Surely all of us have experienced our summers getting hotter and hotter, and our rainy seasons getting wetter and wetter. And in the frigid west, temperatures dropping to unbearable freezing levels with unprecedented furies. The weather mercilessly descends on us unpredictably, seemingly without rhyme or reason.

The erratic behavior of the seasons and the consequent landslides, earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, flooding, tsunamis, and a host of other destructive forces of nature are exacting a toll on millions of people, particularly the vulnerable. The poor, the hungry, the elderly, the sick, the homeless, and other pitiful souls are perishing by the thousands every time a cruel climate disturbance descends on us. Climate change and its deleterious effects are now a reality.

We all must do our part because these relentless, merciless acts of nature appear to be messages from God warning us that the destruction of the earth as we know it is coming. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, we are being warned that unless we mend our self-inflicted destructive ways of destroying the environment, our path is headed straight to perdition. And like Sodom and Gomorrah, humanity continues to be heedless of these signs.

Climate change and its deleterious evils are now a reality. It is here and now, and we must all do our part to save our dying Earth.

Well, let me tell you about a few people who are going way, way above and beyond this call for humanity’s sake to save our planet and our way of life. These heroic individuals — Jenie Chan, Ema Trinidad, Laura Aguila and Marlo Mendoza, all formerly with the ABS-CBN Foundation and of Bantay Kalikasan fame, and now together under the banner of iSyoot Multimedia Production which specializes in the production of advocacy oriented projects — were inspired by the late former Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Regina Paz “Gina” Lopez, a passionate environmental activist who relentlessly championed sustainability, social justice and the protection of natural resources, at times to the chagrin of some not-so-caring industrialists.

The group’s passion found its way into the self-funded creation, production, and distribution of a musical, “A Thousand Forests,” its words and music originally created by the iSyoot team, about the true stories of five youngsters whose lives were somehow affected by climate change. The movie revolves around an imaginary forest camp where a Pinoy Big Brother-like plot featuring the five teenagers gradually unfolds helping them to understand the value of preserving our environment.

I do not profess to be a movie critic by any stretch of the imagination but, personally, I enjoyed the movie. The music and lyrics are entertaining, easy to relate to so much so that you will probably find yourself humming along with the cast the “kumbaya” song in the finale.

But perhaps more importantly, the call to action of the movie is clearly laid out for any one of us to heed. This movie has to be seen by more people, both young and old, both here and abroad. These environmental advocates truly deserve proper recognition for their noble objectives and they need widespread support.

The Rotary Club of Makati decided to heed the call of such an important undertaking under the current leadership of President Keith Harrison and has sponsored the showing of the movie to hundreds of schoolchildren in different locations. We call on the other Rotary Clubs to similarly take on the challenge.

Climate change and its deleterious evils are now a reality. It is here and now, and we must all do our part to save our dying Earth.

The need for action, however, goes beyond simply watching the movie. More concrete actions are needed to firm up the next steps beyond simply not throwing trash recklessly or not needlessly cutting down grown trees.

For example, specific to the movie, what can schoolchildren concretely do to participate in this endeavor? Plant a tree! How? Sponsoring organizations of the movie showing can provide seedlings and pots for children to grow the trees in and cultivate the seedlings until the trees become mature enough to transfer to appropriate sites within the children’s LGUs.

Did you know that there is an Arbor Act that mandates LGUs to observe Philippine Arbor Day every 25th of June and to designate a site where trees can be planted? The law mandates EVERY Filipino over the age of twelve to plant a tree every year!

I bet you folks didn’t know that. Let’s all plant a tree and save our dying planet!

Until next week… OBF!

For comments, email bing_matoto@yahoo.com.