CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT: Now, I am a believer!

The AFP Climate Change Summit held last December 7, 2015 at the AFP Theater inside Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, has made a believer out of me. Although I have heard about climate change and all its devastating effects on our planet, I have not given much attention to it. Like many other Filipinos, who are pressed down by so many other domestic concerns, I have totally abandoned the thought of it and have given up to the "experts" in the government and to those attending the COP 21 in Paris the pleasure of finding solutions to this eminent danger. The organizers have done well in creating awareness on the issue of "climate change" and in tapping the right persons to discuss and explain the situation to more than a thousand participants. Thanks to the able leadership of MGEN JOSELITO E KAKILALA AFP, Civil Relations Service (CRS), for putting all things together, and finding possible solutions in addressing climate change.

Now, I am worried! I cannot close my eyes and just pretend everything is fine and okay. Shall I bury my head in the sand and ignore the coming catastrophe? ASEC Dingdong Dantes III of National Youth Commission pointed out that we cannot stop it, we cannot change it, and we cannot escape from it. We can only minimize its harmful effects. BGEN FERMIN DE LEON AFP (Ret), current President of National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP), summon everybody to "stop talking and start acting" on solutions to climate change. Ms. Gina Lopez-Roy of ABS-CBN Inc. and "Bantay Kalikasan", the darling of the crowd, has affected everybody in her dismay to the abuses done to our environment and even blamed Engr. Digna Pacis of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for allowing open-pit mining in the country which destroys our forest, to this she later apologize after realizing that she was barking up the wrong tree. What can I possibly do? Now that I've learned from the summit that our beloved country, the Philippines, is sitting in the pacific ring of fire, where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. It is alarming to know that we are now next to Tonga and Vanuatu as the most vulnerable countries to the catastrophic effects of climate change. Experts told us that climate patterns has dramatically change the last few decades due to global warming caused by too much carbon emission to the atmosphere. Because of these, frequent and extreme weather conditions happen to many places causing havoc and damages to lives and properties. Our local authorities have attributed recent natural calamities such us "Ondoy" and "Yolanda" to this global warming. One speaker even said, "If the earth is an ice-cream, we are already melting."

Many solutions have been proposed to tackle this issue of climate change. The #NowPH campaign from the youth sector "aims to gather one million signatures to call for bold climate actions to prevent a 2-degree Celsius increase in global temperatures for this year's climate talks in Paris, France". Big economies such as the USA and China, the known polluters of the world, because of their massive industrialization, were persuaded to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions in order to give our stressed planet a break, while billionaires like Bill Gates and other philanthropies are pushing for clean and reusable energy by harnessing solar power and wind energy. Planting trees, reforestation and caring for the environment are some initiatives taken by our local executives to contribute to the suggested solutions. The case of a small town in Camotes Island, Cebu who suffered zero casualties during the onslaught of Typhoon Yolanda is very interesting to note. The mayor of that town instituted a "purok system", involving everyone to maintain the cleanliness and the peace of their barangay and prepare them for effective disaster response. The Manobo Tribe on their part has given us a "template" on how good governance and caring for their natural resources will prevent landslides and flash-floods. The National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council (NDRRMC) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are now becoming proactive; they would not like to be caught off-guard in the event of emergencies, disasters and calamities, so instead of saving lives they would prevent the loss of lives.

No one called for God's help! I come from the Office of the Chief Chaplain Service (OTCCS), under the command and guidance of BGEN TIRSO DOLINA AFP, and I am representing the religious sector; I just wonder why "none" from the many resource speakers from morning till late in the afternoon have considered God's intervention. They have crossed God out of the equation. If the issue of Climate Change is so huge and really beyond human why are we not calling the hotline number JER33:3? Those invited by the Civil Relations Service (CRS) to speak in the summit were all very intelligent and truly informative and some were really entertaining but they are all like doomsday preachers because they failed to see that it was God who change the climate, the "wind and the waves" obey Him. Man for his part is blamable for his abuses on the environment, but God is still in control, He's calling the shots! In the days of Moses and Joshua, God stopped the earth from turning making the Sun to appear like standing still, God stop the earth from spinning in response to their prayer of deliverance. The CRS people should have invited the likes of the Prophet Elijah the Tishbite, who can pray to GOD for fire to devour the false prophets and pray again for torrents of rain to drench the land who suffered three and a half years of changed climate. May I then propose yet another solution to climate change, let PRAYER be made to the Lord of Heaven and Earth, persuading HIM earnestly to reverse back to 2 degrees Celsius the earth's temperature in order to arrest global warming. Let this proposed solution be taught to children at home and in school. God did this before during the time of King Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:8) when he reverses the earth's position 10 degrees backwards as proof of HIS omnipotence.

MAJOR FEDERICO A GULLE JR CHS (Res)
Office of the Chief Chaplain Service
Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo
Quezon City