Here in Toronto it’s been raining for days. Such is not the case in Uganda.
Reuters reports that a new study by Oxfam warns that farmers in developing countries are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. Seasonal weather patterns have shifted, resulting in drought in villages like Nassapir, Uganda.
“We don’t know why the god is no longer answering our requests,” said Laurien Lokwareng, an elder of the Jie ethnic group. “For years, we used to ask the god for rain and we got it in abundance, but we have had four years without enough rain now, and this is very strange.”
The report surveys a cross section of farmers in 15 countries throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, who allege that shifting climatic patterns are producing shorter growing seasons and crop failure. The agency predicts that the maize harvest in Sub-Sahara Africa could drop 15 percent by 2020, enough to leave a lot of people hungry.
I haven’t had an opportunity to read the full report yet, but my interest is peaked by the methodology. The information used to support the claims is a combination of data from the scientific community with traditional knowledge from the civilians who are living in the wake of our changing climate. As I’ve mention previously on this blog, academics have been swift to reject studies that fail to prove a causal relationship between climate data and human impacts. It will be interesting to see over the next few days how this report in received.
