While all of Sri Lanka (and the rest of the Commonwealth) are talking about CHOGM, I thought it would be good to redirect our attention to another conference that’s currently underway. The 19th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) is taking place in Warsaw, Poland. Diplomats from around the world are meeting to discuss actions that need to be taken in order to fight climate change at Paris in 2015.
Poland has turned out to be a controversial host as it invited coal and oil companies as sponsors for the conference. More than 90% of their electricity is produced from coal and their CO2 emissions per capita are above the EU average. But while the world pointed fingers at Poland something else happened that put another country into the spotlight – the Philippines.
Super Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest tropical storm ever measured with wind speeds of more than 310kmph hit the Philippines on the 8th of this month. Although the death toll was initially estimated to be 10,000 this figure has now been brought down to 1900. More than 500,000 have been left homeless. The question that all climate scientists are trying to answer is: Did climate change have anything to do with Haiyan?
Typhoons are low pressure storms which form over tropical oceans when the air is heated and pushed upward. This creates a continuous circular motion which is powered by the thermal energy of the water. Typhoons often cause vast damage to coasts and islands that are in the path of the storm.
The Philippines is a low-lying archipelago in the warm Pacific Ocean. Warm waters are responsible for strong storms. The fact that sea levels are on the rise, worsens the flooding and the storm’s surge (destructive and violent rush of sea water).
Haiyan may have only hit a single country, but it has affected all of mankind. Thankfully, we haven’t had to face a natural disaster since the tsunami in 2004. But let us not forget how helpless we all felt at that time. Climate change is happening and it is happening faster than we imagined. It is up to us to change the way we think and act, in order to save our planet from a terrible catastrophe.
If not us, who? If not now, when? If not here, where?
The fight against climate change should begin with me (and you), right now, right here.
Sources :
http://www.nature.com/news/did-climate-change-cause-typhoon-haiyan-1.14139
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/11/warsaw-un-climate-talks-coaland-poland