VIEW
Analysis and global perspectives in health, development, planet.
Theyâre among voices less heard.
Weâve been hearing a lot about climate actionâor inactionâfrom diplomatic circles and analysts over the past month of dissecting the business of COP26. (See highlights from the weekly Briefings below.)
Today, let's hear from people whose lives are already jolted by climate change.
Simione Botu, Fiji
As told by Alister Doyle in The Great Melt: Accounts from the Frontline of Climate Change (The History Press)
An old lump of concrete and a few wooden posts jutting out of the brownish sand of a beach shaded by coconut palms. This is all that remains of the boyhood home of Simione Botu, head of Vunidogoloa village in eastern Fiji. He has already moved inland â not once, but twice â to escape worsening floods along the coast.
Vunidogoloa is reported to be the first village in Fijiâperhaps in the worldâto move inland by 2km because of sea level rise.Â
Botu himself is one of a vanishingly small group of people anywhere who have been forced to move from two homes because of coastal flooding.
âNo matter what we did, the water came through the village,â Botu said of repeated attempts to hold back the sea and the estuary snaking through the village, with makeshift walls. Sea water intrusion disrupted agriculture and the cultivation of coconut, breadfruit and banana trees.
Fiji is often a leader in climate policiesâit was the first nation anywhere to formally ratify the Paris Agreement. And it is among those least responsible for climate changeâFiji emits a miniscule 0.006 per cent of global greenhouse gases.
Sunil Kandar, Ghoramara Island, India
As told by Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Shaikh Azizur Rahman in âThe island has been shrinkingâ: Living on the frontline of global heating (The Guardian)Â
âOur island is located at the mouth of a river coming from the north. The northern edge of the island began sinking bit by bit under the river water when I was a child. Then, 20 or 25 years ago, the sea began eating away land around the southern edge of the island where we lived.â
âOnce I owned four acres of farmland. In the past 20 years, three-quarters of it has been lost under the sea. This year I have been forced to buy rice for us, for the first time in my life.â
âOceanographers and other experts came to the island and conducted studies five years ago. They said the water level around the island is rising and it will perhaps completely vanish underwater by 2050. But in the past five years, the island has been shrinking. I think Ghoramara will disappear underwater within 10 or 15 years.â
Abdus Satter, Bangladesh
As told by Julhas Alam and Aniruddha Ghosal in Bangladeshâs villages bear the brutal cost of climate change (Associated Press)
With each tide, Abdus Satter watches the sea erode a little more of his life.
His village of Bonnotola in southwestern Bangladesh, with its muddy roads and tin-roofed houses, was once home to over 2,000 people. Most were farmers like the 58-year-old Satter. Then the rising seas poisoned the soil with salt water. Two cyclones in the last two years destroyed the mud embankments that shielded the village from tidal waves.
Now, only 480 people remain, with the rest rendered homeless by the sea.
Daharu Isah, Nigeria
As told by Orji Sunday in âThe weather keeps playing tricksâ: living on the frontline of global heating (The Guardian)
âWhen I was a child, I had big dreams of being a farmer.Â
In those days, the farms had enough rain, were even waterlogged occasionally. There were labyrinths of streams that survived till the dry season, when our farms needed irrigation. There were pastures, too, for the sheep and cattle, enough for pastoralists.
Today, however, I have lost that control and certainty regarding the weather. In fact, the weather keeps playing tricks on me and other farmers. This year, for example, I might incur a huge loss on my rice farm because the rain abruptly stopped a month ago, instead of in November. The rice hasnât matured.
I donât speak for myself alone: other farmers suffer, too, and a lot of my friends have left farming.
I am contemplating quitting farming already, because my income is rarely enough to cover my familyâs living costs.â
Nget Srey, Cambodia
As told by Sun Narin and Lors Liblib in In Coastal Cambodia, Climate Change Kills Rice Crops With Salt Water (Voice Of America)
Last year, Nget Sreyâs paddy was almost ready to harvest when her 2½-hectare field became inundated with seawater, wiping out her crops, slashing her main source of income and destroying her way of life.Â
Nget Srey and her neighbors, like other coastal farmers around the world, are feeling the effects of saltwater intrusion, a phenomenon in which seawater infiltrates freshwater sources such as groundwater, rivers and aquifers. Today, a combination of unchecked development and climate change is accelerating the process.
Wang Yuetang, China
As told by Christina Larson and Emily Wang Fujiyama in âOrdinary people suffer mostâ: China farms face climate woes (Associated Press)
Wang Yuetangâs sneakers sink into the mud of what was once his thriving corn and peanut farm as he surveys the damage done by an unstable climate.
