Blog Action Day: This Is Our Story…


Today is (Pilipinas) Blog Action Day and the topic is about Climate Change. Here’s our story and my point-of-view.

Follow up:

CC (no, not Creative Commons or carbon copy) is a broad term. One can argue that climate change is a natural process. True enough, because if there were no climate changes in Earth’s distant history we probably wouldn’t be here today. Imagine if our Planet never had rain, or say Earth stayed hot and never had ice ages. Maybe the dinosaurs will still be alive today, and instead of us humans on the top of the food-chain, we will probably be on the top of someone else’s diet!

Climate Change is good then, because it keeps this planet alive and it keeps it balance. But why are we discussing about it if it is a good, natural process? Why all this fuss? These seminars, Blog Action Day, and scary videos that the Earth is going to die soon with humanity in it if we don’t do something?

The answer is simple. We are accelerating the process and we are doing it very badly. How bad? Off-the-charts!! If the natural process of “global warming” for example only reaches “Level 10”, what is happening today is it is hitting “Level 15” or higher! Or as some experts and scientists say the Earth is actually cooling and may enter another Ice Age, instead of it happening for the next thousand years or so, it might happen the next hundred years or less.

I do not have data, charts, or anything of that to show you today (I wasn’t able to prepare for Blog Action Day: Climate Change) but I believe that you’ve heard and read these reports, seminars, and watched documentaries and videos. And many of us today experienced it first hand – Hurricane Katrina and Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy as locally known in the Philippines).

Assuming that all I said above were wrong, that maybe I misunderstood those articles and videos, then to where or which natural effect or process can we attribute the formation of these two deadly storms? To ‘coincidence’ perhaps? Let us not forget that right after Typhoon Ketsana, two new storms formed in the Pacific.

These were no ordinary storms, these two turned into super typhoons in Asian measurement or Category 5 Hurricane in the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Category Scale. The first one was Super Typhoon Parma (or Pepeng as locally known in the Philippines), and the second was Super Typhoon Melor that hit Japan.

My dear readers, Super Typhoon Parma scared the hell out of the Filipino people who are (to this day) still recovering from the devastation Typhoon Ketsana brought upon us, but by some Higher Intervention it moved North and its super typhoon status lowered down (weak Category 4). But still its strong winds and rains were capable of devastating Northern Philippines.

Here in the Philippines, our local weather agency, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Services Adminstration or PAGASA issues what we call Public Storm Warning Signals (PSWS). I remember when I was young (late 80s / early 90s), Signal No. 4 was born and it was the first time that we heard about a/the “Super Typhoon“. People were scared at that time and were talking about these new terminologies that the generation before us (us = my generation) haven’t heard either.

This sent a message to us that the typhoons will only get stronger and bigger. And so it was, we had plenty of Signal No. 4s and got hit by Super Typhoons as well. Then everything seem to have stopped when the El Niño phenomenon hit us. After two or three hits which spanned some years (if I remember correctly), our “normal” climate returned, or so we thought. It wasn’t the usual weather at all!

Few noticed it, but back in 2007 or 2008, our seasons were either delayed or started early. I remember we had summer-type weeks when it was our rainy and storm season, and storms (even typhoons) when it was supposed to be over (and headed back to summer).

Then we heard about the same thing happening elsewhere on the Planet. We had reports of extended summer in places where they’re supposed to be enjoying skiing already, instead they were still sun-bathing! We also heard of places where winter should have ended but it was still snowing hard!

If these were all coincidences or we have nothing to do with these changes, then let us start updating our calendars! Somehow mother nature decided to change our seasons and climate without tilting the Earth’s Axis or moving our Planet farther away from or nearer to the Sun.

This is no doubt climate change, our own version, our own making. We accelerated it and we aren’t prepared for the consequences (maybe we will never be – since we human beings prefer ‘cures’ than ‘prevention’; we only act and take notice once the problem is there and is affecting us!!) It is time that we all put our act together and get things done. It is time that we cut our corporate and government processes short to get things approved and implemented. It is high time that we forget our own (usually selfish) interests and stop delaying or preventing proposals from being approved or laws from being implemented.

From this day on, let us all be aware of what we are contributing to our society and the environment. As little as stopping burning our garbages (which is illegal in most countries in the first place) can help in keeping our ONLY Planet alive, and give us enough time to do cleaning. For the companies, and automobile owners, do your part and start exploring cleaner alternatives instead of throwing your wastes in the waters, the land, or the air.

The victims of Hurricane Katrina were probably victims because of someone else’s irresponsible waste management. And us victims of Typhoon Ketsana were probably victims of our own irresponsibility. Two similar disasters, yet two different examples. There is no middle ground. Either we make our love ones the victims or we ourselves become the victims, the root cause for both? Because of our irresponsibility to our environment.

It is better that we do something than doing nothing at all! Together, let us move forward and address this issue one step at a time, starting from our own homes, neighborhood, and ourselves; then collectively tackle the bigger problems. To borrow Neil Armstrong’s words “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind“.

God Bless and keep hoping! Mabuhay!!


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