The Burning And Flooding Of The Planet

Anyone watching on television the images of burning forests, the raging floods destroying lands and villages, massive landslides burying homes and people have no reason to deny the truth. The latest UN report on the climate crises by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) signed by 159 nations once again informs us that we human are responsible for this terrible crisis.

We humans are bringing disasters upon ourselves by tolerating and allowing through corrupt politicians the coal, oil and gas energy companies to promote their extraction and continual burning of fossil fuel. By financially supporting the election campaigns of friendly politicians, they are getting massive government subsidies to continue to produce and burn coal, oil and gas.

In the United States, fossil fuel subsidies to the energy industry are massive while money for renewable energy is much less. Worldwide, this is also the case. As much as US$447 billion dollars in taxpayers’ money is paid out in subsidies to billion-dollar companies in the coal, oil and gas industries since 2014 whereas support for renewable energy sources development is a mere US$128 billion dollars. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says: “Yet the continued imbalance remains staggering. In 2017, the costs of unpriced externalities and the direct subsidies for fossil fuels (USD 3.1 trillion) exceeded subsidies for renewable energy by a factor of 19.” https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2020/Apr/IRENA_Energy_subsidies_2020.pdf

The global warming seen in unequaled temperatures that has engulfed the world is due to one reason: burning fossil fuels. Coal, oil and gas extraction and burning has been essential for economic growth and development for the last 100 years. But now, it must stop. CO2 and methane gasses are trapping the heat of the sun like a blanket around the globe and we are slowly cooking ourselves and all living creatures and plants to death. Over a million animals and reptiles died in Australian fires last year alone. How many more this year in the US, EU and Russia?

Renewable carbon neutral sources of energy has to be speedily expanded: geothermal, wind turbines, solar panels, wave and tide power. These will be generating electricity to drive industry, heat and cool homes and power electric vehicles without damaging the planet. But will it succeed in time to save the planet? The scientists and environmentalists and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) can tell us the terrible truth that if the heating goes on beyond 1.5 degrees centigrade,  there will be even worse climate-induced disasters. More droughts, fires, greater floods, and crop failures. Millions will be displaced by violence and war over water, food and arable land. Millions of hungry desperate people will be migrating to safer countries for food and survival.

We have reached and passed the tipping point where the melted Arctic ice and mountain glaciers will take hundreds of years to freeze up again. So, the poor people in coastal towns, villages and low-lying Pacific islands and atolls will have to evacuate and migrate. Some are already doing so.

They are the victims and yet they have not caused any global warming. Besides, the health costs world-wide of the damaging pollution since 2017 is a whopping US$2263 billion dollars, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

The greedy Chinese military stealing and occupying Philippines islands will have to evacuate, Philippine islands and atolls will be inundated in a few more years. The Chinese are the biggest producers of greenhouse gasses, CO2 and methane, in the world with thousands of coal-fired power plants, followed by the United States.The Philippines has it share of coal-fired power plants when it could have geothermal and solar power plants.

If you want the number of dollars spent on renewable energy power sources, here they are: “The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has estimated supply-side support to renewables at around USD 166 billion in 2017. Total support to renewable power generation was around USD 128 billion in 2017, and transport sector support added a further USD 38 billion for biofuels.”

“The European Union accounted for around 54 % (USD 90 billion) of total estimated renewable subsidies in 2017, followed by the United States, with 14 % (USD 23 billion), Japan with 11% (USD 19 billion), India with 2 % (USD 4 billion) and the rest of the world with slightly less than 9% (USD 15 billion). Subsidies for renewable power generation were dominant in Japan (99 %), China (97 %), the EU (87 %) and India (76 %). Subsidies for biofuels dominated in the United States (61 %) and the rest of the world (71 %).”

Big oil corporations Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total and their lobbying groups have tried to influence EU law in thir  favour by watering down laws that would curb the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Their DNA corporate culture and goals cannot condone or support renewable energy. They are ferocious influencers and a report in The Guardian shows that they spent € 253.3 million lobbying and influencing politicians and EU institutions between 2010 and 2018, according to a report by Corporate Europe Observatory, Food & Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace. That spending is just the tip of a massive iceberg of additional spending which has not been officially reported and kept secret. Let me quote the impact they have had in expanding the climate crises on the world. The Guardian article of one year ago says:
“The report comes after the Guardian’s Polluters series, which revealed that 20 oil and gas companies – including BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total – can be directly linked to a third of greenhouse gas emissions since 1965. The companies – which include multinationals and state-owned firms – are continuing to expand their operations and driving the climate emergency, despite having been aware for decades of their industry’s devastating impact on the planet.”

