Climate change is a myth. I know, because the president of the United States told us so. And he can’t be wrong, he’s the president of what was once considered the strongest country in the world — a position he is rapidly conceding to China.
The fact that the United States is the second most polluting country in the world in terms of CO2 emissions doesn’t seem to bother Trump. Where does he think all that pollution goes? It isn’t, he says, something we need to worry about, because it’s doing no harm. The scientists are wrong.
Frighteningly, most Filipinos might agree. Mahar Mangahas reported on a survey that found that 43 percent of Filipinos believed “we trust too much in science and not enough in religious faith.” The only two other countries in the world that also felt this way were also highly Catholic — Italy and Chile. Is the Catholic Church still denying science?
For Trump’s edification, climate change is very real, and is affecting us already. The ice, from the Arctic polar caps to the snows of Kilimanjaro, is melting at a rapid rate. As a result, the sea level is rising. Soon, island nations will be underwater. Our beloved city of Manila will be, too. Manila is no Venice, believe me. Due to the amount of garbage in its waters, you could perform Christ-like miracles (walk on water) in Manila Bay. So I’m glad Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu has promised a “Boracay” on Manila Bay. By the way, I’m told Boracay is back to its pristine beauty, so it can be done. Let’s do it nationwide: Control, discipline and awareness are all that’s needed.
The scary thing is that it wouldn’t take much to wipe us out as a race. If big, bad dinosaurs can die out due to one meteor, we can go, too, from a world that’s too hot. According to an article published by the National Geographic (“By 2100, deadly heat may threaten majority of humankind,” 6/19/17), without major reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2, up to three in four people will face the threat of dying from heat by 2100. That’s 8.4 billion (yes, that’s a “b”) dead people from a population estimated at 11.2 billion by 2100. Who will bury them? Maybe the AI robots will do it for us.
Yet this idiot (a foolish or unwise person having the lowest level of intellectual ability) in the White House denies the reality of where the world is heading—and the United States he is in charge of today is one of the greatest culprits leading us to that cliff, with its 15-percent contribution to global warming.
It’s not just the heat created by it. Also coming are more violent typhoons; droughts in some places, extensive flooding in others; massive, uncontrollable wildfires; calamities at levels never experienced before. And they will only get worse.
The 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland failed in its main attempt — to get the world’s nations to take the necessary drastic reform. Our world leaders seem to be more concerned with the dollars and cents necessary than the continuation of human life.
If the rich countries of the world don’t pour huge amounts into reducing and controlling pollution now, the cost just a few decades from now will be incomparably more as billions die. Half the world’s population will be wiped out by temperatures they can’t adapt to, holocausts they can’t survive in, and pollution that destroys our food sources. This is not fear-mongering; this is the scientists’ prediction based on informed assessment.
It’s not just the air, but the sea and land, too. There we can help: Dispose of your rubbish responsibly, don’t leave truckloads of it behind you after the Black Nazarene procession. Where’s your Christian concern for others? Plastic you carelessly throw away is killing the fish you want to eat, but soon won’t be able to because your rubbish has killed them.
Stop cutting down trees, plant them. They are a major absorber of CO2 and are relaxing to have around. Our cities need parks; they don’t have them. It’s time someone decided to put them in.
Boracay’s problem was human unconcern. The Philippines and its waters are mirroring that unconcern, and will become unlivable if you continue not to care. Think before you throw. Look after the only world we have. Think of your children; they’ll have to live with what you leave them.
E-mail: wallace_likeitis@wbf.ph