Majority involvement to curb climate change

The Stewards of Creation, a group of environmental advocates from various church institutions and denominations, calls on every advocate of productive environment and climate justice to look into the deep-seated roots of global warming and climate change. This is the only way we will be able to come up with strategic and lasting solutions. It is undeniable that the proponents of colonization and globalization, which ushered in the unregulated use of fossil fuels, timber, minerals, cheap labor along with industrialization, are the culprits behind this environmental catastrophe.

The Philippines is among the countries at the receiving end of this brutal phenomenon that has brought about extreme weather conditions, among them supertyphoons and longer droughts. In the 2016 Climate Change Vulnerability Index released by risk analysis company Verisk Maplecroft, the Philippines ranked 13th among the most climate-vulnerable countries. While an improvement from its previous eighth place, the country is still tagged as extremely vulnerable.

Crop losses and lower livestock and poultry production are expected to result from excessive heat and drought; so are the oversaturation of soil and damage to property from increased rainfall. Extreme weather conditions have greatly affected the planting cycle especially in farmlands without irrigation, which is the norm in many Philippine rural communities. Food security—from food production to food availability, access and control—is in jeopardy even more. With seven out of 10 peasants landless, this global phenomenon has exacerbated the hapless situation of the majority poor Filipinos.

World leaders have failed to address the root causes of climate change. After more than two decades and several climate summits, greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase because of the self-centered practices of the world’s richest. Meanwhile, the poorest and most vulnerable people remain at the margins, grappling not only with an inconvenient truth but also with a harsh, life-and-death reality. But it is from their ranks that a wave of change and hope will rise—and bring to the core the dignity of life and integrity of creation.

People, rise up, speak out and take concrete actions! There is a definitive solution to global warming and climate change. It involves not only bringing the people’s interests to the negotiating table but also the concomitant action of an informed majority—to effect the urgent, much-needed genuine system change.

—JOSE ARNEL AGUILAR,coordinator,

Stewards of Creation,

879 Edsa, West Triangle, QC [email protected]