National consensus to address global warming crisis
I urge the government to put in place a set of programs that will enable the country to withstand the ill-effects of the global warming phenomenon.
The Philippines ought to prepare itself for the social and economic disruption that lies in the next decade and beyond. I advise both sides of the political divide to get together and reach a national consensus on how best to deal with the problem.
In a 1,400-page report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the expected rise of global temperature by 1.5 degrees to 2.5 degrees Celsius will result in more frequent and more violent storms on one hand and, on the other, more frequent and prolonged droughts. It also warned that poor countries, which are the least responsible, will suffer the most from the greenhouse effects.
The Philippines can blunt the effects of droughts, although it cannot stop the violent storms.
We need to build more dams and water reservoirs. To ensure continuous water flow, we need to declare a moratorium on commercial logging operation and allow the forest cover to rejuvenate.
The Philippines must keep the sea around it in pristine condition as the linchpin of its environment protection program.
Of all crimes against the environment, the rape of the coral reefs is the most insidious. From the air you can readily see the trees being felled in the forest. Nobody realizes the destruction taking place at the bottom of the sea until it is too late.
For that reason I urge the government to conduct an educational campaign in coastal communities, adding that people must be told that the steady decline of their fish catch over the years can be traced to the degradation of the coral reefs.
Our energy consumption is so negligible that it wouldn’t make any difference even if we stopped using oil- and gas-based fuel altogether. In other words, there is not much we can do to stop global warming. But we can look after the interest of our own people. And we must.
All studies point to the US and other industrialized countries as the ones to blame for the catastrophic climate change.
