EDITORIAL — If we take care of nature

Severe tropical storm Pepito has already left the Philippine Area of Responsibility. It was the latest in a long line of storms to hit Luzon.

While the damage caused by Pepito has yet to be determined, many places in Luzon, already reeling from several previous storms, avoided more damage and misery after Pepito’s strength was sapped by the Sierra Madre mountain range.

State weather bureau PAGASA said the mountain range was able to minimize the impact of Pepito.

“Nakakatulong ‘yan and then ang isa pang factor noon sa pag hina niya, nasa lupa na siya, yung moisture na nae-enhance ng bagyong si Pepito unti-unting nababawasan kung ikukumpara natin habang nasa dagat siya,” said PAGASA officer-in-charge Juanito Galang in a report in GMA News.

This is just another example of natural protection. The same way mangroves break up huge waves coming in from the sea, or the way the roots of trees prevent a mountain from sliding down into a road or settlement, how a forest absorbs carbon dioxide and turns it into oxygen, or how frogs and fish in a swamp can keep down the mosquito population.

Nature has its own way of mitigating natural or unnatural forces that can cause damage or even kill people. And it’s not because nature loves us humans, no. Definitely not with how we have been abusing nature. It’s because nature itself is designed to be balanced, with one force designed to cancel another before it becomes too destructive.

It’s just us who are reclaiming too much, cutting too much, fishing too much, hunting too much, digging too much, throwing too much trash, and putting too much harmful gases in the atmosphere, among others.

And this is why we should do our darnedest to protect nature and not upset the natural balance of any ecosystem. If we take care of nature, it will take care of us.

If we keep on this destructive path we are already on, nature just might show us the consequences of our foolishness. That is if it isn’t doing this already.