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The Crash and The Impact:
The Devastating Effects of Climate Change
By: Christian Querol​
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The impact of Climate Change is not in the near future, it is here. The damage is in effect and mankind is experiencing the adversities as we speak.
Water stress will happen to the areas where rainfalls are expected to decrease. Ecosystems will be affected by the increase/decrease of water and temperature increase. Agriculture will be dampened by the continued heat and unpredictable weather changes according to PAGASA.
Since 2008, weather-related abrupt onset danger has forcefully relocated 21.5 million people annually (UNHCR, 2016). Additionally, the IDMC Grid of 2016 showed that 85 percent of newly displaced people due to disaster-related events are from Asia. India being the leading country, and the Philippines is not far behind coming in 4th. Internal Displacement is a global crisis and disaster-related events are a big factor in it. 11.1k disasters in 202 countries from 2008-2021 reported that a total of 342.2 million people have been internally displaced according to IMDC, 2021).
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Met Office, 2022 showed that global temperatures rise due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The planet is projected to warm by more than 3°C this century, an average that accounts for extreme regional and seasonal variability. Speaking of warm, on Jul 19, 2022, Coningsby, Lincolnshire established a new record with 40.3°C, breaking the previous peak by 1.6°C. 46 stations in the UK in its entirety surpassed the previous record of 38.7°C. Seven of the 10 hottest days in the UK were recorded in the 21st century. Feat that if a climate is unaffected by human activities is virtually impossible to reach 40°C.
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The five of 33 Solomon Islands named Kale, Rapita, Kakatina, Zollies, and Rehana located in the Oceana Continent are now at sea levels, now called the Lost Solomon Islands, (CNN, 2016). One of which sank in 2011. From 1947 to 2014, the low-lying reef islands are now evidence of what there is to come. Sea levels in the archipelago have risen from 7 mm to 10 mm (.28 to 39 inches), three times the global average. The engulfment of the islands which was thought to be a remote possibility of a doomsday scenario is now a reality in the Pacific. (IOPScience, 2016).
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“We cannot solve Climate Change if we spew more emissions,”
Climate change representative Yeb Sano said this during his speech at the UN’s climate meeting in Warsaw, Poland in 2013 right after the horrific event that was prompted by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda).
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With an estimated total of 95.5 billion pesos in damages, at least 16 million people in 44 provinces were affected by the typhoon, which severely damaged several areas of the country's central region. More than a million households or over 5.13 million people were displaced which caused 1.14 million homes to endure such tragedy (Inquirer, 2020).
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The Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) in 2021 by the Germanwatch unveiled how the Philippines is affected by the progressing climate crisis.
In 2021, It was 17th as the most impacted by extreme weather occurrences and according to the index, from 2015-2018, the graph was not hard to notice that we have an alarming problem. First, the Philippines had a total of 966 fatalities recorded, from being the 12th in 2015 to being ranked 4th in 2018 with almost half of the deaths in 2018 alone. With a ratio of 0.43 of fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 and 14th in the world, it doubled from being the 35th in 2015 which only had a ratio of 0.19. Lastly, climate-related economic losses in 2018 amounted to $4.547 billion, 7th in the world. A staggering increase from its previous year that only totalled to $505 million.
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This is not a bump in the road. We will continue to crash. But fret not because it’s still not too late to make the right turn.