It is now almost Christmas and yet no strong typhoon has visited the Cordillera. This typhoon Ulysses whose winds are howling in Baguio City as this was being written is actually a lousy storm in terms of downpour. It was just a lot of howling cold wind, with light rain only.
And there was not enough rain in this supposed downpour season that usually started in June all the way to early or mid-November. What we had were just afternoon rains. There were none of those 24-hour strong rain for weeks and weeks causing houses and clothes to be moldy.
In recent memory, about a decade ago was when the longest rainy season hit us. The daily strong rains lasted up to the first week of December. It was good for our farmers and those in the lowland provinces around the foothills of the Cordillera. There were bountiful headwaters flowing from these mountains to the rivers that emptied themselves in the Ilocos provinces (including Abra— now a part of the Cordillera- La Union, and Pangasinan) all the way to the Cagayan Valley.
Now, the rivers would be dry right from the onset of the dry season, December to May, and plants will wilt, farms would, by force, be left to fallow. Perennial trees would not be as prolific as they would otherwise be.
Even our upland farmers would find traditional springs dry by Christmas or after a week or two. Vegetable farmers would just have to rely on whatever they could collect from the mist on mountain tops or on the early morning dew for their plants to survive.
A lot of rice paddies on our mountain sides would also not be viable to be farmed due to scarcity of irrigation water.
All this, can be summed up in a phrase, more economic difficulties to our people.
It is all due to climate change, which US President Donald Trump do not believe in. But for us it is very real, an in-your-face truth.
While we must do our part as individuals, it would take an honest to goodness global effort to reverse the effects of climate change in the coming years. And the most powerful country in the world which is also the biggest culprit when it came to emission of greenhouse gases, must lead the way. This can only happen if it is under the right leadership, not under a non-believer of climate change.**