Rivers and creeks in many areas have dried up and organisms in it have gone prior to the dry season’s official declaration by the Philippine government agency this month, March 2024.
Classes are suspended due to extreme heat, food production lost billions, hunger intensified, health issues spread, earthquakes becoming stronger and stronger are likely to be felt in April 2024.
Reports from government and private agencies’ experts from the local to the international coverage have been out in all media about the consequences of global warming. Each year new evidence and experiences have been exposed of global warming’s devastating impact on people and the planet.
As the heat waves, droughts, and floods associated with climate change become more frequent and more intense, communities suffer and death tolls rise. Many people in power and experts may have said that no one is excused on the effects but it is the question of the rate of the effects to a community or group of people or nations. The politically and economically marginalized and sidelined like the Indigenous people, small farmers and artisan fishers, people of color, the workers, women, elders are typically hit the hardest.
In the Philippines, global warming has taken a heavy toll on Filipinos’ lives, properties, and livelihoods, and left unaddressed.
A destroyed portion of the whole affects the balance and quality
Mitigating efforts like disaster preparedness, skills development, waste segregation, risk mapping, stockpiling and the likes mean nothing without substantially revitalizing its forests, oceans, rivers, plains, hills, valleys, lakes and the natural biodiversity. Allowing disastrous and destructive mining operations and other extractive industries will surely pollute air, water and the soil, and destroy the habitat of humans and diverse species. We have several contexts and experiences on this. And several studies have already been telling us all that a destroyed portion of the whole affects the balance of nature and quality of a certain matter for example. While preparedness and proactive measures and response skills development are also necessary, but the framework must co-equally give value and importance on the trajectory minimizing the causes of these disasters.
Extraction and profit-driven development is perdition
Others also argue that developments always cause changes in the landscape and growth like in the economy for services. There is a need to extract taxes, income, profit and monetary value and there must be product and job creation. To run the economy, active flow of money and profit from a commodity must happen. And natural resources, even human labor fall into this category of commodity.
On the other hand, keeping on extracting the finite resources that have caused pollution, degradation, dilapidation and deaths can never sustain the people and its needs. These mindset and economic-political culture are digging the graves to perdition.
With 50 percent of its more than a 100 million population living in urban areas, and many cities are in coastal areas, the Philippines is vulnerable to sea level rise. Are we saying that permanent evacuation, swimming lessons, boats and life jackets would be our responses to this?
Changes of the frequency and intensity of rainfall in the country and increased temperatures has affected food sufficiency, production and population’s health. Is this to justify the import-dependent policy of the government that benefits only the cartels and the capitalists in the country and abroad?
Allowing petrochemical farming while encouraging people to save the environment are two contradictory programs. It is building a home on a shallow and shaky foundation. Petrochemical farming does not only kill the soil and the organisms above and below the ground but also brings health issues and pollutes air and water and kills the pollinators and species in the river and the seas.
Passing policies against single-use plastic and strict compliance of the solid waste segregation without strategically easing out the production of single-use plastic do not make the laws effectively environmental.
We tell and educate pupils and the youth to hug trees and creatures while the political and economic system exterminate the bees and the frogs and silence those who stand against destruction.
Empowering local economy, responding to the intensifying climate crisis
Advocates, scientists, practitioners and grassroots champions for long years have been campaigning for self-sufficiency and ecological practices in agriculture and developmental fields while in the urban centers there are campaigns for shift to renewable energy sources and self-governed industrialization.
Food Sovereignty at the higher and comprehensive sense is the power of the people who produce and cultivate over resource management and utilization while ensuring sustainability and people to people solidarity. Ecological Small-Scale Farming (ESSF) for instance is very effective for a family to be able to sustain and be free from the dynamics of capitalist manipulations of the commodities’ prices while ensuring ecological practices. Limited Area Maximum Production (LAMP) is another framework for a family or community producing its own healthy food with less land area. Sustainable, Ecological and Empowering Development (SEED) introduces a paradigm that policies, programs and services, community interventions, management of monetary and logistical resources, and organizing the sectors and communities at the local to the higher level must aligned and eventually facilitates in building the capacities of the grassroots to be able to participate in future building with confidence in governance and socio-economic spheres. The Indigenous Peoples Knowledge and Practices on managing and utilizing forests and the natural resources and outlook on development are also very crucial in our socio-cultural remodeling and in the combat against distinction.
