Winter festival in the time of climate change

HARBIN - It was almost midnight when I arrived here in the capital city of China’s Heilongjiang province, a place touted as the Ice City, perched on the edge of Siberia.

Stepping out of the airport, I couldn’t see anything in the dark winter night except a thick blanket of haze and falling snow. It felt like walking straight out of a movie about straggler spies in Russia or Siberia perhaps during the Cold War.

As soon as I landed, I realized right away that it’s true what they said about Harbin’s winter -- it is ice-cold.

Today, as I write this, the thermometer reads -29 degrees Celsius, the coldest it’s been since I arrived a few days ago. It is biting cold, the kind that seeps through every inch of your body. Thick blankets of snow cover the thousands of cars parked in the streets all over the city. Apartment buildings are snow-capped and so are most of the roads.

Yesterday afternoon, I walked along the famed Central Street -- the city’s remnant of the Russian empire  -- to see the Harbin of the olden days. It was quite a stroll back to the old world but one can only enjoy it with the proper clothing to keep oneself warm enough to walk for two hours in the cold.

Warm spell

For a Filipina like me, Harbin is a giant freezer. It is extremely cold with temperatures ranging from -12 to -19 degrees Celsius.

But for the more than nine million residents of Harbin, winter in the city is no longer as cold as in the past years.

Gone are the days when the city experienced that temperatures of -38 degrees Celsius, said our 50-year old guide.

He doubts the city would experience winter that cold again, he said. Even a place as cold as Harbin is feeling the negative impact of climate change, some of the locals lamented.

Ice and Snow World

In early 2019, the world famous Harbin Ice and Snow World, part of China’s biggest winter festival here, has been forced to shut 10 days ahead of schedule because the temperature rose to above freezing levels, according to a Feb. 19, 2019 article on The Independent.

The ice and snow sculptures have been hit by a sudden warm spell.

“It is the earliest time it has ended in its history,” said the article.

Harbin’s winter festival has drawn millions of visitors from around the world every year since its inception in the early 1980s. It is a key source of tourism revenue for the city.

But scientists have warned earlier that climate change could threaten the future of the Ice and Snow World and the rest of the winter festival.

“As the temperature rises, the period of ice and snow activities have shortened dramatically,” said Yin Xuemian, of the Heilongjiang Observatory, in 2008, as cited in the article on The Independent.

For this year’s winter festival, some of the activities will end in February whereas in the past years, the festivities usually go on until March, our guide also said.

Indeed, climate change is real and even places as cold as Harbin are feeling the heat.

Philippines most susceptible

At home, the Philippines has also been found to be very susceptible to hazards brought about by climate change.

This is according to the Global Peace Index 2019.

“The study found that 47 percent of the country’s population is in areas highly exposed to climate hazards such as earthquakes, tsunami, floods, tropical cyclones and drought. The Philippines was followed by Japan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Pakistan,” according to an article on ABS-CBN on the Global Peace Index 2019.

In all, the study found out that some 971 million people around the world are at risk of experiencing extreme weather events and breakdowns in peacefulness in the coming decades, according to the article.

In 2017 alone, the study, as quoted in the article, said that 61.5 percent of displacements in 2017 were because of climate-related disasters.

“Environmental risks of climate change and resource scarcity had the highest likelihood and impact, out of five risk categories including economic, geopolitical, societal, technological and environmental threats, as estimated by the World Economic Forum,” according to the report on the Global Peace Index.

For sure, we will experience more extreme and severe weather conditions such as more El Niño and La Niña events which are likely to be more intense.

From Manila to Harbin

Indeed from Manila to Harbin and in between, governments, businesses, citizens and visitors alike must do more to help reduce carbon emissions and preserve the planet.

Big corporations need to significantly reduce their environmental waste and carbon footprint to help arrest further degradation of the planet.

As we often hear from environmentalists, there is no Planet B.

Real war

Every time I step out of my borrowed room here in Harbin, I feel like I’m stepping into a war zone because of the biting cold. A layer less of warm clothing and I’m sure to freeze to death so I spend half an hour preparing for battle, putting on layers upon layers of tops, pants, jackets, scarves and what-have-you.

But the real war is really the battle against climate change and we owe it to succeeding generations to give it our best fight.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com