The recent videos and photos of floods in the Philippines and in many other places around the world are terrible and alarming. As a developing country that has been through many disasters in the past, the Philippines annually suffers grave economic consequences from natural disasters. Many of us are probably dismissing these events as something that naturally happens in our country year in and year out.
But times are definitely changing and extreme weather events are going to get even worse, according to experts. In fact, scientists and researchers say that cities will buckle under rising sea levels, heat will become intolerable, there will be ecosystem collapse and extinction of species, and human beings will face widespread diseases—and the worst part is that these future events may be closer than we think.
This is part of the contents of the 4,000-page draft climate report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to be released in February 2022. The Philippine Climate Change Commission got a copy of the report and has called for more urgent and ambitious action from the developed countries in addressing the climate crisis.
There have been similar reports that were previously released, but this one is different in that it shows a “grimmer scenario” and states that the actions currently being undertaken are simply not good enough as a response to impending disasters. Unlike other forms of life, the report states, humans cannot recover from drastic climate shifts because we cannot evolve into new species or create new ecosystems to be able to adapt.
And on top of global warming and climate change impacts, human beings themselves are digging their own graves through over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution, destruction of habitats, and other destructive human activities.
The alarm has been sounded many years ago and that, many people believe, we have reached the point of no return. Crisis can no longer be averted, BUT there are steps we can still take to prepare for the impact and avoid the worst-case scenarios. For example, the conservation and restoration of ecosystems like mangrove forests can protect communities against storm surges, provide livelihood and food security, and ensure wildlife habitat.
Another doable action is for more people to shift to a plant-based diet, which could help reduce food-related emissions by as much as 70 percent by 2050. In the Philippines, for example, government agencies have also started to implement a campaign to get rid of single-use plastic.
All this is great but it is clearly not enough. All the experts agree that the world needs “transformational change operating on processes and behaviors at all levels: individual, communities, businesses, institutions, and governments.” In other words, all of us—no exception—must change the way we live and the way we consume.