Personal Stories about the Impact of Climate Change

Personal Stories about the Impact of Climate Change

Edited by Alan Singer

Changes in the global climate exacerbate climate hazards and amplify the risk of extreme weather disasters. Increases of air and water temperatures lead to rising sea levels, supercharged storms and higher wind speeds, more intense and prolonged droughts and wildfire seasons, heavier precipitation and flooding. The number of climate-related disasters has tripled in the last 30 years. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that adapting to climate change and coping with damages will cost developing countries $140-300 billion per year by 2030.

Source: https://www.oxfam.org/en/5-natural-disasters-beg-climate-action#

An annual average of 21.5 million people were forcibly displaced each year by weather-related events – such as floods, storms, wildfires and droughts – between 2008 and 2016, according to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre. This figure reached a record 32.6 million in 2022. The International Environmental Partnership, an international thinktank, expects this number to surge. It predicts that 1.2 billion people could be displaced globally by 2050 due to climate change and natural disasters. Source: https://www.zurich.com/media/magazine/2022/there-could-be-1-2-billion-climate-refugees-by-2050-here-s-what-you-need-to-know

Yolanda del Carmen Marín, Coffee plantation worker, Sonsonate, El Salvador

Source: Rethinking Schools

 “These are hard times for people like me who work on coffee farms. I’ve worked here in Sonsonate since I was a kid. I have done pretty much every job there is to do on this farm. There are a lot of problems now — pests, low prices for coffee beans — but the big one is climate change. It used to be that the rainy season would start in May. But with climate change, who knows? The rains sometime come early, and the coffee plants flower, but then the rain will stop and so things dry up. Sometimes the rains come late or don’t come at all. That leads to a terrible harvest. Forty years ago, this farm produced 4,000 tons of coffee. This year? It will produce about 300 tons. In the last 10 years in El Salvador, 80,000 people lost their jobs in the coffee industry. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones, because I still have a job, although it pays only about $30 a week. My daughter couldn’t find any work at all, other than trying to sell food on street corners. So in order to survive, she and her family joined one of the migrant caravans traveling to the United States. What else was she supposed to do? I’m old now, so cannot make the journey north, but if I was younger, I probably would. My friend, Reyna de Jesús López, who works on the coffee farm with me, paid to send her 12-year-old son to the United States. She says that sometimes he calls her to say that he wants to come home, but she tells him, “What are you going to do here? There are no opportunities for young people.” Things here have never been easy, but climate change made them worse. The government in the United States tells Salvadoran migrants to go home. But one of the main reasons migrants can’t go home is because of climate change — caused mostly by the rich countries, like the United States, with all their greenhouse gases.”

Gail Woon, Marine biologist, Freeport, Bahamas

Source: Project Drawdown

“I’m taking action on climate change solutions because I was made homeless three times by climate change, hurricanes hitting my island. So I feel it very personally. I am working on a project to restore the mangroves to a community called Water Key, which was a bone fishing destination. So we’re engaging with the community there, all of whom were also displaced by climate change. Hurricane Dorian in 2019. It is now 2024 and no one has been able to move back yet. They’re living on the main island of Grand Bahama. They go on the weekends to try to rebuild their homes. But we’re hoping now that when we plant thousands, hundreds of thousands of mangroves in and around that area that they will still be able to be a bone fishing destination and that those mangroves will grow. At the same time, the community will be able to move back to the island.

Emilia Aguinaga, Foundation for Louisiana’s Climate Justice

Source: Project Drawdown

“When I was growing up, we didn’t talk about climate change. We talked about global warming, the ice caps and polar bears. Everything changed for me when I moved to New Orleans, just a couple of days before hurricane Katrina hit. Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes that made landfall in American history, killing over 1800 people. And it was also one of the most expensive disaster recovery efforts that we’ve had to undertake since then, things have only gotten worse. Our climate continues to get warmer and more unpredictable. We have stronger hurricanes, more wildfires, increased droughts and floods. The time to take action was really decades ago. The next best time to take action is now.”

