Usec. Sering urges Surigaonons to act versus Climate Change

In preparation to prevent the outcome of climate change in the coastal City of Surigao, Atty. Mary Ann Lucille L. Sering, Undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), has urged the City LGU, barangay executives and the public to abide with their department’s strategies to cope with its projected ill-effects.

Usec. Sering was the guest speaker on Climate Change forum held at City Cultural Center last Tuesday afternoon wherein LGU and barangay officials including department heads of different government agencies also graced the briefing on Climate Change.

She said Surigao being a coastal city is most vulnerable of these effects and projected that the city, especially the low-laying areas, will be submerged into sea water in the future.

“This is one of the effects of climate change to our city. What we do now is to prevent these things to happen,” Sering said.

She told spectators of the two current strategies in solving the same which she identified as mitigation and adaptation.

According to her, mitigation of climate change would involve taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance efforts aimed at reducing the extent of global warming.

“These include reducing demand for emissions-intensive goods and services, increasing efficiency gains, increasing use and development of low-carbon technologies and reducing non-fossil fuel emission,”she explained.

Adaptation, on the other hand, was an adjustment response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects which would moderate any harm, she stressed.

“An example of an adaptation strategy is shore protection like dikes, bulkheads, dams for flood controls and so on – which can prevent sea level rise from inundating low-lying coastal property, eroding beaches, or worsen flooding,” she continued.

She added that for a poor country like ours which could not afford to build these costly structures, the planting of more mangroves in the shorelines would be ideal as it will prevent sea level to rise and likewise prevent tsunami.

Sering also asked the public to plant more trees in the city as it would absorb the carbon elements.

“Let us make something for the future of our successors. If we don’t act now, our children or grandchildren will suffer on the effects of climate change,” she concluded. (Agusan-Surigao Enquirer)

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