Climate Change Summits and Priorities

In view of their deep concern on global warming and climate change that had resulted in power outages, and caused damages to millions of pesos worth of agricultural crops, various environmental groups and stakeholders propose a Mindanao-wide global warming and climate change congress to help mitigate the current problem besetting the second largest island in the Philippines. Meanwhile, water level of  Angat Dam, Metro Manila’s main water and power supply and one of the power guarantors of other provinces and islands, has reached its critical level of 180 m. More brownouts are to be expected from Luzon to Mindanao.

Mike U. Crismundo gave the impression in his Manila Bulletin (MB) article that jumping to conclusions rergarding climate change and to blame global warming even for power outages is politically correct.  After all, political correctness is what it takes to satisfy the readers of this government friendly newspaper. Meanwhile, other English newspapers of the country painted a much more differentiated picture of the problem.

After the IPCC and its summary for policymakers have lost much of their credibility in the western world during the recent climate gate controversy (dubious temperature records, projections of future extreme weather events, glacier melt, sea ice extent, peer-review process revised), many Filipino people are still reeling from last year’s typhoon season with its record floodings. And maybe, Filipinos are more gullible than Americans, as an art director recently admitted to me. By the way, Al Gore will present his newly updated Asian version of his Inconvenient Truth this coming June. I am anxious to see what that version will be like.

First things first, let’s put some facts straight here.

Yes, there were record landfall activities of typhoons all around the Philippines in 2009, but over the Pacific in general and globally, tropical storm activity was on the quiet side in 2009. The climate did not change.

Now, the present climate includes a seasonal drought which is reinforced by the lingering El Niño, other than that it is nothing unusual. The Philippine’s dependence on water turbine power is what’s unusually high this year. The lack of power was just an accident waiting to happen during this El Nino summer. How about record heat? Metro hottest at 36.3 degrees…Based on the PAGASA’s data, the hottest temperature in the Philippine history is at 42.2 degrees Celsius, recorded in Tuguegarao, Cagayan on May 11, 1969. Meanwhile, the hottest day in Metro Manila was at 38.5 on May 14, 1987. This news report came pronto in the next morning paper.

Or maybe, this drought feels more severe because water consumption is on the rise and less is available for the irrigation of crops. Priority is given to golf courses, malls and hotels.  An 18-hole golf course consumes 2.3 million liters of water per day, which could otherwise meet the water needs of 46,000 to 115,000 people. The Water for the People Network (WPN) addresses the issue after more than a decade of privatization of water supply on the MB Sunday frontpage article. They stress that even without El Niño, more than 3.2 million people in Metro Manila who are supposed to be served by the private water concessionaires do not have access to water.

Who I am to judge? My wife and I are new arrivals in the Philippines who just received our first electricity bill. It turns out higher than in Switzerland even without aircon and without the use of an electrical cooking range. Oh well, I guess we have to change our own priorities as well (smile).

Share on Facebook