LeMonie Hutt, Hoopa Valley Tribe, Northern California

Source: The Harvard Gazette

I’m a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California, and I live on the reservation, which is about an hour away from an actual Target or Costco, over two mountains. What’s special about the Hoopa tribe is that we’ve never stopped practicing our traditional ceremonies. I grew up in a culturally rich, matriarchal society. We have a woman’s coming-of-age ceremony to celebrate a woman’s coming into a leadership role in the community. We had a lot of women serving on the tribal council; my mom herself also served on the council. Our population is small: 2,000 people. And when I was younger, my family and other families used to rely a lot on natural resources. A lot of our food would come from the environment around us. But that slowly started to dwindle away as I got older because of climate change and the use of our waterways by big agricultural farms. Our water resources also decreased due to fires, and since our culture is so intertwined with our land and natural resources, it has become a lot harder to keep our culture. It is hard to make baskets or jewelry because natural resources are becoming scarce. For the younger generations, it has been hard to grow up without having access to those resources that can allow them to express themselves through culture and art. We see that playing out in a mental health crisis among students because of threats to their culture, which is being taken away.

Kiani Akina, Kahuku, Hawaii

Source: The Harvard Gazette

“I live on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, in a very small town called Kahuku. Our population is 2,000. We have one stoplight. We used to have a gas station; now it’s in the town over. Our sense of community identity is strong. As far as the impact of climate change in my community, I’ve seen the way beaches and landscapes have changed tremendously from when I was little to now. Native Hawaiians, and Indigenous folk everywhere, have a deep connection with the land and the water, and this is hard for other people to understand. For us, the land and water are living beings, sort of relatives that hold lots of stories that are so connected to our culture and identities. Hawaiian lives are deeply impacted by climate change and over-tourism, which is not sustainable and is also harmful to the environment. Indigenous people are forced to face the worst and most harmful impacts of climate change when we contribute the least to it.”

Ricardo Marrero-Alattar, Puerto Rico

Source: The Harvard Gazette

“I grew up in Puerto Rico. In the past five years, we faced hurricanes, earthquakes, and COVID. There is no question that the worsening climate on our planet is making it more likely for natural disasters to occur, and I want to make clear the stark difference between the impact of climate change in the Global North and the Global South. What we underestimate, in the U.S. and the Global North, is how climate change worsens natural disasters. To us in the Global North, it means a couple more hurricanes, but for the Global South, where most developing countries are located, natural disasters are not ephemeral. They become significant; their gravity multiplies exponentially. Climate change is worse for the Global South because they are less able to recover from the increased volume and gravity of the impact of natural disasters. Puerto Rico was badly hit by Hurricane Maria five years ago, and people are still suffering to this day because of it. It is because of the catastrophic system failure that took place in the wake of Maria: All systems failed and became too weak to recover, and economically, it made it hard for the island to rebuild. Once the infrastructure is weakened, as well as its ability to recover, the island becomes more vulnerable to the next natural disaster. We just had Hurricane Fiona, which was a Category 1 hurricane, and we felt the damage as if it were Maria, which was Category 5.

Alison Wisely, Knox Petrucci, Felix and Lucas, Hurricane Helene

Source: New York Times

“When the rain began to pour over Green Mountain, N.C., in late September, Alison Wisely kept a close eye on the puddles growing slowly outside her window. Hurricane Helene was churning across the American South, and Ms. Wisely, 42, and her fiancé, Knox Petrucci, 41, were hunkering at home with her two young sons. The house was hundreds of miles from any coastline. On the morning of Sept. 27, a nearby river overflowed, and catastrophe came quickly. Floodwaters rushed toward the couple and the children — Felix, 9, and Lucas, 7. In a frantic effort to escape, all four lost their lives. Their deaths represent only a small fraction of Helene’s terrible toll. The storm has killed more than 200 people, making it the deadliest tropical cyclone to strike the mainland United States since 2005.”

