Mindanao Daily NEWS ENVIRONMENT
A8 • Today is wednesday, September 30, 2015 • Editor: Ruel V. Pelone • E-mail: ruel_pelone2002@yahoo.com
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Will the Pacific Islands start to disappear? AS the global climate is warming, sea levels are rising. This leaves an uncertain future for many low-lying islands including the Pacific Islands – will they sink? How is global warming making sea levels rise? The rise in sea levels is linked to three main factors induced by climate change: • Thermal expansion: As the temperature of water increases, it expands. Almost half of the past century’s rise in sea level is a consequence of the oceans simply occupying more space. • Melting of glaciers and ice caps: With more consistently higher temperatures caused by global climate change, the glaciers and ice caps are melting more over the summer. Moreover there is a decreased amount of snowfall (formed from evaporated sea water) in the winter. Therefore there is significant net gain in runoff versus evaporation for the ocean, causing sea levels to rise.
• Ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica: As with glaciers and the ice caps, increased heat is causing the massive ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica to melt at an accelerated pace. Will the Pacific Islands actually disappear? Not necessarily – undeveloped reef islands change shape and move around in response to shifting sediments. Also many of them are growing in size, not shrinking, as sea level inches upward. However islands that have been transformed by human development such as Tuvalu (600 miles north of Fiji) which have seawalls, roads, and water and electricity systems that are locked in place, may not have such a bright future. Mohamed Aslam, an oceanographer by training and until 2012 the environment minister for Maldives, Students from the Cagayan de Oro City National High School plant mangrove propagules after collecting garbage said: “The islands are go- at Barangay Bulua in Cagayan de Oro City in celebration of the International Coastal Clean-up 2015 on September ing to fight back as the 19 spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Region 10 (DENR-10) with the theme See start, page A11
“Bayanihan para sa Malinis na Katubigan at Karagatan.” Photo supplied
El Niño to hit 3 of 4 provinces in Region 12 KORONADAL City--Officials have cautioned farmers in the Soccsksargen region to brace for El Niño, where the dry spell is expected to intensify and rear its ugly head in three of its four provinces starting next month. Farmers were also urged not only to plant droughtresistant crops, but also to insure them for protection from losses that will be brought by the drought.
Amalia Datukan, Department of Agriculture (DA) director for Soccsksargen or Region 12, advised farmers in the area to insure their crops with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. “Doing such could protect farmers from losses due to El Niño,” she said. Based on the advisory of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration
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(PAGASA), the provinces of South Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat—with the exception of North Cotabato—are expected to be hit by the drought. “A mature and strong El Niño is now present in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Consensus of climate model shows that it will likely to strengthen further before the end of the year and may last until the first half of 2016,” the state weather forecaster said early this month. “This 2015-16 El Niño event will potentially be among the four strongest events since 1950 (1972-73, 1982-83, 199798),” it added. The weather bureau said the drought will also likely hit six other provinces in Mindanao, 13 in the Visayas and 25 in Luzon until the end of the year. In South Cotabato province, Governor Daisy AvanceFuentes has called on farmers to plant drought-resistant crops in the area to avoid losses.
“They should plant root crops like sweet potatoes and cassava, among other droughtresistant plants,” Fuentes said. The governor said they expect a milder impact of the dry spell in South Cotabato this time compared to the1998 El Niño occurrence. There will still be rains to fall in our province in the duration of the El Niño phenomenon that is expected this time to last for nine months, she said. Fuentes said that farmers who will be affected by the dry spell will get assistance from the provincial and national governments. To ensure rice supply across the country during the duration of the El Niño, the national government has approved the importation of rice, the staple food of Filipinos. The National Food Authority has announced that the country, in preparation for the onslaught of the drought, will import 750,000 metric tons of rice. (Bong Sarmiento/ MindaNews)
Toxics watchdog backs CHR on chemical safety A WATCHDOG group for environmental health and justice has called upon the various sectors, particularly the government and the industry, to rally behind the move by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to uphold the people’s right to live in a toxic-free society. The EcoWaste Coalition issued the statement as hundreds of government, industry and civil society stakeholders gather in Geneva, Switzerland from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 for the fourth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM4) organized by the United Nations Environment Programme. The group had collaborated and supported the CHR in crafting “The People’s Right to Chemical Safety: A Fifteen-Point Human Rights Agenda,” which the Commission then chaired by Loretta Ann Rosales issued in November 2014. “As the national human rights institution, the CHR made the just decision to affirm the irrefutable right of every Filipino, including those yet to be born, to
be protected against the risks and hazards caused by toxic chemicals,” said Thony Dizon, Coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition’s Project Protect. “While the CHR will not be present at ICCM4, we hope that delegates will take cognizance of their commitment to chemical safety and reciprocate with bold global actions that will help eliminate the harms caused by toxic chemical exposure, especially to children, pregnant women, farmers, workers and other vulnerable groups,” he said. The CHR stated that “we do not need another Bhopal or Fukushima tragedy to remind us of the adverse effects of (toxic) chemicals to life, health and the environment” as it pushed for “health-based and human rights-based policies on chemicals that will guarantee our people’s right to chemical safety.” Towards a toxic-free society, the CHR sought stakeholders’ support to translate the 2020 goal of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals See toxics, page A11