Climate change: Act or prepare for the worst

A section of Kenyans demonstrate in Nairobi streets for what they termed as negative climate change, the demo was christened climate justice. [George Njunge/Standard] 

At the insistence of my mother, I grudgingly sought a doctor’s advice last week. I could feel her concern when, between rib-cracking coughs, she asked whether I had seen a physician.

“Nowadays, coughs get serious and a doctor’s prescription is important, “ she implored.  

Growing up, her prescription for a cold or a cough was bitter lemon swirled and taken down with little honey. Ginger and lemon is a new invention.

Often that left you smelling like lemon, but it worked. I hear none of that from her nowadays. I guess the magic in it is no more. Or is that modern science has trumped traditional medicine.

That the world climate has changed in the last three decades is not out of question. The world is hotter or colder depending with where you are and with it, such common ailments like mild headaches, sore throats and common cold and malaria.

Parts of the world have become warmer, others colder, others wet and others drier. Some will experience modest crop yields, others will reap nothing and yet others will get bumper harvest. Slowly but surely, man has become a refugee of climate. This is unsettling though sadly true.

Just last week, the blistering temperatures in the capital city were replaced by showers and thunderstorms and low temperatures - quite unusual in this time of the year. Those lows could unpredictably change sooner before you can pull over the cardigans and sweaters.

Heavy rains witnessed across the country at the end of last year to January is one form of extreme events that scientists attribute to climate change.

For many of us, it has been akin to dancing to a confused genre of dance hall, reggae, R&B, rock & roll, bongo and benga all at the same time. Night and day are not the same anymore. Cold days give way to hot, humid and sticky nights. And vice versa.

In the villages, the wild fruits that many of us feasted on over lunchtime at primary school are no more, the rivers we swum in during the school holidays have dried up or are filled up at the “wrong time”. The drum beat attributing this rapid change to climate change is getting louder by the day. And it could get worse unless something is done.

James Lovelock, the renown 100-year-old British scientist has been at the forefront in the climate discussion. Prof Lovelock believes that mankind has fatefully unbalanced the delicate mechanisms of a world he calls Gaia, in his book The Revenge of Gaia, catalogues the alarming consequences of an upset climate.

We shouldn’t think of the Earth as a lump of rock and soil and trees, he says, but a larger organism with a life of its own and punishes any species that upset its structure. No doubt, the threat of heat waves and long winters is real. Farmers and specifically pastoralists in the developing world will be the most hard hit as water becomes scarce and pasture fields diminish and seasons become unpredictable.

Make no mistake, climate change is not just an environmental problem. It is more than that.

The long-running dilemma was that climate change is a by-product of the race to beat poverty and to prosper simply because the primary sources of the so-called greenhouse gases are industries and transport. But then it is leaving the poor, poorer.

In a nutshell, it is an economic problem; it is a political problem; it is a health problem; and it is a geopolitical problem.

Pollution is turning big cities of the world into toxic settlements. There will be frequent, not less fights as a consequence of climate change as people clash for scarce pasture, wood fuel and water. Moreover, millions risk being displaced as sea levels rise and floods become prevalent.

In Kenya, one gets the sense we are doing too little to fix the harm to the environment. At a personal level, one cannot fail to notice a lot of people are doing whatever little they can-planting trees, using less plastic, cycling and walking rather than driving. That is a drop in the ocean.

The authorities are yet to grasp the matter fully. The absence of cycling or lanes or walking tracks in major city routes or the lack of action on obvious culprits like factories or vehicle owners who flagrantly abuse emission levels is galling. For climate change, a stitch in time saves nine.

Small incremental steps in the end make a great deal. But then, besides planting trees and stopping deforestation, we need to move to alternative ways of being green. Embracing clean development mechanism which advocates for cheap and efficient transport, technology like cars with limited CO2 emissions or electric cars and investment in wind, geothermal and solar to power our factories offer low-hanging fruits. Otherwise, arm yourself with a concoction of cough syrups and pain tablets.

Mr Kipkemboi is The Standard’s Associate Editor for Partnerships and Projects. [email protected]