Bilateral Conversation with the Philippines

Nov 10, 2020 by Riley Herrod

The bilateral online conference that was conducted on the 4^th of November 2020 bought back some helpful information in understanding the climate crisis with our bilateral partner, the Philippines. The case study that the Philippines represented was there problem with the dolomite sand in the manila region. Like our case study revolving around unconventional gas mining that affects the greenhouse gas emissions, the dolomite sand extraction in the Philippines affects the respiratory system of the civilians that dwell near its exploration. Their PowerPoint was incredibly presented to an utmost standard, yet their difference to ours was that they focused on a large variety of climate induced problems facing their society, whereas we only focused on the single climate problem.

The Philippines COP class were explaining with extensive detail that the manila dolomite sand extraction was occurring on the island of Cebu, approximately 600 kilometres south of Manila and was shipped to Manila Bay at a high cost. However this, plan which was proposed to make the beaches in Manila more appealing, had some larger environmental problems. The sand is to replace the mangrove lined bays of Manila, on top of the mangroves contains some of the most rubbish choked waterways in the world. However the destruction of the mangroves makes the coastline extremely susceptible to typhoon damage, which is an extremely dangerous and expensive problem that will eventually need to be fixed.

The similarity between these two problems is that the both require government intervention to put an end to these climate problems. In regards to the unconventional gas mining in Australia, the CSIRO and the Federal government are enforcing particular measures to reduce the methane gas emissions from Coal Seam Gas (CSG) mining, Hydraulic fracturing and shale gas mining. The Philippines COP group have created a petition to stop the extraction of dolomite sands to destroy the Manila city Coastline.

The Philippines class also mentioned the ongoing deforestation and constant water pollution is still an ongoing climate threat in their country. In the 20^th century, they recorded a loss of 9.8 million hectares of rainforest and that 58 percent of ground water was contaminated not to mention that the Philippines was the second highest in the world of water contamination related deaths.

The Philippines’s showcase was extremely extensive on the climate induced problems that are a threat to their society and their environment. The PowerPoint was well presented and the students knew what they were talking about.