In Beijing this week, schools, construction sites and factories were closed. Half of the cars were taken off the streets using a number coding scheme. This situation were similar to what happened in Paris and Brussels (Belgium) recently where schools, offices, subways, offices and public arenas were totally closed.
The city-wide lockdown in Paris and Brussels was caused by acts of terrorism committed by ISIS. In Beijing, it was caused by smog. Singapore recently suffered smog problems caused by haze from burning of forests in Indonesia.
Global terrorism and pollution caused by climate change have had the same dire impact on the world. Thousands of lives lost. Remember Typhoon Yolanda that resulted in many deaths. Refugees have escaped from war torn areas looking for safer environment. Millions of poor people have also been forced to migrate because of famine caused by droughts; destruction of home caused by earthquakes and floods; and, now we are witnessing migrants from places literally disappearing due to rising sea levels. Pope Francis has often said that the two biggest problems in the world are income inequality and environmental destruction.
There is clear scientific evidence that climate change has been a reality. In 1995, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide was 361 parts per million. Last year it reached 397 parts per million. During the last decade – 2000 to 2010 – the rise greenhouse gas emission was much faster than in the 1980s and the 1990s.
The hottest year since records began was 2014. This year – 2015 – could even be hotter. This decade the surface air temperature is about 0.09 degrees Centigrade higher than they were in the 1980s. If nothing is done, by the year 2020 the world will be warmer by anywhere between 3 degrees Centigrade and 10 degrees Centigrade.
In spite of the torrent of books and documentaries and warnings from scientists and world leaders, climate change has commanded very little public attention. Media has especially been ignorant or unimpressed by the severity of this issue. Radio commentators would rather talk about traffic jams than about a topic like climate change which requires a higher degree of learning and intelligence to fully understand.
The rich is even more concerned than the poor about climate change. But it is the poor who will suffer more from increased heat and extreme weather conditions. Poor farmers and fishermen are already feeling the effects of increasing temperatures and natural disasters like typhoons and earthquakes.
The United Nations recently conducted a worldwide survey asking respondents to rank in importance from a list of 16 issues that included climate change, health care, education, jobs, access to internet, political freedom and reliable energy. In highly developed countries, climate change was the 10th most important issue. In poor countries, climate change was 16th out of the 16 issues.
But it is not only in Leyte and the Marshall Islands, where rising sea levels are endangering islands, where the effect of climate change has been felt by local inhabitants. Off the coast of Maine, United States, fishermen have seen a dramatic decline in the supply of cod fish over the past decade. Scientists have traced the cause to the extreme warming of the waters in the Gulf of Maine.
Paris Climate Change Summit
The leaders of 186 countries, including President Aquino, have recently met in Paris to try and arrive at a worldwide program to control climate change. The final draft agreement targets the holding of temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Centigrade or well below 2 degrees Centigrade.
The biggest obstacle to an agreement was the needed trade-offs between competing demands. The wealthy countries are insisting that over time all countries must properly account for the progress they have made towards emission reduction goals. Developing countries, however, are asking for financial insistence to help cope with the impacts of locked in climate change.
One controversial issue was to gradually eliminate the use of coal as the fuel for power plants. Coal is the cheapest source of energy. This was the basic raw material by the United States, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom during their industrialization stage. Coal is the principal source of power for China today. If the present developing countries are not allowed to use coal, then there must be financial assistance for these countries to be able to shift to renewable energy.
The CEO of Enel, Italy’s largest power generation company, said in Paris that their company will no longer invest in nuclear, hydro and coal plants. But wind and solar plants are more expensive to build than coal or gas power stations. But once a wind or solar plant is up, the marginal cost of its power output is cheaper than coal or gas powered plant. One solution, therefore, is for developing countries to provide financial assistance to developing countries to build renewable energy sources like wind and solar powered plants.
During the Paris Summit, President Aquino spearheaded the organization of 35 countries to exploit geothermal energy as a major source of renewable energy. Energy Development Corporation ((EDC), a Filipino company headed by Oscar Lopez, has been the leader in the renewable energy sector in the Philippines. It now has geothermal energy projects also in Indonesia, Peru and Chile.
Aside from government actions, there is also a need to develop technologies that are cheaper and more accessible to the poor. One good example is the lamp using salt water as fuel developed by Aisa Mijeno of De La Salle University – Lipa. In Bangladesh, an NGO is training farmers to switch from ordinary rice to salt tolerant varieties.
We need to rescue this planet Earth from an impending disaster caused by climate change. We must ensure that our generation will leave a living planet for our grandchildren.
Writing class for kids & teens
Young Writers’ Hangout on December 12 (1-2:30pm) at the Prism Gallery Salcedo St., Legaspi Village Makati. For registration and fee details contact 0917-6240196/ writethingsph@gmail.com.
Email: elfrencruz@gmail.com