Crazy Cool Climate

the greenie patch

by Jeneen R. Garcia

to be published on February 26, 2006

 

 

This week at the greenie patch, things are pretty sad, as we continue to hear about the lolos, lolas, parents, and kids as young as you who have been buried by the landslide in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte.

 

The people in the town say that the landslide was caused by the rain that pounded on the mountain every day for two weeks, making the soil soft and unstable. Our weather officials tell us that this kind of rain that never seems to stop is caused by La Niña, a weather phenomenon where the Pacific Ocean becomes unusually cool. The cool ocean temperature creates more typhoons and strong winds than usual in our part of the world. Its opposite is what we call the El Niño, when there is less rain and more droughts.

 

La Niña and El Niño are natural climate patterns that happen every few years. But scientists studying these patterns tell us that El Niño has been coming more and more often in recent years. The dry seasons are getting hotter. The typhoons are also getting stronger and more frequent. La Niña this year will hit our country during summer. Can you imagine going to the beach for a tan and getting drenched instead by a downpour? Our ocean temperatures must be going bonkers!

 

One possible reason for this could be climate change, or the crazy changes in our Earth’s climate patterns caused by the build-up of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide, methane, and others--form a blanket around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and doing weird things to the ocean’s temperature.

 

But where do greenhouse gases come from? They come from us human beings! When we burn trash, ride cars or cut down trees, we produce carbon dioxide; when we let food rot in the garbage, we produce methane.

 

And since we do these things every day, what are we to do? Let’s not lose hope! Visit the greenie patch next month to find out how you can help reduce the greenhouse gases and prevent these crazy climate changes.

==========

had to cut this short because of the word limit (which i've already exceeded).

incidentally, i was at st. bernard two and a half years ago to give a training, and even wrote an article on the place. the time it took to get there and back was longer than my stay, but i remember it as a serene place, with their municipal hall on top of a hill overlooking the bay. and now one of their barangays no longer exists. wow. in ten minutes.