Emma, New South Wales, Australia

Source: Australian Climate Case

“My name is Emma. I’m sixteen years old and I live on the south coast of New South Wales. I’ve always been into nature and the environment. Growing up I used to get really upset when I saw a tree being cut down. Then we learned about climate change in year 7. I remember it being really scary – I thought the world was perfect but really it isn’t. I just thought the way we were living was fine but that was a real eye opener. Climate change is becoming part of our lives now and affecting us directly. I was here when the bushfires happened – it was New Year’s Eve and the smoke was coming from the south and the north. The smoke got thicker and thicker as the day went on. I remember looking at Gulaga and it was just glowing. Everyone was banding together in town and just waiting. Eventually we went home but we couldn’t do anything because the power was out. The next day when we woke up the sky was a dark red and the trees were black. It was surreal – I couldn’t tell what time it was. The wind kept changing direction – the Cobargo fires were coming towards us but we got lucky and the wind changed. Several times we evacuated to the golf course with all of our stuff until the threat had passed.”

Talei Elu, Seisia, Cape York, Far North Queensland, Australia

Source: Australian Climate Case

“My clan is the crocodile clan – Saibai Koedal – on my father’s side and on my mother’s side I’m Fijian. My grandfather and his family left Saibai just after the war. He wouldn’t have called it climate migration, but a key reason for them leaving was that people’s gardens were starting to get inundated with salt water, making it harder to grow crops. He had the foresight to realize that if it got worse then Saibai wouldn’t be able to support us. People say ‘oh it was the 1940s’ but the Industrial Revolution was well underway and the climate was already changing. My family has been away from Saibai for more than 70 years. It’s definitely had an impact on how we use our language and practice our culture. The young boys in Seisia often say ‘one day I’ll get to go to the homeland’ even though we’re only a few islands away. We’re witnessing climate change happening here in Seisia now. We’re seeing more extreme weather and more intense storm surges. Elders say that it’s very different now to the old days. You can see the effects on the shape of the shoreline – the beach used to have a shallow gradient but storm surges and king tides have carved the sand into a steep slope.”

Stories from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America

Source: Global Citizen

Domini J.J., India: “I can’t breathe good air. It’s really difficult to go on about my day to day life, which is why it is so hard to go about my regular chores. I work very hard to be eco-friendly, why am I paying for the mistakes made by others?”

Neha P., India: “Hey! I live in India, and for the past two years the temperatures have been so high in the summers that we can’t step out of the house for more than 10 minutes. The heat exhausts you. This year, 2022, we’re experiencing the highest temperatures ever and it’s only April.”

Vahini C., India: “It affects our health both mentally and physically. It is harder to carry out the daily household chores for my mother. Pollution is everywhere. Fresh air is on its way to becoming a luxury soon. It is important to stop this as soon as possible.”

Aung N., Myanmar: “Climate change affects our lives with huge flooding, tornadoes, storms, and wildfires destroying what we love and value!”

Mayetth P., Philippines: “Global warming is affecting every country in the world! I live in the Philippines and the intensity of typhoons has increased. Look at Typhoon Rai in 2021. I worked with many volunteers providing aid to those islands and provinces that were hit hardest by the typhoon. It will take those islands years to overcome the destruction from Rai.”

Lato K., Kenya: “As pastoralists in Kenya, we are experiencing long periods of drought and short but dangerous rain periods, which bring flooding. The drought causes starvation of our cattle and the rain drowns them.”

Chinasa I. U., Nigeria: “The climate crisis is making it difficult for my family in the rural areas to cultivate their seasonal crops without interruptions, due to both floods and droughts.”

Peter N., Nigeria: “The climate crisis is affecting my life in so many ways. From the high cost of living due to poor yield from farming caused by damage, to the land and air and water pollution, which has caused some of my friends and neighbours to be hospitalised for various respiratory cases.”

Sanusi H. M., Nigeria: “Personally, I am suffering from the climate crisis and climate change. The weather is so hot that I usually get [bouts of] heat stroke at any moment. Climate crisis is affecting not only the environment but our health too.”

Emmanuel C., South Africa: “My country has seen new levels of floods in the region of KwaZulu-Natal. It’s the biggest natural disaster that has ever hit our country. Global warming is real and we need to take serious action before it’s too late.”