There is a global conspiracy, it seems, to deny climate change, to playdown the urgency of the crises for the sake of getting more taxpayers money as payouts to billionaire oil companies when millions of people are suffering the drastic effects of the climate change. We have to do all we can to get political and influence the decisions that will save the planet and get out there and stop polluting and plant more trees.

Saving the Forests and the Creation

There are inspiring, wonderfully brave people who are risking their lives to protect the land, hills, forests, rivers and streams from the loggers, mining companies and tree cutters in the Philippines. A few weeks ago, I mentioned the courageous people of Midsalip in Mindanao and the Columban Missionaries standing with them in prayer and trust. These good people whose lives and families in their hundreds depend on a healthy and protected environment.

These people have been defending their lands and forests for the past thirty years against the onslaught of the local and international corporations backed by corrupt politicians. Mining companies covet their mineral rich lands. The brave people have stood against the powers that are behind the ugly face of corporate greed.

A good mining law that restricted irresponsible mining, protected the environment and the human rights of the people and the environment was struck down by the Supreme Court at the behest of corrupt politicians and mining interests. They had it replaced with a bad mining law that removed environmentally protective restrictions and safeguards. They virtually threw open the door to the mining companies to do what they wanted. Open pit mining and illegal and destructive logging was the result.

Corporations backed by armed goons and even Philippine military units bulldozed huge pits in the earth, the minerals are being extracted and shipped abroad. Tree cutting spread and environmental disasters, one after another, occurred. There was and still are multiple deaths from landslides that bury homes and a few years ago a school filled with students was buried. There are bursting dams, toxic waste spills, destroyed rice fields, villages flooded, forests are cut down and the destruction is causing untold hardship and suffering for the helpless population.

But the people of Midsalip, twenty kilometers or so from Aurora, Mindanao, united and marched, protested and are still bravely holding back a bulldozer and a drilling rig from invading their lands. They have suffered threats, harassment and court cases hurled against them. So far their picketline has held out but they need national and international help.

They are encouraged and inspired by their Pastor, the religious sisters, Columban Missionaries, Father Sean Martin and Sister Patty Dinare and dedicated lay people. It is a movement of survival inspired by the love and respect for the wonders and beauty of creation and a desire for justice.

It is real faith in the words of Jesus of Nazareth, in the Sermon on the Mount that gives them courage. Their community action is basic Christianity in action. These are the profound spiritual values that strengthen people in a common cause. It is a dangerous stand to take and many activists have been assassinated for their principles.

According to the Philippine environmental protection charity Kalikasan, as many as 40 environmental protection and anti-mining advocates have been killed in the past ten years and 47 more survived their wounds after they have been attacked. Dr. Gerry Ortega, a radio broadcaster and staunch environmentalist was shot and killed last 24 January. He campaigned against irresponsible large scale mining in Palawan. A powerful politician is the prime suspect behind the assassination.

The good news is that the government of Noynoy Aquino, elected last May, has cracked down on the illegal logging. The last of the great Philippine rain forests of Caraga, 1.9 million hectares, there is a battle going on between environmentalists and forestry workers against the well-armed loggers.

The area in Agusan Del Norte and Agusan Del Sur, Surigao del Norte provinces and Dinagat Island, the forestry workers of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have been threatened shot at and kidnapped by the hired goons of the loggers. Two have been killed.

In South Cotabato, Governor Arthur Pinggoy has vowed to implement the ban on open-pit mining in the province. The provincial board, responding to the will of the people, passed the ordinance in 2010. It has stalled the mining operations of the huge Swiss based mining corporation Xstrata working through its Philippine subsidiary company Sagittarius based in the town of Tampalkan. The area is rich in copper and gold. Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez of the Diocese of Marbel, has taken a stand in support of the ban defending the integrity of creation and the well being of the people and the environment.