Global Warming as Seen on a Crystal Ball

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Global Warming in a Crystal Ball, acrylic painting by the author (circa 2000)

I see the world losing its symmetry, a disfigured globe with parts missing, displaced, losing its original shape;

I see the world in layers and divisions heretofore unknown, threatening dynamic stability called homeostasis;

I see the world fiery in many parts as volcanoes erupt in greater frequency and intensity, and simultaneously;

I see the world in deceiving colors of blue, green, gray, yellow, spectrum of disaster on land, water and air;

I see the world barren as deserts expand, farmlands turn into wastelands, shorelines swallowed by the sea;
 
I see the world scarred by fault lines, and new cracks of the earth’s crust, triggering more and stronger earthquakes;

I see the world in ruins where cities once grew into megacities, now virtually a jungle of concrete and steel;

I see the world pitch dark at night where there were more lights on the ground than stars in the sky;
 
I see the world decimated of its once rich biodiversity, countless species endangered, others forever gone;

I see the world pitch dark at night where once there were more lights on the ground than stars in the sky;

I see the world decimated of its once rich biodiversity, countless species endangered, others forever gone;

I see the world “the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome,” with history repeating itself;

I see the world with the frivolities of modern living giving way to the revival of a simpler life style;

I see the world rebuilding from its past like the mythical bird Phoenix, people of all ages and walks of life cooperating. ~

Author's Note: Article published in Greater Lagro Gazette, community newspaper of Barangay Greater Lagro QC, (Oct-Dec 2017 Issue)

Waterhole and Other Poems

 Waterhole and Other Poems

"Tranquility reigns on her face, rage in her breast..." avr

Dr Abe V. Rotor

Waterhole, AV Rotor 2009

1. I walked the bridge to its far end and beyond,

And down the river to the sea I cast my pole.  

It was a fight I fought, it was no longer game,

And it was neither fish nor dream I caught.

2. Tranquility reigns on her face, rage in her breast,

If beauty exudes best from a spring of force,

I do not wonder at the shyness of a crest,

And the power of a single rose.

3. I touched the towering figure and I was touched,

Transported to Gulliver’s land for a moment;

To meet the maker, a simple man from the hills,

Unschooled, yet his burin sings the glory of Ancient Greece.

4. Pygmies make giants, for the little man dreams of what he misses.

Humble is he, painstakingly working on his stead,

Until a Genie rises from his hands, mirror of a great soul.

Lo, a pupil I am, doubting my skill, my goal. 

5. Many years ago you had another name -

Gleaners, and work was also game.

Now it’s all work and the art of the vulture,

And those with fangs and ugly mane.

But if none is waste and waste is useful -

Would your breed thrive just the same? (PHOTO)

6. For just once the world is mine

With rowdy friends and I,

Happily with a jug of wine,

Words come easy, ‘Aye, Aye!’ ” 

7. Through time, humanity has changed through use

Of its environment for man’s needs through abuse,

From adaptation to modernization,

All in the name of civilization.

8. Pleasance to you youth, bright as the sun;

The world be at war or be at peace.

Ask not where have all the flowers gone;

Seasons come, and seasons go at ease. 

9. Rage and break, rage and break,

On the cold wall and be free;

Make the sky and the river meet

Under a rainbow by the sea.  
                                                 

             

10. Who cares about the broken bridge in summer?
When fishing poles bend to the weight of catch,
Young and old wait for the pot to shimmer.
Everything’s silent save the breeze and chime,
And river flowing in the idleness of time. (INTERNET PHOTO)~

Monochrome Photography My Best Old Black-and-White Photographs - “Black and white creates a strange dreamscape that colour never can.”

Monochrome Photography

My Best Old Black-and-White Photographs

“Black and white creates a strange dreamscape that colour 

never can.” – Jack Antonoff

Stalagmite Image

Courtesy of Emmanuel Pattaguan

UST Graduate School

Deep in an unknown cave somewhere

Grew an image from a living stone;

Its semblance and regal pose bear

The touch for the sinful to atone.

“Black and white can transform a scene into something magical.”

 – Rob Sheppard

Two Sisters, Two Mothers
Sister Angelina Rojas and Mrs Cecilia Rojas Rotor

Each found the true meaning of life;

One in contemplation, the other in strife;

One keeps the Faith converting people,

The other keeps the number of faithful.

“Black and white are the colours of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected.” – Robert Frank

Old Carillon

Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur

Your bells in the distance are a chime,

Music on the wind, reminder of time,

Calling the lost lambs from across the sea,

And linking your host in the Holy See.

“Black and white are the colours of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected.” – Robert Frank

Hull and Outrigger

UST Biological Station

Palauig, Zambales

Someone invented your hull. 

Another your outrigger

Which comes one-sided

Or in winglike pair.