Elif Ü. A., Germany: “In Germany, there were floods last year which caused many deaths. I am scared that it will get worse. People I know and me weren’t affected yet, but if we go on like this, ignoring those dangers, everyone will be in huge danger because of the climate crisis. We ARE in danger NOW.”

Ann P., Greece: “Very unpredictable sudden weather extremes causing chaos, deaths from fires, flooding, falling trees, electricity blackouts, rising prices, unemployment. Mental stress from all this. Women carry the burden as carers.”

Sabine W., Ireland: “I live in the West of Ireland and our weather patterns have changed. More rain, more storms. There is flooding at high tides. Unless there is radical improvement in climate action, a lot of our coastal areas will be reclaimed by the sea.”

Alexa., Poland: “As a woman I think about my family, women tend to worry more about safety especially for their children. When I think of the climate crisis I think of the fact that I don’t even have children yet and the climate situation is already bad. I have every right to worry and do everything I can to ensure that my kids will be able to live their lives appreciating everything I could’ve when I was young so they can have the best careless (in a good way, of course) childhood.”

Ochmanek E., Canada: “In the last eight months I have lived through a heat dome that saw the highest temperatures ever recorded in Canada, a drought that is killing our cedars (the tree of life), waters too warm for salmon to spawn, the flooding of farms that I depend on for food.”

Anvitha J., United States: “It’s affecting the weather around me, the trees and grass and all living beings around me. There’s fewer trees and fewer flowers and it snows in April and it’s boiling hot in October. It just doesn’t make sense because of climate change.”

Angela E., United States: “We just had a massive storm flood that destroyed our neighbourhood causing death, destruction, a major disaster, which most still have not recovered from seven months later and it’s not covered by insurance. It’s exceptionally windy and we are facing strong storms all the time now.”

Lisa-May R., United States: “I live on an island in the intercoastal waterway, my home is 13 feet above sea level and the level is rising. My home insurance has gone up immensely as I am in a flood zone, and the deductible for ‘named storms’, which are every storm, is too high. I stress about everything in regard to the climate crisis.”

Nicole S., United States: “I am constantly having to deal with wildfires in my vicinity during fire season. The poor air quality from the smoke gives me sore throats. I worry about my respiratory health. This year is another drought year. I’m not looking forward to living in a parched environment. I also worry about fire retardant polluting the local waterways. Our local endangered fish population is already suffering due to the low precipitation. Climate change creates complex environmental challenges that need innovative solutions.”

Melia M., United States: “I live in California so the fires get worse every year and I have to live in fear of losing my house and family.” 

Pedro G., Chile: “The area where I live has been in a severe drought for a while. The water dam is at 6% of its total capacity, the worst I have ever seen since the dam was constructed in 1998. I recently visited my sister in the South (the rainy part of the country) and found that the river that used to carry lots of water stopped flowing this summer. Our food and drinking water supply might be affected if conditions don’t improve.”

Elssy R., Honduras: “The climate change is killing my dear coral reefs and everybody should know how important they are.”

Raúl G. F., México: “The climate crisis is limiting our access to safe water and is contributing to increasing water scarcity. This does not affect everyone equally: people with less resources (economic and educational), suffer more than the rich, contributing thus to increasing the social gap between human beings.”

Damaris F., México: “The days are warmer, the nights are colder. The food is more expensive. We can see every day the impacts of the climate crisis but people don’t want to look around.”

Yazmin O., México: “Since I was a child I have lived near a very polluted river, and this gets worse during the hot weather. It’s the Lerma Santiago River in El Salto, Mexico. Among the population, there are a lot of cancer cases and stomach issues.”

Cindy C., México: “The weather is so unpredictable, the whole world is turning inhabitable. So many things have changed, the world is not how it used to be. Where I live it’s much hotter now, and there is less water. It’s difficult to live like this.”

The Wildness Society has video interviews with five Americans whose lives were impacted by climate change. Source: https://www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/5-stories-people-impacted-climate-change-and-inspired-take-action

WaterAid has a feature on people impacted by climate change around Lake Chilwa in Malawi.      https://www.wateraid.org/uk/stories/climate-stories