By: Geraldine Laguras Buencillo
Teacher III, San Jose Integrated High School
In an unpredictable world where erratic storm patterns and scorching heat waves brought destruction and death on its path, our efforts as a global community seem to struggle with that of Mother nature’s wrath. The threat of climate change around the globe is very alarming. It has changed the way we as a nation want to mitigate its damage brought to us by national calamities of vast magnitude and unbelievable consequences. Take for example what transpired during the onslaught of severe tropical storm Paeng. When we thought that we have already prepared and we took the necessary precautions that are needed even before the weather disturbance came, but we were still caught flat-footed to its devastation that killed lives of people because of severe flooding and landslides. How are we going to address the effects of climate change?
Many countries have begun planning adaptation measures, such as moving residents from vulnerable areas and fortifying infrastructure. But the richer nations that are primarily responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change have not provided enough money to pay for them.
The solution for this global phenomenon should have global answers as well and it actually should be started by the powerful countries which emit more carbon footprints on our planet but as a small and third world country like the Philippines, we should also be able to take our role in addressing climate change crisis. We have to be proactive and not just be reactive to what is happening to our surroundings. This means to say that even before a calamity strike our country, we have already instilled a practice or routine to slow down its effects. We all know that climate change is a global phenomenon that we cannot stop at this point in time but we can just prevent or lessen its harsh effects on humanity. There are many things that we should have been doing or we should have done a decade or two decades ago so as to prevent what has been happening now.
It might be a cliché but we have to plant more trees especially in the mountain ranges that are affected by mining or deforestation. The high incidence of industrialization and urbanization has deeply affected the forests that has been the lungs of our environment. Another thing is to try our best especially in the major cities of our country to switch to renewable energy or those places where renewable energy can be maintained.
