I got hold of a copy of The Inconvenient Truth and sat through it, amazed. Sadly, it all stayed at the "mental level". I know the planet is in trouble, but it's the classic case of the chicken-or-the-egg. The planet is heating up. So I turn on the aircon to cool myself down. Which only contributes further to the heat. So I keep the aircon on longer to keep myself comfortable. Which only contributes further to the heat. The cycle goes on and goes on--at least, until I create a discontinuity that would change its course.

Hubby Sweet actually started this thing. Choosing to eat organic (rice, egg, and what else have you), he told me that he read somewhere that they create less stress on the environment. "Think of it, Sweet," he said, "Pa'no na lang sina Patita, Ray-B*, Siob-siob, GB and Kirstie if we don't do something about things now?" And so SLOWLY (even if it's a bit more expensive), we're choosing to go the organic route.

Tomorrow, I'm also buying an electric fan so we confine the use of the aircon to when it's REALLY needed. (Yes, the only fan I have in the house is an industrial fan, and sadly, in one moment of boredom, Buster J and Barrioca gnawed at the plug. Ack! Buti na lang di nakasaksak. Haha!)

Which brings me to my next course of action. I'm going to start unplugging stuff when they are not in use. I'm going to start putting off lights. It does not make sense to have the light on in the kitchen and the hallway, when really, all of us are in the living room. It's quite simple when you think about it, but it's not easy. We (meaning Hubby Sweet and I) have to start building a habit.

I'm slowly starting to recycle. Who cares if it's not sosyal to reuse PET bottles and instant noodle cups? Haha. We have to learn to segregate what is biodegradable and what is not. The biodegradable stuff, we can bring to a composting organization. The non-biodegradable stuff need to either be used twice or donated to some recycling center. Seriously, if you know any organization who accepts biodegradable garbage for composting and non-biodegradable garbage for recycling, please leave a note in the comments section.

I want to plant a tree. They say, you have to be able to plant a tree in your lifetime. I just don't know where yet. I've planted coffee in Tagaytay with BFF Marts in one of those planting tours organized by Figaro in Tagaytay during the Wander Years. But coffee beans are not trees, and I want to plant trees. I want to get a group together so we can start figuring out how to do this. Soon. Anybody else up for planting trees?

I feel the panic building inside me, not for myself, but for the little children I love who will grow up in a world much, much worse than the one I am living in now--unless I do my bit to change the course we're on. This is Siob-siob, my youngest niece. She's only 3 months old.

When you think about people who would have to live on this earth 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years down the road, whose face do you see?

More importantly, what are you going to do for them today?