Chapter 24 - Climate Change and Typhoons in the Philippines: Extreme Weather Events in the Anthropocene

Abstract

The Philippines are one of the world’s most typhoon impacted places. There is strong scientific consensus that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change and that this is contributing to stronger typhoons due to higher sea surface temperatures and higher subsurface sea temperatures, which remove the natural buffer on typhoon strength occasioned when cold water up wells from below the ocean’s surface. These stronger typhoons carry more moisture, track differently, move faster and will be aggravated by sea level rise, one of the most certain consequences of climate change. The Philippines, with its large and rapidly growing population, are vulnerable to stronger typhoons and this vulnerability is exacerbated by localized environmental degradation. Ultimately, a discussion of climate injustice must be undertaken because, while the Philippines are vulnerable to typhoons augmented by climate change, the Filipino people bear a disproportionately low responsibility for causing climate change.