About simple living

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Roger D. Sinot

ASIN HOT SPRINGS, Tuba, Benguet -- Let me take you Asin Hot Springs, a place where simple living is a way of life. We still have the river and the mountains where one can go fish and climb once in a while. These are being described on books and in the National Geographic TV program.

Last Thursday, cousin March Fianza and I were invited to talk in a local TV show on Skycable Baguio hosted by Ms. Alah Songduan. The topic was “Save the Asin River” in commemoration of the World Environment Day.

What we said in the program was “let us all be environmentalists, regardless of age. It is man’s moral obligation to preserve his environment and the natural order of things.” We now see that we are benefitting from the big trees we see on remote mountains. Indigenous tribes in the Cordillera are concerned with protecting their environment. Every tribe has a way of protecting its environment that is inherent in its traditions.

Preservation of life and the depletion of substances necessary to support life on earth are growing global concerns. Nations have bonded together, laws were passed, scientific measures have been adopted and conservationist groups have multiplied. The sentiment is that contemporary man must evolve on ecological conscience to guide his efforts in saving planet earth.

In a magazine I read, it said: “With solemnity and joy, the world pauses to pay tribute to its common heritage, Mother Earth, and warn people everywhere that the clock is ticking, and the hour is becoming late.”

On the other hand, man should realize the common tragedy as regrets come in the latter part. Maudi ti babawi. A young professor at the University of the Cordillera was with us in the program and talked about the scientific know-how of cleaning the water in the river. Since one of the tributaries of Asin River is Mount Sto. Tomas, we talked about how trees and mountains have integrity too that contribute to the waters downstream.

When the river swells, an Ibaloy from Asin would say, the mountain gods cried. During typhoons, when it rains it pours. And Alah said, let us not wait for Asin River to become another Balili River. “Unaan tayo ti babawi,” referring to the pollution in Balili and the garbage that can be prevented from flowing down with the strong waters of tributaries of Asin River.

The term “environmentalist” was also talked about. In Genesis of the Bible, it tells us how God formed man out of the soil and placed him in the Garden of Eden with all kinds of trees nourished by forking rivers. The place before the fall of man implied peace and harmony among all living things. How great that would be. From an ecological point of view, man is part of the ecosystem, not apart nor above nature, bit in it. He is rooted in his environment as much as the trees and his mortal life is dependent on the ecosystem. So that a true environmentalist will talk about how trees supply water while the other “environmentalist” will talk about the board feet he can get and earn from the tree.

Ecology includes all events – the food chain because of the sunlight, man drinking, bathing, fishing, plowing and bulldozing the watershed, drawing a picture of it, and formulating theories about the world based on what he sees in the river. He and all the organisms in the river act upon one another, engages the earth and atmosphere and are linked to other bodies of water by a network of connections like the threads of protoplasm connecting cells in living tissues, according to a Biology teacher in my school days.

Let us all be environmentalists, not just the Bishop, the running priest, Mike Bengwayan and Ramon Dacawi, but everybody. The environment is not only for our children but for our children’s children. Happy World Environment Week and happy trails ahead.Remember, stay on the sunny side of life always.