Important Notes at the End of 2025

Wednesday, December 31, 2025, marks the end of humanity's long journey through the year 2025. As we close out the 365 days of 2025, which will soon be over in a matter of hours, I will try to highlight one key event that occurred in 2025, in the hope that it will provide food for thought.

Indonesia successfully closed 2025 with hard work to recover from ecological disasters that struck three provinces at once, namely Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra. The flash floods and landslides that swept through these three provinces, according to official government data accessible through the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) website, https://gis.bnpb.go.id/bansorsumatera2025/, killed at least 1,141 people, affected 58 districts/cities, left 162 people missing, and displaced 395,800 people. In terms of physical damage to buildings, 166,925 houses were damaged, with 71,445 houses suffering minor damage, 41,925 houses suffering moderate damage, and 53,555 houses suffering severe damage. A total of 215 health facilities were damaged, 3,188 educational facilities were damaged, and 803 places of worship were damaged, 34 bridges were cut off, and 80 connecting roads were cut off.

Picture source: Greenpeace

This data highlights that the disaster has had a significant impact on the lives of people living in and around the disaster area. For rational people with a critical mind, the natural disasters that struck three provinces on the island of Sumatra were not a coincidence. They were the result of long-term human actions that greedily destroyed the island's ecosystems and natural habitats. Data released by Kompas on December 12, 2025, shows that between 1990 and 2024, 1.2 million hectares of forest in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra disappeared, with 36,305 hectares of forest lost per year and 99.46 hectares of forest lost every day.

This fact undoubtedly makes anyone with logical reasoning increasingly aware that Indonesia is on the brink of destruction. If all land is exploited for development, natural rights such as watersheds are not properly utilized, and productive protected forests are cleared for short-term economic interests such as plantations, agriculture, illegal logging, mining, and housing, then it is only a matter of time before the bell tolls for its demise.

It is unfortunate that, while the nation is still mourning the major natural disaster that struck Sumatra, President Prabowo Subianto, during a meeting on accelerating development in Papua at the State Palace on December 16, 2025, made a statement that clearly called for the opening of new land in Papua. Under the pretext of achieving energy self-sufficiency, Prabowo announced plans to plant oil palms in Papua. This is an anomaly that shows how this country is unwilling to learn from what has already happened. The major natural tragedy that clearly destroyed three large provinces in Sumatra was not enough to convince the authorities or anyone with political authority that environmental damage, land clearing, and the loss of forest ecosystems can truly destroy and cause both material and non-material losses. Remember, Papua is the last bastion of Indonesia's forests, whose condition is currently under threat due to greed and mismanagement.

If the ambition to pursue short-term goals such as energy and food self-sufficiency continues at the expense of damaging Papua's nature and environment, then we can only wait for the consequences. I cannot imagine Papua ending up like Sumatra. However, prevention is certainly better than having to suffer the painful consequences of nature's wrath.

Indonesia is indeed vast, rich in natural resources, and abundant in forests. However, all of this is meaningless because God's blessings and gifts are not being preserved and appreciated in a balanced manner between development, conservation, and planting activities. I have noticed that natural disasters are currently occurring evenly throughout Indonesia. Take, for example, the most common one: flooding, whether moderate, light, or severe, is prone to occur around our homes due to inadequate drainage, a lack of green open spaces capable of absorbing the large volume of rainwater that falls heavily over a long period of time, and the ambitious drive to convert productive land into residential areas. Logically, if all the land is built up with houses, how will the soil absorb water when it rains?

Not to mention other natural disasters such as flash floods and landslides, which often occur due to high rainfall, climate change, and deforestation. Other natural tragedies that occurred in 2025 should make us realize that nature is God's creation, just like humans, which will express its attitude and policies at any time. Nature will be friendly to the humans around it if its habitat and ecosystem are not destroyed. However, nature will be furious and rage if its comfort is disturbed by the barbaric actions of greedy humans who do not know their place. Littering, polluting rivers with waste, and cutting down trees in forests and green areas are concrete examples of behavior that can trigger nature's wrath. The choice is now: do we want to be friends with nature or enemies? Are the ecological disasters that have occurred in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra not enough?