It’s 443 days in the countdown for the local elections on May 13, 2013 and the question is: “What have our local government officials done or are doing for these ‘forgotten people’ as one UN report called them?
Many of us had failed to notice their presence in our midst until the floods of typhoon Sendong and the recent earthquake that devastated some parts of Negros Oriental projected them in grim pictures–displaced people with no food, water, nor homes to return to.
They are known by several names: environmental refugees, forced environmental migrants, environmentally-motivated migrants, climate refugees, climate change refugees, environmentally-displaced persons (EDP), disaster refugees, environmental disciples, eco-refugees, and ecologically displaced persons.
“Asian countries, home to about 60 percent of the world’s population, will be hit hardest by changing weather patterns and a degrading environment, research indicates. A whopping 90 percent of all disaster displacement within countries in 2010 was caused by climate-related disasters, the international body Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reported. That year, 38.3 million women, men, and children were forced to move, mainly by floods and storms.
“Out of 16 countries with the highest risk of being severely affected by environmental changes in the next 30 years, 10 are in Asia, according to the 2010 Climate Change Vulnerability Index, released by global risks advisory firm Maplecroft.
“In Southeast Asia alone, extreme weather events like rising sea levels and storm surges ‘could cause economic losses of 230 billion dollars, or equivalent of 6.7 percent of GDP, each year, endangering the livelihoods of millions of people’, as Bart í‰des, director of the Poverty Reduction, Gender & Social Development Division of the Asian Development Bank, told IPS.
“Climate change adaptation costs for Asia and the Pacific are estimated in the order of 40 billion dollars annually, the expert said.”
In the aftermath of the earthquake, a poignant picture taken by a photographer on a helicopter showed a couple in Guihulngan outside their ruined kubo and with an improvised distress message on the ground that spelled out: Bugas.
There was also a report about DSWD personnel riding a boat from Cebu with 10 sacks of rice for the earthquake victims that capsized, and had to be rescued by the Coast Guards. Packages for victims usually contain cans of sardines, instant noodles–and rice.
Rice, the grain of life, always is a significant part of disaster relief operations.
Foundation University for the past six years has sustained a rice-sharing and rice conservation campaign program called “Rice is Life. Give life. Share a cup of rice.” Every first Monday of the month, every member of the FU community is encouraged to bring to school a cup of rice–to be shared with others. It is a ritual aimed at developing among Foundationites a culture of “caring and sharing” with others.
This act of caring and sharing with others was demonstrated recently when the FU community delivered 20 sacks of rice to the earthquake victims through the mayors of Bindoy, Tayasan, Ayungon, and Guihulgan. This opportunity has given an added dimension to FU’s “Rice is Life” program.
Refugees of climate change are no longer the forgotten people. They will henceforth be part of the FU community. Foundationites care and share.
