{"id":860,"date":"2017-02-14T17:13:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T09:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/master.k8s.p4.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/press\/860\/love-in-the-time-of-climate-change\/"},"modified":"2021-12-01T20:40:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:40:08","slug":"love-in-the-time-of-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/press\/860\/love-in-the-time-of-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Love in the time of climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How two women are using love as a transformative tool in the face of humanity\u2019s biggest\u00a0heartbreaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A lot has been said about Filipinos\u2019 resiliency, friendliness and ability \u2013 maybe penchant, even \u2013 to laugh and make jokes even when faced with the utmost adversity. We are\u00a0constantly in the list of top countries when it comes to disasters, corruption and vulnerable\u00a0sectors. And yet we are also in the top lists when it comes to social media, wiring money\u00a0home and connecting to friends and loved ones in general. We have the largest and most\u00a0extended of families. We\u2019re a people who grow our nests rather than leave them.<\/p>\n

And so I think the defining characteristic of Filipinos is not exactly resiliency, but rather\u00a0something deeper \u2013 our capacity to love. This is the thing that has kept us going and\u00a0eventually smiling through the worst challenges as a people.<\/p>\n

The writer Sherwin Nuland, once said: If you want to talk about what motivates people to\u00a0keep existing as a community, you\u2019ve got to talk about love.<\/p>\n

A mother\u2019s love<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is true for Ate* Elma, 42, who has lived her whole life in the idyllic coastal municipality\u00a0of Alabat, Quezon, but has had to relocate because of climate change impacts on her\u00a0livelihood.<\/p>\n

It was in the town of Villa Norte that Ate Elma fell in love and got married. She describes\u00a0herself as a \u2018simpleng mamamayan\u2019, (humble citizen) subsisting on selling vegetables and\u00a0fish from their farm and fishing grounds. It was a happy, simple life for her, her husband\u00a0and their growing family: two young children, 9 and 7 years old, and another baby on the\u00a0way.<\/p>\n

In recent years, however, she recounts how the fish catch greatly declined in Villa Norte.\u00a0This affected their livelihood, and \u2014 climate change being a threat multiplier \u2014 also\u00a0affected her children\u2019s health and education. Heartbroken but resolute, she and her\u00a0husband decided to pack up and move to a nearby island.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi madali yung desisyon, pero para naman ito sa kinabukasan ng mga bata. Dumadali\u00a0yun desisyon kapag iniisip ko na para sa kinabukasan nila ito,\u201d Elma tells me.<\/p>\n

(\u201cThe decision wasn\u2019t easy, but it was for our children. It became easier when I thought\u00a0about giving them a better future.\u201d)<\/p>\n

This love for her children extended to her community. Having seen firsthand the effects of\u00a0climate change not only on her neighbors, but on her own children, she stood up to be a\u00a0voice for the people around her and for future generations. She takes part in leading\u00a0community mobilizations which propel the people to fight for climate justice. People can\u00a0get into all the different arguments about approaches on how to deal with climate change,\u00a0but sometimes it just boils down to your love for the children and the generations to come.<\/p>\n

A daughter comes home<\/strong><\/p>\n

Identified as the deadliest storm on record to ever make landfall anywhere, Typhoon\u00a0Haiyan (locally, \u201cYolanda\u201d) left a trail of broken hearts in its wake. It certainly did not spare\u00a0Joanna Sustento, 25, who lost her parents, her eldest brother and sister-in- law, and her\u00a0dear nephew, Tarin, who was just three years old when the typhoon struck.<\/p>\n

Kuya* Duke, Joanna\u2019s brother, also survived Haiyan, and she admits that she feels much,\u00a0much closer to him now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to fight all the time, but after losing our entire family, our instinct to protect each\u00a0other and to be there for each other came about so naturally. Tragedy and loss has a way of\u00a0reminding you of what\u2019s important in the end,\u201d reflects Joanna.<\/p>\n

Such clarity and self-regard did not come easy though. For a time after the tragedy, she\u00a0avoided seeing relatives and friends because she did not want to be pitied. \u201cI was placed in\u00a0this awkward position where they didn\u2019t know what to say or how to act around me,\u201d she\u00a0muses.<\/p>\n

Dealing with incredible feelings of pain and guilt, with most of her family gone, she turned\u00a0to writing for solace. There, she found catharsis. Writing became a conduit for healing, and\u00a0gave her the chance to organize all her thoughts and feelings amidst the whirlpools of\u00a0sorrow.<\/p>\n

When the opportunity came to share her story to the public, she said yes, not yet realizing\u00a0how much it would change her.<\/p>\n

She explains, \u201cI realized that the more I opened myself up to people, the more I told my\u00a0story, the braver I became.\u201d Storytelling became her home. Whether it tested her strength,\u00a0or made her smile, she continues to embrace it to this day.<\/p>\n

Her love story has also broadened to include those outside of her immediate circle. A\u00a0mindset, which, she admits, was not present pre-Haiyan.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, my ambitions were just limited to putting up and operating my own business. I\u00a0was only thinking of myself, and what I wanted. I didn\u2019t really think of myself as someone\u00a0who could contribute to the community. My ambitions were limited to only what I thought\u00a0I could possibly achieve, it was focused on me, and my family\u2019s security alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when Haiyan happened, I realized that we should dream for something bigger than\u00a0ourselves. We should remember that we are all connected. Race, religion, culture and\u00a0tradition may separate us, but all of us cry over the same things<\/strong>. When the tragedy\u00a0happened, it left my community broken but I came to love it even more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that if all of us could have this passion and love for our own communities, we\u00a0would strive to do what\u2019s best for our home,\u201d Joanna added.<\/p>\n

I have not been the same since meeting Ate Elma and Joanna \u2013 a mother and a daughter\u00a0whose biggest heartbreaks were caused by climate impacts, but whose love for community\u00a0was brought to the fore. Theirs are stories of love that need to be retold, as these are\u00a0beautiful reminders of finding strength and hope. Theirs is a story of rising above the\u00a0challenge of climate impacts.<\/p>\n

*Ate = \u201cBig sister\u201d; Kuya=\u201dBig brother\u201d<\/em><\/pre>\n
Desiree Llanos Dee is Climate Justice campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n            \t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDemand climate justice\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Filipinos are enduring the worst impacts of climate change, caused by greedy corporations. It’s time to hold them to account!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t                                    \n                        TAKE ACTION\n                    <\/a>\n                \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How two women are using love as a transformative tool in the face of humanity\u2019s biggest\u00a0heartbreaker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6,26],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability","tag-climate","tag-justice","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11358,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions\/11358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}