“Who
are willing to die for a tree?”
So asked Fr. Robert Reyes
during a governance forum on tree-cutting at the Northwestern University held
March 12.
Fr. Reyes, also known as the
“Running Priest”, was in Laoag City for two days to try and prevent the cutting
of hundreds of trees in Currimao, Ilocos Norte. Little did he know that another
hundreds of trees are being lined up for the chainsaws in Burgos, Ilocos Norte.
The priest did find out about the other trees in Burgos after a meeting with
Ilocos Norte Governor Ma. Imelda R. Marcos.
The tree-cutting attempts in
Currimao and Burgos are supposedly for renewable energy projects. However, the
question that begs to be asked is “How can we be environmentally conscious and
environmentally friendly when the first thing we do for solar and wind power
projects is to cut trees?”
Renewable sources of energy
are indeed the way to go if we are to go about saving our race from extinction.
But doing this by way of forcing other living things to go extinct is not only
absurd; it borders between stupidity and idiocy.
The earth’s very own
existence depends on the trees that have been growing long before humans were
made in God’s image—or evolved from primates. Trees contribute heavily to
oxygen production and at the same time takes all the carbon dioxide that have
been naturally produced before—but which we are now heavily forcing up the
earth’s atmosphere. Trees also control the flow of water from rainfall saving
us from flashfloods and more so, absorbing water which we use for our daily pathetic
lives. Trees also prevent mountains from falling down on all of us so we could
go on trying to kill the very world we live in.
When we cut trees, we also
lose one of our major oxygen producers as well as carbon absorbers. We further
lose our water reserves and we lose communities to flashfloods. And as results
now often show after typhoons and torrential rains, we lose villages to
landslides.
Progress is inevitable since
the day our ancestors learned to make a fire and built a wheel. But the
progress and development of today are relying heavily on the destruction of our
environment and natural resources. Progress may have made life easier for all
of us, but what would all this mean when the very earth we are living in dies
on us?
Development and progress
should be made stand side-by-side with the protection, preservation—and giving
our environment a chance to renew and replenish itself. As it is, building
around trees, forests and other natural structures may be a more inconvenient
way for us but is actually the only way for all of us to continue fully
enjoying the fruits and results of human advancement and technology.
Fr. Reyes may be just one
person but if we start listening to what he has to say and pick up the wisdom
of his thoughts and ideas, we may then be well on our way to creating a better,
brighter and safer future for the next generations to come.
Then no one needs to die for
a tree. Neither would trees continue to die for us. (MTE)
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