Auckland Philippines Solidarity supports Russell Norman’s Typhoon Comments

Press Release: Auckland Philippines Solidarity

13 November 2013

Auckland Philippines Solidarity extends it support to Green Co-leader Russell Norman’s comments in Parliament that Typhoon Haiyan should be a wakeup call for countries around the World to take the threat of climate change seriously.

“The New Zealand government’s contribution of aid to the relief effort for Typhoon Haiyan is warmly welcomed. However, we should heed the warnings of Dr Norman and Yeb Sano, the Philippines’ lead negotiator at the current Warsaw climate talks, that the root causes of these catastrophic weather events must be tackled” said Cameron Walker, the spokesman for Auckland Philippines Solidarity.

“Dr Norman’s speech put the devastation in the Philippines into its proper context. As the lead Philippines negotiator at the Warsaw Climate change conference noted, emissions from across the World are leading to a higher frequency of catastrophic natural disasters. These disasters hit the poor in developing countries the hardest” Walker continued.

Last December Walker got caught in Typhoon Bopha whilst on an exposure with the Filipino trade union movement with workers in a banana plantation in the Compostela Valley, Southern Mindanao. The Valley was one of the areas of the Philippines hit the hardest by the Typhoon which cost well over a thousand lives.

“Filipino aid workers and residents of Compostela Valley I spoke while taking part in Typhoon Bopha relief efforts noted that Southern Mindanao had traditionally been thought to be below the ‘Typhoon belt’, yet in recent times it has been affected by increasingly violent weather to which they blamed global climate change.”

“The people of Compostela Valley are still suffering from the destruction of the Typhoon nearly one year on. The Philippines suffering has only been compounded by Typhoon Haiyan”.

“The National MPs who heckled Russell Norman showed a lack of understanding of the impact global environmental problems are having on the livelihoods of those in the developing World.

Instead of throwing childish insults at Dr Norman these MPs should reflect on what New Zealand can do to contribute to efforts that tackle the root causes of the global environmental and economic exploitation that are causing so much death and destruction in developing nations, such as the Philippines” Walker concluded.

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Auckland Philippines Solidarity is an organisation formed by New Zealanders and members of the Filipino community in 2008 to foster meaningful solidarity between New Zealanders and the human rights, trade union and other progressive movements in the Philippines.

https://www.facebook.com/PhilippinesSolidarity

http://aps-nz.org/

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