The past month obviously tells us that flooding is now the new normal in the Philippines. This is nothing but climate change in its worst.
Science explains to us that climate change gives rise to changes in precipitation, along with temperature, wind patterns, atmospheric pressure and moisture. Many scientists therefore say that as Earth’s climate dramatically changes, many parts of the globe will experience heavier rainfalls and storms which imply more frequent and intense flooding.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States responsible for aeronautics and aerospace research reports that as of 2017 the atmosphere is about 0.9 ̊C warmer than it was at the start of the century.
The ‘second notice’ of thousands of scientists in November 2017, warns humanity that going beyond 1.5 ̊C global temperature increase is catastrophic and could mean ‘game over’ for planet Earth if it continues to be business as usual.
We recall the Paris Agreement in 2015 where countries agreed to pursue serious efforts to keep the temperature rise below 1.5 ̊C and strengthen climate action through national plans and measures to mitigate climate change and mobilize financial resources that will allow the developing world to cope with the impacts. However, we are aware that the response to the goal of the Agreement is all voluntary and most countries are not yet taking it seriously.
Our country continues to face the unprecedented serious impacts of climate change. The heavy rainfall brought about by the recent five consecutive typhoons Gardo, Henry, Inday, Josie and Karding that in turn brought about extreme flooding have hopefully shaken us to the severity and urgency of the climate change issue. Flooding has indeed become like a normal event in the Philippines. We have witnessed for years now how all these floods caused massive environmental devastation, collapse of our critical ecosystems and decline in biodiversity and obviously increasing number of people and communities whose lives are gravely affected with their homes and livelihoods destroyed and loved ones lost.
What we are experiencing now is being experienced by many other countries in the world. In fact, a study reports that the Philippines only ranks 9th among the many countries that are experiencing extreme flooding due to climate change. Many of our fellow human beings around the world are dying together with our many non-human fellow Earthlings. And there is no one to blame but our species that has become a very intelligent technologically advanced human civilization but one that is totally lacking in wisdom in so far as it seems determined to destroy the only world we have in the name of progress and development. We are all in this together. We all share a common responsibility both as individuals and as countries though this responsibility is differentiated according to the amount of greenhouse gases that we contribute to the warming of our planet and to the power that has been entrusted to us.
We call on the Philippine government, in particular on President Duterte, who has been entrusted by the Filipino people the power to lead our country, to take seriously the issue of climate change and make the environment his administration’s top priority as he has promised in his last State of the Nation Address.
We call on the church sector to bring more deeply into their worship our oneness with all of creation and to integrate in all their ministries care for Earth, our Common Home.
We call on the education sector to strengthen their efforts in awakening the ecological consciousness of our young people.
We call on all the environmental groups, together with the media sector, to sound more loudly their horn of alarming the people of the perils of climate change.
We call on all Filipino people to take a stand for the life of our planet. We are all complicit in the current destruction of our planet and all planetary life systems. We are all accountable and responsible for we are all living in the midst of this ecological crisis where majority of us, if not all, seem to remain indifferent and unwilling to respond to the call of changing our consumeristic and throw-away lifestyle.
Pope Francis, in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home, strongly addresses the climate change issue and urgently appeals to all people of goodwill “for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.” (LS 14) He also strongly calls everyone to ecological conversion and a change in lifestyle and poses to us that “the urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development.” (LS 13) He has further stressed that “true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; and must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor. (LS 49)
Let us all heed the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor who are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Each of us is called to make a difference and to recognize the gifts that we possess and the unique contribution that we can make. The window of time to act is already very narrow. Responding more radically as individuals and as a collective to the call to care for and restore our Common Home is absolutely URGENT. It will be so stupid of us if we don’t listen to this urgency that is before us. And we will be doomed if we still don’t act now.
