Faith-based and pro-environment groups mark the eight anniversary of the landfall of super typhoon Haiyan in a Manila church by offering flowers arranged to spell out “6,000+”, the number of lives lost to the typhoon according to official government count. (Photo supplied)
Nov 9 2021
Church leaders, faith-based groups, climate advocates, and frontline communities called to mind the devastation wreaked by super typhoon “Yolanda (Haiyan)” in 2013 as they questioned the Philippines’ energy and development decisions in recent months.
“Let us not forget super typhoon Yolanda that woke up our unity and woke up all of us to care for nature,” said Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice, and Peace of the Catholic bishops’ conference.
“Let us take care of our environment, and mother nature will take care of us,” said the prelate in his message during the anniversary of Yolanda’s landfall on Monday, November 8.
The typhoon’s eighth anniversary marked the opening of the second week of negotiations at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow that has so far produced landmark new agreements against coal development and public finance for fossil fuels.
“Yolanda” left thousands dead or missing and millions displaced and its furious onslaught in 2013 has been recognized as a key trigger of calls to rethink climate-destructive practices, especially the use of highly polluting fossil fuels for energy needs.
“Our people still nurse stinging wounds from ‘Yolanda’ long after its last drop of rainfall, the last tree it uprooted, or the last roof it detached hit the ground,” said Gerry Arances, convenor of the group Power for People Coalition.
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