Floods and the 7 billionth newborn

The recent floods in Bangkok should make our politicians reflect and act on the problem of floods in our own country. The Filipino people can demand the prioritization of flood control-related projects among the costly infrastructure projects lined up by politicians.

Cebu has been experiencing more frequent floods lately even with just moderate rainfall. How much more if heavy continuing rains come and visit? Will Cebu, especially Metro Cebu, wait until the rains cause worse floods than already experienced? Will Cebu wait to be the next Bangkok?

 Human-created global warming is certainly affecting the atmosphere and bringing more and harsher calamities ever witnessed. Katrina, Ondoy, and other recent calamities come to mind. Must we wait to have more disasters in our midst for our politicians to wake up and prioritize essential basic services for the good of all?

A recent Associated Press(AP) report made by the US Department of Energy for 2010 showed that levels of greenhouse gases increased by 6% “higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago” confirming “ how feeble the world’s efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.”

According to the report, “the world pumped about 564 million more tons (512 million metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009,” an “amount of extra pollution (that) eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries — China, the United States (these 2 countries accounting for half of total emission) and India, the world’s top producers of greenhouse gases”. The US has, to date, not ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that called for limiting greenhouse gas emission.

Those advocating coal-related programs, especially in Cebu, may wish to carefully note that burning coal is the biggest carbon source worldwide, according to the same AP report.

Must we allow economic and production systems that thrive through the heavy reliance on and use of non-renewable energy sources which, in the long run, aredestroying the earth and “imperiling the world” to continue?

The AP report quoted Granger Morgan, Granger Morgan, head of the engineering and public policy department at Carnegie Mellon University, who said of the new emission figures. “We are building up a horrible legacy for our children and grandchildren.”

What kind of world are we sharing with the future generation, with children like Danica May Camacho, celebrated as the world’s 7 billionth baby?

It is a world which, at present, boasts of impressive gains in economy, in life span, in food production, in health, among others. Sadly, however, the so-called impressive gains are not even for all, the benefits do not reach everyone in this world equally.

The world’s majority remains poor, hardly able to survive on a daily basis, with millions of children dead even before they reach 5 years old. Increased food production still has not reached 925 million hungry people all throughout the world in 2010.Even developed nations, whose “successful”economies are heavily reliant on fossil fuels,have 19 million hungry people intheir midst! Asia and the Pacific have the most number of hungry people ( 578 million), followed by Sub-saharan Africa (239 million), Latin America and the Carribean (53 million) and the Near East and North Africa (37 million), SWS October survey results published recently showed 1.3 million more families hungry in the Philippines..

This present world’s resources are being depleted with global warming accelerating for the sake of a fewthriving economies, a few privileged countries, with a few powerful individuals and groups. The rest of the “disenfranchised” majority have to bear the loss of a planet that rightly belongs to them as well. The majority of the world’s people have no choice but to bear and suffer the calamities created by global warming and the continuation of polluting industries and practices as well as non-renewable energy utilization.

Ironically, human population is growing within a continuing dangerous and threatenedEarth and within a increasingly unequal world. Must the present precarious situation of our world and our planet have to continue to be so?

***

Email: [email protected]