Vulnerable islands

It’s summertime – the season when killer typhoons are farthest from our minds and the sea looks most benign.The waters around our archipelago are at their most enticing at this time of year: whale sharks and dolphins swim close to shore and the bright sun makes the colors of marine life spectacularly vibrant.

We get off-season typhoons, but they usually hit in the last quarter of the year and occasionally in January, such as Storm Amang, which whipped Eastern Visayas on the one day that Pope Francis was visiting typhoon-ravaged Tacloban.

So we should be worried that powerful typhoons are battering islands in the Pacific at this time of the year, such as Cyclone Pam, which has devastated Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Kiribati.

Skeptics who believe the science behind global warming is flawed should try living in the picturesque islands that dot the Pacific. When a vast ocean is visible from any vantage point in your country, extreme storm surges, tsunamis and rising sea levels become an existential threat.

Colin Tukuitonga, a Kiwi physician who was born in the tiny Pacific island state of Niue (located northeast of New Zealand, population about 1,600), “absolutely” believes that global warming is happening. And it is not only raising sea levels but also causing ocean acidification as the seas soak up carbon dioxide, killing corals and leaching into groundwater used in populated areas.

The doctor thinks little can be done to stop warming unless the biggest producers of greenhouse gas emissions – namely the rich countries – change fuel consumption habits and lifestyles in general.

“They’re very, very big contributors to climate change,” Tukuitonga told me the other night, adding that Pacific island states are among the most vulnerable to global warming. “The main problem is we’re not turning off the tap.”

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Since November 2013, Tukuitonga has been the director general of the New Caledonia-based Secretariat of the Pacific Community, whose members include 22 island states and territories plus Australia, France, New Zealand and the United States. He is SPC’s director of public health and served as coordinator of surveillance and prevention of chronic diseases for the World Health Organization, where he is still a commissioner on a special panel. Tukuitonga is in Manila until today for a WHO conference on childhood obesity.

Several ambassadors assigned in Manila also represent their country in various Pacific island states. Some of them have told me that Philippine culture reminds them more of the Pacific islands (blended with Latin America) rather than East Asia. But our country is not part of the SPC, which provides technical and scientific support for development in the Pacific states.

Living along the typhoon belt in an archipelago of 7,100 islands, however, Filipinos – like Pacific islanders – understand too well the risks of being surrounded by the sea. An aerial view of the Samar and Leyte island groups after the provinces were flattened by Super Typhoon Yolanda showed their vulnerability to storm surges and rising sea levels.

The other day, Tukuitonga also met with officials of the Manila-based Asian Development Bank to discuss assistance for Vanuatu, where an estimated 90 percent of the population or about 260,000 people have been affected by Cyclone Pam.

Tukuitonga estimates that Pam has set back economic prospects in Vanuatu by decades and development efforts by 15 to 20 years. Among other emergency aid programs, the SPC is providing seeds, tilapia hatchlings and prawns to the island nation to restart livelihoods.

But there’s always the threat of the next extreme cyclone, whose impact is obviously worse in low-income island states. Tukuitonga said seven of out 10 people in the Pacific islands still have no access to electricity. The SPC is working with partners to provide renewable energy particularly solar power to these areas.

About half of Pacific islanders also lack access to fresh water, which makes ocean acidification a serious concern.

“Whatever we’re doing, we’re not doing enough,” Tukuitonga told me.

He also pointed out that pollution has a little-highlighted impact on public health: people don’t go out to exercise because they want to avoid polluted air or surroundings, and don’t relish swimming in polluted waters. The lack of exercise aggravates unhealthy diets that are heavy in processed foods, raising the risks of diabetes, obesity and heart disease.

Tukuitonga wants industrialized nations to do more against global warming. His views are shared by the premier of Niue, Toke Talagi, who lamented recently that developed countries have effectively taken no action to cut down carbon emissions in the past two decades. United Nations talks on climate change have also been ineffectual, Talagi said.

“The Pacific islands are all doing their best to mitigate,” Tukuitonga told me. “But unless and until we turn off the tap, we don’t solve the problem… all of the mitigation measures will be cosmetic.”

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TRIBUTE TO BALAGTAS: Poetry seems to be a dying art in the age of SMS. I’m not sure if “Florante at Laura” is still required reading in our schools, or if Filipino youth are aware of the romantic lines written two centuries ago by a great Tagalog poet: “Pag-ibig, ’pag na’sok sa puso nino man, hahamakin ang lahat masunod ka lamang.”

The immortal verse was written by Francisco “Balagtas” Baltazar, whose 227th birth anniversary will be celebrated by the Komisyon sa Wikang Pilipino with a youth camp or Kampo ni Balagtas on March 30-31 at the Orion Elementary School in Orion, Bataan.

Born in Bigaa, Bulacan on April 2, 1788, Balagtas moved to Orion when he married local lass Juana Tiambeng. They had 11 children. He also joined a secret society in Orion to seek freedom from colonial rule.

During the youth camp, the Talaang Ginto: Makata ng Taon or Poet of the Year 2015 will be announced and the Gawad Dangal ni Balagtas 2015 will be conferred. The Garden of Balagtas, built with the help of the National Center for Culture and the Arts, will also be inaugurated in Barangay Wawa in Orion, where a bust of Balagtas made by sculptor Julie Lluch stands.