Your hull slices the water

While your arm rides on the crest.

In duo you conquer 

The river and the sea,

Linking the islands in chain 

Since the time of the Odyssey.

“Black and white does more to evoke an emotion 

and freeze a moment in time.” – Kyle Anstey

The "Tablon" Sawers*

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

If Millet were to paint this scenario,

In the masterpiece of "Man with a Hoe";

If Markham puts meaning in these duo,

Then life is a see-saw, see-saw, see-saw.

* Age old way of cutting lumber into broad planks

locally called "tablon".  San Vicente is well known

for furniture making.

To see in color is a delight for the eye but to see in black 

and white is a delight for the soul” – Andri Cauldwell ~

I love the rainbow

I love the rainbow

Dr Abe V Rotor

Rainbow across the Bamban River, Tarlac

I love the rainbow

because it holds a pot of gold

that glitters in kaleidoscope,

and prism on its huge crown,

where lovely deities play I'm told;

it's reborn when worn and old

into a cathedral in the sky

cherubim sweetly sing in praise, 

humbling the proud and bold;

it guides the lost from the fold

and those searching for heaven -

a rainbow suddenly appears

whenever faith grows cold. ~

Little Prince and the Owl

Dr Abe V Rotor 
 
Little Prince and the Owl. Mural background by the author 2016 

Wonder why missed the owl in the novel,
The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery,
wiser than the fox and the snake;  
and wonder too, why missed the eagle. ~

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 
principal subject. (24"x38")

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. ~

Mass Species Extinction through Deforestation

"Nature, and not man, determines the species composition and combination in a forest." avr 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

Tamaraw (Anoa mindorensis) skeleton, Museum of Natural History, UPLB Laguna

Orangutan in captivity, Avilon Zoo, Rizal

Wild Pigeon (bato bato), Tikob Lake, Quezon

Parakeet, Parks and Wildlife Nature Center, QC

Philippine Hawk, Parks and Wildlife Nature Center, QC

Ecological genocide. There is possibly no other term that can appropriately picture the magnitude of destruction by deforestation. The cutting down a whole forest evidently eliminates all inhabitants. While a number of them could escape and find shelter somewhere, most of the residents being habitat-specific, cannot survive without or outside their original abode or beyond the boundaries of their niches.

This is understandable. As an ecosystem, the forest is a product of evolution. Organisms evolve with their natural habitat, acquiring traits in the process. Nature is patient so to speak, to give chance for organisms to acquire the Darwinian fitness, otherwise they will perish. Many have gained dominance in terms of number. Others simply are persistent like the dragonfly that is older than the dinosaur and has remained a popular forest resident. Acquisition of protective or aggressive mimicry is a product of long years of evolution that shows that it is effective adaptation. A classical example is the relationship of fig trees with wasps that pollinate their flowers. Not even water or wind or man can effectively do it. More specific than this is the fact that each kind of fig has a particular wasp pollinator that carries out the job. And each kind of fig has a specific fruiting season, providing continuous supply of food to many animals, such as monkeys and ground fowls.

Premised by this knowledge, we now begin to realize that reforestation is not and will never be able to replace the original forest. Reforestation efforts are merely providing a temporary vegetative cover that cannot be compared with the structure of the original forest, much less to compare it with the latter’s productive efficiency and biodiversity. Here are other premises to support this contention.

1. Nature, and not man, determines the species composition and combination in a forest. We may be referring to a woodland - not a forest - when we see Gmelina, Ipil-ipil and Teak plantations. These are intended to produce commercial wood or pulpwood for paper.

2. The landscape and the forest developed together - geographically, geologically, and biologically. Streams and springs are full because trees store rainwater in the ground; the roots and natural vegetative cover check erosion and siltation. Thus the death of a forest means also the death of streams, drying of river, silting of lakes and ponds into swamp, meandering of rivers, etching of gullies on hills and mountainsides, to mention but a few consequences.

3. Abandoned deforested areas continue to lose not only soil fertility; they lose the entire soil structure, beginning with the most fertile topsoil to the clay foundation next to bedrock. In short, through erosion the foothold built for thousands of years could be lost permanently. We can only surmise what kinds of plant grow in such situation. It is not surprising to see wasteland of talahib and cogon grass on former forestlands.

4. The forest creates a mini-climate. Forest attracts clouds. Transpiration enhances precipitation so that rain occurs anytime of the day, hence the name rainforest. All this can be permanently lost with the destruction of the forest. This explains why desertification (formation of desert) starts at deforested areas. Southern Cebu, in spite of its proximity to sea, is a typical example where one can observe the pathetic gnawing process. This can be observed also on the Sierra Madre starting in Bulacan, and on extensive areas along the narrow strip of the Ilocos region.~