OPENING SUMMARY:
Upon the completion of writing my own climate story, I found a sudden interest in learning more about my father’s story. In an era where the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly evident, taking a step back to hear the experiences of others and reflect on the past becomes crucial. Made possible through my Talk Climate internship with Climate Generation, I was able to ask Ramil Villarama, whom I like to call “Dad,” a set of questions to understand his early years that were spent on a family farm. He shared his unique perspectives on how the environment he knew as a child has evolved, the lessons he learned from the land, and his thoughts on the urgent issue of climate change that affects us all today. As we delved into these cherished memories and insightful anecdotes, we uncovered not only the joys and challenges of growing up on a farm but also the stark contrasts between then and now in the context of climate change. Thank you for tuning in and enjoy the interview segment!
The below interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. To hear the full interview, click on the recording at the bottom of this post.
INTERVIEW:
Ramier: Hello Dad!
Dad: Hey, how are you son?
Ramier: Good! This set of questions is the section about your farm childhood, then we’ll move on to one more focused on climate change, then one more focused on the future and future goals.
Dad: That sounds good, I like that!
Farm childhood
Ramier: Can you share your experiences of growing up on a family farm?
Dad: I’m really happy that you are having interests as far as my childhood… growing up on a farm, it’s really a rewarding experience. I used to help my dad plant various vegetables like eggplants, tomatoes, corn, bitter gourd or we call it ampalaya in Tagalog, and of course, rice. Apart from these vegetables, we would plant and grow melons and watermelons as well. I grew up and lived on the farm for almost 22 years. In terms of the farming practices, we relied on rains apart from irrigation in making sure everything got enough water. Given the nature of the plants that we grow and the type of the soil/land, we grew them alternately, which means some plants are best grown during wet or rainy season while others are in dry season. I also helped my dad raise cattles and carabaos… we would gather cow manure to be used as fertilizers as it actually helps improve the quality of the soil which is essential to growing healthy vegetables, plants, and fruits.
Ramier: How did you learn life in a different way by living on a farm?
Dad: Living on a farm actually taught me to appreciate the simple things. It taught me the value of working hard, and to be humble, respectful, patient, and how to persevere. I really admired and respected my parents, particularly my dad, as he worked really hard to provide our daily needs, all coming from the farm. Helping my parents, particularly my dad, with the planting and nourishing of what we grew taught me responsibility and compassion at a young age.
Ramier: I borrowed this next question from a book that also talked about someone’s experiences growing up on a family farm. How did you have to work with and not against nature to make sure the farm succeeded?
Dad: We would rely heavily on nature to make sure that the farm or the farming succeeds right. Rain is very vital and a significant source of water for healthy soil and to grow the plants. Occasionally we would rely on heavy rains because that’s really good for the plants. In the same manner, equally important was the heat of the sun, given that once you do the harvest, you need to dry the crops, especially rice, before it goes to milling. So nature plays an important role for the farm. We should take care of nature, our nature.
Ramier: That’s very interesting. In the book that I read, the author talked about all four seasons because he was from California, so it’s interesting to compare that to the Philippines where it is only a lot of heat and rain, not really a spring or winter season is very interesting.
Dad: That’s very true! In the Philippines, sometimes I would joke around because in terms of the weather or the temperature, it’s like hot or hotter, but during rainy season obviously there’s like rains and a lot of rains…you know, which as you can imagine, excessive rains don’t really help, cause it causes flooding.
Ramier: Can you explain more of the specific challenges you and your family faced due to the changing weather conditions?
Dad: An example would be when there’s drought and less rain, farmers or my dad would be heavily dependent on irrigation systems, which becomes costly because you would have to buy fuel or gas to power the pumps… so obviously that’s an extra expense, which affects the profitability of farming. Then, the quality of soil diminishes, which means you can’t really expect as good of a harvest.
Climate Change
Ramier: Cool! Let’s talk more specifically about climate change. How has climate change impacted your family farm over the years, and what are some specific changes you have observed? How has the climate in the Philippines changed, if so, since your childhood?
Dad: Climate change definitely impacted our family farm over the years. It actually became harder for certain crops to grow due to shifts in weather patterns and we would look into growing different plants to cope. The climate in the Philippines became, I would say, unpredictable. Nowadays, I’ve seen it get worse because of industrialization, pollution, and people not being cognisant right… they don’t really, I would say for a lack of a better word, take care of nature.
Future
Ramier: Looking ahead, what do you envision for the future of farming, not only on your farm, but your region, considering the ongoing challenges of climate change? What role does the Philippine government play in supporting climate-resilient farming practices… are there any policy gaps that need to be addressed?
