It’s the environment, stupid

TOWARD the end of last month, Manila residents were horrified at the sight of rows of foot-long stumps on what used to be a tree-lined stretch of Quirino Avenue. At least 225 trees, most of them decades old, had been cut down, including a heritage Narra tree that was over 50 years old. These mature canopy trees had provided shade, reduced heat, and helped absorb floodwaters on Quirino Avenue for generations. Now, in the midst of a period of extreme heat, all that was gone. Stupefyingly, this mas