RESEARCH shows there are approximately 1.9 to 2.3 million registered small-scale coastal Filipino fishermen in the Philippines. They are generally poor and depend on whatever they catch daily. They also provide almost half of the nation’s fish, providing hundreds of thousands of fish vendors with livelihoods and families with nutritious, high-protein food. Climate change and ocean warming will endanger this important sector.
In 10 years, waters from Manila Bay could be flowing into the University of Sto. Tomas. Property owners near the bay can expect greater floods in the future. The ocean cannot be stopped or held back, and the danger they can pose rises. All this has causes that few want to think about.
Coal-fired plants
The Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) plans to build more coal-fired plants are truly against the well-being and interest of the Filipino people.
Its power-generation arm, Meralco PowerGen Corp., is planning to build such a plant in Toledo, Cebu province, and another in Atimonan, Quezon province. By contributing further to global warming by burning more fossil fuels, Meralco is making itself an enemy of the people and a destroyer of the environment while posing as a savior by providing electricity — which is not exactly cheap — while generating millions of pesos for their shareholders. The plant will not only cause greater global warming, more floods and droughts for people but will also destroy our beautiful biodiversity.
People have been crying out against these projects for 10 years, and government officials are making corrupt deals when they approve permits for their construction. Their kickbacks must be huge. The corrupt are sure to be punished for their sins against the people and God’s creation. Coal-burning plants like Meralco’s are the worst of all polluters. A just government or Supreme Court that cannot be bribed, that possesses a strong conscience and courage, has to stop them.
What is unstoppable at present — unless we cut off fossil fuel-generating power plants — is the alarming rise in global temperatures. Last year has been the warmest so far, with an average global temperature exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.
We can see it increasing, and we can expect more frequent, intense, prolonged and damaging weather events. Stronger typhoons, floods, droughts, heat waves; damage to infrastructure and crops; fish migration; and rising sea levels. There are other consequences, like mass migration from South to North, which is happening now, and likely more wars and violence. Millions of poor and starving people will leave their homes for the world’s wealthier regions.
The nation’s elite have to find a moral compass, repent for their greed and corruption, and find a conscience and the courage to do justice for the people, the environment and the nation./PN
