DUTERTE BLAMES WEST, CHINA FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, FLOODS IN DAVAO CITY

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – “Don’t blame poor Filipinos for what’s wrong with the weather,” Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said as he lashed at critics who blamed illegal logging for the worst flooding that inundated some areas in Davao in water for the whole week.

“Every time there’s something wrong with the weather, you start to crucify the Filipinos, when we don’t have a significant contribution to what ails the weather. We contribute the least to global warming, blame the Western world, blame the US and China,” Duterte said, reacting to the crawler on a cable news network (ANC), which quoted environment groups as saying the “denudation of Mt. Apo contributed much to the recent flooding in Davao City.

Duterte, in his Sunday television program, said the volcanic peak of Mt. Apo had no trees in the first place. Mt. Apo had nothing to do with the recent flooding, he said.

Duterte said 89 million cubic meters of rainfall, an equivalent to a one-year production of drinking water of the Davao City Water District in the city, poured in the city in two days, causing the floods.
“We never contributed significantly as to alter the temperature of the planet, it was the Western World,” Duterte said.

“The rivers and tributaries overflowed,” Duterte said, adding that the flood came from the Lipadas and Davao watershed.

He said even if it was illegal logging, it was not the Filipinos who denuded large forest areas in Mindanao, citing South Cotabato, which was a virgin forest before American companies started logging operations that cleared away entire forests.

“Who were the first loggers in Mindanao? Those were Americans,” Duterte said. “Where are our trees? Of course, there were Filipinos, but at that time, it was considered legitimate.”
Duterte asked critics to look at the bigger picture, instead of automatically castigating poor Filipinos for what’s ailing the environment.

“The bigger picture is it was not us who destroyed the environment, we have the least of the contribution to climate change,” he said. “What caused the severe wind, velocity 200 kilometers per hour? It’s the climate. What’s the effect? Everything. Everyone had his share (of disasters) including New York,” he said.

“Do not believe these foreigners coming from the US and Europe to lecture on us about issues,” Duterte said.

But he defended those who developed housing subdivisions even in areas considered now as flood-prone and a catch basin for water. He said that the developers have been granted permit by the Housing Land Use and Regulatory Board (HLURB) in the first place, hence, did not have any choice but to develop the properties.

“Jade Valley (subdivision) was built what used to be a riverbed, so when the river overflowed, expect the water to get inside your house,” Duterte said.

Residents in flood-prone housing subdivisions, such as the Jade Valley Subdivision, had asked the vice mayor to intervene, hoping to put a stop to the payment of their housing mortgages within the subdivision, which developers carved out of the dried up riverbed and proved to be prone to flooding.

Cold-Blooded Tropical Species 'Not as Vulnerable' to Climate Change Extinction

In the face of a changing climate many species must adapt or perish. Ecologists studying evolutionary responses to climate change forecast that cold-blooded tropical species are not as vulnerable to extinction as previously thought. The study, published in the British Ecological Society’s Functional Ecology, considers how fast species can evolve and adapt to compensate for a rise in temperature.

The research, carried out at the University of Zurich, was led by Dr Richard Walters, now at Reading University, alongside David Berger now at Uppsala University and Wolf Blanckenhorn, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology at Zurich.
“Forecasting the fate of any species is difficult, but it is essential for conserving biodiversity and managing natural resources,” said lead author Dr Walters. “It is believed that climate change poses a greater risk to tropical cold-blooded organisms (ectotherms), than temperate or polar species. However, as potential adaptation to climate change has not been considered in previous extinction models we tested this theory with a model forecasting evolutionary responses.”
Ectotherms, such as lizards and insects, have evolved a specialist physiology to flourish in a stable tropical environment. Unlike species which live in varied habitats tropical species operate within a narrow range of temperatures, leading to increased dangers if those temperatures change.
“When its environment changes an organism can respond by moving away, adapting its physiology over time or, over generations, evolving,” said Walters. “The first two responses are easy to identify, but a species’ ability to adapt quick enough to respond to climate change is an important and unresolved question for ecologists.”
The team explored the idea that there are also evolutionary advantages for species adapted to warmer environments. The ‘hotter is better’ theory suggests that species which live in high temperatures will have higher fitness, resulting from a shorter generation time. This may allow them to evolve relatively quicker than species in temperate environments.
The team sought to directly compare the increased risk of extinction associated with lower genetic variance, owing to temperature specialization, with the lowered risk of extinction associated with a shorter generation time.
“Our model shows that the evolutionary advantage of a shorter generation time should compensate species which are adapted to narrow temperature ranges,” said Walters. “We forecast that the relative risk of extinction is likely to be lower for tropical species than temperate ones.”
“The tropics are home to the greatest biodiversity on earth, so it imperative that the risk of extinction caused by climate change is understood,” concluded Walters. “While many questions remain, our theoretical predictions suggest tropical species may not be as vulnerable to climate warming as previously thought.”

Source : Sciencedaily

Norwegian Minister for Environment praises Indonesia’s fight against climate change

Norway’s Minister for the Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim, has praised Indonesia’s commitment to the fight against climate change at today’s Forests Indonesia conference in Jakarta.

“The president has issued an overall policy about how Indonesia will combat climate change…what he has done today is a very positive step in making Indonesia a world leader in the fight against climate change.”

Solheim opened today’s conference Forests Indonesia: Alternative futures to meet demands for food, fibre, fuel and REDD+, hosted by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and in this video speaks of Norway’s involvement in the implementation of the bilateral agreement on REDD+, what Indonesia can learn from Brazil’s bilateral agreement and issues surrounding carbon offsets.

Source : http://blog.cifor.org