Using
the recent typhoon in the Philippines as a catalyst for advancing action on
climate change, Philippine delegates to the UN are holding a hunger strike
until action is commenced in helping stop climate change. One expects this
delegate to fast for a long time. For the last 16 years conferences have been
held on climate change around the world and little action has been made or
advanced. Unfortunately, getting the world to rally behind one problem proves
more difficult than anything we have ever faced as a species. Climate changed
can alter state sovereignty, cripple economies, and kill thousands of people as
shown here in the Philippines.
Lack of
suitable infrastructure in developing countries further exacerbates these
problems. In the developing world infrastructure is unsuitable to withstand
increasingly strengthening storms and with an increasing clip between storms. The
Philippines is currently asking for foreign aid to help fund recovery to the
tune of 100 billion dollars, a value similar to the reconstruction effort for
superstorm Sandy that destroyed much of New York City and the drought in the
Midwest of the United States.
Many in
the United States simply believe that if enough economic growth and capital is
thrown at the problem then all will be solved, disaster will be averted. One
often fails to account for the drastic shift in world view that needs to come
with adaption to climate change. We cannot view the environment around us as
mere resource for human development. The idea of humanity standing above the
rest of the world wide ecosystem in importance needs to fall apart. If this
idea continues to persist then human-caused environmental destruction, via
deforestation and ocean acidification, will continue to rage on. Descartes told
us it was mind over matter, humanity over the environment. This notion must die
for us to continue on.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/14/philippine-leadershopetoconvinceworldtoactonclimatechange.html
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