SAN JOSE, Antique, Dec. 1 (PIA6) – -The Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Campaign dubbed as Campus Tour reached out to college students of St. Anthony’s College on recently.
One of the major points discussed during the activity are the indications of global warming and climate change and its impact to the people and environment especially developing countries like the Philippines.
Mirza G. Samillano, Head Executive Assistant of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, PENRO- Antique said during the forum that our country is far down the list of states with high emissions of greenhouse gasses contributing to global warming she said.
Samillano pointed out that as an archipelagic country composed of more than 7,000 islands we are vulnerable to the impact brought about by excessive greenhouse emissions cause by developed countries .
Among the indications of global warming in the Philippines she said, are the trends of increasing number of hot days and warm nights, but decreasing number of cold days and cool nights. Both maximum and minimum temperatures are generally getting warmer.
Other extreme weather/climate events like intense rains have been seen to be more frequent, she said.
Samillano emphasized that in every degree Celsius increase in temperature there is corresponding impact in food production, water supply and ecosystem. As the temperature is getting hotter, there will be a decline in crop yields especially in developing countries. As to water supply, increase in temperature will also cause small mountain glaciers to melt down, significant decreases in water availability in many areas, and sea level rise will threaten major cities.
In her lecture, said that for our Ecosystems, rise in temperature will also cause damages to coral reefs and extinction of species in forest and marine ecosystem will rise. Increase in temperature will also bring in extreme weather events such as rise in intensity of storms, forest fires, droughts, flooding and heat waves.
Climate Change is a reality and we are experiencing it now, Samillano said. Thus we need to collectively work to get our families and communities prepared.
She also encouraged the students to actively take part in this campaign, support government initiatives and programs of local government or private organizations to mitigate the impact of the phenomenon. (JCM/PSM-PIA6 Antique)
