KAMAYAN FORUM Oct.21 Climate Change – What is to be Done?

Throughout the world, the Philippines ranks third in the list of countries most vulnerable to climate change, a study by a United Nations agency and a German organization has warned, in a report published last week by Philippine Daily Inquirer.

It also estimated their susceptibility to damage based on the state of their economy and infrastructure, and the countries’ ability to respond to these disasters through preparedness measures and early warning systems. It also studied their ability to adapt to future disasters due to climate change. Filipino scientists said the Philippines would get more rains in the coming years due to climate change.

In this context, the 21-year old Kamayan para sa Kalikasan monthly environmental forum will discuss the progress and obstacles of climate change education in its 260th session on Third Friday, October 21, 2011, with the head of the Philippine Climate Change Commission, Sec. Lucille Sering, as main resource person. Commissioner Heherson T. Alvarez is also expected to come. Other invited speakers will be coming from among leaders of the nationwide and local environmental conservation organizations. All concerned citizens, whether or not members of such groups are invited to join the forum. ….

Kamayan para sa Kalikasan has been convened on the third Friday of every month (10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.) through free lunch since March 1990. It has never missed a scheduled session since it was started then by the Clear Communicators for the Environment (CLEAR).

In 2002, CLEAR was joined as co-convenor by the SanibLakas ng mga Aktibong Lingkod ng Inang Kalikasan (SALIKA), headed by Marie Reyes-Marciano, founding president, who has been the forum’s lead moderator since that year. It has been fully sponsored all these 21 years by the Kamayan-Saisaki-Dads Restaurant along EDSA, near the SEC/Ortigas area, in Mandaluyong City, which has also been its regular venue.

CLEAR Vice President Ed Aurelio Reyes, the forum’s lead organizer, said CLEAR and SALIKA are hoping that the people who come to the forum would bring out with them and radiate among all the people within their respective spheres of influence the spirit of understanding, unity and passionate environmental advocacy that pervades the forum’s sessions.

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