Responding to the beauty and danger known as Nature

If Earth is a blank canvas, it would have streaks of different colored paint depicting the menace of climate change in all directions, accompanied by the presence of plastic, wastes, and scraps. It does not sound too good. That is the current state of planet Earth; destruction of mother nature, the environment and our dear home. Humanity is often caught up in the thrill of progress and has never stopped to take a glance back on the repercussions. It is undoubtedly clear the benefits of development to a country, but when we forget to tread lightly, Mother Nature snaps back.

Nature is something that should be respected and appreciated. It provides humans and animals with limitless resources and extensive habitation. Nature’s beauty comes in different forms; the beautiful sunset and sunrise, the calm ocean waves beating against the rocks, fresh air on top of the mountain, the thick forest trees in a jungle, all of which are priceless treasures possessed by the Earth. However, every year, natural disasters take center stage or the front cover of the media. Without fail, we have seen and unfortunately, are profoundly affected when nature takes its course on all creatures of the Earth.

Natural or human-made disasters are a force to be reckoned with and struck long before the habitation of modern humans and will persist as long as Earth exists. They are catastrophic events such as hurricanes, flash floods, earthquakes, wildfires, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, to mention few. These events do not discriminate when it comes to displacing people’s lives, destroying properties and livelihoods, causing death and injuries and snatching back years of development. The disasters strike harder each time with enhanced intensity, frequency, and geographic coverage, particularly for those related to climate change. As a result, the combination of human with economic losses, alongside reconstruction costs, labels natural disasters as an economic and humanitarian problem.

Hence, it is imperative to prepare the public for disasters. Natural disaster preparedness can be presented into four phases, emergency management, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery; the step in which the public can make the most significant difference for their resilience and survival is preparedness. It is noteworthy that many people fail to conduct simple precautionary steps before the disaster strikes to reduce the aftermath of destruction. Taking into account this fact, it highlights the importance of relevant parties in disaster risk reduction by acknowledging, assessing, incorporating those hazards into emergency management and territory planning and establishing integrated public policies. Therefore, educating the public and implementing precautionary action allows better protection and preparedness to reduce damages after the occurrence of natural disasters.

We can continue to divide natural disaster preparedness, into household and workplace. Both of which follow a similar set of instructions firstly is a planning measure which is to communicate the impact and importance of preparing for natural hazards to each family member or employee in the workplace. Secondly, both household and workplace should have emergency plans, alternative energy supplies to continue routine operation or as survival measures, and an easily accessible emergency kit. For generations to come, there must be continuous education and awareness on disaster preparedness to mitigate damages and allow for a more sustainable living in the aftermath.

In a nutshell, the tremendous feat of development we are experiencing today presents two sides of the coin, just like nature. We cannot bat an eye to the magnificent beauty of nature and must make concrete efforts to preserve it. On the other hand, we are reminded of the destructive and powerful side of nature, which puts us back into place as mere mortals ‘renting’ Earth. Environmental problems should be treated with careful consideration and continuous efforts to adopt measures that will increase the level of an individual’s preparedness for natural disasters. Global efforts are needed to maintain the Earth’s ecological balance and preserve all originality and beauty, before environmental problems continue to plague the Earth and all its inhabitants, like an incurable disease.