Three months after torrential rains flooded much of central Chinaâs Henan province, stretches of the countryâs flat agricultural heartland are still submerged in several inches of water. Itâs one of the many calamities around the world that are giving urgency to the U.N. climate summit underway in Glasgow, Scotland.
âThere is nothing this year. Itâs all gone,â Wang said. âFarmers on the lowland basically have no harvest, nothing.â He lost his summer crop to floods, and in late October the ground was still too wet to plant the next seasonâs crop, winter wheat
The flooding disaster is the worst that farmers in Henan like Wang can remember in 40 years â but it is also a preview of the kind of extreme conditions the country is likely to face as the planet warms and the weather patterns growers depend upon are increasingly destabilized.
Claudelice dos Santos, Brazil
As told by Tom Phillips in âEnvironmental defenders are being killedâ: Living on the frontline of global heating. (The Guardian)
âWhatâs crucial is our capacity for resilience. And our ability to stand up and say: âIâll fight. Iâll denounce things. Iâll ask the international community to pay attention. I will not remain silent.â
Weâve reached the limit of everything. Natureâs limit. The limit of our own strength. But we are still alive and we will continue to resist.â
â
Endnote
This excerpt from Alister Doyleâs book reminded me of Ilan Kelmanâs caution, in our interview back in September, on climate change as a scapegoat.
âSeas are rising around the world. Whatâs so special about Fijiâs coastline? Why isnât everyone moving inland everywhere if things are so bad?Â
For climate sceptics, that question is often a sneaky foot in the door to raise doubts on how far sea level rise is a factor, or whether itâs even happening at all.Â
From West Africa to Alaska in the US, scientists say a nasty cocktail of factors is forcing relocations from the coast. In some cases, itâs down to natural subsidence and other changes that have been happening for centuries but in others itâs down to usâa blend of more powerful storms, shifting ocean currents and sea level rise linked to human greenhouse gas emissions. In cases like Vunidogoloa, sea level rise is the proverbial last strawâor perhaps bale of strawâthat breaks the camelâs back and makes a vulnerable place uninhabitable.â
Briefing Highlights
TREND TO WATCHÂ
An investigation released during COP26 by the Washington Post revealed a massive gap between the greenhouse-gas emissions countries are reporting, and what they're actually emitting. The Post analysed data from nearly 200 countries, conducted over several months. At its highest estimate, the under-reporting amounts to 13.3 billion tons a year, which is almost equivalent to China's annual emissions. The main reason for the gap appears to be overestimatingâor misrepresentingâhow much carbon is absorbed by land or offset by activities such as planting trees. Watch out for the tricky business of carbon accounting getting more tech-heavy and more visible on the climate agenda, not least because of another small step of progress in Glasgow: negotiations on Article 6 of the agreement, which aimed to make it more lucrative to keep trees standing.
UNDER THE RADAR
Next year we are likely to see a shortfall of between one to two billion syringes, which are needed to provide Covid-19 vaccines, according to the WHO. The shortage could also impact routine immunisations.Â
*Based on Briefings published November 9 & November 16
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Covaxin, Indiaâs homegrown COVID jab, âhighly efficaciousâ - Al Jazeera
African scientists race to test Covid drugsâbut face major hurdles - Nature
HEALTH
Cholera: Nigeria records four new deaths as cases hit 100,057 - Premium Times
India's latest Zika outbreak sees surge of nearly 100 cases - Reuters
Egypt: Thunderstorms cause deadly scorpion infestation in Aswan - Middle East Eye + Guardian
ENVIRONMENT
Indonesia leads the way in restoring coral reefs - Al Jazeera
âFlashâ droughts are quick-drying farm fields globally - Nature
đĽ VISUAL | Dams and drought choke Syriaâs water supply - Guardian
HUMANITARIAN & HUMAN RIGHTS
UN warns of âdireâ economic situation in Palestinian Authorityâs areas - Al-Awsat
Venezuela faces landmark ICC investigation over alleged crimes against humanity - Guardian
WFP warns 3 million more now âteetering on the edge of famineâ - UN News
SOCIETY
Nearly a third of Ugandaâs students may never return to school - NYT
How Facebook is stoking a civil war in Ethiopia - Vice
Indonesian court allows internet blocking amid social unrest - Global Voices
WOMEN
How climate change is disproportionately affecting girls in low-income countries - WaPo
Clutching graveyard crosses, hundreds protest violence against women in Mexico - TRF
đĽ VISUAL | The women on Bangladeshâs climate front lines: Snapshots of how disasters affect rural women - TNH
From the weekâs global soundtrack đ
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