Untouched paradise

In relation to the previous piece which referred to finding oneself, I took a trip to Palawan in the hope of finding myself and understanding more about Filipino culture. It was a trip that I waited to go on for months; wanting to explore the underground river of Puerto Princesa. The destination was hailed as one of the new seven wonders of nature which made it a cut above the rest of the places to see.

As we journeyed to the area, our tour guide explained that it was innate for every person living in Palawan to take care of the environment. Mother Nature has been kind to them by not giving them strong typhoons and earthquakes, in return they become stewards of the earth. It is no wonder that their forests and wildlife has been intact up to today. As we boarded the boat that would take us to the river, all the stories that we heard from the boatmen was their intent to keep nature the way it is and their pure love for their place.

I consider Palawan an untouched paradise based on some parts I saw, although there are some areas that have been subject to protests because of the move to develop them at the risk of damaging the environment. It made me wonder, why can't we all be like these people? They take their domain as their very own and make sure it is protected well. There is no spark like that in every Filipino, because most of us don't care at what will happen to the place we live in as long as we are comfortable.

It is not even just in our country. I recently saw posts of the ice caps melting and a young teenager lobbying for the government to make drastic moves to save the environment. Sometimes I feel like it is already too late, too much damage has been done. Every day we suffer from the effects of man's activities --too much heat or too much rain. It's either that or we get to experience very unpredictable weather in a day. This affects not only our daily activities but our health as well.

Now I understand why Captain Planet, a superhero that I used to watch when I was a kid, was desperate to get people to join his cause. The cartoon was very convincing in making children join the cause of saving the environment. That was more than 20 years ago, here we are now with the problems getting worse. Weren't they right in the first place? Remember that we only have one Earth to live in, nowhere else could we go. Signs of life may be discovered in another planet, but that is not our home. The best we can do now is do our part to lessen carbon footprint and the use of plastics which can do great damage to the world's ecosystems.

Have I found myself totally? Not yet. But it gave me more meaning to be a good steward of the place that I have today.