A serious message about global warming

Once again the Social Weather Station (SWS) came up with a survey, this time specific for the Cebu Districts of Rep. Raul del Mar, Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz and Rep. Pablo Garcia. It shows that 76% of the people surveyed in those areas support the so-called Reproductive Health Bill. This comes from a sampling of some 600 respondents that was commissioned by Mr. Benjamin Leon, President of Forum, a non-government organization, for their obvious selfish reasons. Perhaps this could be true, that here in Cebu, the real Catholics have already become a small minority, while the rest are merely non-practicing Catholics. If this is so, then it is a failure by the Cebu Archdiocese to educate their constituents of the ills of the RH Bill.

* * *

I was really surprised that it rained in Cebu last Saturday. Should we simply dismiss this as mere April showers? While the rains usually bring cool temperatures, it was very warm and humid despite the rains.It could only be the result of global warming. What else could it be? We should take this very seriously. I read an interview by Fareed Zakaria of Nobel Physicist Steven Chu (April 20 issue of Newsweek). It is quite an interesting reading.

Here are excerpts that should come as a wake up call for us. Zakaria asked the question, “Can we really prevent global warming? Or should we be thinking more of adaptation? Building coastal fortifications may be cheaper than halting the release of CO2.”

Chu replied, “Right now, the climate scientists feel that if all humans shut off carbon emissions today, it will still glide up by 1 degree centigrade. In the business-as-usual scenarios, Nicholas Stern says there’s a 50 percent chance we may go up to 5 degrees centigrade. We know that the Earth was like 5 or 6 degrees centigrade colder. That was called the Ice Ages.

Imagine a world 5 degrees warmer. The desert lines would be dramatically changed. The West is projected to be in drought conditions. And certain tipping points might be triggered. We can adapt to 1 or 2 degrees. More than that, there is no adaptation strategy. At that point, no matter what humans do, it’s out of our control. This is the realization in the last decade that has caused many of us to get very, very concerned. Adaptation at 1 or 2 degrees will be painful, it will cause a lot of hurt and pain, but adaptation at 5 or 6 degrees—I’m terribly frightened that that’s catastrophic.

We’re in the great ship Titanic, the Earth is, and it’s going to take a half century to really turn the ship. But that doesn’t mean we can’t start doing it today, and we must. It’s possible that the United States can greatly reduce its use of energy in our buildings, which consume 40 percent of our energy, and our personal vehicles.”

Steven Chu’s message is crystal clear. We’ve reach a tipping poin. We should start doing something now or we shall all perish! This brings us to the question whether the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change (PTFCC) that formally launched the “Carbon Cutting Coalition” last April 17 in the former Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City is the step in the right direction?

Presidential Adviser on Climate Change Sec. Heherson Alvarez (whom we recently interviewed on our tv show) said, “We are at war, fighting for the survival of the Earth. The Coalition was formed to find solutions to the pressing problem of global warming and climate change. The flag, featuring the official logo of the coalition, will be the country’s official ‘seal’ of good housekeeping in as far as climate change solutions are concerned.”

But while this is a very laudable move by the Arroyo administration, it is still plagued with the same problems that we Filipinos face in our everyday lives; we do not solve our nation’s problems. That’s because the people who are tasked to do their jobs simply just don’t do their assigned jobs.

A case in point. I was in Mactan a couple of weeks ago and noticed a huge “lunangan sa kabaw” pothole that stretched the entire road. It didn’t rain when I passed there a couple of weeks ago. Last Sunday, we passed it again and it was a huge mudhole! No one cared to fix this problem. To think that this is the main road right in front of Mactan’s Tourism Resorts. Whatever happened to the taxes people pay in Lapu-Lapu City?

This is just one example of sheer inefficiency by our government. We expect them to do wondrous things to reduce carbon emissions? Why don’t we test them and ask them to stop importing used mini-cabs or engines that pollute the atmosphere? If they have the political will to do this then I will believe that they can make things work to help fight global warming.