Their village, Sitio Pariahan, now has just slivers of land, barely enough to step on. Vanishing land has become an increasingly common phenomenon in many Philippine coastal areas. But this rapid encroachment of the sea is not being caused by climate change, as some surmise.

Climate change is real and threatens the planet. Rising awareness of it, however, has posed another danger – it's become easy to blame climate change for the permanent flooding in many coastal areas around Metro Manila. And there's not much Filipinos can do to stop or even slow down climate change. Blaming climate change can induce helplessness.

In truth, climate change is causing the sea to rise by millimeters per year, yet the waters in places like Sitio Pariahan are rising by centimeters and at least ten times faster. There must be another reason for the permanent deluge.

