There are many things I immensely enjoyed in my youth that I wish my first grandchild—a bubbly one-year-old girl—could enjoy, too: Catching dragonflies that came in various sizes and colors, watching birds and butterflies, and marveling at crawling creatures like snails and centipedes.
But the dragonflies seem to have all disappeared while the butterflies, snails, even the birds, are now a rarity, especially in urban centers.
Back then, too, at this time of the year, the cold breeze would be a happy reminder that Christmas was close. These days, although we are barely a month and a half away from Christmas, the daytime heat almost feels like summer. Fierce typhoons reaching level 5 have never happened until of late.
What is the world coming to?
Global warming, according to studies, has made many animal and plant species extinct. The global temperatures have risen by about 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit). Without doubt, if global temperatures continue to rise, not only will more devastating typhoons in the level of ‘‘Yolanda,’’ “Karen’’ and ‘‘Lawin’’ visit us. Food supply will be significantly reduced too as fishes and other marine life dwindle with the heating of the oceans and as agricultural products get destroyed by stronger typhoons and pests that thrive on rising temperatures.
Global warming slowly began in the 18th to the 19th century during Europe’s industrial revolution. Then, when the Europeans conquered the new world which is now America, industries sprouted to manufacture anything and everything for man’s convenience. Then China, India, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Australia and Russia followed suit. Together, these countries generate more than half of the earth’s gas emissions. The carbon and pollutant emissions from these countries resulted in the covering of the earth’s atmosphere which, in turn, trap the sun’s heat on earth as the sun’s rays are unable to bounce out.
What’s unfortunate is that developing countries like the Philippines, which hardly contribute to the emission of gases into the atmosphere, are at the receiving end of disasters because they are the least equipped and least able to adapt and respond to climate disasters.
Fortunately, on 12 December 2015, 195 countries of the world, including the biggest emitters of pollutant gases—the United States of America, China and the European Union with its 28 member-states, signed the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Philippines, although a signatory, has yet to ratify the treaty which already came into force on the 4th of November this year. The condition for the coming into force of the Paris accord was that at least 55 countries that produce 55 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions should ratify it. China and the US alone account for 40 percent of global emissions.
The Paris Agreement aims to reduce the steady rise of global temperatures by 1.5 to 2 percent Celsius by reducing emissions; to strengthen societies in adapting to the impact of climate change. Under it, developed countries will mobilize $100 billion per year by 2020 to provide assistance to countries that may suffer as a result of climate change disasters. This is especially true for developing countries.
So why is President Rodrigo R. Duterte hesitant in ratifying the Paris Agreement? The Agreement is not perfect in some respects. Think-tanks such as the World Pensions Council have observed that the agreement is predicated on an assumption that member-states of the UN, including the high polluters, will somehow drive down their carbon pollution voluntarily and assiduously even if the Agreement has no binding enforcement mechanism to measure and control carbon dioxide emissions; or penalties, or fiscal pressure such as a carbon tax for bad behavior. Only a system of name and shame can be done and nothing else.
Yet, as former US vice president and climate advocate Al Gore said, no agreement is perfect. If we ratify, we stand to benefit together with all the other countries of the world which ratified the treaty. If we do not ratify, we stand alone even as we cannot help being a victim of climate-change disasters. By ratifying, we will have an opportunity to make the countries that have caused temperatures to rise and climate-change to happen account for the damage they have caused and will cause. By ratifying, we also stand to gain from the development of renewable energy sources as investments are expected to pour in this direction.
The terrestrial and marine species already destroyed by climate change may perhaps never come back. It is my hope, though, that my one-year-old grandchild will still get to enjoy what remains of our natural wealth—our forests, wildlife, beautiful beaches and countless bodies of fresh water. This is possible if the rise of world temperatures can be controlled.
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