One year ago today, November 8, 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to hit land, devastated the Philippines. Powerful winds and seven meter high storm surges killed as many as 7,300 people and forced a million families from their homes. A year later thousand of people are still homeless.
The chief climate negotiator from the Philippines Yeb Saño delivered a speech to the U.N. climate summit in Doha following the devastating Typhoon Bopha that killed some 1,100. "In Doha, we asked, 'If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?' In the wake of Haiyan one year later in Warsaw," Saño said: "What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness. We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw."
Super storms like Typhoon Haiyan are the true face of the fossil fuel industry and unless we can rein in this rogue industry we will see even more record breaking storms. We know that fossil fuels are the leading cause of climate change and we must work to reduce our consumption and the emissions they cause.
The people of the Philippines are on the front lines of climate change and they are rising up and demanding climate justice. We must stand with them in their call for climate justice. They are at the forefront of a global movement calling for responsible governance and they need our support. Be part of the global movement to stand together and say that we will not let storms like Haiyan become a way of life; we will stand together for climate action.
Last January 25th over 20,000 people came together in the Philippines for the Peoples Surge Rally. This call for climate justice is being reenacted on the anniversary of Haiyan. Hundred of people are staging a protest walk that will take them from Manilla to Tacloban City, the epicenter of the super-storm.
"We work with the local government and make them commit to implement disaster risk reduction management and climate change adaptation measures into making resilient communities. We walk for every Filipino whose lives and livelihood are at stake; for every country like the Philippines that has been damaged and continues to be damaged by climate change and its impacts.We walk to show world leaders that we refuse for Haiyan to be our way of life"
People Surge, an alliance of victims, organizations & individuals of the typhoon, has been mobilizing around the anniversary. They are preparing a two-day rally in Tacloban City for the anniversary wherein 20,000 participants who are survivors of calamities from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are expected.
With the aim of letting them know that we are with them, 350.org has organized a message campaign. Their fight is our fight. We are a global movement and we must stand together with those who are being devastated by climate change.
Click here to add your message.
You can help by donating to the Climate Relief fund which delivers 100 percent of the money raised will go to the Citizens Disaster Response Center (CDRC). Click here to donate.
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