A Call to Rise Against the One Percent
An independent report commissioned by 20 countries in 2012 examined the human and economic costs of climate change. It found that climate change was linked to 400,000 deaths worldwide each year, with projections that this number could rise to over 600,000 annually by 2030. While heatwaves are a major cause of death, climate change also severely impacts food security, nutrition, and access to clean water. Warmer, more humid conditions help mosquitoes and other pests thrive, increasing the spread of diseases like malaria and dengue fever. Flooding further threatens drinking water supplies by spreading bacteria and pollutants.
The report also examined the broader health impacts of burning fossil fuels—beyond their role in driving climate change. When these effects were included, the estimated number of annual deaths rose dramatically, from 400,000 to nearly 5 million. These additional deaths are largely due to outdoor air pollution, indoor smoke from poor ventilation, workplace hazards, and diseases like skin cancer, particularly in economies heavily reliant on carbon-based energy.
In his book The Age of Sustainable Development, economist Jeffrey Sachs wrote:
“Like all living species, humanity depends on nature—for food, water, raw materials, and protection from environmental dangers such as epidemics and natural disasters. Yet, despite this dependence on what scientists call ‘ecosystem services,’ we are failing to safeguard the very systems that sustain our survival. The vast global economy is driving a massive environmental crisis—one that threatens the health and well-being of billions of people, the survival of millions of species, and possibly our own future on this planet.”
It must now be clear to all of us that the real culprit and greatest threat to humanity is climate change. Yet, this undeniable truth is deliberately concealed by the media, which colludes with powerful corporations. Fossil fuel use alone—especially coal—generates around 16 trillion dollars annually for just 19 major fossil fuel companies. That’s approximately 10 million dollars every minute. A portion of this enormous profit flows to media outlets, politicians, and even religious groups.
Let it be declared to all: climate change is not merely an environmental issue—it is a crime against Mother Earth, against humanity, and against the Creator, especially in these times of moral collapse and growing religious apathy. The COVID-19 pandemic was indeed a wake-up call—a message from the Creator to rouse a humanity that remains in deep slumber.
The word “development” has been distorted and abused beyond recognition. Everything is done in its name, and everyone claims to champion it. Yet, the daily realities of the people show otherwise. The ruling elite—the top one percent—holds more wealth than the combined resources of the remaining ninety-nine percent of the world’s population. This unjust regime, driven by an economic paradigm rooted in corporate globalization, has pushed the planet to the brink of a sixth mass extinction.
This system is not only destroying Mother Earth through climate change, but it has also built a massive military arsenal—one capable of exterminating the entire 8 billion human population forty times over. This regime has amassed its wealth largely through the manufacture and sale of weapons. And history shows us what happens when war is threatened: when U.S. President John F. Kennedy attempted to end the Vietnam War in the 1960s, he was assassinated. A U.S. congressional hearing two years ago revealed that Kennedy’s assassination was not the act of Lee Harvey Oswald alone, but the result of a secret conspiracy involving the FBI, the CIA, and large weapons manufacturers—companies that, at the time, were earning over 500 billion dollars annually from the Vietnam War.
The profit-driven operations of major corporations continued unabated during the Iraq War, as these same companies supplied weapons to both sides of the conflict. When a group of Iraqi scholars pursuing their PhDs in the United States discovered this disturbing truth, they abandoned their studies and returned home to form what would later become the ISIS combatants. They viewed the U.S. as an “evil empire” and launched their resistance against it.
The kind of development promoted by the ruling one percent is deeply dysfunctional. It is not only accelerating harm against people but also intensifying the destruction of nature. It resembles an autoimmune disease—like AIDS—where the body’s own defense system turns against its vital organs. We destroy our forests, pollute our rivers and coastal waters, and contaminate our underground aquifers in the process of producing food using costly, chemical-intensive agricultural technologies. Modern living has created a throwaway culture, all in the name of so-called progress and development.
This kind of development is ruthless and unsustainable. It has made what was once unthinkable now possible—the end of life on Earth. Biodiversity, which took billions of years to evolve, is now rapidly vanishing. Countless life forms have already gone extinct. As the planet heats up and sea levels rise, we are now faced with the colossal challenge of feeding, clothing, and sheltering an ever-growing global population expected to reach 9.3 billion by 2050.
Mahatma Gandhi put it simply: “If humanity is to be saved from disaster, development must be in harmony with nature, not at its expense.” A Lumad leader expressed it even more powerfully: “Only when the last tree has been cut, the last fish caught, and the last river dried up will you realize that you cannot eat your money.”
