Photos from the Philippines
The map above is courtesy of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
“I’m Afraid for Our Children Living with the Climate Crisis”
While I was searching the internet for information for my next blog post, I came upon a powerful photo exhibit showing how individuals in the Philippines have experienced flooding from recent typhoons. Each photo is accompanied by a brief excerpt from an interview with the subject of the photo. I don’t know when something has had such a visceral impact on me. I decided that this week I would rather have you look at these photos than read something I write.
The Philippines is a low-lying island country of 117 million people, making it the 14th most populous country in the world. While it has done virtually nothing to cause the climate crisis, it is one of the nations most impacted, and most at risk of even greater impacts, especially from an average of 20 typhoons per year. U.S. imperialism and neo-colonialism, dating at least from 1898, continue to have a large negative impact on the Philippines.
The photographs are by Gideon Menel, a world-renowned South African photographer who has been “capturing the human experience and the physical impacts of the global climate emergency.” The interviews are by Rico Ibarra.
Please click HERE for the photos and interview excerpts (then scroll down). (If there is a large ad across the bottom of the screen, you may be able to remove or shrink it by clicking on the down-arrow that’s in the right side of the ad block.)