The poor suffer most from global warming

Fr. Shay Cullen

IT is the poor that suffer the most from global warming. They are in despair of escaping poverty, and they endure the unbearable life in the slums where the incredible heat relentlessly beats down on them. With average temperatures ranging from 36 to 40 degrees Celsius this past week and a heat wave for several weeks, we ask, is this the impact of climate change, and will it be like this more frequently?

According to climatologists, the answer is yes. We are in for a hotter climate, and the poor suffer the effects more acutely than the better off. Drought is one of the worst effects, causing a failure of harvests, loss of crops, less food, more malnutrition, longer sickness and children unable to go to school. The outdoor workers are exhausted from the extreme heat.

We can hear the climate experts saying, “We told you so; 2023 was the hottest year in recorded history, and 2024 may be even hotter.” Are they the prophets of doom, or are they our ignored, rejected saviors? They are voices of truth crying in the wilderness, begging governments and industry to listen and act intelligently to save the planet. They advise the power brokers of the world, political and industrial leaders, to phase out coal, oil and gas and rush the construction of more renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydro and geothermal power plants.

The Philippines has an abundance of this “free” source of energy given by nature, but it requires investment. The Philippines’ environmental law has given generous tax and other incentives to investors to build renewable power plants across the nation, such as low-income tax holiday (ITH) and import tax exemption on the equipment, spare parts and needed materials for construction. There is an exemption from VAT payments, and they can employ foreign experts and get a green light through Customs. That, however, may flicker, knowing the inability of some customs officials to resist temptation. For them, the delay means more pay.

Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla has a mighty challenge to make renewable power plants a reality to save the Philippines from the worst of global warming. In December 2023, the secretary awarded 27 permits to corporations to proceed with solar plants in the Pangasinan towns of Burgos, Labrador, Aguilar, Villasis, Anda, Mabini, Binalonan, Sison, Umingan and Calasiao. In Santa Barbara, there are the Solar Project 1 and 2, which One Manaoag Solar Corp. is building in the towns of Santa Barbara and Mapandan. Then there is Ayala Corp. Solar, through its partner ACEN, which is building the 60-megawatt (MW) Santo Domingo Solar Power Project in San Manuel town, Aboitiz’s 94-MW Cayanga-Bugallon Solar Power Project in Bugallon town and the 3 Barracuda Energy Corp.’s 530-MW in Bugallon. In Zambales, Ayala, ACEN, and Aboitiz have solar plants underway. They are being challenged to replant all the trees and more that they cut down in Zambales.

I ask readers to please message me if they see any construction of solar power plants in the countryside near their towns. Messenger: @predaforchildren. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/predaforchildren/ Hotline: 0917 532 4453.

Given the fact that the world is ruled more by the power of greed than the love of people and the environment upon which we all depend for life, the power brokers, money moguls and billionaire tycoons of industry will never give up burning fossil fuels. Despite the demand of a majority of people worldwide calling on them to save the planet and all species, including the human species, they refuse. That will never happen in my lifetime since the bosses of the giant oil corporations, with the help of their paid-for politicians and media hacks, block all change.

While the politicians and captains of industry mouth support for the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP29) that will convene from November 11 to 22 in Baku, Azerbaijan, they have ignored the resolutions of COP28 that called for a phase-out of fossil fuels. For them, they were just resolutions of desirable hopes, and they were convinced that it would never happen because they would not let it happen.

Here is why in the United States’ 38 million people, that is, 11.6 percent of the population, live at or below the poverty line and receive minimum welfare help while the government continues to dole out massive sums of taxpayers’ money to the biggest US corporations named among the Fortune 500, including fossil fuel suppliers earning a whopping $325 billion.

Besides massive earnings and being mega-rich, they are still receiving more than $100 billion a year in handout subsidies. The congressional representatives and senators most likely receive reelection donations from these corporations that they so generously gift with $100 billion of taxpayers’ money while millions live and suffer below the poverty line. That is a hypocrisy that tastes like poison.

There are subsidy payments also made to EU-selected corporations to the tune of 55 billion euros a year. If only the EU Commission would stop that immoral handout program to the rich and invest that 55 billion euros, it could use the interest to create jobs for the thousands of needy migrants wanting protection, support and work.

Most of the cash-out payments in America are given to fossil fuel corporations to drill for more oil in the states where the powerful politicians who approve the subsidies have personal interests in the industry. It is conservatively estimated that from the $100 billion hand-outs, the fossil fuel corporations get about $20 billion. So, why would they want to phase out their lucrative businesses just because the earth is getting too much sun? The $20 billion is divided among the fossil fuel producers (80 percent) — the natural gas and oil companies — and 20 percent to the coal industry.

Only when there are a million renewable energy plants in the world to replace the fossil fuel power plants will there be a chance to phase out fossil fuels.

At present, China leads with 1,142 coal-fired power plants. India has 282, the US 214, Japan 91, Indonesia 91, Russia 68, Germany 58, Poland 43, Turkey 34, Ukraine 34, and the Philippines 26. This is the challenge facing the world today. In the Philippines, the government and energy corporations must implement as many renewable plants as possible and phase out coal. It’s not only a matter of economic and environmental urgency but a serious moral obligation to protect the poor and disadvantaged. What greater good can one do than to serve the poor and save the planet?

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