JOINT STATEMENT OF
MARIA LOURDES SAN DIEGO-MCGLONE, PhD Chemical Oceanography
LAURA DAVID, PhD Physical Oceanography
AND PORFIRIO ALIÑO, PhD Marine Chemical Ecology
We were invited by Ms. Veronica Cabe, a petitioner in the human rights and
climate change case to act as resource persons for the petitioners to explain ocean
acidification, sea level rise and the impacts of climate change on the marine
environment in the first public hearing of the case on March 27-28 at the
Commission on Human Rights in Quezon City, Philippines.
We agreed. Copies of our Curriculum Vitae are appended to this statement.
In our offices at the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute,
the legal representatives of the petitioners Attorneys Zelda Soriano and Hasminah
Paudac explained to us Maria Lourdes San Diego-McGlone and Laura David on 8
March 2018 and Perry Aliño on 15 March 2018 our role and the purpose of our
presentation. On our part, we described to Attorneys Soriano and Paudac the scope
of our presentation.
Considering that the topic is uncommon, technical and scientific, we agreed
to the legal representatives’ concern that interviewing us and documenting our
answers may not be easy and precise so we supplied to Attorneys Soriano and
Paudac the abstract of our joint presentation to serve as our joint statement.
The abstract is as follows...
Excerpt from Climate Change Impacts on Food Security from Marine Resources
L. David, T. dela Cruz, R. Azanza, M.L. McGlone
The specific values differ for each of the IPCC5 RCPs (Representative
Concentration Pathway Scenarios) but the CMIP5 models project that in the nearterm climate change scenario (2016-2035) the Western Equatorial Pacific region
shall experience significant increases in sea surface temperature (mean ocean
surface change of 0.5-0.75°C). Global sea-level rise is projected at 20-90 cm per
decade with the Western Equatorial Pacific region likely experiencing the higher of
these global estimates. Ocean pH is globally projected to decrease 0.1 unit in the
near-term. Slow persistent increase in ocean temperature have been associated to
distribution limit consequences of marine flora or fauna (Gaston, 2000; CarricartGanivet, 2004; Somero, 2010; Tittensor et al., 2010).
Temperature sensitive species will likely adapt to warming waters by
temporarily migrating to deeper waters or permanently migrating to higher
latitudes where temperatures will still be conducive for typical functioning. For
those that cannot migrate, the prediction is for negatively affected reproduction
and recruitment failures (Donelson et al. 2010, Ljunggren et al., 2010; Pankhurst
and Munday 2011).