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BULACAN, Philippines: On the Philippine island of Pugad, street food vendor Maria Tamayo wakes before her grandchildren to begin the backbreaking work of removing seawater from her home scoop by scoop with a plastic dustpan.

The routine has been the same ever since the rising tides of Manila Bay began swallowing the island — a seven-hectare speck of land in danger of sinking completely underwater.

“Scooping water takes a long time. That’s why my feet have started aching,” the 65-year-old said, adding that she can spend up to three hours a day at the task.

“I have to scoop out the water before my grandchildren wake up, or else they’ll slip on the floor. But it’s no use ... there’s still water.”

Tamayo is one of 2,500 people living in Pugad’s only village.

The island is not the only one at risk in coastal Bulacan. Parts of the province are sinking at a rate of almost 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) a year, the fastest in the Philippines, according to a study led by geologist Mahar Lagmay.

The gradual sinking, known as land subsidence, is an “alarming” phenomenon caused by the overextraction of groundwater, and exacerbated by rising sea levels due to global warming, Lagmay said.

“The rates of subsidence (on Pugad Island) are quite high,” he said, adding that while studies specific to the tiny island were lacking, existing data on surrounding areas told the story clearly.

With high tides flooding the streets at least three times a week, the sea already dictates the rhythm of daily life on Pugad.

Class schedules are adjusted daily based on tide charts to prevent children from contracting flood-borne diseases.

Homes have been raised on stilts to keep floors dry, while small business owners use high tables to keep their wares above murky water that can rise to 1.5 meters (five feet) on heavy flooding days.

‘Back to normal’ impossible

Sea levels across the Philippines are already rising three times faster than the global average of 3.6 millimeters per year, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has said this could accelerate to 13 millimeters annually.

“Sea level rise is being experienced in many parts of the country,” DENR geosciences chief Karlo Queano told AFP, warning coastal areas could disappear without large-scale intervention.

While piecemeal efforts are in place in some areas — groundwater extraction has been banned in parts of Bulacan since 2004 — a broad national strategy has yet to take shape.

A government study on the path forward was not expected until 2028, Queano said.

“I think it’s already impossible for our lives in the village to go back to normal because of climate change,” said Pugad village captain Jaime Gregorio.

Gregorio said roads were being raised every three years to keep the community viable, but leadership changes meant the implementation of long-term flood mitigation projects was rarely consistent.

For Tamayo, who has lived on the island her whole life, the constant adjustment to the tide has drained what little money her family has scraped together.

Since 2022, they have been elevating their house each year, adding more gravel and concrete to stay above water, so far spending 200,000 pesos ($3,500).

“I love this island so much, this was where my mom and dad raised me... but sometimes, I think about leaving because of the high tide,” Tamayo told AFP.

Her boatman husband, Rodolfo Tamayo, insists their livelihood depends on staying.

“We can’t go to [other places], we won’t have jobs there. We will go hungry.”

Lagmay, the geologist, said land subsidence could be reversible with effective government policies governing the over-digging of wells.

But addressing the rise of sea levels was impossible without a concerted effort by the world’s highly industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

A UN climate fund established in 2023 to help countries like the Philippines address damage caused by climate change, meanwhile, remains unimplemented.

“We are talking of climate justice here. We have very little contribution to climate change, but we are very affected by its adverse effects,” said Elenida Basug, the DENR’s climate change service director.

Crouching in the doorway of her flooded home, Tamayo urged the world’s polluters to take responsibility for what she and her neighbors were experiencing.

“We are the ones who are suffering... They are rich, so we cannot do anything. Even if we speak against them, who would listen?” Tamayo said.

MENLO PARK, California: Meta’s newest artificial-intelligence powered smart glasses include a tiny display and can be controlled by a neural wristband that lets you control it with “barely perceptible movements,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday.

Zuckerberg continues to evangelize the glasses as the next step in human-computer interactions — beyond keyboards, touch screens or a mouse.

“Glasses are the only form factor where you can let AI see what you see, hear what you hear,” and eventually generate what you want to generate, such as images or video, Zuckerberg said, speaking at the tech giant’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters.

The glasses, called Meta Ray-Ban Display, will be available Sept. 30 and cost $799.

Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester, said Meta’s latest reveal is “reminiscent of when the Apple Watch first debuted as an alternative to the smartphone.”

“But what these glasses do is bring more utility to consumers in a single device. Unlike VR headsets, glasses are an everyday, non-cumbersome form factor,” the analyst added. “However, the onus is on Meta to convince the vast majority of people who don’t own AI glasses that the benefits outweigh the cost. The good news? There’s a lot of runway to earn market share.”

Meta also updated its original, display-less Ray-Ban glasses to have a better battery life, which Meta says lasts eight hours with typical use, nearly twice as long as the previous model. An upcoming feature, called “conversation focus,” will amplify the voice of the person the user is speaking to and help drown out background noise. This will be available on the older version of the glasses too, as a software update, Zuckerberg said. Meta also added German and Portuguese to the gadget’s live translation capabilities. The new model costs $379, and the previous model now costs $299.

The company also unveiled a new set of AI-powered glasses for athletes, called the Oakley Meta Vanguard, which Meta says is specifically for “high-intensity sports” and can be integrated with Garmin devices to give users feedback about their workouts such as heart rate and stats. For instance, a runner could ask “Hey Meta, what’s my heart rate?” and get a voice response through the glasses. It also auto-captures video clips when the user hits key milestones or ramps up their heart rate, speed or elevation. The glasses will cost $499 and go on sale Oct. 21.

While the company has not disclosed sales figures of the glasses, it said they have been more popular than expected.

“For more than a decade, Zuckerberg’s long-term vision with Oculus and the Metaverse has been that glasses and headsets will blur the lines between physical and digital worlds,” Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said. “After many false starts, the momentum to move beyond an early adopter niche is now.”

Meta teased a prototype for Orion, which Zuckerberg called “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen,” last year — but these holographic augmented reality glasses are still years away from being on the market.

Like other tech companies, Meta has been making massive investments in AI development and hiring top talent at eye-popping compensation levels.

In July, Zuckerberg posted a note detailing his views on “personal superintelligence” that he believes will “help humanity accelerate our pace of progress.” While he said that developing superintelligence is now “in sight,” he did not detail how this will be achieved or exactly what “superintelligence” means. The abstract idea of “superintelligence” is what rival companies call artificial general intelligence, or AGI.

Zuckerberg has said he believes AI glasses are going to be “the main way we integrate superintelligence.”