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Murphy’s Law says that if anything can go wrong, it will. Oh dear, that seems the situation this side of the world. I do not have to repeat the challenges we face as a nation – even elementary school kids know – but a more serious crisis, climate change, is rapidly showing its unwelcome color. The fury of the fairly recent visitor, Typhoon Frank, and the devastation suffered by Panay Island, among other islands, should awaken the most lethargic of us to the reality that climate crisis is creeping in dangerously and is affecting all of us.
While in other countries their stakeholders are already in a frenzy cooking up possible solutions to mitigate the effects of climate crisis, we are still in a daze as what this monster is, what it is up to, and if solutions are around the corner.
Global warming, as a major issue, is not taken seriously by those who are given the resources and the mandate to protect the people and the environment – our political leaders. The rice-and-fish-eating Filipinos stand to lose the most. Lester Brown, considered as the “guru of the environmental movement,” mentioned in his book, “Planet B 3.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization” the study on the relationship between temperature and crop yields made by scientists of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. It revealed that a “one-degree Celsius rise above the norm lowers wheat, rice and corn yields by 10 percent.” Increased temperature undoubtedly brings unimaginable problems for the people. A copy of Brown’s book is available online: http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB3/Contents.htm).
Touted as the world’s worst climate victim in 2006, with thousands of lives lost and billions of pesos worth of properties and resources dissipated, with one of the highest birth rate in Asia, if not the world, and acknowledged as the “hottest of the hotspots” in habitat destruction and loss, yet going full-blast on unsustainable policies and projects that spell wanton destruction of our natural resources, the Philippines is set on a trajectory of imminent ecological collapse – unless a strong climate leadership is exercised fast.
But, alas, it is still business as usual. Hundreds of millions of pesos worth of reclamation projects, which would be “reclaimed” sooner than soon by the rising sea, are still debated upon within the public sector. By playing god, and dumping land into the sea, we tamper with and destroy nature. Do the policymakers know that the richest ecosystems are found near the shores? This is where corals grow and sea grass and mangroves abound.
One of the paramount duties of a local government unit is to enhance the right of the people to a balanced ecology (Section 16, Republic Act 7160, Local Government Code). Reclamation projects destroy ecosystems. How can that enhance the people’s constitutionally-guaranteed right to a healthy environment? The well-being of the poorest of the poor – the fisherfolk – is definitely not considered as well.
It is disheartening that, climate change notwithstanding, carbon emitting and polluting offshore drilling for oil in Argao and Sibonga in Cebu is again contemplated by the Department of Energy (DOE), with an Australian firm as subcontractor. We are strongly against oil drilling because it destroys our natural heritage and the already-fragile ecosystem, including the habitat of our endangered and vanishing species; causes air pollution, displaces our subsistence fisherfolk; and contributes to global warming.
The issue on the unconstitutionality and illegality of the service contracts entered into by DoE is raised in the now-consolidated twin Tañon cases pending with the Supreme Court. To give respect to a co-equal body already taking cognizance of the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company oil-drilling cases, it is a more prudent course for the executive department, through the DoE, to await the final ruling of the High Court rather than rush the hunt for oil in the seas and waterways all over the country.
Government is perceived to be more serious in engaging in proprietary concerns rather than delivering basic services to the constituents. This is definitely not what the Constitution and the Local Government Code contemplate.
Calls for reduced carbon emission reverberate all over the world – why can we not do our share? The least local leaders can do is initiate a massive education campaign about climate change in every sitio of each barangay and involve communities in finding ways to adapt to and minimize the expected effects of climate change. Universities, schools and the media are the most effective partners in this undertaking. Materials are readily available on the Internet. Cebu has experts to talk about the issues.
Environmental advocate David Noble of Canada flew into town recently and had series of discussions on climate change with students of University of Cebu, University of San Carlos and University of the Philippines – all in one day. He called for citizen engagement in combating this crisis – which is deadlier than terrorism, yet so few have heard about it.
Now is the time for civil society and the business community to exercise the much-needed climate leadership, especially since government has chosen to be silent about this life-threatening challenge afflicting our home planet. Or will we just wait for Nature to have the last say?
