Philippine climate change envoy Naderev Sano will on Saturday reach
ground zero of the strongest typhoon ever to hit land, completing an
epic march he believes will help spur global warming action.
Sano will end his 1,000-kilometre (660-mile) trek in Tacloban, a
major city in the central Philippines that was among the worst hit when
Super Typhoon Haiyan crashed in off the Pacific Ocean exactly one year
ago.
“It’s been a wonderful journey. Physically, the walk is starting to
take a toll on my leg… but everyone is in high spirits and so am I,”
Sano told AFP as he reached the final rest-stop in the typhoon-damaged
town of Basey.
Sano and 12 other walkers have travelled an average of 25 kilometres a
day since leaving the nation’s capital, Manila, more than a month ago.
Sano, the Philippine representative to the United Nations’ climate
change negotiations, made world headlines last year when he fasted
during the annual summit in Poland to protest the lack of meaningful
progress on global warming.
The trek to Tacloban is another call to action, and he has garnered
the support of global environment activist heavyweights, such as
Greenpeace, Oxfam and Climate Action Network, as well as strong social
media support.
The walk is also a show of solidarity for the millions of survivors
of Haiyan, many of whom are enduring brutal poverty and living in areas
that leave them dangerously exposed to the next big storm.
Haiyan left more than 7,350 people dead or missing as winds of 315
kilometres an hour and tsunami-like storm surges devastated poor farming
and fishing communities.
The typhoon was an extreme weather event consistent with man-made climate change, the UN’s weather agency said in March.
“We are under no illusions that the walk will change anything (in the
climate change fight) overnight, but it is raising awareness,” Sano
said.
A more tangible outcome of the journey was the overwhelming support
of the local communities that the walkers have passed through, according
to Sano.
“At the least, every person who we have encountered we can safely say
we have converted them on climate change action and they will become
local environmental heroes in their own communities,” he said.
“Many of them promised to us they would continue the fight by
organising with their own communities to protect their natural
resources.”
Sano said every local government in the 40 towns they stopped in
along the way had also signed commitments to take their own action on
climate change, including developing strategies to cope with stronger
storms.
Sano said the band of walkers had swelled to as many as 3,000 people
at different stages of the trek, as school children and supporters in
towns joined for a few hours or a day.
The original group that started in Manila stayed each night in tents
or in local community centres such as gymnasiums or schools, and they
would approach each town banging drums or playing other musical
instruments.
Sano, 40, said he had lost a lot of weight and had a shin splint that
left him in severe pain during the final stages of the walk, but he was
otherwise in good health.
Sano described the best part of the journey as the walk into Basey,
which was the first town in his journey that had been badly damaged
during Haiyan.
“I was personally anticipating a solemn atmosphere but what we got
was a rousing welcome… I got teary eyed, many walkers got teary eyed,”
he said.
