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t started as a tropical depression and hit Metro Manila with torrential rains that left most metropolitan residents dumbfounded. According to PAGASA (the Philippine weather bureau) the amount of rainfall the National Capital Region would get in a month would fell in a span of just 24 hours.

In the past couple of years, Philippine climatologists they have noticed changes in weather patterns across the archipelago, tropical storms that move in ways not previously seen, and also their increased frequency as well as intensity.

Although climate change appears the likely culprit behind all this strange weather, there are still those waiting for more definitive evidence, while the vast majority simply fail to see any connection between their ecology-damaging behavior and the changes occurring in their environment.

The indiscriminate clearing of forests, the paving-over of wetlands and mangroves, the infusion of toxic chemicals in the soil, rivers and lakes, the dumping of trash and refuse wherever convenient; all these acts seem to have no correlation with Nature's angry wrath as far as most are Filipinos concerned.

Unfortunately, to many foreigners, and even many returning Filipinos who view things from a different perspective, the metropolis appears little better than a pigsty. Sure, you have the malls and the ritzy enclaves, however those are but islands surrounded by a sea of filth.

In fairness to all, it is next to impossible to keep any place neat and tidy when there is a lack of basic necessities: clean running water, electricity, a working sewage system, and a properly built roof over one's head, not to mention law and order. And the problem is compounded when you have two or three large families living in a space normally allotted for a single person.

But as bad as Fillipinos might have it today, keep in mind that should the earth's water level rise as many expect it to, the land area of the Philippine archipelago, surrounded by water as it is, will shrink more dramatically than that of many other countries. If and when that happens, life in these islands will become almost intolerable. It therefore behooves this generation of Filipinos to fix the problem because it will not be us who will suffer the consequences of our inaction. it will be our children and or grandchildren who will bear the brunt of our doing nothing now.

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