Dad: This is really a profound question. Farmers should have access to better farm irrigation systems. Farmers should be able to explore and plant different rice seed variants or rice varieties to help breed improved crops with higher resilience to climate change. In the absence of good rice variants, you can’t really expect a good harvest. The second question you asked about the Philippine government… obviously the government should play a vital role in supporting climate-resilient farming practices by building better irrigation systems. The Philippine government should also continue to educate its people regarding climate change as it truly impacts farming in the Philippines. As for the policy gaps that need to be addressed, the government should really enhance leadership and accountability through monitoring, evaluation, and review of climate change policies and activities. As you would know, the Philippines is like a major source of the global rice supply. There are a lot of farmers there, and it’s really important that the government do its part in making sure that farmers are able to navigate this ever-changing climate.
Ramier: Considering the challenges posed by climate change, do you have any advice or message for the younger generation growing up on family farms today?
Dad: I do, I sincerely do. As you know climate change poses a real threat to farmers around the world. Farming is highly dependent on good weather as it can really influence the harvest. In this regard, my pieces of advice that I’d give the younger generation are that they need to learn how to adapt and think outside of the box. Also, be more cognizant and assertive in understanding what truly causes climate change. The younger generations growing up on family farms need to be more informed. Climate change has been an ongoing issue and younger generations should be more keen in understanding the effects.
Ramier: What I got out of that was education is a big part, and as you mentioned, the government can play a big part in educating people, especially people who may not have the resources to learn about climate change. So to end this, I recently wrote my climate story and in it I wrote that I want to learn more about my identities, and one of them is my Filipino identity. I wanted to specifically learn your stories about growing up on the farm and that connection to climate change. So, my last question is, what were some stories your father told you about the farm when you were younger?
Dad: I actually gravitate to this particular question. I really liked listening to my dad, and he always told me a lot of stories about our farm when I was younger. One story I will never forget is, he said I’d always tell him, hey can we pick up some tomatoes or watermelons. Dad would tell me, “Hey, you and I will go to our farm and he’d bring me to the actual field for me to see the size of the tomatoes and watermelons that we grow.” That’s how he told me the story because obviously I was a little young back then so I couldn’t really recall what happened. My dad told me that he’d say we’ll pick the ripe ones and we will eat them and share them with the entire family and friends. He would always remind me that in life you need to persevere in order to be successful regardless of whether I become a farmer or follow any other profession. He also reminded me to respect nature and everyone around me because again, nature is vital to farmers. And, while it was a lowkey life, I could always feel happiness or fully content because there’s food on the table. My dad was always able to provide food for us. I kind of get teary when we’re talking about the farm, my experiences, and the stories that my dad told. He’s been very passionate in regard to farming and he’s very responsible. Imagine, my parents’ main source of income back then was farming. They didn’t get higher education, but they were able to provide for their family and my dad was able to think outside of the box as well. He didn’t just rely on planting vegetables, he also took care of cattle. Even now we have cattle. It’s a cycle: you plant rice and then the hay, the hay then becomes food for the cattle. You can imagine, it’s like a homestead, everything’s there. Weather played a really important role in that, so again, we should respect nature and take care of Mother Earth.
Ramier: One more thing, why do you think it’s important for you to share your own story and, like what we’re doing right now, talk about your life on the farm and be appreciative of that part of your life? Why do you think it’s important for me and my other siblings to visit the farm and experience the farm whenever we travel to the Philippines?
Dad: You actually hit the nail on the head when you say the word appreciate. Me sharing these stories with you all, for me, is very important to know your roots. There’s life out there, right. I mean you probably think it’s simple. In essence, it’s kind of lowkey, but very rewarding for you all to experience. Meaning living is simple in the Philippines and everything is provided by nature. When we have the opportunity to visit the farm, I like you all to kind of experience what I experienced because I do cherish that upbringing. For me, I would not be the person I am today without the experiences that taught me to be a better person. Living on a farm, I mean it was great. I encourage you, when we have the opportunity, to see and understand your roots as well.
Ramier: Wow, thank you dad!
Dad: I hope that answers all of your questions, but if you would like to have another conversation regarding me growing up on a farm, feel free to ask. I obviously love talking about my childhood living on a farm.
Ramier: Thank you!
Dad: You’re very welcome, anak!
Both my father and I witnessed the power of storytelling through our conversation about his childhood farm adventures and climate change. We invite you to listen to the full, uncut interview below—a treasure trove of insights that will incite your own passion for storytelling.
