Surviving Super El Niño

Surviving Super El Niño

Wasn't it just a few days ago that we've regarded rainwater as our frenemy? And yet here we are: treating it once again like some most precious commodity, something worth its weight in gold.

Now we have to deal with its opposite--and something at the extreme end of the spectrum too: too much heat from the sun and resultant drought.

Change is indeed the only thing constant in this world.

It's true what they say about the essentiality of water: a diamond has comparably no value when you are thirsty or trapped in the desert.

Now drought is nothing new. We've been through a lot of drought seasons before, and we survived them all, thank God: deep fissures on the ground, unbearable, energy-sapping heat, grassfires, banana trees withering, drying, and falling... What is new is how worse off this coming El Niño is supposed to be that it would be dubbed "Super El Niño," judging from media reports quoting at least a hundred scientists.

We're not so sure of everything at this point, but judging from what we've gathered so far, it seems to be the worst ever and therefore unprecedented. Whenever I read "climate change," though, I tend to be skeptical because I like to view things from a wide historical perspective. For example, a Yolanda-strength supertyphoon turned out to be not the first, per historical records. There were at least two before. The very name of Tacloban has something to do with such an enormous catastrophic kind of weather disturbance.

I just had to do some quick digital archaeology work on Super El Niño to get convinced. And this is what I've found: Anecdotal and documentary evidence say that the world has been through such severe droughts before (with a few years mentioned), and to put things into context, we humans only began scientifically measuring the warming of the Pacific Ocean in 1950!

Is a 3.6 degree rise in the warming of the Pacific Ocean a historical first? The jury is not yet in. Did hundreds of thousands of people die during the periods mentioned? No answer yet. Was there massive famine, one on a continental scale? No answer yet.

What probably has changed is the frequency with which these things happen, but how can we know for certain when we have just begun systematically studying these phenomena?

What we can do now is assume the veracity of the prediction, just to be on the safe side, and prepare for the worst, granted we still have time left to prepare. What is the worst thing that could happen within six months of this worrisome menace to our life and existence? My reflex reaction is to look at how people survive the desert.

Lessons from desert communities

Top of the mind are the Israelis who turned the Negev into farms using drip irrigation and through the kibbutz system of cooperation.

The Arabs of the "Middle East" are, of course, experts in this too. We must study their traditional architecture in warding off heat.

At the height of the recent heat wave in Europe which killed thousands of people, Al Jazeera's Basel Ghazoghli advised everyone to study the following tricks from the ancient world before the advent of electric fans and air conditioning systems:

- Yemen's brick tower villages were made out of thick mud but with windows that allowed air to enter. The buildings were packed together, creating sheds of cool air below, and painted white to refract or deflect red-hot solar radiation. I am reminded, however, of chronic news of massive destruction of such mud structures in Iran and Afghanistan after a particularly strong earthquake. Maybe these structures should have been reinforced with steel. Anyway, Metro Manila, with its hellish heat islands and heat index, should take note.

- Iran's ancient windcatchers called badgir were towers that funneled fresh air from outside and released humid air inside even without the benefit of wind.

- India's jaali, pierced or carved stone wall screens, blocked sunlight and heat while inviting cold air to enter the tower.

- Egypt's brick towers with domed roofs avoided direct hit from the sun.

- Ancient Granada's (in Spain) channels and fountains kept water constantly moving, pulling heat from the air and cooling the surroundings. Sounds much like Hiwata fans to me.

The problem with these desert solutions is that our country is not a desert for the most part. It has a rainy season, visited regularly by around 26 alphabetically named typhoons (and at times earthquakes of various magnitudes and intensities). Maybe our very own traditional bahay kubo and bahay na bato could point to better ways in our own context. After all, they have their own features that similarly ward off the tropical glare and oppressive heat, such as the use of light construction materials, cross ventilation, porous structures like calado panels, adjustable swing-out windows, rolling window panels, ventanillas, Persiana louvre windows, awnings, an airy silong (understory), etc. Porosity is a strong point, as anthropologist Fernando Nakpil Zialcita once pointed out.

But over time, we preferred using materials and architecture that, though sturdier, are built like heat traps and necessitating costly electricity and air-conditioning. This needs a new set of adjustments.

