THE SIGNS are all around us. Today, the issue is longer about taking action on climate change, but rather of how much action we need to take.
Five years ago the Philippines was at the top of the list of the Global Climate Risk Index – a list of countries most affected by weather-related disasters like storms, floods, and heat waves. The top 10 countries were all developing countries, underscoring the fact that the vast majority of these impacts are felt in developing countries because they are the least prepared to deal with the climate crisis.
Now, even well-developed countries are suffering such as from severe storms hitting the US and Europe. And just look at what’s happening in Australia. Bush and forest fires have been raging there for months due to, among others, climate change. And now just two days ago a severe storm started pummeling the country Down Under, threating it with massive floods. It is weird. From summer, searing hot weather that sparked the bush fires it is suddenly stormy there. Weird weather? That’s climate change as climate change can be.
As early as the late 1800s, science has been trying to give us dire warnings that industrial coal burning enhances the greenhouse gas effect. The warnings remained unheeded, notwithstanding the imperious voice of science.
In fact, the world’s actions of the past decades betrayed the fundamental merits of these warnings. Five years ago the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change upheld this observation by concluding that “about half of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions between 1750 and 2011 have occurred in the last 40 years.” It is not that we did not act. The world just decided to look the other way.
Now, the world is getting warmer and with this comes long lasting changes in our climate system. Ordinary people have limited understanding of this, until they are painfully introduced to their impacts via extremely harsh weather events, flooding, declining fish catch, water scarcity, declining agricultural harvests, exacerbating health issues, extinction of animal and plant species, displacement of people, and even the demise of low-lying areas, among others.
The Philippines has been the recipient of technical assistance and aid from developed countries to help us with our adaptation to the “new normal.” We are grateful for this; however, we cannot submit to the notion that our survival will be defined by the charity of others. Each year, hundreds if not thousands of lives are lost due to climate change and the health impacts of its chief driver – fossil fuels.The World Health Organization estimates direct damage costs to health alone at between two and four billion dollars each year by 2030.
We have been warned and we continue to be warned. Are we listening enough?
