Much has been said on the alarming environmental crisis. But for some reason, Filipinos still have other things on top of their list. I have been no exception to the rule until I entered graduate school, although this is no claim to be other than someone who expresses her concern on the environment. My best friend, a more active proponent of efforts in alleviating climate change, forwarded me a link to a video from Story of Stuff a few months ago. The website "Story of Stuff," based on California, featured a 20 minute video in efforts to raise awareness and accountability on the non-sustainability of people's ways that are portent to climate change.
Meanwhile, closer to home, Focus on the Global South, a non-stock, non-profit development policy research, analysis and advocacy institution, where I volunteer at; featured an article on "Climate Change and the Poor" in their website. In the article, groups like Greenpeace "noted the irony that severe climate impacts in the Philippines are bound to hit areas with high poverty incidence, while aggravating hunger and water issues, displacement concerns, health risks and livelihood insecurity...climate hotspots cover mostly impoverished regions and provinces, such as the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), which will be the most vulnerable to a one-meter sea level rise and the most at risk to landslides, respectively."
We see history repeating itself wherein those who do not own the means of production are designated the role of the underdog. I began to think of the clamor for biofuel, in the guise of going green, at the expense of people who make a living on corn. In the quest for palm oil, poor people starve to death so the rich can have fuel for their cars. Those who have least contributed to the environment's degradation suffer the most, while those who have contributed the most to the environmental crisis suffer the least and continue to profit.
It is worth noting, how those who have influence (be it developed countries in the global scale or oligarchies in the national scale) push for weak, corporate-driven measures that are deemed to be most cost-effective – there is a difference between most cost-effective and most effective – yet futile in averting the worst case scenario posited by the scientific community - irreversible climate change.
Last semester, I asked Sir Walden Bello, current president of Focus on the Global South, in my Social and Cultural Forces in Contemporary South East Asia class, "how can Filipinos wake up to the crisis that is climate change?," he advocated the empowerment of the local government units (LGUs) and communtities. This is echoed by Sixto Roxas, Chairperson for Maximo T. Kalaw Institute for Sustainable Development, in his talk on political economic perspectives in "Understanding Globalization: Confronting the Global Economic Crisis" last May 11, 2009. He said "the national government should be an extension office that provides assistance to the LGUs. It is the LGUs that should be empowered and the national army should be an equalizer to protect the LGUs." Furthermore, with the rude awakening brought on by the "tectonic shift" which exposed the non-sustainability of the United States model, he said the Philippines should "go back to the real economy and focus on local development and local resources." I think he made a very compelling point when he said "no urban area can survive without the rural." I began to think about the stark contrast between corporate employees and farmers. Those who wear ties and cuff links are called "sir" while the farmers remain nameless or reduced to "manong."
Everyone is part of the problem and solution to global warming and the "business-as-usual" attitude by both the government and corporations here in our country reflects our shallow concern on the issue. Climate change does not wait for anyone.I hope it’s not too late when the time comes our government and elites finally realize that their selfish and short-sighted nature will be the end of us all.
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