Frank Nyakairu, Reuters 5 Jul 09;
NASSAPIR, Uganda (Reuters) - The rainmakers were convinced the god was angry.
Holding a sheep on its hind legs, a young man sank a spear into its neck. Those present drank its blood and splashed the rest around the local water catchment area in the hope of appeasing Ekipe, the rain god.
But rituals like this in Nassapir village, in northeastern Uganda's semi-arid and under-developed Karamoja region, no longer seem to pay off.
"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."
In a new report, global aid agency Oxfam says impoverished communities like Nassapir are already being hit hard by the effects of global warming, including increased drought.
Without international funding to help them cope and tough targets for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the food, water, health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people will be put at even greater risk.
Oxfam says interviews it carried out with farmers in 15 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America show that seasons are shrinking in number and variety.
This is destroying harvests, pushing farmers to abandon traditional crops and causing widespread hunger -- which, the agency predicts, will likely be "climate change's most savage impact on humanity in the near future."
Rainfall is reported to be more erratic, shorter and more violent. Unusual weather events -- including storms, drier spells and fluctuating temperatures -- are happening more often. And farmers say winds and storms have got stronger.
"We think that 'changing seasonality' may be one of the most significant impacts of climate change for poor farmers, and that is happening now," said Oxfam program researcher John Magrath in the report.
INCREASED HUNGER
Savio Carvalho, Oxfam's climate change adviser for the developing world, told Reuters global warming was already affecting people across Africa, and would wipe out efforts to tackle poverty without urgent action like massive tree planting.
"In sub-Saharan Africa, (yields of) maize, which is a staple crop, will decrease by 15 percent by 2020 and that is a big number," he said.
"Drought is now happening on a yearly basis, and there is increased hunger and starvation because of declining food stocks, as we see here in Karamoja," added Carvalho.
Uganda's Health Ministry says the malnutrition rate in the region -- which has experienced 14 droughts in 25 years -- is 19 percent. The U.N. World Food Program provides food aid to at least 970,000 of Karamoja's 1.1 million people.
Oxfam also warns that in places like Karamoja -- already plagued by high levels of violence due to armed cattle raids between ethnic groups -- failure to improve access to water is likely to exacerbate conflict.
The report says the worst effects of climate change on hunger and poverty can be avoided if communities and governments start adapting now.
The agency is taking practical steps, building a dam in Nassapir to capture any rain that does fall for people and animals.
Oxfam's Carvalho also recommended developing drought-tolerant maize seeds, and experimenting with alternative sources of energy in poor rural areas, where most people rely on cutting down trees for firewood and construction.
He said there were several possibilities in Kotido, the district that includes Nassapir.
"Poverty is compounded when people don't have access to energy, and people in places like Kotido could start exploring bio-gas from cow dung and solar energy from the abundant sunshine, with a bit of investment," Carvalho said.
(Additional reporting by Megan Rowling in London)
Climate change shifting seasons is causing widespread hunger
Millions of people could starve because climate change shifts the timing of the seasons, according to a leading international aid agency.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 6 Jul 09;
The regular arrival of the rains or a dry period to harvest staple crops ensures the majority of people around the world can grow enough food to eat.
But a new report by Oxfam has found that poor farmers in developing countries are increasingly finding the growing season is changing as a consequence of climate change.
The rains are coming too early or not at all and unexpected periods of drought or downpours are wiping out crops, leaving millions more people suffering hunger, the research said.
In a separate report, entitled Technology for a Low Carbon Future, Tony Blair, the former prime minister, said the technological solutions to global warming were "well within our grasp" and required only the political will to implement them.
Mr Blair said that a series of crunch meetings this year - including the Major Economies Forum in Italy this week and the Copenhagen climate change summit in December - should see the fight against global warming move from the campaigning stage to "practical policy making".
The Oxfam report interviewed poor farmers in 15 countries, from Bangladesh to Siberia, about how the weather has changed over the years.
The results found a general trend in people reporting that transitional seasons like spring have shrunk or disappeared altogether and been replaced by long periods of heat with shorter warmer winters. The rain is more erratic, coming at unexpected times in and out of season and dry periods have increased in length and frequency.
