Will the environment start abusing us back?

As one out of thousands of nine to five ordinary workers, Saturday morning is the time I always look forward to, I wake up early and, afraid of wasting the day, bury my face in a crisp The Jakarta Post to read celebrity news before worrying about the problem the world is facing.

Unlike other Saturdays, that particular morning the big front, page headline Hundreds dead as cyclone rips through Bangladesh seized my thoughts and time stood still for a split second. I looked out at Jakarta’s hazy sky as the sun tried hard to penetrate the pollution. Something else caught the corner of my eyes; lots of plants on my balcony had been blown upside down by strong winds again.

My thoughts roamed back to the Post headline two days earlier about falling trees and billboards in Jakarta. One of the trees shattered the glass windows of my boss’ brand new BMW 7 Series.

I forgot all about my Saturday morning TV ritual of flicking through HBO, Cinemax, Hallmark or Starmovies, and went straight to CNN’s horrible scene of many people who slept on the floor with no beds and blankets.

I started to cry as I remembered that day in December 2004 when Shiva god of the ocean paid an angry visit to the westernmost province of Aceh and took away the lives of thousands of people in a matter of seconds.

Every time headlines or stories of Mother Nature’s disasters catch my attention, I recall an advertisement in Time magazine of a man stranded in a boat that floats in brown muddy water. The advertisement reads: “Does the environment start abusing us back?” the heading shakes my conscience, because I know that this sentence reflects the reality around us, but not many are aware of it. Some even argue it.

Why this disaster happening? Is good old Earth unable to protect us anymore, or is it people and our irresponsible deeds that have destroyed the shields Earth possesses to protect people from the Earth’s own flaws? I don’t know why, but I suspect it is our fault.

Despite my inability to provide my allegation, I believe global warming, greenhouse effects, and sea level rise have something to do with the excessive use of energy.

I wish I was clever enough to connect the cyclone and floods in my neighborhood, or the falling tree branch that anger my boss with environmental damage. The fact is that more dense green forests have turned fire red and illegal logging is rampant. Hundreds of hectares in East Java are drowning under a mountain of mud, while developed countries are responsible for 36 percent of the world’s greenhouse emissions and 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions; these facts seem to reflect our part in such crimes.
While thinking hard about other scientific ways to convince people of the calamities caused by a damaged environment I recalled a sunny afternoon 30 years ago. I was a little girl taking a ride in my hometown Bandung with my father in his old non-aircon jeep. Cool breezes brushed my skin and the air I breathed felt like water that killed my thirst. Not so many cars traveled around the green town.

Last week I visited my hometown again. I took my three-year-old niece for a ride. The air con was broken so we bathed in sweat in the congested traffic heading up to dozens of factory outlets while the car puffed out poisoning colorless carbon dioxide. I did not dare to open wide the window and watch my niece inhale the filthy polluted air. I felt sorry she could not breathe the cool fresh air of my childhood.

I think about how to deal with environmental degradation of Earth. Unfortunately I am an ordinary person who has just enough time and money to survive.

Recently I tried to forget the environmental problems through the cyber world at the end of my finger tips. I accidentally found websites offering ways to make a difference, the small step we can all take in the battle to save the future of our sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren.

We can make a difference by just switching off the light when leaving a room, planting tress, recycling, riding a bike, walking, using public transportation or sharing a car rather than driving private cars, turning taps off while brushing teeth, showering instead of bathing, using both sides of a piece of paper, choosing paper shopping bags, buy products with little packaging or that can be recycled or reused, planting tress in the yard and using compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). If we do this others my follow suit.


As published in The Jakarta Post daily last year in connection with Earth Conference 2007 in Bali, Indonesia.