By 2050, 400 Million Climate Refugees
With the recent ecological tragedies in the form of hurricanes, super typhoons, wildfires, drought and what have you being experienced now globally and more so locally as exemplified by super typhoon Kristine and soon Typhoon Leon, causing so much havoc to both life and properties, humanity is now cornered and so are the Filipinos and have no more options left but to hear the cry of GAIA (Mother Earth). It is time to admit that we are all guilty of the sins of omissions for not being able to fulfill our mandate as God’s stewards of His vanishing creation, now threatened more than ever. According to the World Bank, about 100 to 140 million climate refugees will wander our planet by the year 2030, looking for the nearest water hole. And the United Nations says to expect more than 400 million climate refugees by 2050, if we do not stop global warming.
Based on this painful truism, it is the contention of climate scientists worldwide that “the climate crisis will become a democracy crisis and a social crisis as well, even the threat of war.” This warning must awaken humanity especially the Filipinos as it is the findings of climate experts that some 1,000 hectares of the 360-meterhigh iceberg are melting daily in the Arctic, in the Antarctic and in the Third Pole (the Himalayas). As the painful consequence, the Ocean level will rise-up to 78-meter high by 2080 as stated by Scientists/Climate Experts. This categorically means that many islands in the Pacific Ocean will vanish, including the Philippine Archipelago. When that happens, the more than one hundred million Filipinos will add up to the 400 million refugees. Where will we go? Such truism should be the subject of utmost concern for all of us but the Filipinos seem not to care, so engrossed in the nonsense drama of life.
Several countries in the world are now mobilizing as tens of millions are protesting against the climate crisis due to the tremendous emission of greenhouse gases thru non-stop massive usage of coal and fossil fuel and the destruction of nature and resources which results from ignorance, greed and lack of respect to Earth’s living things. They are saying that mere praying is not enough BUT ETHICAL ACTION to save GAIA through the revolution of compassion. Indeed, while we think globally, it behooves upon all of us now to act locally.
We Filipinos should have the more reason to act with sense of urgency as our country has been described by the United Nations-Food Agricultural Organization as the 4th worst hit country in the world by the climate crisis. But it is so puzzling why the Filipinos are still so apathetic, deeply buried in superficial issues perpetuated by the profit-driven mainstream media, so engrossed in the trivialities of political quarrels and congressional inquiries but never on our very own survival due to environmental catastrophe. Indeed, the environmental crisis has become a survival issue like “our house is on fire,” yet no appropriate action is being trailblazed. ANG TANONG KO PO, KAILAN PA TAYO KIKILOS? TINGNAN PO NINYO NANGYAYARI SA ATING BAYAN, PURO NA LANG BANGAYAN SA MGA WALANG KA KWENTA KWENTANG BAGAY HABANG MARAMING NAGUGUTOM AT LUBOS NA NAGHIHIRAP! ANG PINAKAMAHALAGANG DIWA NG BUHAY AY ANG PAGMAMAHALAN AT PAGTATANGKILIK SA KAPWA AT KALIKASAN HINDI ANG PAGPAPAYAMAN, KATANYAGAN AT KAPANGYARIHAN!! SAAN PATUTUNGO ANG WASAK NA MUNDO DULOT NG WALANG HINTONG PAGSIRA NG KALIKASAN HABANG ANG SANGKATAWHAN AT SAMBAYANAN AY LUBOG SA KADEMONYUHANG MATERYALISMO AT KONSUMERISMO NA LUMALAMON NA SA KAISIPAN NG LAHAT NG GOBYERNO, MGA RELIGIONS, MGA UNIBERSIDAD AT MEDIA SA MUNDO.
