Blog Action Day 2009: CLIMATE CHANGE IS A FACT

[from friendster October 15, 2009]

It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos theory

FACT: When we denude the mountains of forests and then rain falls in epic proportions, the end result-landslides and floods.

“The death toll from tropical depression “Pepeng” rose to 264 Saturday afternoon as rescue workers dug up more bodies of missing people, reports from police and relief agencies said.

Of the total, 222 were killed in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), mostly from landslides, according to the Philippine National Police (PNP).” – GMANews.TV, October 11, 2009

FACT: When we do not segregate waste and those non-biodegradables clogs the sewers and waterways and then the rain falls in epic proportions, the end result-floods knee-deep to two-storeys high.

“Battered by ceaseless rain, San Jose and 17 others, including a two-year-old child, were trapped on a roof of a printing press by floodwaters just outside Provident Village for more than 17 hours from noontime on Saturday until early Sunday morning. “ – Philip Tubeza, Philippine Daily Inquirer, September 30, 2009

FACT: When we feed the environment with heavy carbon footprints from our vehicle exhausts and the like, we get to experience erratic weather changes like stronger typhoons, the end result- floods.

“Warming of ocean surface waters because of climate change is likely to lead to an increase in the intensity of tropical storms, with higher peak wind speeds and heavier rainfall. Meaning, typhoons will be more damaging. Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Institute of Technology have concluded that warmer sea surface temperatures and altered wind patterns associated with global warming are responsible for increases in the number of hurricanes/typhoons.” – www.ltscotland.org.uk

FACT:  Typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng that left the Philippines devastated and placed the entire country under a state of calamity is a product of climate change.

“The government on Friday placed the country under a state of national calamity in preparation for the expected onslaught on Saturday afternoon of typhoon ‘Pepeng’ (international name ‘Parma’). The expected landfall is in Cagayan province in northern Luzon.” – GMANews.TV, October 2, 2009

FACT: Most locations in the Philippines that went underwater during the said typhoons are still submerged in flood.

“Pepeng may have already left Philippine territory three days ago, but vast swaths in Northern and Central Luzon are still engulfed by flood, with nearly the whole of Nueva Ecija province still submerged in flood waters, and with Arayat town in Pampanga province surprisingly hit by up to seven-feet floods.” – GMANews.TV, October 14, 2009

FACT: Hundreds perished during the onslaught of the said typhoons and hundreds more are still waiting to perish due to outbreaks of flood-borne diseases.

“While in the thick of controlling dengue cases, health officials in the Cagayan Valley Region are now preparing for a possible outbreak of waterborne diseases due to flooding caused by typhoon Pepeng. Dr. Tita Callueng, the regional health director, said that waterborne diseases such as cholera and skin infections have been recorded in some municipalities, with already five deaths attributed to leptospirosis.” – GMANews.TV, October 15, 2009

These are the facts that we face today. When faced with the fact that your days are numbered, what do you do? The climate as we know now is on the terminal stage changing for the worst for us. 

As a species, we have to survive, and to survive we have to be responsible for every action we create and be knowledgeable of its effect to the environment and the climate. 

We WILL not survive another ice age. The earth as we know it will evolve and repair itself with or without us. It is what we feed the earth that will eventually be the recipe for our destruction as a whole or its rehabilitation. 

The fact remains, if we continue abusing the environment and the climate changes as rapid as it is changing now, the end result is simple –We all die.