As if the devastation wrought by extreme typhoons ‘Milenyo’, ‘Reming’ and ‘Seniang’ were not enough, volcanic activity has made its destructive force felt again when Bulusan Volcano spewed ash on Wednesday. As time goes by, following intricate tales from mythologies to Bible accounts, a Bicolano may wonder what made the region earned of God’s wrath that extreme weather conditions seemed to single out our place as a usual target.

        Faith actually does not count to prevent tragedy-or calamity-inducing weather condition considering that Bicolanos are unabashedly religious fanatics on the one hand and religiously agnostic on the other. In fact, only Bicol in dioceses in the entire archipelago has one unified religious fiesta in September when all roads for Bicolano believers lead to Naga City to pay homage to the revered Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia, the regional Patroness of the Roman Catholics in Bicol. Is this not enough evidence to appease the gods or grant Bicolanos the divine shield from harm?

        Faith cannot change weather conditions that are going overboard the standard limits of barometers even as the designs used in electric powers constructed in the late 70s intended to withstand winds at 165 kph and higher proved inutile. When ‘Milenyo’ and ‘Reming’ came one after the other in a month interval, hundreds of towers in the stretch of Bicol were ripped off from the ground that plunged into darkness a wide swath of residential and business areas in the region. Are the cases of unforeseen changes in weather patterns or backward technological forecasting?

        If provocative scientific assertions and experimentations on extreme weather developments are absolutely true, one faithful could actually renew faith in God because what causes the extreme weather conditions are violations of the simple and golden rules of harmonious peaceful co-existence in this world that violated against His will. So, it is not God or nature that brings forth this string of disasters in Bicol and other parts of the world but the cause and effect of the actions taken by man.

        Actually it is greed like the hesitance of powerful nations led by the Janus-faced United States of America to take on with the challenges of the Kyoto Protocol that set limits to greenhouse gas emission which is one of the building blocks of the domino effects of patterns of extreme weather conditions worldwide. Greenhouse gasses were emitted by industries using fossil fuel that enterprises depend on to rake profit at the expense of the environment.

        Thus, in our time, when 3,000-year old polar caps are melting faster than expected don’t blame God or nature for these extreme forces that are annihilating us. Blame it on the greedy mortals whose material enslavement multiplies with their number as well as the unexpected calamities that affect every one of us.