While climate response need funds, it must be critically looked. Receiving funds from the agribusiness, mining concessions, big polluters, real-estate developers, land converters to bring nature to life without them leaving from such destructive orientation of profit-driven wealth accumulation is a foolish game, a criminal mind trick.It is not a two-sided coin but a two opposing direction. They who acquired and possessed power and wealth by destroying will only invest to continually accumulate and consolidate their dominance. They are all monsters masquerading as lambs and allies.
Non-Government Organizations or the serving civil society cannot be correct by imposing budget-lined programs to communities. The all-knowing character of these social institutions raising funds and implementing projects in the name of the environment, communities and peoples must cease. Services must empower the communities, answering the correct questions of time and involved substantially the main actor - the people.
One important challenge in this campaign is to transform the mainstream and normalized orientation and culture of the State/government agencies and the whole bureaucracy. Aside from the very pro-elite orientation, it has become a culture. The duty-bearers perfected the use of authority to impose vested interests over the right-holders. There are some exceptions maybe. Movements can make allies in the like-minded elements inside and influence thru the existing policies and mechanisms available fundamental to the bigger and ultimate goals.
Holistic mitigation paradigm to the convergence of economic, ecological and climate crises should be our journey and shield from the impacts of multiple crises and obstacles as we implement our transitional programs. And this holistic and ecological transformative paradigm is nothing without building the movement from below.
The intersectionality of the democratic aspirations of the sectors and communities, economic development, community sustainability and the participation of the majority tillers and sweating workers must not be forgotten.
Government agencies, personnel or private individuals advocating for sustainable development must not forget that the core of this process is the people and environment.
As organizations and stakeholders come to converge, it is always necessary to observe mutual respect and independence.
Therefore, the basis of unity must clearly define the principles of democracy, dignity and the overall direction. The participation of these individuals, families, organizations, sectors and communities must be coming from a conscientize commitment and not because they are beneficiaries or availing programs and services. Then, cultural transformation is a must. We cannot rely on icons and symbols of the crusade but a transformed consciousness of our communities.
Don’t get disconnected
Initiatives at the local and grassroots level are very important but must not be disconnected to the universal and global fight against the capitalist exploitation over human and natural resources for profits and dominance.
We must not forget that we are not only in a hurry against the time but also with the corporate lobbyists in the government branches of powers. Aside from the external lobbyists are the collaborations of the government institutions and corporate machinery in the field of technology development, financial and logistics support, research and even in the name of corporate social responsibility. And of course, the all-in-one identity of the people in the halls of power, acting to be a decision-maker, policy implementer and as a corporate shareholder.
Every fiber of the counterculture, the sustainable and ecological culture must always be honed and strengthened by consistency and persistence towards the strategic and transformed goal.
Like, Share, Influence!
We have a common goal, to reach our destination. But we must always respect and appreciate that there are various ways and means towards it. As a movement, we can always contribute from where we are capable and function better. As organizations of different levels of capacities and expertise we can always work collectively with particularity in our means and field of influence. What is important is that we are consciously contributing towards our goal. Copy-pasting must not be a norm among us in our strategies and approaches. We can learn from each other but we have diverse contexts.
Organic Agriculture can be effective in other areas while sustainable agroforestry development in other places; Interfaith convergence and the creation can be effective to other groups and healthy food for every household to some; Ancestral Domain development and protection for the Indigenous Peoples; Sustainable Coastal and in-land waters or renewable energy for other; Policy advocacy; resource mobilization and networking to some; etc. The point is we have various fields to work on provided that we are interconnected to influence and effect change.
With strong conviction, we must like our goal and our basis of unity first. We can share to others and be invited to our actions in consciousness and movement building while building our strength to influence and transform in any levels and fields we can.
We cannot wait for the future to come and let the transformation begin. Transformation must start in the beginning - inside us, in our families, organizations, the convergence, halls of engagements and the whole society. With the existing sustainable and empowering models, framework and practices surely we can strive, though hard. Climbing up to the top of the hill is never easy. Meaning, action is the answer not facebook or twitter.
Let us savor victory in every engagement and learn from the failures and gain strength from it for another fields and levels of battles towards the seizure of the hill, more hills!
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Remo Camote is a social and political activist in Mindanao.
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