Ramier Villarama (he/him) was born in the Philippines, but moved to New Jersey with his family at a young age. He is a current rising third-year student at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. In addition to being a part of the Men’s Swimming and Diving team, he is a double major in Environmental Studies and Studio Art, with a minor in Asian Studies and a concentration in Food, Agriculture, and Society. He has been recently learning more about his Filipino culture and his relationship with nature, and has been connecting both with his art and the work that he creates.
The post Buhay Bukid: A Conversation with My Father on His Childhood Farm Adventures and Climate Change appeared first on Climate Generation.
Buhay Bukid: A Conversation with My Father on His Childhood Farm Adventures and Climate Change
The United Nations Secretary-General and foreign ministers from the UK, France and Spain have blamed the deadly wildfires engulfing Europe on climate change, using the disaster to renew calls for faster cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
António Guterres told journalists on Friday that the “climate crisis is in overdrive”, adding that global heat seen so far is just a “warm up act” as a phenomenon known as El Niño intensifies “adding fuel to a planet already on fire”.
A new World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) report published on Friday predicts that the weather pattern will grow into a “strong event” between now and October, increasing the risk of higher than normal temperatures across much of the world and disrupted rainfalls.
“That risks shattering every seasonal record – and driving even more severe effects worldwide,” Guterres said.
El Niño builds on top of an already warming world, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. A WMO scientist, who did not want to be named, told journalists that all the heatwaves and other climate impacts seen so far this year are “before the effects of El Niño are really kicking in at a global scale”.
Fossil fuellling the fires
Fires have broken out across much of Europe but are threatening the most people in the south-west of France near Bordeaux and in Central Spain near Madrid. Nearly a quarter of a million people have been evacuated in France with hundreds of homes destroyed while in Spain 80,000 people have had to leave their homes and at least 13 died in one village.
A scientific study published on Friday by the World Weather Attribution group found that man-made climate change made deadly fires in France twice as likely and those in Spain twenty times more likely. Smaller fires in the UK were not analysed by the study.
UN Climate Change leader Simon Stiell blamed fossil fuels for the fires, as well as storms in Chile and heatwaves in North America and Japan in recent weeks. “The climate alarm is blaring”, he said on Wednesday.
Guterres criticised new fossil fuel production projects and fossil fuel subsidies for causing hardship across the world. Discussing his speech, a senior UN official – who did not want to be named – said the subsidies amounted to trillions of US dollars a year and criticised pension funds and institutional investors, including insurance companies, for continuing to invest in fossil fuel projects.
Asked why world leaders and the public are not prioritising climate action, Guterres said they are distracted by wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan and elsewhere and sometimes forget “other aspects that are a sometimes even more dangerous threat”.
Also the fossil fuel industry and “some countries” are campaigning to pretend that climate change does not exist, he said, adding that the UN should be more active in “naming the situations as they are and the responsibilties as they are and mobilising the public opinion”.
After meetings in Paris and Madrid earlier in the week, the UK’s new foreign minister Ed Miliband issued joint statements with his French and Spanish counterparts – Jean-Noël Barrot and José Manuel Albares Bueno – calling on the world to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
They promised to do more to reduce emissions and protect their people and encouraged other governments to do the same.
The UK-French statement called on governments to publish UN climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), which are aligned with the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global average temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
According to Climate Action Tracker, only three countries – the UK, Nigeria and Norway – have submitted NDCs with 2035 emissions reduction targets which are compatible with 1.5C. Fifty-two countries – including Egypt, Vietnam and Argentina – have yet to submit an NDC at all.
Defending science
Beyond action on emissions, the ministers also intervened in an ongoing dispute over the timing of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC)’s next flagship assessment.
Miliband and Barrot’s statement said they “underline the importance” of scientific report feeding into governments’ next global stocktake of progress on climate action in two years’ time, calling it a “critical input” to that process.
The timing of this report has been a contentious issue in government negotiations at the IPCC and at June’s climate talks in Bonn. While a group of nations calling themselves the “friends of science” want the report before the stocktake, others like Saudi Arabia and India have argued that this would make the report of a worse quality and less inclusive of developing countries’ scientists.
Science ‘under attack’ from fossil fuel interests at UN climate talks
The UK-Spanish statement weighed in less explicitly on this issue but said that they “recall the importance of scientific evidence and acknowledge the work of the IPCC in this respect.”
The British and French ministers said they would seek to accelerate reductions of emissions in methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas, at COP31 in November. They encouraged governments “to work jointly to develop a marketplace for fossil fuels with near-zero methane intensity.”
