The future looks bright

OVER THE last several Christmases, the people of the Northern Mindanao island-province of Camiguin have learned to prepare a few additional items for the noche buena: candles, flashlights and personal electric generators for expected power outages. It’s almost a tradition now. Just when homes are all lit up and filled with holiday music, poof, brownout.

These outages are most noticeable during the holidays, but they occur every so often all year. But don’t worry, officials say, because a new source of electricity is gearing up. Some paperwork here, a little controversy there, and voila, a newly built diesel power plant, right on island soil.

For some, this may be a welcome development. As long as we’re sure the power doesn’t go out while we’re charging our phones or watching a kilig AlDub moment, we’re good. As long as the public is entertained and appeased, we’re good. The future looks bright—that is, well-lit and packed with rainbow-bright noontime gags and unlimited Facebook to keep the populace from thinking about life’s less pleasant realities.

Realities like, for example, the fact that there is now a diesel plant on one of the most ecologically rich islands in the Philippines.

Diesel power plants are notorious for emitting particulate matter—particles found to have adverse effects on the environment and on human health. Studies have even found that thousands of elderly people prematurely die each year because of these particles. So if it’s not enough to drive away wildlife—and tourists—with the deteriorating air and water quality, an eventual rise in health problems might at least be a wake-up call.

But that’s not even the biggest concern surrounding the power plant. It is yet another facility using fossil fuel as an energy source at a time when the rest of the world is veering away from it, and for good reason. Diesel, alongside coal, is a major source of carbon emissions, the key ingredient for climate change.

So much has been said about this global phenomenon that at this point, it’s ridiculous not to pay attention. Scientists have raised alarms about it, analysts are worried about its economic implications, and even Pope Francis has wisely called for action.

Already, a number of real consequences are unfolding. Devastating typhoons, whose superstrength and unpredictability are often linked to changing global temperatures, have taken countless lives and homes. Surely we have not forgotten “Sendong,” “Pablo” and “Yolanda”—testaments to how Pacific nations like ours are most vulnerable to climate change.

Elsewhere in the world, severe winters and droughts have created social and economic turmoil. Researchers have found, for instance, that one of the factors in the ongoing Syrian crisis was the drought that rendered agricultural lands useless, drove farmers to despair, and sent people flocking to the cities.

Nations have repeatedly attempted to reverse the trend by reducing their respective carbon emissions. In the 1990s, they agreed to do so through the Kyoto Protocol; in the early 2000s, through the Millennium Development Goals; and now, through the Sustainable Development Goals. The Philippines has participated in all of these, promising carbon reduction. Our country’s latest pledge to the United Nations, submitted just this month, commits to a 70-percent reduction in our carbon emissions by 2030.

Yet here we are, building a diesel plant in Camiguin and a coal plant in Palawan and another one in Quezon. Former energy secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla had even said that 23 new coal plants could go online in the country by 2020. This, despite strong opposition from concerned citizens, community leaders and environmental advocacy groups; despite the doomsday scenarios and warnings; despite the combined powers of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Pope, and Al Gore.

The Philippines’ energy guidelines allow for a mix of various types of energy sources, but our continued reliance on nonrenewable energy is a wonder, considering that clean, renewable energy sources are now available and usable. France has mandated the use of solar panels in every new building. Sweden is on track to become 100-percent free of fossil fuel, highly utilizing hydropower and now focusing on solar and wind energy.

Developing countries can’t play the “poor” card on this issue. Costa Rica, for one, already gets 98 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. In addition, cost comparisons show that renewable electricity is becoming an affordable option—even more affordable than fossil fuels—in more and more markets.

One has to ask how, despite all these, coal and diesel plants are still popping up across the Philippines. By now, our public officials should at least have heard of the phrases “environmental impact” and “carbon emission,” and shown some regard for these. By now, voters should already be smart enough to seek climate action in the platforms of candidates. By now, the general population should be disturbed enough to help pressure policymakers and public offices against fossil fuels.

These are yet to be seen. The clock continues to tick while we slowly burn in our own gases. Are we so short-sighted that we are allowing the gradual destruction of the very place we live in in exchange for easy, conventional band-aid solutions?

But maybe that’s a tad too dramatic. Maybe we can sit back and just let those few advocacy groups do what they do. For now, let’s enjoy the uninterrupted broadcast of our favorite love team kissing in front of some holiday fireworks.

*** hyacinthjt@gmail.com