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By Ike Suarez, Correspondent
Melting of the Arctic ice caps would lead to widespread
depletion of the Philippines’ fish population and death of many
species of the country’s flora and fauna, according to a Filipino
scientist-member of the US Inter-Governmental PanelA on Climate
Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with ex-US Vice
President Al Gore.
Dr. Josefino Comiso, a physicist with the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), further warned
that such melting could cause sea levels around the Philippines to
rise up to seven meters, leading to the inundation of much of
Manila.
As senior research scientist at NASA’s Goddard
Space Flight Center in Maryland, Comiso belongs to a team that
monitors via satellite the planetary effects of global warming,
particularly on the Arctic ice caps.
He gave the warnings as he spoke with reporters
immediately after a press conference in Quezon City held by the
Department of Science and Technology at one of the department’s
units, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astonomical Services
Administration (Pagasa).
During the conference, the department presented
some of the Filipino scientists who make up this year’s batch of
45 returning scientists under its Balik-Scientist Program.
Comiso said he is in
the Philippines to jumpstart a program to systematically monitor the
effects of global warming on the country. To be funded by the
science and technology department, the program will be based at the
University of the Philippines-Los Baños in Laguna and will link its
research efforts to those of NASA.
He acknowledged that the melting of the Arctic
ice caps was more of an item of curiosity for Filipinos. But, Comiso
said, it should instead be a topic of grave concern. He cited the
country as “among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate
change.”
Comiso explained that slight changes in the
ocean temperature would lead to coral bleaching, affecting coral
reefs on which the country’s fishes feed. He said the melting of
the polar ice caps meant that the sun’s rays were not being
reflected anymore and instead were warming up the Arctic waters.
The Filipino Nobel Laureate pointed out that the
currents of the Arctic waters—the thermohalic currents—travel
around the world to all the other oceans, including the waters
surrounding the Philippines. Comiso said that such warming would
encourage the growth of algae in the world’s oceans, which would
be disastrous to the world’s food chain.
He noted that the slight changes in temperature
could reach threshold temperatures, at which various living
creatures would start to die in large numbers. Such temperatures
would vary from species to species.
The deaths of these creatures, Comiso said,
would gravely affect the food supply of other ocean and earth
creatures and possibly lead to their deaths in large numbers also.
He clarified that he is not an ichthyologist
(fish scientist) or a scientist specializing in the other biological
disciplines. Rather, he is a physicist whose specialty is
remote-sensing surveillance of the earth via satellite. Thus, Comiso
said, he cannot state at which ocean temperatures fishes in the
Philippines would start to die off in large numbers.
Biographical information furnished reporters
during the press briefing said the Filipino Nobel laureate has
worked with NASA’s Cyrospheric Sciences Branch since 1977, when he
started out as senior member of the technical staff. From 1979 to
1999, he worked there as physical scientist and was promoted to
senior scientist in 1999.
He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University
of California in Los Angeles and a master of science degree in
physics from the Florida State University. He earned his
bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of the Philippines.
The Balik-Scientist Program aims to bring back
Filipino scientists abroad for short to long-term tours in the
Philippines to upgrade the country’s research and development
efforts. It also intends to promote greater research and development
collaboration among Philippine universities and other research
institutions with counterparts abroad.
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