Front lines of global warming: Student recounts Mt. Kilimanjaro experiences

Front lines of global warming: Student recounts Mt. Kilimanjaro experiences

By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 17 March 2006

BERKELEY — Kate Cheney Davidson, a student in UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, recently learned firsthand that people living in farming communities on Mt. Kilimanjaro are already feeling the negative consequences of a changing climate.

"They've experienced three years of severe drought already, and the short rains, which were supposed to come October through December, were a no-show again this year," Davidson said. "Crops are dying, especially in the lower elevations, and people are being forced in greater numbers into the forests to fell trees so they can exchange charcoal for food in the market."

Some farmers told Davidson that without rain, they can't water their crops, while others said that fights have broken out in certain areas over the right to traditional water sources.

Davidson heard about other changes, too.

"One older man told me about how all the houses in Mweka used to have fireplaces, but now they are never used," she said. "They used to wear sweaters and long sleeves, but now wear only short sleeves because it’s so warm."

Davidson described Kahe, a small village that lies in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro, as a place marked by withered corn stalks, dusty roads and residents left wondering if the rains will ever return.