determination, and hard work— only to be washed away in the hungry storm
surge of typhoon Yolanda (internationally known as Haiyan). The same super
typhoon displaced a youth survivor [Marielle Bacason] who was forced to stand
up for her family at a young age and work overseas, enduring loneliness, just to
help provide food on the table.
Far away from the countryside, we also heard about how climate change
impacts people’s lives in the cities. A surgeon who temporarily and frighteningly
lost the use of her hands after infection from an unheard of mosquito-borne
disease after a typhoon. The jeepney driver who reaches for his bottle of water,
already forced by the extreme heat to work shorter hours and stretch a smaller
income. The way extreme heat and air pollution stress the human body beyond
its ability to cope.
And we have heard too many stories from all over the country, just like
yesterday and today from Amalia Baihan and Honeylyn Gonzales, of those who
have lost their children, parents, brothers and sisters, friends, and neighbors they
love to ever fiercer typhoons and tropical cyclones, the shadows of which
continue to steal their peace of mind long after their loved ones have been laid
to rest and life returns to some semblance of normal. They have prompted us to
ask, is this the kind of life our children and their children will lead— living in the
shadow of fear and want?
You might have noticed that what they want most from life is not riches or
fame; they want what we all want: to feel safe, to have enough to eat, medicine
when they are sick, a home to lay their heads down every night, to have work, to
get an education, to send their children to school so they might enjoy better lives,
to pass their culture down to the next generation, to realize a dream. Freedom
from fear, freedom from want— dignity. In reality, these are basic human rights,
so basic that we cannot help but question why they seem to be elusive, a farfetched dream to many Filipinos?
Some would call these hardships a tragedy. Just “the way it is,” the hand
of destiny, the cards some are dealt. A favorite narrative of some Carbon Majors
is that “everyone is responsible for climate change.” But to take that view would
be to ignore big, inconvenient questions that loom around it: the responsibilities
and obligations of those who have a hand in dealing those cards. It would be
easy to dismiss these as too hard and impossible to answer. But the petitioners are
boldly asking these questions. They are asking who is responsible— legally and
morally.
It is important to remember that these stories of indignity piled upon injustice
were the result of conscious decisions and decisions not to act by the Carbon
Majors. At some point, a few people in positions of power, effectively decided it
Closing Statement for the Petitioners | 2