Legarda: Development without conscience destroys the world

MABALACAT CITY — Senator Loren Legarda has stressed that people have been focused on development which destroys the world.

“Our extractive and consumptive lifestyle, and misplaced notion of development have brought our world in a state of utter disrepair. We have been so focused on development without realizing that development without conscience destroys the world,” Legarda said.

The highest temperature for Metro Manila last year was 39.4 degrees Celsius. In April this year, Manila’s hottest temperature peaked at 37.7 degrees Celsius.

The global temperature is getting hotter every year—2015 is the hottest year ever recorded, before that, 2014 was the hottest year on record.

The Philippine Atmospheric and Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) predicted that 2016 is a candidate for the warmest or one of the warmest years with daily maximum temperature of 40 degrees Celsius in Tuguegarao or the Cagayan area.

“El Niño is said to be weaking. La Niña, however, is believed to be not too far behind,” Legarda said.

El Nino has affected the provinces of Pampanga, Bulacan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, and other parts of Central Luzon.
Scientists have blamed human activity, particularly increased carbon dioxide emissions, as the major cause of anomalies in the weather system, according to her.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC, human activity released 545 gigatons of carbon dioxide from 1750 to 2011, Legarda said.

It is projected that if 1,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide is emitted, which at current rates will likely occur between 2040 and 2050, there is a one-in-three possibility that the 2 degrees Celsius limit above the pre-industrial level will exceed, the senator added.

In the last decade, 90 percent of rise in carbon dioxide levels was due to burning of fossil fuels.
As one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts, the Philippines needs to lead in global advocacy efforts for the massive reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Legarda said.

“By leading, we cannot demand action from others while we continue to aimlessly approve the construction of coal-fired power plants. Nothing builds and sustains credibility like an advocate who leads by practice,” she said.

Source: Sunstar