Thursday, December 30, 2010

2011 - Year of Environmental Revolution

Garbage City

"Man, being the superior organism, has not only won over his rivals - all organisms that constitute the biosphere. He has also assaulted Nature."

- AV Rotor, Treaty of Nature and Man (Light from the Old Arch)

Frantic exploitation of natural resources through illegal logging operations, followed by slash-and-burn agriculture (kaingin), has brought havoc to the Philippines in the past century. The detrimental results are measured not only by the denudation of once productive forests and hillsides, but also destruction through erosion, flood, drought and even death.

An example of this kind of ruination brought about by abuse of nature is the tragedy in Ormoc City where floodwaters cascading down the denuded watershed, killed hundreds of residents and countless animals. It took ten years for the city to fully recover. Ironically, before the tragedy, Ormoc, from the air, looked like a little village similar to Shangrila, a perfect place for retirement.

Decline in Carrying Capacity

A land area designed by nature to sustain millions of people and countless other organisms, was touched by man and we are now paying the price for it. Man removed the vegetation, cut down trees for his shelter and crafts, and planted cereals and short-growing crops to get immediate returns. He hunted for food and fun, and in many ways, changed the natural contour and topography of the land.

Following years of plenty, however, nature reasserted itself. Water would run unchecked, carrying plant nutrients downhill. On its path are formed rills and gullies that slice through slopes, peeling off the topsoil and making the land unprofitable for agriculture. Since the plants cannot grow, animals gradually perish. Finally, the kaingero abandons the area, leaving it to the mercy of natural elements. It is possible that nature may rebuild itself, but will take years for affected areas to regain their productivity, and for the resident organisms once again attain their self-sustaining population levels.

There are 13.5 million square miles of desert area on earth, representing a third of the total land surface. This large proportion of land may be man-made as history and archeological findings reveal.

Lost Civilizations

Fifteen civilizations, once flourished in Western Sahara, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, the Sinai desert, Mesopotamia, and the deserts of Persia. All of these cultures perished when the people of the area through exploitation, forced nature to react. As a consequence, man was robbed of his only means of sustenance.

History tells us of man’s early abuse of nature in the Fertile Crescent where agriculture began some 3000 years ago. Man-made parallel canals joined the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to irrigate the thirsty fertile valley. In the process, the balance of Nature was overturned when the natural drainage flow was disturbed. Because the treaty was violated, nature revenged. The canal civilization perished in the swamps that later formed. The sluggish water brought malaria and other diseases causing untold number of deaths and migration to the hinterlands. Among its victims was Alexander the Great.

Carthage had another story. Three wars hit Carthage, known as the Punic Wars. On the third one, the Romans plowed through the city, ending reign of this erstwhile mercantile power, and removing the threat to the Roman economy. After the conquest, the Romans pumped salt-water inland and flooded the fertile farms. Today, Carthage exists only in history and in imagination of whoever stands atop a hill overlooking what is now a vast desert.

Omar Khayyam, if alive today, cannot possibly compose verses as beautiful as the Rubaiyat as written in his own time. His birthplace, Nishapur, which up to the time of Genghis Khan, supported a population of 1.5 million people, can only sustain 15,000 people today. Archeologists have just unearthed the Forest of Guir where Hannibal marched with war elephants. The great unconquerable jungle of India grew from waterlogged lowland formed by unwise irrigation management.

It is hard to believe, but true that in the middle of the Sahara desert, 50 million acres of fossil soil are sleeping under layers of sand awaiting water. Surveyors found an underground stream called the Albienne Nappe that runs close to this deposit. Just as plans were laid to “revive” the dead soil by irrigation, the French tested their first atomic bomb. Due to contamination, it is no longer safe to continue on with the project.

The great Pyramids of Egypt could not have been constructed in the middle of an endless desert. The tributaries of the Nile once surrounded these centers of civilization. Jerusalem appears today as a small city on a barren land. It may have been a city with thick vegetation. This was true of Negev and Baghdad.

