The below post is from Joel Katz in response to TOTO Challenge #1
Chacaltaya’s days are numbered. Nestled away in the Bolivian Andes, the glacier has existed for 18,000 years, but over the last two decades most of it has melted away.
Edson Ramirez is the country’s leading glaciologist. Sitting in his office at the University of San Andres in La Paz, he gestures to the narrow streets below. Many from his hometown and nearby El Alto depend on tropical ice fields like Chacaltaya for their water, he explains.
Edson Ramirez, a leading glaciologists, says many people in Bolivia depend on tropical ice fields for water.
His youthful face dulls momentarily. It’s rising temperatures, he says – that’s why it’s disappearing.
About 300km south is Salar-de-Uyuni – the world’s biggest salt-flat. Sitting inside a giant prehistoric crater, this moonscape setting is a tough place to survive. But the Uru Chipaya tribe have been here for generations, outlasting the Incan empire and the Spanish conquest.
Now they face extinction.
Chief Felix Quispe says that the river that sustained his people for so long, the Lauca, has been reduced to a trickle.
“Over here used to be all water,” he says, pointing across a dusty plain. “There were ducks, crabs and reeds growing in the water. I remember that. What are we going to do? We are water people.”
Landlocked and poor, the largely indigenous nation is a snapshot of the effects of climate change on developing regions everywhere. With the largest rich-poor divide in South America, a harsh environment, and an economy based on market-sensitive exports like tin, natural gas and soybeans; the Andean nation is like the canary in the coalmine.
Both socioeconomically and ecologically, right now the country’s reeling from the impacts of climate change – and the canary’s twittering us a warning we can’t ignore.
Unpredictable weather and lower rainfall destroy crops, and clear-cutting triggers landslides and massive flooding. Meanwhile forest fires scorch lowland areas, as mosquito-borne diseases spread to areas where they never existed before.
With reduced harvests, trips to the market are less profitable. Struggling to make ends meet, parents get their kids to help out on the farm, instead of sending them to school. With no formal education, their futures are bleak – for the most part they end up trapped in a poverty cycle that just goes round and round.
A recent Oxfam report on the impacts of climate change in Bolivia says that more and more people are becoming destitute. With few resources and a weak economy, can developing regions like this cope with these unprecedented climactic shifts?
The answer is no.
Climate change and other urgent areas like education, human rights and food are as tightly inter-woven as the threads of a snug Alpaca-wool poncho.
There’s no picking apart these issues.
So if aid agencies like ActionAid focus on climate change they will actually be tackling other clearly pressing development issues too. And if world leaders, NGOs and other key players don’t take action now, an already dire situation will become catastrophic.
It’s not just Bolivia. This is going down big time worldwide, from Togo to Tuvalu.
A few months back Tropical Storm Ketsana ripped across the Philippines archipelago, killing more than 277 and displacing about 2 million others. News video shows rivers engulfing downtown Manila; locals desperately clutching to rafts of refuse as they sweep past buildings and floating cars. Emergency services were stretched to breaking point in the aftermath of the heaviest downpour in 40 years.
Rivers engulf Manila's streets during Tropical Storm Ketsana, Philippines
Over the last few years tropical storms like Hurricane Katrina, Andrew and Ike ripped through the Caribbean and southern US killing many and costing more than $100 billion damage. Cyclone Nargis lashed Burma last year, killing at least 146,000 people, and razing much of the land, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless and without access to clean water or basic facilities.
Southeast Asia has been battered by these kinds of weather systems this year, and so too has their fragile economies. Wildfires ravage parts of Australia and the US. Droughts parch Africa and many other places. Rising sea levels are submerging small islands and delta-regions. Tundra is disappearing across the far North.
Sounds like a blockbuster disaster movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal or Will Smith– but this is for real.
It’s impossible to accurately forecast the cost of climate change if it continues unabated, but former World Bank chief economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, reckons that it could cut up to 20% of the world’s wealth by the end of the century. This dwarfs the massive losses suffered from the recent financial crisis, but like the meltdown it will hit the poorest the hardest.
Drought has ravaged Northwest China
If global temperatures rise by 2 degrees, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPCC) predicts that worldwide an extra 400 million could be exposed to malaria, 600 million could be affected by malnutrition, and 1.8 billion could be living without enough water. Hundreds of millions will lose their homes and land to sea-level rise, and damage from tropical storms and hurricanes will increase as they get fiercer and more frequent.
