Marching for climate action
MANILA, Philippines - My experience during the march in Bangkok was quite an enlightening one. While I had always had an interest in the environment, and had completed some courses in environmental science in university, to actually be in the thick of things with the potential of influencing decisions beyond my own household made me realize how important a public voice can be.
In light of the recent devastation caused by the tropical storm Ondoy, we here in the Philippines have felt first hand the powerful effects of climate change. Not that we haven’t weathered tropical storms, or even super typhoons in the past, but the fact that they are occurring much more often and of a much stronger intensity can be directly attributed to climate change.
As a developing nation, Ondoy’s lesson to us has been that the Philippines, like many other nations in the region, is woefully ill-prepared for these sorts of calamities. We lack the infrastructure, early warning systems, emergency relief services and sometimes even basic solid building materials to not only survive a flood or tsunami, but have the ability to rebuild our lives after it has passed.
In talking to some of the fisherfolk that I marched with from different Asian nations, I realized just how badly these kinds of disasters affect those living in coastal areas. They are often the ones directly in the path of destruction caused by climate change. They are susceptible to losing their boats, their homes, their livelihoods and their lives during a catastrophe, and once the catastrophe passes, the survivors are usually so poor that they don’t have the ability or funds to try and put their lives back together.
But it’s not only the fisherfolk who have experienced the detrimental effects of climate change. The flooding of urban and provincial waterways, or on the flipside, the droughts that also ravage the world these days, is ripping apart the means of survival for a lot of people who are earning or growing enough to be barely subsisting at the best of times. If their homes and possessions get washed away in a flood, or their crops dry up in the sun for an entire year, what hope do they have to survive?
In recognizing the needs and situation of these people struggling to cope, I’ve also realized how the inequality of women’s rights has contributed to them bearing the brunt of climate change disasters more than others. Often with less education, rights, skills, strength and access to loans or employment opportunities, it’s that much harder for them to cope during and after a calamity.
Many may think that these problems are not theirs. It happens to poor people, or those in another country far away. It may raise a momentary feeling of sadness, a 30-second clip on the news before a cheerful return to the happier stories. Let me tell you, the people affected here are not mere numbers. They are people’s mothers, grandfathers, daughters and sons. Here in the Philippines this realization has been brought home hard and fast with Ondoy’s destructive floods. For those of us lucky enough not to have been affected personally, we all know a number of close relatives or friends who were stranded on the roofs of their houses, saw their cars float and sink into the muddy waters or, heaven forbid, lost a loved one. Imagine if that loved one was one of yours. If we don’t act now to do something about climate change, then these disasters will become an even more regular occurrence, and before long, that missing loved one could be one of ours. Tik tok. Act now before it’s too late.
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The Asian Women’s March gathered women farmers from Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, calling for the inclusion of women in the agenda of international climate meetings. Marc Nelson is a climate advocate for the campaign Tik Tok Pilipinas of international aid agency Oxfam and artists’ collective Dakila. Tik Tok Pilipinas is part of the international tck tck campaign for climate action. Visit www.tiktokpilipinas.com to learn more about the campaign.
