Solar SOS
If I could, I’d be crossing my fingers as I write this column because I haven’t had electricity since last night. A glimmer of hope as well as a distraction: Meralco has been sending in a truck and working on the electric lines, raising hopes that electricity will come within an hour, so I’ll be able to send the column.
And as I turn out the column, I think of how the outages (“brownouts” in Filipino English) remind us of our dependence on energy generated by fossil fuels, and how this is likely to worsen in the months ahead, another one of the terrible consequences of “King” Trump taking over the world.
The more visible adverse effects of Trump’s rule have been the tariffs and his draconian measures against immigration, but people forget he is also reversing the gains made in the global war against global warming. He does not believe in climate change, claiming scientists are lying about this gargantuan problem. His government has dismantled programs and cut back on the budget of agencies monitoring climate change. The cutbacks take many forms and use many excuses. Windmills are being dismantled because, Trump says, they’re ugly.
Support for solar energy, through research, as well as government subsidies and tax rebates for people who go solar, has been particularly alarming. I sense less interest in alternative energy from both the private and public sectors.
The typhoons and electric outages we had recently revived interest in solar energy. I visited one shop and went home with two boxloads of gadgets, including some intended for Christmas gifts. Some were really cute, like light bulbs that you can hang without being wired or plugged in. Akari, which teamed up with the varsity consortium University Athletic Association of the Philippines, has lots of instant gifts for Christmas, including solar-powered flashlights for scuba diving, timely gifts for one daughter and a friend. Akari does offer many two-for-one promotions.
This year’s international climate conference is so fraught with anxieties as international scientists point out the world hasn’t fulfilled its targets for lowered temperatures. But Trump and other world leaders have pooh-poohed these delays.
Enter billionaire Bill Gates, who has supported campaigns to fight climate change, recently declaring that while climate change is a serious problem, we shouldn’t be too alarmist, practically dismissing doomsday scenarios. I’ve never liked scare tactics either, whether for changing health behavior or for climate change activism, but Gates’ downplaying the long-term consequences of climate change comes across as almost hypocritical because even if climate change isn’t going to see the end of the world, we do know that it is an issue that is class-biased.
For one, the worst effects come from the rich countries and the upper classes in each country. Just compare the carbon footprint, i.e., the consumption of fossil fuels, by looking at the electric bills of the rich compared with those living in urban slums. I’ve seen bills from one Makati “village” subdivision household running into thousands of pesos per month, while a low-income family’s bill is just a few hundred pesos.
Then, too, as we’ve seen the last few weeks, the impact of the floods—a complex interaction of graft and corruption, poor flood control infrastructure, and people just not caring about the garbage problem that clogs our waterways—has its worst effects on the poor. Look at the photos and you’ll find “climate injustice,” a term that should be introduced in schools and in the mass media, is class-based even across species. I’m seeing so many photos in the mass media showing people cradling their dogs and cats as they seek safety and refuge.
Just a warning ahead about the animal apocalypse that we also need to prepare for, in the United States and Europe, disaster preparedness for rescue agencies now includes training to rescue farm and zoo animals. I was laughing while reading about the French figuring out how to rescue cows. Then I thought of the challenges in the Philippines: how do you rescue pigs and carabaos from floodwaters, with or without solar lanterns? (The French are prepared for rescuing goldfish among the pets, which shouldn’t be a problem for us!)
Back to solar, the costs need to be brought down further for more households, offices, and rescue agencies to afford the technologies for our disaster SOS needs. But that won’t happen as long as governments don’t care or don’t believe that the threats are real and imminent. Good luck to all of us.
—————-
michael.tan@inquirer.net
