MANILA, Philippines ? Will blogging pressure the government to act with a sense of urgency on the problem of climate change?

Bloggers Kapihan is hoping it will and urges Filipinos worldwide to join ?Blog Action Day? on October 15 by publishing blogs, podcasts, and videocasts on why there is a need to reintroduce the discussion about climate change and actions to mitigate its effects, said its member and blogger/journalist Anthony Ian Cruz.

Cruz said the massive flooding, death, and damage caused by tropical storm ?Ondoy? and typhoon ?Pepeng,? which hit the Philippines in the last three weeks reflected the urgency in which the issue of climate should be addressed.

?The Philippines has a lot to share on the effects of climate change after our experience from Ondoy and Pepeng. Those based in the country can give it a local face for our leaders and the international community to understand how vulnerable the Philippines is to the effects of climate change,? said Cruz.

?Through this joint effort, we aim to reintroduce climate change and put a label on it so people would take notice ? how massive are the floods caused by the typhoons, what systems are installed systems to mitigate such crises and how are these related to climate change. We aim to compel the government to take a pro-active stance on the issue,? said Cruz.

Cruz said that pushing discussions on climate change was easier in first-world countries but in developing nations like the Philippines where livelihood and human rights have been the big issues, climate change has been pushed to the backseat.

He said he hoped that on October 15, discussions on climate change would serve as crash course and an eye-opener to how this has affected everyone in the world.

?Right now, we have a government not implementing policies that are friendly to the environment. In addition, we have a weather bureau that is understaffed and under-funded to get modern warning systems to plan ahead of disasters,? said Cruz.

Cruz said Bloggers Kapihan would involve senators and legislators, who have accounts in social networking sites such as Kabataan Representative Raymond Palatino, by inviting them to join the discussion.

Blog Action Day was a brainchild of web startup Envato chief executive Collin Ta?eed, and his relatives Fuad Ta?eed, and Cyan Ta?eed in 2007, according to its website.

Last year, 12,000 bloggers joined the event and they managed to reach 14 million readers.

For this year, about 5,514 sites and 10,629,984 readers have signed up for the October 15 event. The list is available at http://www.blogactionday.org/en/blogs.