The great typhoon is not an act of God's wrath but of man's
greed 
(republishing, copying, no restrictions)
By: Father Shay Cullen
Another devastating super typhoon has roared through the central Philippines leaving an estimated thousand people dead, many of them buried in gigantic mud slides like what we saw here in the Philippines only a year ago. There is perhaps nothing more terrifying than being buried alive and waiting to die. The typhoons growing in intensity year by year as a result of climate change and are destroying the infrastructure, the crops and the peoples' lives month by month. In my 35 years in the Philippines, I cannot recall such a typhoon at this time of year.
This was heightened by the recent eruption of the Mayon Volcano that left tons of sand and ash on its slopes and that turned to a slimly sludge that surged down the mountain side engulfing villages, homes and people in minutes. In other places, one placid hillside began to move was the deluge of rain so powerful that emptied from the sky undermined the treeless but grassy covered slopes.
Rivers and swamps had been dredged for industrial use disrupting the mangroves and the natural barriers allowing great unstoppable floods now to rush unimpeded through the coastal towns and swamp the villages carrying the flimsy disintegrating homes away on a powerful wave of death and destruction.
The suffering, devastation and destruction caused the lost of 66,500 homes, dozens of bridges, power lines and roads were tripped up and cast aside like straw. The bodies buried so deep. It is impossible to dig them out. Many will remain beneath the hundredths of tons of debris and dirt.
Is this another act of punishment, an angry God for the sins of the world as some religious extremists would say or the result of a greedy, irresponsible generation of fossil fuel junkies and profit gouging addicts causing climate change? Is not the greatest sin against the environment to be laid at the door of those of us who pollute, waste and abuse the environment and never plant a flower, a bush or a tree? Or the sins against the rain forest to be laid at the door of teak loving tycoons that own the chain saws and lumber mills, the wood paneled palaces with lavish mahogany furniture and teak floors.
The deforestation of the planet's rain forests is almost complete. The giants of the forest that have regenerated themselves for millions of years and survived volcanoes, storms, earthquakes and provided a habitat to millions of species have been almost 80% destroyed in a mere hundred years or less. Thousands of species of creatures are now extinct. Gone forever with them an abundance of diverse life forms that will never be seen by human kind. We, the living intelligence of the planet earth, the highest (or lowest by some estimates) life form to emerge, evolve, come to be has done it. Yes we are destroying our own habitat. We are on a suicidal path of self destruction by destroying the environment and the ecosystems that gives us life. How many have died in the great smog, in the toxic fumes, in the aftermath of chemical and oil spills and the great man made droughts, floods, landslides and famines and irresponsible disease transmitting sexual behavior? Humans have done it, not God and not nature. We can all do something to make the earth greener, healthier and cleaner. Here in our province, our small PREDA organization plants a thousand trees a year. A small token but a valuable one never-the-less.
Let us not blame anyone's God for the evils in this world. Let us put
our trust and belief in a Higher Power that is in the essence of eternal
goodness and infinite love as best represented for many by the
compassion of Jesus Christ. We know then that there is no vengeful God
dispensing vindictive punishment, destruction and the wrathful
condemnation of people. It is us humans, the ones with the big brains
that is doing that or allowing it to happen, or turning blind eyes as it
happens. Look at the savage genocide of Darfur and Chad and a world that
hardly cares. It ought to be our collective mission in life to change
destructive, death-dealing human behavior and transform it to a life
giving sacred respect for all life.