For example, in Siberia it was reported spring is coming earlier and is much wetter while the summer has become much hotter and longer. In Bangladesh people report generally drier winters and more intense but less predictable monsoons.
The report found that people are already suffering the consequences of the changing seasons. Maize yields are forecast to drop by 15 per cent or more by 2020 in much of sub-Saharan Africa and in most of India. Rice, another staple, is also expected to drop in yield in southern countries because of unexpected weather patterns.
A recent report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, a think-tank led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, estimated 300,000 people already die each year as a consequence of climate change and 300 million people are affected.
Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam, said: "Climate change is happening here and now and the world's poorest people are being hit the hardest."
Oxfam is calling for the developed countries to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 and commit £70 billion on helping poorer countries to adapt as part of any deal on climate change.
Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, is due to launch a new action plan to help millions of the world's poor fight climate change this week.
Poor face more hunger as climate change leads to crop failure, says Oxfam
• Seasons appear to have shrunk in variety
• Storms and heavier rains more common
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 5 Jul 09;
Hunger may become the defining human tragedy of the century as the climate changes and hundreds of millions of farmers already struggling to grow enough food are forced to adapt to drought and different rainfall patterns, a report warns.
Oxfam International, in a comprehensive look at the expected effects on people of climate change, says some of the world's staple crops will be hit and the implications for millions could be disastrous .
"Climate change's most savage impact on humanity in the near future is likely to be in the increase in hunger … the countries with existing problems in feeding their people are those most at risk from climate change," the report warns.
"Millions of farmers will have to give up traditional crops as they experience changes in the seasons that they and their ancestors have depended on. Climate-related hunger [may become] the defining human tragedy of this century."
The report, published as world leaders prepare to meet for the G8 summit in Italy, says that farmers around the world are already seeing changes in weather patterns which are leading to increased ill-health, hunger and poverty. Oxfam staff in 15 countries collected records from communities and observed that:
• Seasons appear to have shrunk in number and variety.
• Rainfall is more unpredictable, tending to be shorter in duration.
• Winds and storms are felt to have increased in strength.
• Unseasonal events such as storms, dense fogs and heavier rains are more common.
"Once-distinct seasons are shifting and the rains are disappearing. Poor farmers from Bangladesh to Uganda and Nicaragua, no longer able to rely on centuries of farming experience, are facing failed harvest after failed harvest," it says.
The evidence of changing weather patterns is anecdotal but the results are striking because of the extraordinary consistency they show across the world, said Oxfam programme researcher John Magrath.
"Farmers are all saying very similar things: the seasons are changing. Moderate, temperate seasons are shrinking and vanishing. Seasons are becoming hotter and drier, rainy seasons shorter and more violent," said Magrath.
The report, released before the G8 meeting in Italy this week, where Barack Obama will chair a session on climate change, warns that without immediate action on climate all the development gains made in 50 years are under threat.
Rice and maize, two of the world's most important crops, on which hundreds of millions of people depend, face significant drops in yields. Maize yields are forecast to drop by 15% or more by 2020 in much of sub-Saharan Africa and in most of India.
The report also documents how rising temperatures are affecting productivity in factories, with manual workers needing longer siesta times and outdoor workers experiencing dehydration. Cities in the tropics are becoming some of the most dangerous places in the world as heat stress increases, it says.
The "heat island effect", where heat retention in concrete and air conditioning combines to raise night temperatures in tropical cities by as much as 10C, can devastate vulnerable populations.
"Projections suggest a sixfold increase in heat-related deaths in Lisbon by 2050, and a fivefold increase in Greater London, two to seven times more deaths in California and a 75% increase in deaths among old people in Australian cities."
In Delhi, mortality rates rise by up to 4% with every 1C of temperature rise. The figure is 6% in Bangkok.
It also says many diseases are already migrating as temperatures rise. Malaria, dengue fever, river blindness and yellow fever are all considered highly likely to increase their distribution, it says.