Our country was once a “paradise,” oozing with the beauty of nature where billions of species of flora and fauna which could only be found in the tropical country like ours. Much of these endemic resources are already seriously depleted. Of the 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest, only less than a million hectares remain, having been illegally logged by powerful loggers in the last century in cahoots with powers-that-be. Fifty percent of our watersheds seriously eroded. Of the 13 major bays, 10 are already biologically dead to the detriment of our thousands of coastal communities now living in hunger and extreme poverty. Fifteen of 25 major rivers nation-wide biologically dead. Seventy percent of our mangroves and coral reefs totally destroyed and only five percent remain in excellent condition. Indeed, we have lost “EDEN.” Why is this so?
It is my contention that ecological degradation in our country could be traced to our colonial past, having been the subject of massive exploitation of imperial powers for four hundred years until 1946. And since 1946, we have lived as a nation state, sovereign and independent but under the overwhelming influence of the Modern-day American Imperialism in collusion with the oligarchs, producing a highly-skewed societal order. Thus, when we gained our so-called independence in 1946, the condition and mechanisms of what would give way to the massive and systematic plunder of our natural resources were well entrenched in the national structure. It would then be a matter of time when that beautiful paradise would become a lost Eden, now being transformed into hell through corporate globalization. We have to understand that the issues of ecological degradation, corruption and social justice are inextricably linked and need to be addressed simultaneously. Why must the 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest perished when there are laws which prohibit the cutting of trees at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters above sea level and in slopes with gradient of more than 50% including laws prohibiting the cutting of hard-wood, the finest of trees, i.e., Narra, Almacega, Red Lauan, Mahogany but all were cut without mercy. When we were barricading logging trucks in the nineties, the powerful loggers were bragging that we cannot stop them because the law enforcers and 90% in that office which is mandated to enforce the environmental laws are under their payroll. That office has a lot of explaining to do why every time we caught a 10-wheeler logging truck carrying illegally cut logs and escorted by armed men carrying Armalite or AK-47, that truck would just be released the following day.
When we were implementing the WRIT OF KALIKASAN issued by the Court of Appeals, we arrested in 2014 five Chinese nationals carrying only Tourist Visa in their Campsite in Tumpagon, Cagayan de Oro, armed with AK-47, they were just detained for one week and were even escorted back to China by a well-known Kagawad. The following week, our environmental ally in Task Force Macajalar, the passionate chieftain of the Higaonon Tribe, Fausto Orasan known as Datu Sandigan was brutally murdered, apparently by these illegal miners but until now no one has been arrested. Indeed, there is no greater grandeur sight on earth than a compassionate environmentalist sacrificing his life to protect God’s vanishing creation and to liberate the Indigenous Peoples from the quagmire of hunger and poverty.
All these loggers operating then jn Northern Mindanao and in the Lanao Provinces, were earning some 360 to 400 million pesos in just one shipment of logs alone but such gargantuan amount went also to pockets of their strong cabal of vested interest, the reason why no rule of law was followed. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of dipterocarp forest had been decimated by these loggers, even establishing sawmill amidst the bounty of the forest in Mt. Kitanglad- Mt. Kalaatungan Ranges. The sawmill was well-guarded with armed men carrying high-powered guns that not even an Air-Force helicopter could fly overhead, afraid of being shot-upon which I personally witnessed when I was invited to join in one of the surveillance operations in the nineties. These loggers did not even comply with the mandatory requirement as required in the issuance of the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) of tree planting as mandated by law. With the onslaught of environmental tragedies which is rooted in massive corruption the Filipino people should trailblaze an outcry to arrest these logging companies and their cable of vested interest as they committed environmental crimes that has caused so much havoc to the lives and properties of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos. These six powerful illegal loggers were as follows, namely: Valderama, Dacudao, TIPI, Roa & Sons, Vicmar Corporation and Remedios Fortich & Sons. They should be made accountable including corrupt officials for committing such heinous crimes! These illegal loggers were so powerful then. They could easily get Court Orders to arrest us during the height of our human barricades for stopping them and had filed cases against us but were dismissed due to the amazing intervention of then DND Secretary Orlando Mercado who was also an environmentalist. Indeed, let justice be done till heavens fall – all for God’s greater glory!
