Beauty & The Beast!

Background: You are looking at the beautiful, almost-perfect-cone Mayon Volcano in Albay. They say Mt Fuji rivals Mayon, but as a Filipino, my vote goes to Mayon. Beauty & The Best!

And so it makes me sad to read this on Facebook. Beneath Rene Bernardo Bajit’s Facebook sharing 17 April 2024, it says above the image:

Big cone, little cone. A quiet, beautiful life with nature. When there’s peace and a kind environment, it’s a good feeling to come home (to) a simple hut, and with a background like a fairy tale painting of a perfect coned volcano. But it’s real! (One of a few unique profiles of Mt Mayon, an active volcano in southern Philippines, taken by environment advocate Paula Fernandez.

Yes, Mayon Volcano has a perfect cone. That’s a real photo up there, by Ms Paula. The thing that bothers me in the photograph is the presence of a hut on top of a hill surrounded by other balding hills – Beauty & The Beast. What’s the Department of Environment & Natural Resources doing about this? What can we do about it?

I would not be surprised if down there and up there in Mayon, there are other and bigger bald places. Partly Neglected is what I see, not romanticism as Ms Paula does. Googling, I see 2 Paula Fernandez’s – never mind. The point is, Ms Paula is only talking about the beauty amidst the ugliness!

People, we have to do something about among other sites other than balding hills, so that with their trees and other vegetation, they can help absorb the heat from El Niño! (Yes, definitely that hut will have to go.)

I was once upon a time a registered member of the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists (PNEJ), with Imelda Albano as President  – and PNEJ visited Albay when Joey Salceda was Governor and had been declared “Climate Champion” for the world. There was a meeting of governors and they talked about Climate Change – Political Climate Change takes too long!

We must be nature-conscious gardeners – but we hardly do anything about chemical gardening. We must be responsible gardeners, as House Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda put it 4 years ago: “Plant Wise: Responsible Gardening” (Climate Change Commission, climate.gov.ph).

Ms Loren has been doing her part. Some 4 years ago, this piece of news appeared, written by ANN: “Legarda: Urgent Climate Action Needed As 2020 Is Set To Become One Of The Warmest Years On Record” (Author Not Named, 19 Dec 2020, Climate Change Commission, climate.gov.ph). So! As it turns out, 2024 is one of the warmest years on record!

Yes, we can fight the heat! When we garden, we must make sure that the soil is not bare of garden and/or flowering plants. When we farm, we must make sure that the soil is not exposed to direct sunlight.

About the bald hills above, we must see to it that they are covered with plants, as much as possible the same kind that grew before.

We need all the green ground covers we can get – for pleasant locations and vacations!@517