The Philippine archipelago saw a parade of storms in recent weeks. The names we remember the most: Kristine, and then, in quick succession, Marce, Nika, Ofel, and Pepito. These disturbances took lives, infrastructure, and property. They displaced millions. They reminded us that everything else is secondary to survival amid the forces of nature.
There is little argument as to why these climate events are happening in this frequency and intensity. Leaders of the world and representatives of various groups may spend precious time and carbon footprint in their negotiations every year. They may haggle on their commitments and balance them with their own development goals. At the moment, however, no amount of negotiations can arrest the extreme weather events happening in the Philippines and in the rest of the world.
In fact, as was reported two months ago, the Philippines, for the third straight year, registered the highest world risk index in this year’s World Risk Report, covering 193 countries and 99% of the global population. In this report, countries were assessed on their levels of exposure, vulnerability, susceptibility, lack of coping capacities, and lack of adaptive capacities to crises including extreme natural disasters, conflicts, pandemics and wars.
The successive storms/ typhoons showed their might in various places in the country, some more intensely than others. In the aftermath, news reports were dominated by photos and accounts of flooding and destruction.
Aid flowed, but a little less so with the next typhoon. Worse, political opportunists take advantage of people’s desperation and inability to distinguish between helping and putting themselves in a good light.
On Monday, the news was that the last of them, so far, has exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility. Take a moment to breathe. It would be foolhardy to return to our usual ways without asking questions. What happened to the funds earmarked for flood control projects? Where are these projects, who is accountable for them, and why did they fail? How accurate are our forecasts that are, in turn, used to make executive decisions? How are the disaster funds of the various local governments being used? Who is giving the go-ahead to companies who end up exploiting natural resources beyond what is reasonable and moral? What is in it for them and why aren’t they being made to answer for the consequences of their action?
Why do we find ourselves in the same situation every time?
The danger is that we get so used to the frequency of these disturbances that we forget something could be done to change people’s lot. So even if storms eventually leave our borders, even if the sun peeks the following day, and even if there are numerous other issues vying for our collective attention, it is a certainty that there will be others – for the rest of this year the next ones will be known as Querubin, Romina, Siony, Tonyo, Upang, Vicky, Warren, Yoyong, and Zosimo – and they will be worse. The question is, would we even be better off?
