Babe's Eye View article

Former US vice president Al Gore went for broke when he warned about the dangers of global warming. We used to say "Gore for broke"—and he was absolutely right. Climate change is upon us, and we're all feeling it. Of course, no one could predict how much worse things could be—but everyone knows it, everyone sees it, everyone feels it.

Parts of England have been battered by heavy rains for a month, causing floods that have forced thousands to leave their homes, and authorities have acknowledged global warming as the culprit. United Nations officials admit that erratic rainfalls plus rising sea levels will cause extreme weather changes particularly in Asia, parts of Africa and Latin America. Heat waves are hitting other parts of the world, with the United States experiencing continuous hot weather for the past nine years, the hottest of which was felt last year.

The ice is melting in Greenland while in Chad in Africa, a big lake dried up. The rising temperature is causing an upsurge in diseases. In fact, even the sudden population explosion of cats is being attributed to global warming and needless to say, the unabated human population explosion in this country has already made an impact on the environment.

No question, drought is probably one of the worst natural disasters that can ever happen to a country, which could spell hunger and more suffering for people. South Africa is among those hardest hit, with hundreds of thousands in Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe facing extreme hunger because of the drought. We're lucky that we have so many islands and so-called food baskets that could help mitigate the effects of a prolonged dry spell. But there's really no telling up to what extent the dry spell could hit the Philippines. La Union has been declared under a state of calamity, while way below normal rainfall has been recorded in Metro Manila, the Cordilleras and parts of Ilocos.

More than ever, we have to prepare for the consequences of this looming crisis. Let's not make the mistake of reacting to the problem—rather, we have to be proactive in preparing for this potentially major crisis which could have untold disastrous consequences. Authorities are resorting to cloud seeding to avert a looming water crisis, but this is just a temporary solution which could have harmful effects. Experts point out that salt is toxic both to land and water. Even the Chinese are trying cloud seeding techniques, but this has backfired with reports of cloud seeding shells and rockets damaging homes and hurting people. Fooling around with nature could have more disastrous consequences, and we certainly don't want to complicate a potentially critical situation.

In fairness to GMA, she has been warning everyone to start conserving water and energy, and this time, she's not crying wolf. While Malacañang denies seeking emergency powers, I think they should go ahead and ask for it since this problem is more serious than people think. Let's stop hemming and hawing and debating whether GMA needs emergency powers or if she already has sufficient powers to address the situation. We have a serious crisis which could cripple the country and bring it down to its knees. This may be the one time when we have to bring in our strong Christian faith and pray for Divine intervention.

Even if the prolonged dry spell does not end in drought, the country still faces a possible energy crisis down the road perhaps even earlier than the next three years. There has been so much talk about an energy crisis, but we have not really tapped alternative sources, which is quite ironic considering that the Philippines has such a great potential for clean and reliable sources of energy like geothermal, wind, solar, hydro, and biomass—which could lessen our dependence on imported oil.

There's also the specter of thinning coal reserves, with the National Transmission Corporation placing power distribution utilities on red alert, and the possibility of intermittent power interruptions in several provinces as a result. We certainly don't want to go back to those "dark years" in the '90s when the whole nation suffered through 12-hour blackouts. Businessmen have already warned about the growing population which places such a high demand on resources, and have been urging the government to speed up the construction of additional power plants to ensure a stable supply of energy into the country.

As a matter of fact, a year ago, Federico "Piki"' Lopez of the Meralco Lopez clan warned about a possible power shortage sooner than the government-projected period of 2008-2009 because of a supply shortfall. Lopez said the country needed to attract new investments in the power sector. We may be a bit late since, at least, four years plus billions of dollars are needed to build new power generation plants. We need to move now.

Vince Perez who was at the US Embassy lunch told me he was worried about the situation and initially promised to brief me. He has not answered his cellphone so, I guess, he chickened out. It's unfortunate since the former energy secretary probably knows the real score and he could have been more candid about the situation, but I guess he's deathly afraid of his former boss.

Let's stop giving undue attention to issues like who will head the Blue Ribbon Committee or this Noli Eala disbarment for having a relationship with a married woman. We have a more serious problem in our hands than all these peccadilloes. This crisis could put us to the test—a test for survival and could literally bring us down to our knees—praying for a miracle.