Need of a Conservation Program

For the Philippines, it is high time we lay out a long-range conservation program to insure the future of the country. This plan should protect the fertility of the fields, wealth of the forests and marine resources, in order to bring prosperity to the people. As of now, the country is being ripped apart by erosion and floods due to unscrupulous exploitation by loggers and kaingeros.

It is only through proper management and effective conservation, such as reforestation, pollution control, erosion control, limited logging, and proper land use, that we can insure the continuity of our race. All we have to do is to keep ourselves faithful to the treaty between nature and man.

X X X

An Arch of Trees

An Arch of Trees

Dr Abe V Rotor

 


An Arch of Trees in acrylic AVR 2011

 

I passed under the Arch of Constantine,

      the emperor’s commemoration;

 

I passed under the Arc de Triomphe,

     victory of the French Revolution;

 

I passed under the Triumphal Arch of Tyre

     Lebanon’s necropolis station;

 

I passed under the Tijuana border Arch,

     marker of Mexican- American union;

 

I passed under the Arch of the Centuries,

     UST’s 400-year celebration;

 

 I passed under natural rock arches

    that have survived time and erosion.

 

I pass under the arches of the rainforest

      seat of biodiversity and evolution.

 

 I passed under an arch of trees at home,

     sweet  nature and human union.~

 

 


Morning at the UST Botanical Garden

Morning at the UST Botanical Garden
Dr Abe V Rotor

An On-the-Spot Painting at the UST Botanical garden by the author, 
with the tallest tree Alstonia scholaris, locally known as dita. as subject.

Morning at the UST Botanical Garden

It is misty, it is foggy, here at the garden,
or it must be smog in the city air;
and the early rays pierce through like spears,
yet this is the best place for a lair.

But the artist must be provoked, challenged;
for peace can't make a masterpiece;
only a troubled soul do rise where others fall,
where ease and good life often miss.

This lair is where the action is, the battlefield,
where pure and polluted air meet,
where a garden in a concrete jungle reigns,
where nature's trail ends in a street.

Art, where is art, when the message is unclear,
colors, colors, what color is blind faith?
what color is rage, what color is change?
colors be humble - black is your fate. ~

Thursday, December 23, 2010

High-rise Waterfall

High-rise Waterfall


By Dr Abe V Rotor

 Convergence in Nature, detail of mural by A V Rotor

How many falls do you tumble all the time?
And songs you sing in rhythm and rhyme?
Oh, you are simply filled with awe and joy.
And I, I wish I were forever a boy -

I ride on your crest, plunge into your floor,
Inside your womb I'm a child once more,
Together we flow, and I'm weaned out to sea
To tell the world of a beautiful story. ~


Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Tropical Rainforest on a Wall Mural:

Tropical Rainforest on a Wall Mural:
Bringing Nature into the City

Dr Abe V Rotor

A Tropical Rainforest Wall Mural (3.5 ft x 15 ft) in acrylic by Dr Abe V Rotor at his residence in Lagro, Block 61 61, Lot 55 (corner Kudyapi St and Lam-ang St) 2015. The mural is an integral part (3rd panel) of a larger mural (7 ft x 30 ft).

The mural is made up of three sections as shown in the above photos: Emergent trees and their tenants (top); Exploring a forest stream (middle),

Food web and energy flow (lowermost)

Among the countless creatures of the tropical rainforest that comprise its rich biodiversity are: a rat, giant among its kind in the lowland, lives in a hollow of a tree; boa constrictor adapted to arboreal life, transient gulls adapted to both sea and forest life; tree iguana that branched out of marine iguanas, and those that live in dry conditions; chameleon the master of camouflage and mimicry; sloth, mother and young, clinging on a tree motionless and sleeping most of its life.

My grandson, Markus Andrei, 6 months old and his nanny - 
guardians of this rainforest wall mural. Lagro QC~