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AFTER weeks of nail-biting tension as he waited to
know if he would clinch the final senatorial berth in a contest that
was too nerve wracking for comfort, and after he was finally
proclaimed, and after sitting through almost a month of Senate
bickering over committees (and in the process getting a quick lesson
in Upper Chamber politics), Sen. Migz Zubiri finally got the chance
to get down to business last week as he made his maiden privilege
speech.
As fate would have it—what with
a roaring storm having just devastated many parts of the archipelago
and large swathes of the metropolis incapacitated—it was the
timely subject of global warming that he chose for his opening salvo
on the floor of the chamber. As he gravely intoned: “I rise on an
issue that envelops the earth, an issue that occupied the attention
of generations of scientists but is just now arising in public
consciousness.”
Zubiri then pointed out the
alarming fact that in the last 30 years, the world’s average
temperature has risen dramatically. He went on: “Mercury is rising
and Mother Earth is feverish. The number one culprit is greenhouse
gas emissions from the burning of fossils fuels to feed our
industries and run our motor vehicles.”
He further stated that lot of
scientific studies have found out that this increase in the
world’s temperature is causing dramatic climate change. The rise
in the world’s sea level, abnormal weather patterns, strong
typhoons, tornadoes, el niño and la niña phenomena, heavy rains
which causes flooding in many parts of the world, and loss of
biodiversity.
Expanded Zubiri: “Rapid global
warming and climate change are issues that affect our country being
an archipelago in the biggest ocean of the earth—an ocean
considered as the main driver of the world’s climate systems.
“The early warning signs are:
heat waves and period of unusually warm weather; ocean warming,
sea-level rise and coastal flooding; glaciers melting; and Arctic
and Antarctic warming. The harbingers are: spreading disease; early
spring arrival; plant and animal range shifts and population
changes; corral reef bleaching; downpours, heavy snowfalls and heavy
flooding; droughts and fires.
The neophyte senator then zoomed
in closer to home as he went on: “More than that, at greater risk
are those who work the soil like farmers in the vegetable bowl in
the Cordilleras to the farmers in rice bowl of central Luzon. And
more ironic, is that global warming impacts most negatively to
people who are already poor. Farmers in La Union, Ilocos Norte,
Ilocos Sur, Abra, Nueva Viscaya, Apayao, Benguet, Mountain Province
and Kalinga have experienced decreasing harvests and inability to
plant new crops.
“In May this year, the Cebu
City Disaster Coordinating Council reported that the dry spell
affected the livelihood of about 30 percent of the city’s mountain
residents and damaged P1.1-million worth of agricultural crops were
damaged.
“The Ilocos region expects
808,000 metric tons of rice will be destroyed if the dry spell
persists to the end of August. The NDCC report assessed damage at
P52-million worth of rice and corn in Quirino province and
P267-million worth in Isabela. Some 42,000 hectares of fishponds in
Isabela also “dried up.” At risk too are aquaculture in Bulacan,
Cavite, Pangasinan, Iloilo, Negros, Bohol, Cebu, Zamboanga, Surigao,
South Cotabato, Davao and Sulu.
“Communities that depend on
ground water are likewise under the brunt of the long dry spell. In
Bulacan, that would be 20 towns and San Jose del Monte City.
Likewise, other towns in Bulacan supplied by Angat Dam suffer with
the dam’s water level falling to 171.79 meters or more than eight
meters below the critical level.
We have greatly abridged the
speech, but there was a lot more. And by the time Zubiri has
finished he had given everyone a lot to think—and worry—about
for he was “renewing our call, sounding off the alarm and raising
the ante, that the Senate acts fast in passing the Renewal Energy
Bill, which I understand, several of our colleagues have filed, as
well as this representation. Let us support this bill for once it is
passed, this bill will ignite the development and utilization of
renewal energy in the country.”
It has to be said the during the
inevitable interpolation, Zubiri held himself well against the
grilling of grizzled veteran Senators Nene Pimentel and Juan Ponce
Enrile and the fragrant duo of Senators Loren Legarda and Pia
Cayteno.
rjottings@yahoo.com
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