PHOTOS: A week after typhoon Pablo

Around 780 people are still missing after the province was hit by Typhoon Bopha. Bopha is the most southerly typhoon ever recorded in the western Pacific Ocean, and the second strong typhoon to have hit southern Philippines in 2 years. Scientists predicted years ago that human-caused climate change would result in abnormally severe extreme weather events. The past few years have seen the Philippines, and other parts of the world, struggle to cope with the effects of drastically altered weather patterns. Pablo has left more than 1,500 people either dead or missing and has left at least PHP 14.30 billion ($348 million) in damages.

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“Hope” giving hope

Crew of the Greenpeace ship, M/Y Esperanza, and volunteers unload supplies from the Esperanza at the port Sasa km10 Wharf in Davao City. The ship transported relief goods from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Save the Children, and ABS-CBN Foundation to the communities devastated by typhoon Pablo (Bopha).

Greenpeace ship the Esperanza transported relief goods to communities in the Philippines devastated by typhoon Pablo (Bopha).Mark Dia, our Regional Oceans Campaigner, is currently serving as our onboard team leader for our Pablo Response mission. He sent us the following update from the field just before the Esperanza made landfall in Davao City on 11 Dec. 2012.

It’s 2230, and I’ve just come back from the bridge of the Esperanza, drawn by the gleam of a light show on our starboard. Up above was the Milky Way, and I was telling Steve, our photographer, that there was no way you could see that many stars in Manila, with all the light pollution.

That’s when it struck me: the coast was pitch black. Continue reading