As climate change continues to destroy both the environment and our communities, many people are left to deal with the cascading, damaging effects of climate change. Speculators in commodities markets are driving up their costs and forcing farmers to go out of business. In the process, students continue to look on in horror while their communities are blown up. The urgency of addressing climate change grows even stronger as their stories highlight the deeply human cost of falling behind on the fight for climate justice.
Walter Krahe, lecturer and climate activist, has witnessed disturbing trends of animal deaths every day as a direct result of climate change. He notes, “Every morning, there would be a dozen animals dead, another dozen in the evening.” This often-overlooked reality only underscores the brutal attack climate change has launched on agriculture and animal husbandry. Krahe emphasizes the need for immediate action, stating, “If we don’t start taking real action… we slide more towards uncontrollability.”
Ruben Sanchez Perez has paramount concerns too. As the father of seven children, he has taken the hard choice of sending his sons to the United States in search of a better life. The harsh realities of climate change left him no choice. Despite the increasing environmental devastation, he continued to fight to feed his family.
Abbas Gurain Hubaish Alammary, a former water buffalo farmer assesses his losses. He keeps his daughter, Fatima, close to his heart as he ponders their plight. “The water has turned salty, and the marshes are dry. In the past, there was fishing; there was life, but all that is gone,” he laments. His evocative phrases paint a picture of how climate change has transformed natural abundance into felt scarcity.
The experiences of ex-pastoralists Lokolong and Tarkot Lokwamor are indicative of a wider shift as once-powerful ways of life get turned upside down. Having been forced to march along and change with the times, they are now herding instead of farming. Tarkot expresses their collective sentiment: “The weather change is the worst thing.”
Veterinarian Bruno Lötscher, who lost his house in nearby Brienz, provides eloquent testimony to this urban/rural divide. He underscores the huge differences that dictate individuals’ fates in these two worlds. “Yesterday, we were in Berne. The people there walk around like normal while over here it looks like a bombed-out street in Ukraine.” His statements illustrate the clear discrepancy experienced by Americans who are forced to live in neighborhoods most hit by climate catastrophes.
Christian and Sylvia Schauff, a retired couple from Erftstadt, lost their home. Their home of 32 years was flooded by 4½ feet of water, displacing them and bringing to bear an altogether new world without their comfortable anchors. In much the same way, fishers Doudou Sy and Khadim Wade resist this shifting tide that has wrecked their livelihood. Wade poignantly states, “Not to live by the sea is truly sad. Our greatest wish is to wake up by the sea.”
The narratives extend to students like Alaysha LaSalle, who recalls her town being torn apart by a hurricane in 2020. “All I remember is whenever we looked outside, we just saw a lot of things flying. I was scared,” she recounts. These types of memories show the trauma that future generations will have to endure under the growing extreme weather conditions of a climate crisis.
As of this writing, Massène Mbaye and Penda Dieye are living in a humanitarian reception center in Porto Alegre. They are the lived experiences of millions of people already forced from their homes by climate change and its cascading effects on their environments and settlements. Their stories echo the narratives of every migration. As they travel through their beautiful new world, safety and stability feel like an ever-receding horizon.
Nakwani Etirae is the epitome of resilience as he moves away from pastoralism and is educating himself to become a smallholder farmer, pastor and eventually shop keeper. His journey is testament to the need for adaptation in a time when age-old traditions are being threatened by climate change.
For a mother in Guatemala, complicated realities of giving birth in a war-torn, politically unstable landscape. She describes her struggles: “It’s very challenging to give birth in this environment because the tent is too small and the huts are constructed with tarpaulins.” Her words perfectly capture the brutal, dehumanizing reality so many face while trying to escape danger and devastation.
Alaysha’s story is an all-too-common—and now unfortunately familiar—picture of those whose lives have been turned upside down by climate change. The narratives from around the world converge on a common theme: as climate change intensifies, so do the challenges faced by communities striving to survive.