The Saudi Gazette
MANILA
THE Philippines could be swallowed by the sea before the start of the new century, the international environment group Greenpeace warned.
Releasing a briefing paper entitled “The Philippines: A Climate Hotspot,” Greenpeace said some 700 million square meters of land in the Philippines could be submerged gradually as the global average temperature rises and causes sea levels to rise.
The group said certain portions of the Philippines’ 703 municipalities may be submerged in water by 2095 to 2100.
The disaster could come much earlier if the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica melt completely, it warned.
The Greenpeace study identified the top 20 provinces in the Philippines that could go under the sea with a one-meter rise in sea level. These are Sulu, Palawan, Zamboanga del Sur, Northern Samar, Zamboanga Sibugay, Basilan, Cebu, Davao del Norte, Bohol, Camarines Sur, Quezon, Tawi-Tawi, Masbate, Negros Occidental, Camarines Norte, Capiz, Catanduanes, Samar, Zamboanga del Norte, and Maguindanao.
The group said Sulu has the highest land area that is vulnerable to a one-meter rise in sea level at 79.7 million square meters.
The Greenpeace study presents an overview of how extreme weather conditions threaten people, the economy, the different species and ecosystems.
The study discloses “never-before seen maps” that illustrate the extent of the impact of climate change in the Philippines.
“As experts predict climate change impacts to worsen in the coming decades, the question is how much will the country be affected? Unfortunately, what we have discovered is that the stakes are much higher than what we have originally imagined,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia climate and energy campaigner Abigail Jabines.
Jabines said their study revealed that “the entire Philippines is a climate hotspot” and the country is “vulnerable to the worst manifestations of climate change.”
“And unless this disaster is averted, the costs in human lives and economic losses will continue to rise to catastrophic proportions,” she said.
Based on the maps shown, climate change can “irrevocably alter” the Philippines’ coastline.
Conservative estimates from Greenpeace predict that a one-meter rise in sea level may affect 64 of the Philippines 81 provinces, which cover at least 703 of the 1,610 municipalities, and submerge almost 700 million square meters of land, including islets, across the country.
The one-meter rise in sea level, which Greenpeace attributed to thermal expansion, does not even consider the melting of ice sheets of the Greenland and West Antarctica, which would pose an additional two- to four-meter increase in sea level.
“A one-meter rise in global sea level can occur sooner with the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets if global carbon dioxide emissions are not immediately curbed,” Jabines said.
“In a worst-case scenario of complete melting of the ice sheets, global sea level is projected to rise between seven to 12 meters,” she added.
Greenpeace pointed out the threats posed by the rise in ocean level to human settlements, tourist hubs, and vital ecosystems such as estuaries, mangroves, and coral reefs.
World Heritage sites in the Philippines such as the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park and Tubbataha Reefs Marine Park are susceptible to inundation and storm surges.
The group likewise noted that sea level rise also provides a higher base for storm surges due to typhoons, which increases the destructiveness of floods and storms to coastal settlements and infrastructure such as piers and ports.
“As a developing country with very little access to vital resources, the Philippines has a low ability to adapt and a lower ability to cope with disasters brought about by climate change impacts,” Jabines said.
Climate change also threatens the Philippines’ rich cultural heritage, as well as some of the rarest and most diverse fragile ecosystems in the world.
“And grimmer still is the fact that climate change will amplify the socio-diverse burdens already shouldered by Filipino families, such as hunger and water scarcity,” Jabines added.
Because of these, Greenpeace urged the government “to take greater leaps toward lasting solution,” and to anticipate and face the worst impacts of climate change.
Greenpeace said the government should immediately implement measures that would take into account how local governments can prepare through effective coping strategies and disaster preparedness.
They said that the Philippines must also embrace renewable energy and promote energy efficiency to cut carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 30 percent by 2050.
No comments:
Post a Comment