- Moreover, Middle East countries survive the desert by using desalination plants to make seawater fit for human use, so this is something we can look into if funding is not a problem.

Practical and doable actions

- Okay, let's wake up from dreaming, shall we? Maybe pumping and purifying water from our rivers is far more doable? I don't know. If we could easily purify tap water and turn it into "mineral water," then perhaps we can do the same with the Agno River water at least in our province of Pangasinan. (Whatever happened to all that recent excess runoff anyway?)

- On the personal level, a practical solution that is doable is to adjust our choice of clothing: it should be made of cool fabric, loose instead of tightfitting, and white or light-colored. I suddenly remember how Arab men don't wear any garments underneath their blinding white, freely flowing robes. Presko talaga! (Noted on that.)

- Staying hydrated is essential, but this presupposes adequate supply of water at any given time.

- Common sense: Avoid wasting water. Conserve H2O. The elevated areas of our town, for one, experience regular water interruptions, posing a problem to many residents.

- Recycle used water for cleaning the house and watering the plants.

- Construct giant water tanks or buy big drums to store water or collect the remaining rainwater expected to fall. A typical concrete water tank, however, can set you back for around P45,000.

- Trees are our best friends in these suffocating times.

- Vegetation or foliage in general is a significant shield as well. According to architects, moss, grass, shrubs, and loose gravel on the ground refract heat, absorb it less, and ward it off easily better than solid concrete pavements and pathwalk.

- I've heard about this air moisture harvesting technology, so we can look into that too.

- On the municipal scale, build rainwater impounding areas in catch basins.

- Last week, the national government mandated all LGUs to create a task force to find ways and means to deal with the coming threat through localized adaptation and mitigation plans.

Climate Change Commission

Speaking of government... Surprisingly, there is a government agency called the Climate Change Commission. The solutions it has broached so far include:

- Adjust school and work hours to avoid the 10:00 am to 3:00 pm window.

- Plant alternative crops--those that are not as water-intensive as palay. But what exactly are these alternatives, and would they have ready markets in a rice-eating country? Would greenhouses and hydroponics technology help?

- Use solar-powered pumps for irrigation.

- Put up hydration facilities.

- Advise senior citizens and other vulnerable sectors to stay indoors.

- I might add: Educate people about the warning signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. What other afflictions suddenly rise in incidence when it is hot? Let us remember that food spoils fast in humid weather.

- Does good old cloud seeding to make artificial rain count?

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- Meanwhile, I've read somewhere that people in a Chinese city spend life underground to escape the heat. Apparently, they had the foresight to dig tunnels and build an alternate community there, complete with maybe movie houses, bowling alleys, and shopping centers.

- I remember how ancient Christians in places like Cappadocia escaped purges and persecutions by building a livable complex of tunnels and dungeons deep into the bowels of the earth. Not to mention the Vietnamese strategy of evading American forces during the war using interconnected tunnels.

- Another idea to escape the heat without breaking the bank in case of a power failure, which most likely will happen: Won't camping be fun at night? I mean, sleeping in tents outdoors--maybe with pre-charged JisuLife e-fans, or under the stars--with mosquito nets.

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Furthermore, I wonder how we can put this coming delubyo to our advantage because, like fire, the light and heat from the sun also means energy and quick-drying capacity. One wonders what business opportunities intense drought and dryness could bring aside from the usual culinary offerings (halo-halo, ice cream, ice candy, etc.). Umbrellas? Solar-powered anything? Emergency cooling capsules?

In Pangasinan, there's this expression, "matalag nen say delap," which means "rarer than flood." If intense flooding has always been a rarity, what more intense droughts like this oncoming one? May they always stay that way.

How I wish climate change is not real, or is not here to stay. Denial is an effective defense mechanism, you see.

Rotating brownouts are an especially scary prospect, but running out of water would be catastrophic on all levels: residential, corporate, agricultural, industrial. (Imagine firemen having nothing to douse neighborhood fire with, for starters.) Like excessive hydration, it could be a matter of life and death.

What else can be done? All helpful suggestions are welcome. Let's all come out of this alive and well, in God's mercy, amen.

(Note: The above text is 100% *not* AI content.)