Marching on
SOMEWHERE in the middle of our 60-day march from Rome to Paris, I reflected: What happens after Paris? Where will the journey lead?
I completed that journey on foot, with two dozen pilgrims who braved the 1,500-kilometer distance. They also endured the onset of winter and crossing over the Swiss Alps, followed by the COP21 Climate Summit. As the year 2016 begins, I embark on a new beginning: as executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
But this whole journey started much earlier.
In November 2013, the strongest storm that ever made landfall in history ravaged the Philippines—Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name “Haiyan”). It hit just when during the UN Climate Summit was being held in Warsaw. As chief negotiator of the Philippines, I had the honor and responsibility of speaking for my country with this terrible tragedy as backdrop.
It was a heart-wrenching moment that changed my life. I was thrust into the responsibility of being a voice for the unheard, a voice in the wilderness crying for climate justice.
Today, it is absolutely clear that our global community faces an ecological crisis. We need to catalyze a massive global transformation. All of us need to stand together to make it happen.
It was important to highlight that, even with a clear adversary that is climate change, I sincerely felt that the battle cannot be won within the confines of the institutions we have built, and within the boundaries of my own country. I felt compelled to join the larger movement, to rally people and communities toward building a just, sustainable, and peaceful world.
In the work that I have done since Warsaw, with the Global Catholic Climate Movement and Our Voices (https://catholicclimatemovement.global/; https://ourvoices.net/; https://www.peoplespilgrimage.org/), I witnessed a clamor of support for climate action from the world’s religions and faith communities.
The world has changed, and the challenges in our region are more daunting than ever. Indonesia’s forests burn annually, smothering Malaysia, Singapore and beyond with a thick haze. In Thailand, the grassroots struggle against coal-fired power stations retains its high profile. In my home country, the Philippines, the dire impacts of climate change are felt more strongly by the year.
In all its 16 years, Greenpeace Southeast Asia today is as prepared as ever to take on these challenges. And we’re making a huge impact, too. I see enormous power in the collective, local, regional and global action of the Greenpeace community. Ultimately, it’s about positively transforming the relationship between humankind and the natural environment.
There are things in life that one is meant to do and there are things in life that are meant to be—like a baby cradled in her mother’s arms, like the wind in a ship’s sail, like the encounter of kindred souls. It’s a calling.
In “The Lord of the Rings,” when Gandalf explained the Ring to Frodo and they were talking about the dreadful return of Sauron, Frodo expressed his anxiety: “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” And Gandalf said: “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
I believe that among many, I have been given that time. I have decided what to do with it. But I’m not only joining the most effective environmental campaigning organization in the world. I’m also joining millions of people from every corner of the planet who make the work of Greenpeace possible. I hope you’ll join me, too.
Naderev “Yeb” Saño is a known Filipino environmentalist and climate activist. Since 1997, he has been working in local and international campaigns and programs to combat climate change. He has extensive experience in high-profile positions, both in public office and nongovernmental organizations.
