The most powerful storm to make landfall, in 2013. Two of the three most devastating typhoons since 2011, hitting storm-free Mindanao. A zero-casualty program with zero casualties since 2006. The INQUIRER tracks the potentially historic climate change conference in PARIS with three special reports about the consequences of global warming on climate-vulnerable PiliPINAS, and draws lessons on disaster risk reduction that can actually, urgently, save lives.
IN THE STORM-WEARY province of Albay lie two coastal villages that not only face the Pacific Ocean, but also each other across open water.
On one end of the Albay Gulf is the village of Cawit in Manito town. The land it stands on juts toward the sea, cut off from the mainland by a wide river behind it. Cawit’s residents, almost all fishermen, can pinpoint an exact spot several meters from the shore where some of their tallest trees used to stand. There, they say, mouths and fingers pointing, was where the old coastline was. Soon, they fear, their homes will be swallowed up by the sea, too.
Directly across is the village of Buhatan in Sto. Domingo town, nestled in between two bodies of water and a hilly area to the west. It is smaller than Cawit in size and in population, but its beach is littered with torn plastic and empty bottles from neighboring towns, washed ashore during the onslaught of storms. Residents lament how the trash piles up faster than they can clean up. On most days, they admit, it’s easier to leave it all be.
When a typhoon strikes, both villages are threatened by floods and storm surges. For the villagers in Cawit, any chance of survival means crossing a rickety bamboo bridge to reach Manito town proper; for those in Buhatan, the chances lie in seeking shelter inside sturdier houses situated on higher ground.
It is August when INQUIRER.net visits Cawit and Buhatan, a month known by residents as a time of rain, a precursor to the storms that will hit the Bicol region beginning September.
But 2015 is different. August has brought instead a pervasive El Niño, the global climate phenomenon associated with severe drought, sparse rains and–potentially–the formation of stronger typhoons caused by a warmer Pacific Ocean. This year’s El Niño, which began in May, is already the most powerful ever recorded.
How these factors will affect the already-vulnerable Philippines has yet to be determined, but one thing is certain: When that time comes, Albay province–Cawit and Buhatan villages included–knows it will be ready.
PHOTO: Typhoon Haiyan, by JMA/EUMETSAT.
PARIS, France—The UN on Monday detailed a doubling in weather-related disasters over the last three decades, a week before nearly 140 world leaders gather in terror-struck Paris to thrash out a crucial climate pact.
PARIS, France—The UN on Monday detailed a doubling in weather-related disasters over the last three decades, a week before nearly 140 world leaders gather in terror-struck Paris to thrash out a crucial climate pact.
PARIS, France—The UN on Monday detailed a doubling in weather-related disasters over the last three decades, a week before nearly 140 world leaders gather in terror-struck Paris to thrash out a crucial climate pact.
PARIS, France—The UN on Monday detailed a doubling in weather-related disasters over the last three decades, a week before nearly 140 world leaders gather in terror-struck Paris to thrash out a crucial climate pact.
PARIS, France—The UN on Monday detailed a doubling in weather-related disasters over the last three decades, a week before nearly 140 world leaders gather in terror-struck Paris to thrash out a crucial climate pact.
PARIS, France—The UN on Monday detailed a doubling in weather-related disasters over the last three decades, a week before nearly 140 world leaders gather in terror-struck Paris to thrash out a crucial climate pact.
