Members of the Citizen Participatory Audit team of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific attended three-day workshop on climate change facilitated by former United States Vice President and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore.
Held at the Sofitel from March 14 to 16, 2016, the workshop was organized by Climate Reality Philippines. More than 700 representatives of various government agencies and civil society organizations — including ANSA-EAP’s Gladys Selosa, Kristin Mae Baltazar, Sandra Mae Laureano and Adelle Chua – participated in the workshop in which Gore provided an updated lecture version of “The Inconvenient Truth” which he had produced ten years ago.
For its MAVC-funded phase, CPA will look into how disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) funds are spent in various local government units, specifically in Tuguegarao and Albay.
Gore established the link between the warm atmosphere and extreme weather events. A staggering 93 percent of the additional heat is trapped in the oceans, and the warmer oceans evaporate more water vapor into the skies. He described these as “atmospheric rivers” that unleash record downpours, resulting in unprecedented flooding and devastation in communities.
At the same time, the heat trapped in the atmosphere also siphons moisture off of the land, causing forest fires and equally unprecedented drought. These phenomena breed food and water shortages, geopolitical instability and disease
But even as Gore narrated how bad the situation has become, something can still be done and humankind can still reverse the trend through the use of renewable energy.
Participants also learned how to become better communicators of the climate issue so that they could cascade the message to the people in communities – those who need the knowledge most.