Countless more will be dragged into poverty – sidelined from the mainstream economy.
With Copenhagen fast approaching, most negotiators agree that climate financing must be at the centre of any fair and comprehensive climate treaty, but they squabble over who will pay. Climate financing means that wealthier nations will help foot the bill so poorer regions can adapt to climate change and switch over to cleaner technology.
At a recent forum in the Maldives, nations that are most threatened by global warming issued a declaration of their concerns and demands.
The words are powerful – especially considering some of the signatory-states might not exist by the end of this century. It argues that advanced economies have a moral duty to bankroll the bulk of climate financing, as they’ve been pumping out greenhouse gases since steam trains started rattling around the English countryside, in the early 1800s.
Like governments, aid agencies also must zero in on global warming as a priority, even though there are so many other critical issues to deal with. Besides, these two fronts of the development world overlap on so many different levels. Investing in a clean future means more jobs, less pollution, and a more sustainable global economy – one that isn’t based on exploiting the resources and cheap labour force of poor regions to feed the insatiable appetite of the rich.
Back in La Paz, Ramirez pulls on his baseball cap and shakes his head. He says that if it keeps getting hotter he’ll have no job and the city’s residents will have no water.
And that’s the least of our problems…
Tags: challenge, climate change, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
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People tend to ignore the obvious so Joel has made it very clear that some people cannot ignore the obvious effects of climate change and those numbers are growing as these life and death, health and livelihood problems come closer to home especially in developing countries which are more prone and less able to cope.
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Really scary stuff, Joel. By focusing on this ancient Bolivian glacier and the local people who need it to survive, you have really captured the tragic human angle of this climate change disaster. Too often, articles about climate change bombard the reader with stats and academia, as dry as a Chinese drought. So it’s very refreshing and useful to read something like this: accessible, insightful and heartfelt.
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Very interesting. It is good to read what you know but try not to think about too much. This article highlights the action on the ground rather than the endless words by politicians and media commentators. I liked the parts where you put things in economic terms. It seems the power brokers of the world can only understand things if they have an economic bottom line. The canary metaphor was also good as the big polluters need to know that their turn will be coming unless something is done.
I like this article because it calmly restates, in very clear terms, the reality of climate change and its effects on the earth as a whole. Joel, take the sceptics to the glacier, make them walk to the top, and then ask if they’d like a drink of water! -
Wow, that article really makes me want to wake up and do something about it, full of passion and very inspiring. Action really needs to be taken immediately world wide.
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This is such a good account of the great injustice at the heart of climate change. While those of us in the wealthy countries that are responsible for causing this climate catastrophe watch our politicians infighting about Emissions Trading Schemes and the cost of climate action, people in poor countries all over the world are already dealing with the impacts of climate change.
These personal stories are so powerful in helping to communicate the human aspect of climate change and to remind ourselves that our debates about the costs of action are really debates about human lives. This account really clearly shows that inaction on climate change has the potential to undo all the progress made by aid oranisations working to alleviate poverty. -
Your article is inspiring. This particular piece hits home with me, especially with most of my family living in Manila. They endured the effects of climate change first hand and although many people say that climate change does not effect “us westerners”… it does so through family and heartache.
Thank you for bringing these issues to life in your words. You’re an awesome writer!
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The time for action is NOW!!! Those few, who have the authority to make the changes we need NOW, need to realise we cannot eat, drink and live upon money!? Lets hope they hear your words Joel, which reflect the thoughts of the people!!!
Cheers for keeping it real and spreading awareness – we need people of action such as yourself!! -
I love this article… it reads so well, and really gets me thinking about this era-defining issue. Polished, entertaining, engaging and compelling. The images are great too! They bring an already stunning piece of writing to life, illustrating so well the unprecedented changes that are occurring today. Awesome work, Joel… you really deserve this!!!
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Keep up the really good work Joel, an excellent and passionate post. The poluting industries of the west are directly damaging the livelihoods of communities around the world and especially in developing countries. This climate injustice must stop now.
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Worsening climate brings a serious challenge to all human beings, the beautiful island country –Maldives is disappearing, the great natural works — polar glacier is melting into water, environment should not be murdered and become the victim of human civilization. People, stop your selfishness.
