Caged

I spent the whole day binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy, covering my phone screen with my hand every now and then every a gory scene comes up. Some say that staying on your bed for the entire day is a sign of depression. I don’t believe I’m sad. Maybe, I feel more trapped than sad.

However, since I’ve been at it for the entire day now, I mustered the strength to beat whatever downing force is keeping me from getting up, and finally sat up. Then, I stared at the window for about 5 minutes. This is what I found. It doesn’t look much in the picture. I know. Just a beaten down roof that may need replacing and a bunch of trees. It’s not visible, but there are a lot of birds flying around the tree. They’re communicating, too, I think. It calmed me for a bit. But then, I started to envy them. You see, they’re free. However, there’s an upside to being caged. Months of being trapped gave me more time to think.

Months of being trapped indoors also made me appreciate the littlest things about the nature around our home. Every morning, birds would fly towards the Aratilis tree, picking its fruits while making incredibly beautiful sounds. The bees would fly over the flowers of our squash, moving from one flower to another until they’re satisfied. The neighbor’s pigeons would fly in circles around the Balete tree near us, and I’d stare at them for a few minutes, free of thoughts. I love waking up to this.

This is why my retirement plan will be to settle in a place surrounded by trees, far from the busy and crowded streets of Manila and close to nature. Having taken 2 degrees that are Biology-related and having lived in a dormitory literally in the middle of the forest, I have come to appreciate nature. I regret not being able to pursue a Biology-related career any further or to be part of a greater cause that can potentially help save the earth, but I figured that what I can do, for now, is to write about it and hope that people would come to the same appreciation of nature as me.

Riding in a motorcycle for hours and hours can be challenging. Before we had a Bluetooth communicator (Sena), communication was tough, so my partner and I don’t talk for hours while riding. Therefore, we’d have no choice but to stare at what seemed to be endless roads. It seems boring, but this is the part that makes the rides worth it. When we get to the less busy portions and tree-rich portions of places, we begin to feel better and we start to de-stress. I wish everyone could use nature as a means to detox. It is the best.

When we’re not riding, we spend the weekends watching nature documentaries, among others. Blue Planet. Frozen Planet. NatGeo episodes. It was somehow a way to be closer to nature without leaving the bedroom.

Yesterday, I watched David Attenborough’s Life on Our Planet, and I feel alarmed rather than de-stressed. This 1.5-hour documentary shares David Attenborough’s eye witness of the natural events of the planet. It’s a must-watch, especially for the youth and the unaware. If you’re too busy to watch it, allow me to summarize it for you. If you’re planning to watch it, better stop reading now. SPOILER ALERT!

The documentary explains that, if we don’t change our ways:

• By 2030: There’s an altered water cycle because of forest degradation. There may be ice-free arctic.
• By 2040: There’s an increased production of methane due to forest degradation and the burning of fossil fuels, leading to an accelerated rate of climate change dramatically.
• By 2050: There’s more acidic ocean due to coral bleaching and increased global temperature. Coral reefs die, and the fish populations crash.
• By 2080: There’s a crisis in food production due to the overuse of land. The pollinating insects disappear and more unpredictable weather.
• By 2100: The global temperature will be 4 degrees warmer. Large parts of the earth are inhabitable. Millions are homeless. It’s predicted that the earth will have its 6th mass extinction.

In a few decades, we have managed to reduce the world’s forests to just about 30%. Imagine that. Our forests are 70% less than before, and we have directly and indirectly caused it. We have transformed thriving rainforests into dead palm plantations or coconut forests (or subdivisions). Thousands of animal species have been driven to extinction and more and more animals are being driven to extinction (see the 2020 list here). The arctic ice is getting thinner by the hour. The marine diversity is incredibly decreased. Coral reefs are undergoing bleaching due to increased ocean acidity. This is because we humans thought of ourselves as the most important species on the planet just because of our complex way of thinking. What we fail to realize is that the planet will be so much better without us in the picture. For example, as explained in the documentary, Chernobyl, which used to be a thriving city, is now taken over by nature because of the absence of human beings. It’s clear evidence that nature is capable of surviving without the human population, which means the planet will survive after we’re gone. And, if we don’t act now, it may be too late to reverse the damage.

The Good News:

• We have stabilized the global population and are continuing to do so. Family planning has become better in most countries.
• More and more countries are turning to renewable energy sources like solar power and geothermal energy as primary sources of electricity.

HOWEVER, this is obviously not enough. There’s a lot more we can and we must do to slow down the planet’s decline and halt our extinction.

What we can do (according to Sir David):

• Raise the standard of living in the world by providing proper education and health care to its inhabitants won’t result in drastic measures (like poaching) to live.
• Have more designated no-fish zones to allow marine life to thrive.
• Continue stabilizing the world population to just within its carrying capacity.
• Have a less meat-based diet to reduce the need for livestock and poultry and reduce the annual anthropogenic GHG emissions globally, which is one of the causes of global warming.
• Have smaller farm spaces and reduce land grabbing to give wild animals more space to inhabit.
• Protect rainforests and halt deforestation immediately and ONLY farm on lands deforested long before.

If I may add, small changes can result to great things collectively:

• Imbibe the reduce, reuse, and recycle mindset, and if we can, the zero-waste lifestyle.
• Educate our youth at a young age to appreciate and protect all living things.
• Have more discipline and respect for fellow humans and other species.
• Train ourselves to be better consumers.

More generally:

“Establish a life on the planet in balance with nature.“

“Move from being apart from nature to being a part of nature once again.“

If we change our ways, there’s an alternative future where the planet isn’t chaotic as predicted.

• We discover ways to live while allowing the wild to thrive.
• We find ways to fish without depleting the ocean’s resources.
• We harvest our forests in a more sustainable manner.
• We work with nature rather than against it.

As Sir David said, we have to remember that the living world will endure (without us). We humans cannot presume the same.

Instead of focusing our energy on finding a new planet to inhabit (and eventually destroy), I hope we’d be able to keep the planet we’re in and find a way to nurture it before it’s too late.