Methane leaks from oil, gas and coal production are a major contributor to global warming. Over a 20-year period, methane traps around 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide.
The UK and Spanish statement emphasised the importance of supporting the Global South and underlined the need to mobilise sustainable financing “at scale with the challenge we face”. The previous UK government, in which Miliband was energy minister, cut climate finance to developing countries to pay for increases in military spending.
The UK government led by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has yet to outline any major changes to climate finance in its two weeks in power but has announced it will convert some finance from grants to loans in order to free up money to subsidise bus travel in England.
More adaptation needed
Guterres said that “it is time to stop treating each disaster as an isolated tragedy and recognise the systemic risk that is unfolding before our eyes.” A recent study found that three-quarters of UK media reports about the British June heatwave did not mention climate change.
As well as reducing emissions, the UN Secretary-General called for measures to adapt vulnerable people to extreme heat. Specifically, he said that buildings should be built and retrofitted for extreme heat and that every city and country should have heat-health action plans and early warning systems. Over 250 cities have joined the UN’s ‘beat the heat’ initiative, he said.
The Portuguese diplomat called for governments and employers to do more to protect their workers from heat, criticising global fashion brands for not setting heat standards for the factories that supply them. “No one should have to risk their life to earn a living,” he said.
The post UN chief warns climate crisis “in overdrive” as El Niño threatens to fuel the fire appeared first on Climate Home News.
UN chief warns climate crisis “in overdrive” as El Niño threatens to fuel the fire
Climate Change
‘Ride the wave of momentum’: Australia announces once-in-a-decade Marine Parks Network review
In response to the federal government announcing its once-in-a-decade review of Australia’s Marine Parks Network, the following lines can be attributed to Elle Lawless, Senior Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific:
“Greenpeace Australia Pacific welcomes today’s announcement that the Albanese Government will review Australia’s Commonwealth Marine Parks Network. This is a rare, once-in-a-decade opportunity to strengthen our marine parks and ban industrial fishing in Australia’s marine protected areas.
“Australians would be appalled to know that more than half of Australia’s Marine Parks Network currently allows for extractive industries, like longlining, bottom trawling and oil and gas mining. These so-called ‘protected’ areas were designed to safeguard our beloved ocean wildlife and underwater ecosystems – that is what Australians expect. Damaging industrial industries should not be given a free pass to trawl, fish, drill or extract from our marine parks.”
“With the first Ocean COP just around the corner, and off the back of Australia’s move to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty earlier this year, the Australian government has a unique opportunity to ride the wave of this momentum and solidify itself as a true global ocean leader.
“Greenpeace Australia Pacific is calling for industrial activities to be banned from our protected waters and for at least 30% of Australia’s ocean to be protected as ocean sanctuaries. This review presents a rare opportunity to create more ocean sanctuaries, true blue havens where ocean life can recover, thrive and repopulate the surrounding waters.”
—ENDS—
‘Ride the wave of momentum’: Australia announces once-in-a-decade Marine Parks Network review
In recent days, prominent climate sceptics and rightwing commentators have shared charts on social media incorrectly implying that Europe is having its “quietest” year for wildfires in 2026.
These include Dr Matthew Wielicki, a former University of Alabama geochemist and self-described “professor in exile”, who was recently appointed by the Trump administration to lead the US Global Change Research Program.
However, these charts paint a misleading picture as they are skewed by encompassing the entirety of Russia in the data – including the vast plains of Siberia.
These charts also use data that include fires that are deliberately lit to manage cropland, which is a declining practice across much of Europe.
In this factcheck, Carbon Brief shows that the area burned by wildfires across the European Union in 2026 is second only to 2022 for this time of year.
The latest data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) also shows that France has set a new modern record for area burned and Spain’s wildfire season is among the worst on record.
The fires have displaced more than a third of a million people across south-western Europe, while an impending heatwave has also raised fears of the fires worsening in the coming days.
‘Quietest year’
On 27 July, as wildfires raged across multiple European countries, former Conservative peer and climate-sceptic commentator Matt Ridley posted on Twitter that “2026 is the quietest year for wildfires in Europe by some distance”.
Ridley, who sits on the academic advisory council of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), a UK-based climate-sceptic lobby group that refuses to reveal the sources of its funding, was responding to an article by Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley.
Stanley’s column, headlined: “Climate change is real – and the right needs to get serious about it”, warned:
“This is no longer a matter of speculation: the wildfires of Europe, pitiless and persistent, are the way we live now.”
