Monday, April 30, 2007 RP in danger due to global warming: multinational group
THE Philippines is among the countries that are at great risk if the present trend in global warming caused by carbon dioxide emission is not reversed, an international conservation group warned recently.
"The Philippines is extremely vulnerable to the ravages of climate change. Food and fresh water shortages, receding coastlines and an increase in political and economic turmoil is the bleak picture that climate change paints for the country," said the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) during the launch of the Manila edition of the Climate Savers program in Makati City.
Started by WWF in Europe in 2000, the Climate Savers is a global campaign that aims to enlist businesses and corporations to cut their carbon dioxide emissions by at least 10 million tons annually by 2010 and promote cost-efficient energy saving measures.
The campaign also aims to enlist companies to help cut the amount of greenhouse gases to prevent global temperature from rising beyond 3.6 degrees.
WWF-Philippines climate change manager Rean Tirol said 43 million Filipinos living along or near the coastlines are at risk from rising sea levels if the present trend of global warming is not adequately addressed, adding that most of these people like their counterparts in neighboring countries are poor and depend on the marine ecosystem as their prime source of food and livelihood.
Tirol said the world has already warmed by over 0.7 degree Celsius and is locked into at least another 0.5 degree Celsius warming from pre-industrial era and if this continues, "the corresponding rise in sea level could inundate half of Metro Manila's coastal municipality of Navotas and even wipe out low-lying island of the archipelago."
Tirol's warning was echoed by the group's marketing head Susan Roxas who said delaying action on the issue could wreak havoc on the country's food and water supply and exacerbate political tension caused by the exodus of "climate refugees" from vulnerable areas to inland zones.
Roxas cited a recent report provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which said that sea levels could rise by tens of centimeters this century making more coastal populations vulnerable to flooding and storm surges.
The IPCC has warned that 640 million people, 13 million of whom are Filipinos who are living in coastal areas 10 meters above sea level, face the greatest risk from abrupt climate change.
The report identified the countries with the largest number of people living within the area as China (143.9 million), India (63.2 million), Bangladesh (62.5 million), Vietnam (43 million), Indonesia (41.6 million), Japan (30.5 million), the US (22.8 million), Thailand (16.4 million) and the Philippines with 13.3 million.
Roxas said policy-makers should take this report into consideration especially in development planning as the growing urbanization means that people are steadily encroaching on the coastlines despite the risks from storm, flooding and cyclones.
The IPCC likewise said in a 10-year period starting in 1994, about one-third of the 1,562 incidence of flooding, half of the 120,000 people killed and 98 percent of the nearly two million people affected were in developing countries mostly in Asia.
But WWF said all is not lost as she cited the success of their programs to cut carbon dioxide emissions in Europe and "these could be replicated in the country through the help of major businesses and corporations, environmental groups and the people in general."
"If we start doing something to reduce carbon dioxide emission, then we peak by 2010 and its concentrations should begin to go down. If we do nothing at all and delay our actions and emissions keep rising beyond that period, then we would be contributing to the rise in the average global temperature by more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit," Roxas said.
Among the measures recommended by the group is for local companies to institute targets to cut greenhouse gases, increasing their companies energy efficiency utilization, using renewable energy resources and integrating cost-saving measures in the design of new products.
Roxas, likewise, said the new Congress should take into account all the factors even as she called for greater awareness among the people especially those living in or near the coastlines. (AH/Sunnex)
