Baguio feeling the heat

THERE was a time when having an electric fan in the city was unheard of, but today, with the way the heat index is increasing, locals may have to invest in one to stay sane.

Temperature has gone to as high as 30 degrees, if the phone apps are accurate, something, only lowlanders can only dream of, but for locals, it is already scorching.

Weather in the highlands remain to be relatively cool as compared to areas where others reside but if highland weather becomes a barometer for the climate change phenomenon, then we are in big trouble.

Heat is creeping into the once cool and breezy summers the mountain resort was known for and electric fans are fast becoming a hot item.

Climate change is real and it is now felt by everyone in the planet. It’s cold where it's not supposed to be and hot where it's unheard of.

A taxi driver has put the heat crisis into a tangible perspective saying, after the dry spell, all the land which has been wrung dry will now experience rain... and when the rain comes... erosion will set in.

The driver said landslides will be experienced in the mountains if we do not irrigate our land… but laughed off his thought saying "paano mo didiligan ang bundok?" (how will you water the mountains).

We may laugh with him, but the thought of the logic he presented, in its simplicity ... is correct.

Statistics show, The Philippines is ranked number 1 in weather related events from 1994 to 2013, next only to Bangladesh and Vietnam, making the islands atop the list to countries experiencing weather related disaster.

Manong taxi driver has exemplified the extreme effect of climate change in the mountains. We wonder if our government has done the same.