It’s still April, Earth Month, and we just celebrated Earth Day last weekend. In the midst of it all, people all over the world are drenched in sweat, lamenting about the unbelievable heat index and real feel numbers. Meantime, in several provinces in the Philippines, people, including schoolchildren, have been literally fainting from the heat and humidity. As a matter of fact, the human threshold for survival is around 50 degrees Celsius. Lately, we’ve been experiencing dangerous levels in terms of heat index in many places across the nation.
As dire as it may seem, many people still believe that it’s easy to dismiss this problem because they can stay in their air-conditioned rooms and cars all day and avoid going out when the sun is at its hottest. We must remember, however, that it does not really stop when summer ends. For example, experts say that El Niño is right around the corner and will bring with it extreme heat, dangerous tropical cyclones, and a great threat to our coral reefs. Scientists venture to predict that 2024 will most likely be the warmest year on record, globally. This record is currently being held by the year 2016, which followed a very strong El Niño phenomenon. Past experiences point to the same thing happening again. We must, indeed, be ready for El Niño and the year 2024.
Despite these natural climate occurrences, humans continue to burn fossil fuels and produce pollution that continuously warms up the planet. We continue to come up with themes to celebrate Earth Month/Earth Day (it’s “Invest in Our Planet” this year), but the efforts or actions are hugely lacking. It is probably high time we realize that the usual Earth Month activities (concerts, clean-up, planting, etc.) are not enough anymore. Sure, they are noble actions but it really shouldn’t end there. Every resident of this planet and every nation must do more than what is usually (and easily) done because the climate situation is an emergency situation.
In light of the many meetings that are being carried out in the name of climate change, the many projects that have been/are being launched, and the speeches and press releases written, how much of these are really making an impact and how much are just empty talk? Just locally, looking at the events this month, as well as the government budget for climate-related projects and the actual action being done by both public and private sectors, can we really say we are doing the best we can to protect our environment and mitigate the effects of climate change? It’s a burning question that we may want to think about as we agonize through this unbearable summer.