EDITORIAL — The heat is on

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration has made it official: the warm and dry season started last Friday.

“We expect the number of warm and drier days will increase in the coming weeks and the coming months,” PAGASA administrator Nathaniel Servando said.

We all saw this coming. Many parts of the country have already sounded the alarm regarding incidents of drought; earlier this month in Negros Oriental nine local government units had to cancel classes because it was just getting too hot and the students could not concentrate on their lessons in their sweltering classrooms.

Especially with the onset of Holy Week, many of us expect the temperature to rise.

But here’s something we may not see coming; the warm and dry season may get hotter and hotter each year because of climate change. If this keeps up the Philippines may end up with two seasons but not the ones we know: the warm and dry season and the wet yet still warm season.

Those of us who are older can remember a time when the start of the “ber” months usually meant colder weather. Sometimes people don’t call it the “ber” months, but the “brrrrr!” months because the cold winds from mainland Asia would blow our way.

However, throughout the decades, people have noticed that the colder months have been pushed farther and farther into the year until the present where only December and even January could see some of that cold air.

But even these small reprieves from the infernal heat are getting shorter and shorter, like what we saw earlier this year.

Those who have been paying attention know what causes global warming and climate change; increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are making the planet warmer.

And the sad thing is that while the Philippines isn’t the biggest contributor to climate change via greenhouse gases, we are one of the most vulnerable countries.

However that still doesn’t mean we have no role to play in reversing what is happening to our planet. We all need to do our part to make it cool again. Because whether we like it or not, the heat is on.