“… Make it a better place, for you and me and the entire human race…” I think that’s the lyrics of that song, or at least something like that hehe.
Well, when we talk ‘environment’ – it’s all about “issues” ‘coz the fact is – our environment (or the biosphere in general) is the only constantly degenerating component of our planet. Sad di ba. But looking at the positive side – doing something, no matter how small or insignificant, is better, in a lot of sense, than NOT ACTING about our issues. In today’s era of ‘care’, or ‘external focus’ or ‘reaching out’ – it’s almost a crime not to do something about broken things. So let’s DO SOMETHING!
While my partner, Doc Ferdz tried to help neglected, beaten, abandoned or due-for-katay Dogs, I revisited an old, familiar site in Bauan – an Artificial Reef that my team of divers constructed a few years back. Back then, we were struggling with technology, technique, ideas and of course – FUND, and struggling to produce something worthwhile to help re-grow the coral reefs of Bauan (‘Greater Anilao’). My first-ever Climb for a Cause (2004) was dedicated for this effort. We luckily got meager funding from Project AWARE and a few donations from some friends, and soon started our reef building.
Today, after years of ‘life progression’ in the hard substrate (‘reeflets’) that we deployed, we’re finally seeing HEALTHY BABY HARD CORALS growing on the reeflets. This is the best sign of success, more than just seeing fish playing around the structure – it means a new habitat (from the bottom of the marine life chain) is forming to support a little community of future marine life. Tree-planting is easy to do on land, although seedling mortality is high, probability of significant success is higher. But ‘planting’ hard corals (aka. Coral re-planting) underwater is a tricky process, and ‘naturally’ growing them from artificial reef is even more ambitious (we’re doing the latter). But little effort eventually brings good results – and we are seeing it now.
Well, when we talk ‘environment’ – it’s all about “issues” ‘coz the fact is – our environment (or the biosphere in general) is the only constantly degenerating component of our planet. Sad di ba. But looking at the positive side – doing something, no matter how small or insignificant, is better, in a lot of sense, than NOT ACTING about our issues. In today’s era of ‘care’, or ‘external focus’ or ‘reaching out’ – it’s almost a crime not to do something about broken things. So let’s DO SOMETHING!
While my partner, Doc Ferdz tried to help neglected, beaten, abandoned or due-for-katay Dogs, I revisited an old, familiar site in Bauan – an Artificial Reef that my team of divers constructed a few years back. Back then, we were struggling with technology, technique, ideas and of course – FUND, and struggling to produce something worthwhile to help re-grow the coral reefs of Bauan (‘Greater Anilao’). My first-ever Climb for a Cause (2004) was dedicated for this effort. We luckily got meager funding from Project AWARE and a few donations from some friends, and soon started our reef building.
Today, after years of ‘life progression’ in the hard substrate (‘reeflets’) that we deployed, we’re finally seeing HEALTHY BABY HARD CORALS growing on the reeflets. This is the best sign of success, more than just seeing fish playing around the structure – it means a new habitat (from the bottom of the marine life chain) is forming to support a little community of future marine life. Tree-planting is easy to do on land, although seedling mortality is high, probability of significant success is higher. But ‘planting’ hard corals (aka. Coral re-planting) underwater is a tricky process, and ‘naturally’ growing them from artificial reef is even more ambitious (we’re doing the latter). But little effort eventually brings good results – and we are seeing it now.
There are many areas where people can help heal nature, or at least allow nature to heal itself. Sometimes (if you’re truly the busy, or the deadma type haha!), we don’t even need to intervene or take complex actions. Simply reducing waste, reducing energy consumption (aka. carbon footprint) and general resource conservation (water, all material things) are of BIG HELP already.
Let’s do our little share and just think that Mother Earth is proudly smiling back at us for that little effort.
We, humans are born to be wild, but we’re also BORN TO LOVE & CARE! =)
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