Ridley included a chart from Our World In Data, showing the cumulative area burned by wildfires by week for Europe. The chart puts 2026 as having the smallest area for this time of year in a dataset going back to 2012.
Ridley’s post was widely shared by prominent rightwing figures – including Richard Tice, deputy leader of the hard-right, climate-sceptic Reform UK party, former Conservative cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg and multiple commentators.
Separately, Wielicki also shared a chart on Twitter to imply that wildfires in Europe are declining. Wielicki has previously claimed that the “science is not settled on climate change”.
The charts posted by Ridley and Wielicki both use data from the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS). The GWIS category for “Europe” encompasses all the countries on the continent and includes the whole of Russia.
As a result, Russia accounts for about 74% of the area included in the GWIS definition of “Europe”.
Wildfires in Russia typically account for 80-90% of the burned area in the GWIS Europe dataset. In 2026, fires in Russia are substantially below average. Therefore, including Russia in this comparison creates the false impression that wildfire activity across Europe is unusually low.
Dr Calum Cunningham, a research fellow at the University of Tasmania’s Fire Centre, says that such claims are “highly misleading”, noting that “they rely on aggregating fire activity across an enormous and climatically diverse region”. He tells Carbon Brief:
“A relatively quiet season in Russia can easily mask an exceptionally active season in France or Spain. If the analysis is focused on the regions actually experiencing the current fires, the picture is very different.
“The reality is that western Europe has experienced an extraordinary sequence of climate conditions this year.”
In contrast, the EFFIS provides a subset of wildfire data specifically for the area covered by the 27 nations of the EU, which, therefore, excludes Russia.
Another difference between the two datasets is that GWIS monitors all fires – including those on agricultural land that are intentionally set alight. The burned area as measured by GWIS contains significant cropland area.
By contrast, EFFIS uses land-cover data and other information to filter specifically for forest fires.
Looking at the EU-only data from EFFIS reveals that Europe is far from having its “quietest” year. The bloc’s burned area, as of 29 July, is almost 435,000 hectares (ha) – second only to 2022 for this time of year.
Notably, Wielicki has actually continued to post charts based on GWIS data, even after acknowledging that “includ[ing] all of Russia, including vast areas of Siberia…isn’t a good proxy for Europe”.
French fires
Even looking at EU-wide data misses the scale of this year’s wildfires for some individual countries.
The chart below shows the surge in burned area in France since mid-July.
For much of the first half of the year, the country was having a wildfire season that was only slightly above average in terms of total burned area. However, a notable uptick began in the first week of July.
The third week of the month saw France break its previous cumulative annual record by more than 19,000ha. That gap has widened as the fires continue to burn; as of 29 July, the cumulative burned area in France during 2026 was nearly 24,700ha above the previous record.
The fires in France follow a record-breaking June heatwave that “dried out vegetation across the region, allowing fires to spread quickly”, wrote the New York Times.
On 27 July, French president Emmanuel Macron called a “crisis cabinet meeting” in order to address the fires “ravaging several areas of south-west France”, said France 24.
More than 220,000 people have been evacuated due to the Gironde fire, west of Bordeaux, in “what may be France’s largest peacetime evacuation”, reported the Associated Press.
In the Conversation, Cunningham and two other University of Tasmania researchers write that evacuation orders “protec[t] human lives, but makes it more likely houses and other structures will burn if there’s no one to defend them”. They add:
“There is little doubt climate change has made France and Spain’s wildfires worse. They represent yet another reason to redouble our efforts to tackle climate change and stabilise our climate.”
Central Spain scorched
While Spain’s fire season has not broken records in the same way that France’s has, it is on track to be among the worst since EFFIS began reporting data in 2006.
The chart below shows the rapid increase in burned area in Spain since 8 July. The latest data from EFFIS reveal that, as of 29 July, Spain has almost matched its previous record at this point in the year. It is also nearly five times the average area burned for this time of year.
In Spain, the wildfires have been concentrated in the central part of the country, near Madrid.
BBC News reported that the fires outside the capital have burned “an area more than twice as large as the city itself”.
Nearly 90,000 people were forced from their homes in central Spain by the fires, said the Associated Press.
Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, called the fires a “painful expression” of climate change.
Meanwhile, the UK, French and Spanish governments have issued joint statements this week in response to the fires. The UK/Spain statement begins:
“This summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life.”
Related
The post Factcheck: No, Europe is not having its ‘quietest’ year for wildfires appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Factcheck: No, Europe is not having its ‘quietest’ year for wildfires
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