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I love that your perspective is both Global and Local at the same time. Seems that much of the ‘awareness’ (or lack there of) issue relates to persons living in Toronto or Washington, and thinking of places like Manila and Seoul as being another world. It’s not psudeo-hippy philosophy, but rather a simple pragmatic truth. What happens climate-wise in Dar es Salaam will eventually affect Novar, Ontario. Sadly we live in an era of “Dumb”, Mr. Katz and Mr. Ramirez being exceptions. Wood I be a fool to suggest that Climate Change awareness needs sex appeal? I such suggest this only as a marketing tool to reach the masses. Green technology hasn’t caught on the way it should- people are too glued to reality TV… Wait a minute… There’s an idea!!! Thanks so much Joel!
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Powerful story Joel! Makes me want to get up and do more on climate change issues to ensure that the world I enjoy is here for future generations to enjoy…… Joel you have the strong ability to weave disparate stories together into a succinct package of interesting and informative prose. Good work! I’m looking forward to reading more…..
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More arguments to face the real problems of climate changes…we know consequences, we have the solutions, lets go now! Don t stop writing it, Joel, we need to be more aware of the unity of this world. Tomorrow anybody can be Bolivian or Philippin…Today I feel like one of them.
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This might be of interest to you as well!
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/12/07/the-real-climate-scandal/
Cheers, Jason
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I really love your post! You really wrap everything up nicely. I’ve travelled through South America. I love the way you use local examples, and then link them to the bigger picture and tie everything together. I looked at the other blogs and yours is my favourite. Sounds like a magazine article. Really great to read. You tell a story more than the other blogs, and that’s why I like it the best. Good luck, Joel. You are definitely my pick for Action Aid blogger.
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Thanks, Jason… this article should be read by everyone. No doubt the leaked emails have slightly tainted the whole affair, but they have little to do with the unequivocal science, and much more to do with the naysayers doing everything in the power to derail the ‘train of logic’. Remember Galileo had the same problem…so did Darwin… and astonishingly, he still does. Some folk would argue against gravity if it serves their purpose. Sadly this is the world we live in.
Science and cool, calm reasoning often come off second best to hot tempers and hot-air, which will only accelerate the rising temperatures (that pun was inexcusable).
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Great effort Joel. We need more articles just like yours, putting the facts out there and hopefully making people aware that climate change is affecting people all around the world right now, not in the future. The quicker the general public realise this by reading articles such as yours, the quicker action will be taken. Once again, great piece and keep it up!
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What a powerful article. Joel you have done an amazing job of blending emotion with facts and figures. Let’s hope something constuctive comes out of Copenhagen
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Hi! Im from Colombia, i found your article really down to earth, i like the way you shown the big threat of Global warming in countries like Bolivia. It is incredible just to realice that places like the glaciar in Argentina “Perito Moreno” is melting as well. I just read an article of Maldives and the situation there is getting even worst. I hope after Conpenhaguen global meeting many actions start taking place all around the world!
We are just on time to make real changes!
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Project TOTO · No Will Smith: just a real threat of extinction http://bit.ly/4zleCS Great post & photos by @Joelkatz1 on @actionaid_aus blog
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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Thank you Joel for taking the time and using your wonderful talents to spread this message. With Gratitude, Carms.
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Joel I really like your post. I am from Ecuador, so this story is especially important to me and this part of the world. Buena suerte con TOTO!!!!!!!!
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Hi Joel
Just wanted to say as a fellow nominee, I thought your article was work of real quality. I hope talented people like you keep fighting the good fight and raising awareness of these issues.
Emily French -
Hi Emily… just gotta say that’s incredibly sweet of you. Great to get kudos from such a worthy competitor as yourself. Hard to know what the ActionAid folks are looking for, but I guess the whole thing’s kinda subjective… Good luck with everything, and congrats on your post. T’was well deserved!!
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Great post Joel! I’ve been to Salar de Uyuni and stayed with local people, I’ve been trekking in Patagonia – to think that we could lose all that, and so much more, is awful. I hope lots of people read this article, there’s way too much narrow-minded selfishness out there. Keep up the excellent work!
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A very inspiring article Joel! Thanks for sharing your talent while getting this to know and… keep writing! Given the Copenaghen outcomes, we need more of your articles. Good luck for your competition
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