On Hazards: Making People Aware

            There are three calamities that I will never forget: Ondoy, Habagat and Yolanda. When I was in high school, Ondoy hit. It was the first time I experienced colossal flooding. There was a one-week suspension due to the disaster Ondoy brought to us. When I reached college, there was a typhoon somewhere in the Philippines which caused monsoon rain in our area. It was “mala-Ondoy” and there was again a one-week suspension. And just last year, one of the worst calamities hit the southern regions of the Philippines, Yolanda. Although and fortunately I was not a victim of Yolanda, I was affected by how it really destroyed the southern parts of our country. The strong winds that Yolanda brought caused storm surge which wiped-out thousands of infrastructures and razed the lives of many people.

            It is sad and shameful to admit that all these phenomena can be partly accountable for the works of irresponsible humans: improper disposal of trash, exploitation of natural resources and the list goes on. If all these wrongful actions of humans continue, global warming would, without a doubt, exacerbate. It would not be surprising if we come to a time where there will be a hundred typhoons for each year. Compared to the previous decades, there has been an increase in the number of typhoons (and its effects worse) that hit for each year. We cannot undo the escalating effects of global warming. But what we can do, as human living in the 21^st century, is to try to decrease the disaster that the calamities will bring.

            Just last week, Miriam College celebrated her environment week. As part of its celebration, talks relevant to Mother Nature were conducted. One of them was Talk on Hazards which I attended. Although we were not able to finish the whole talk [because we had an exam], I learned many things and became more enlightened about hazards.

            If it were not for the talk, I would not have known that disaster and hazards are two different things. In fact, I often confused disaster with hazards. The hazard is the uncontrollable calamity such as typhoon and earthquake. This hazard becomes a disaster IF people become greatly affected: erosion of soil, death and crumbled infrastructures.

            Now that there is an increasing number of hazards, there is also an escalating attempts to minimize the disaster that these will bring. In response to what is happening now, DOST constructed Project NOAH. Using innovation, NOAH will undertake disaster. Currently they have nine projects all for the attempts to minimize disaster. However, there seems to be one problem that Project NOAH faces that cannot be underestimated nor neglected: quick dissemination of RIGHT information. Although Project NOAH is now using the social media to disseminate information and warnings, many people STILL neglect the notification. For instance, Project NOAH twitted an announcement. On that same instant, a celebrity posted a “selfie”. Guess what people gave more attention to? The celebrity’s selfie. With all means, Project NOAH is trying to make their announcements more appealing to the public so that it would be paid attention to.

            I, being one the people in the social media, am partly guilty of this (I do not have twitter). Sometimes (or most of the times) I hit “like” or “share” for nonsense photos when there are more important things or posts that should be given attention to. I realized that I may have saved tens to hundreds of lives if I reposted weather updates or storm warnings. As a 19-year-old person, I guess it is time that I become more socially involved and aware by reading newspapers and watching news instead of devoting time to nonsense movies and books. I am a Filipino. This is my country the Philippines. I should take responsibility of caring for my fellow countrymen even by simply telling them of the warnings posted on social media.     

            The storm surge that Yolanda brought was something that the people of Visayas did not know. And because they did not know what storm surge could bring, the people underestimated it. When it struck, many of us were surprised of how it instantly destroyed and annihilated lives, shelters and livelihood. Why? Right information was not propagated. If people were educated on the storm surge’s consequences ahead of time, there might be less casualties and deaths. I hope that people, after this disaster, have learned to be more responsible by researching on what it is and by sharing knowledge with others as well. The talk on hazards gave me us an idea that it would largely help or even save people if research would be devoted to finding ways to quickly disseminate right information as well as how to make it more appealing to the public so it would be given more attention to (especially by those people who care less).