There is another kind of crisis that is equally devastating as the global economic and financial crisis, perhaps even more threatening, with mankind’s survival put on the line. Its presence and the havoc that it brings have begun to be openly acknowledged and discussed just a little more than 10 years ago. Yet, the building up of the phenomenon that led to this crisis began several centuries ago. This is the crisis of global climate change or more popularly known as global warming. Given that the process of warming has been going on for centuries, its effects are said to be irreversible.

Still, there is hope as adaptation and mitigation policies and programs have begun to be espoused and put in place by governments all over the world to help assuage the impact of the warming of planet Earth: droughts, rising sea levels, and extreme climate variability. As has been the tradition, this issue of the DRN features the celebration of the Development Policy Research Month (DPRM) whose theme for this year is “Coping with climate variability and change” in response to the alarming impacts of the global climate change phenomenon. The DPRM discussions hope to increase people’s awareness and sensitivity to the issue and encourage them to become part of the solutions rather than of the problems to climate change.