Flash Floods in February

It used to be that the onset of the two seasons in the Philippines is so well defined. The rains would come in June and stop by November. The dry season would then start and culminate in the merry month of May. Many activities were time bound to the two seasons then: rice planting is scheduled in time with the rains, road building is fast tracked during the dry months, even elections were purposely set by the Constitution to be on the second Monday of May just so that the politicians won't be forced to campaign during the muddy season. (I swear that this is true. Honest)

We really never paid attention to weather patterns; we somehow conveniently thought that the rains would come by June. (After all, during the religious fiestas in May we practically prayed for rain everyday!) We also knew that by November, the rains would have abated and we could start looking forward to dry spells.

NOW, NOT ANYMORE.

The rains came down hard on Samar and Leyte the other day. As a result of the off-season rain, flash floods occurred in numerous towns, more than 5000 families were evacuated, at least 8 people died and various infrastructure were severely damaged.

Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone, (a colleague from the College Editors Guild of the Philippines so many summers back) was quoted as saying that we may be seeing the effects of global warming.

Global warming is the most apparent manifestation of climate change that we know. Environmental studies indicate that such change is human influenced. Putting it rather bluntly, this change that we are now seeing is caused by irresponsible human acts. Increased carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere is being pointed to as the main cause of such increase in global temperatures.

What are the leading causes of such increased carbon dioxide emissions? First is fossil fuel burning, second is land use change including massive deforestation and third is cement manufacturing. (Carbon dioxide is released when calcium carbonate is heated to produce calcium oxide or quicklime. Quicklime is a basic ingredient in cement).

Another factor in rapid global warming is the increase of other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. What is doubly problematic is that the prime contributor of such gases is the livestock industry. Livestock releases nitrous oxide and methane into the atmosphere and these cause chaos in the ozone layer. We need the livestock industry in order to combat hunger but while we are engaging in it we are creating another problem.

The Philippines is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, an output of the Convention on Climate Change, which is intended to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We should expect to see that our government policies adhere to the provisions of the Protocol and to what we have agreed to in the treaty.

What is more important though is to take individual action on reducing the emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere. Here are some of the things we can do: one, let us reduce the use of motorized vehicles; two, let us be more prudent in the use of energy; three, let us practice recycling and re-using and four, let us plant more trees.

There is an endless list of the little things that we could do in order to slow down the effects of climate change. The key here is to take personal responsibility for the environment so that more results could be effected.