LAST week brought two incidents that will remain in our collective memory for a long time, and both had to do with the environment.
On July 24, a Wednesday, Typhoon Carina and Tropical Depression Butchoy brought floods and landslides to many parts of the Philippines, killing 16 persons, leaving more than 600 houses in disrepair, displacing more than 600,000 families, trapping thousands of people in rising flood waters, and causing infrastructure damage amounting to more than P1.5 million and injuries and untold heartaches to innumerable residents of Luzon, BARMM and Cordillera Administrative Region. Typhoon Carina worsened torrential monsoon rains and dumped more than 300 mm (12 inches) of rain in the National Capital Region and parts of Luzon, prompting officials to declare a “state of calamity” in the capital and evacuate tens of thousands of people. Schools and offices were closed, 150 flights were canceled, and land vehicles were stalled, stranded, or in deeper areas, submerged, effectively putting a stop to productive activities.
Quezon City, which in previous years seldom experienced flooding, was hit hard by the floods. More than 55,000 people, including nearly 16,000 families, were reported to have been evacuated and brought to evacuation centers.
And in the early hours of July 25, the MT Terra Nova, a Philippine-flagged tanker, capsized in Manila Bay during strong winds and high waves. It was carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil. The tanker “capsized and eventually submerged,” the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said in a report. Sixteen out of 17 crew were rescued, according to Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista. The body of the one missing sailor was recovered later. Bautista revealed in a briefing that strong winds and perilous waves made response efforts difficult.
A more far-reaching consequence of the incident is an oil slick that was detected, which can mean environmental problems. PCG spokesman Rear Adm. Armando Balilo said authorities were “racing against time” to contain the spill and staunch further leaking. He warned that if all the oil in the tanker were to leak, it would be the biggest spill in recent Philippine history. Authorities are doing everything to manage the situation and prevent further damage.
Typhoon Carina intensified rapidly, exceeding the threshold for rapid intensification by strengthening to 96 kph (60 mph) in just 24 hours. Scientists attribute this phenomenon to warmer oceans caused by climate change, which fuel storms more quickly and provide more energy for typhoons and hurricanes to intensify. Temperatures in the Pacific Ocean have reached record highs. Scientists have found that higher ocean temperatures caused by human-induced climate crises are causing storms to strengthen faster.
These are just the latest mishaps that descended on our country, and both were caused by the climate crisis. They serve as fresh reminders to take a closer look at our ability to respond to disasters. The human-caused climate crisis has made storms more unpredictable and extreme, making the nation’s poorest even more vulnerable.
“These torrential rains give yet another picture of extreme weather in a climate-changed world. Filipinos are calling for climate justice,” said Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Khevin Yu in a statement. “Climate impacts will continue to escalate. It is small communities … with poor infrastructure, that are affected the worst.”
Unfortunately, it is when destructive events happen that we pay attention to the climate crisis, and our response is either complacency on the part of the privileged — because they think it’s not going to affect them — or paralyzing anxiety on the part of the powerless because they feel whatever they do would not make any difference.
Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit proposes a change in perspective: “There’s a really powerful, pervasive idea in the progressive world that our job is to convert our enemies,” she said in an interview, “that we’re little evangelists out there to out debate people who don’t agree with us… We have enough people who believe that climate change is real and urgent. That if all of them mobilized, if all of them were fully engaged, we could do everything we needed to do. And it’s, we don’t need to convert our enemies. We need to mobilize our friends.”
As individuals, we can do something: we can encourage our friends, family, and co-workers to reduce their carbon footprint. We can keep up the pressure on political leaders and businesses to support efforts to cut emissions. Make sustainable choices: since transport accounts for a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions, we can opt for walking, cycling, or using public transportation when urgency is not an issue. Every small action counts, and collectively, we can make a difference.
It is a perspective that gives us hope, not Pollyannaish hope, but hope as defined by the late Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic: “not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
And joining hands to save the Earth, to save us and the future generations, certainly makes sense.
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