The Unnatural Natural Disasters

Typhoon Hagupit continues to slowly sweep across the Philippines, causing damage. Around a million people have taken shelter in evacuation centres. Fortunately this typhoon did not wreak the havoc or death that a typhoon named Haiyan did on 8 November 2013. One year on, the government is still rebuilding a province that was wiped out but the reconstruction is way too slow, dragged down by politics and corruption.

Tragically, Hagupit and Haiyan are unlikely to be occasional natural disasters to hit the Philippines, or any other country, as the global climate crisis intensifies. The result will be more and more destructive storms and similar environmental catastrophes are bound to happen.

‘Scientists have warned for decades that pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has and will continue to cause global average temperatures to rise and the result will be more and more extreme weather events,’ says Kristin Casper, a Legal Counsel for Campaigns and Actions at Greenpeace International in an article on the changing climate.

The culprit? The entire capitalist system and its greed for profits by making consumers consume more and more.

 Filipino documentary photographer, Jes Aznar, explains: 

“Capitalism’s relentless need to produce more products and profit has finally come to terms with the striking reality – we consume and become consumed, and the great industrialization’s effect on the environment has and will give a huge blow to poorer countries like this one.”