PESANTE NEWS

September 28, 2009

PESANTE-USA CALLS FOR ACTION AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING THAT CAUSES DISASTERS LIKE ONDOY



Los Angeles –The Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA, an environmental and a peasant advocacy group based in the united States vehemently condemns the US –Arroyo regime for its criminal negligence and lack of preparedness against the natural calamities that regularly hit the Philippines.

It was evident with Typhoon Ondoy (international code name Ketsana) that dumped 334 millimeters of rain in the first six hours, the highest ever recorded rainfall in the Metropolis. The previous record was 341 millimeters over a 24 hour period 42 years ago. Ondoy submerged up to 80% of the city, and covered areas that never experienced flooding before, stranding people on rooftops and bringing death and misery to Filipinos

Two days after the waters subsided, Metro Manila and the outlying regions were largely unprepared to handle the evacuees, the injured, and much less the contamination that the floodwaters brought. The statistics are staggering: 150 deaths, more than 400,000 people homeless and P 1.4 billion worth of properties destroyed.

REVERSE GLOBAL WARMING NOW

In this connection the Pesante_USA aware that tomorrow, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change intercessional meeting begins in Bangkok, hopes for the best. Citing the example of the tragedy in the Philippines, we hope that the UNFCCC meeting in Bangkok is the fourth of five sets of negotiations this year, leading up to the UN Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen this December.

In the next two weeks in Bangkok, governments need to get to work and start real negotiations, so that world leaders at Copenhagen can agree to a fair, ambitious and binding deal for the climate—a deal which protects the most vulnerable countries from climate change impacts. Climate experts say that unless decisive solutions are immediately put on the table, the worst is yet to come.

Pesante-USA is one with the Greenpeace in demanding industrialized countries, which account for most of the world’s carbon emissions - the greatest contributor to climate change - to take responsibility and show leadership towards genuine solutions in Copenhagen this December. Countries like the US are expected to commit to greater reductions in their carbon emissions and to put up a US$140 billion fund for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

During the G20 summit in the United States, leaders of the developed world have ducked once again the issue of climate change financing.

Pesante-USA believes that the plight of vulnerable developing countries such as ours should put forward a strong moral imperative for early and decisive action. The threat to our people’s survival is a harsh reality that should inform the actions of the industrialized world’s leaders.

*****