“If we truly care about the poor (and we do), we need to educate people to the tragedy a UN climate treaty would be for developing nations.Poor countries need freedom, energy, prosperity and the rule of law just as much as wealthy nations do. That message needs to get out.That’s why we’re in Peru.” Craig Rucker Executive Director CFACT
In 2012, Typhoon Bopha struck the Philippines while CFACT was at COP 18, the UN climate conference in Doha, Qatar. Filipino negotiator Yeb Sano made a tear-filled speech pleading for a global warming treaty.
Last year Typhoon Haiyan dealt the Philippines a devastating blow around the time CFACT was working at COP 19 in Warsaw. Sano responded with a hunger strike that stole the show.
A young global warming campaigner named Adam Greenberg fasted along “in solidarity” with Yeb for 13 days during that Warsaw event. Now today in Lima, Martin Kopp, “climate justice advocate” for the Lutheran World Federation, Mohamed Adow of Christian Aid, and Laura Vargas of the Inter-Religious Council of Peru joined Adam to announce a project called, “Fast for the Climate” at a press conference at the Pentagonito. Sano joined in via a pre-recorded video.
“People are living and dying and suffering,” Greenberg said. “During COP 19 the Philippines were slammed by a typhoon. The price we’re paying is in human lives.”
Phillipines typhoon chart
It’s a tear-jerking narrative, yet the problem is that the scientific data shows that Typhoons Haiyan and Bopha were natural weather events with no meaningful connection to global warming. The IPCC was unable to state a serious short-term link between typhoons and climate. Similarly, Typhoon Hagupit, which is headed for the Philippines this weekend, is a product of natural weather variability.
Severe storms often form in Southeast Asia this time of year. They did so before the industrial revolution and will continue to do so whether you drive a car and air condition your home, or not.