Why Buy Pinoy? Part 2: Buying Local, Carbon Emissions, and Climate Change

A rescue worker in Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte. Catastrophic landslides hit the barangay in 2006. Photo from www.flickr.com/photos/remzamora/418662063/. (I believe Rem Zamora is a photojournalist for a major Philippine daily.)

I was planning to put off this entry to a later date, simply because I wanted to do more research first. However, two things spurred me to writing this entry today:

1. Today is EARTH DAY! Happy Earth Day, everyone!
2. The weather. 

It’s supposed to be the middle of the summer in our part of the world, Because we’re a tropical country, Philippine summers are very warm, with very little rainfall, but high humidity.

Today, however, is the second day that it has been raining–and not just summer shower rain, but torrential rain. The quality of the rains of the past two days make me think of July, the middle of the typhoon season. The sky in Metro Manila is completely gray. As I write this, I am in the MRT and the sky’s dimness makes it seem as if it were dusk, though it is just 2pm.

According to PAGASA meteorologists,* this is a highly unusual weather pattern, even worrisome. The present rains, they say, are due to an intertropical convergence zone in the atmosphere–but intertropical convergence zones form only after the warm season.

Yes, folks, the climate has already begun to change.

What does climate change, irregular weather patterns, and the Guinsaugon landslide have to to with buying Philippine-made products, you might ask?  You might be surprised–buying locally-made products have a lot to do with it.

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