Why Declare Climate Emergency
As the term goes, climate is monitored over time to note changes. Despite the natural effect on the climate, much of the breakdown is being contributed by humans and in a very short time and now at a very highspeed. Since earth existed to about the year 2010 heat levels were minimal at around 1.5 degrees but from then we have added a point in heat level measures.
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| Dead cattle bones due to drought / WorldVision |
Particularly for Uganda an increase in heat/rising temperatures will mean a crippled economy. A Harvard research put Uganda as one of the fastest growing economies in the league with India, but this is not true if we don’t take urgent climate action. For a country like Uganda which generates over 60 percent of its GDP from Agriculture, a breaking down climate will weaken it. Coffee the leading Agro-Export can’t thrive in this heat, it will be very expensive to grow for many farmers who now enjoy some rainfall. Streams and rivers will dry out this has already been seen in drought stricken areas of Teso and Ankole-Masaka dry corridor. Making it hard to irrigate farmland or even access water and green pasture for cattle.
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| A photo by DW showing cattle dead in East Africa due t o drought. |
In a recent Uganda Climate Action Plans dialogue convened by African Center for Trade and Development in conjunction with Konrad Adenuer Stiftung much was discussed on issues of Climate Financing for Uganda. It should be noted that in 2016/17 Uganda spent an estimated 0.8 percent as the total expenditure budget on climate change, This is like 45 billion out of 30,101 billions of shillings by the GDP count.
Uganda and Africa at large should have declared a Climate Emergency years ago, why? Today our governments are giving food for families to survive and in Uganda government has set a side money to buy people food. But its should be remembered that after the long drought, there was a relief of rainfall, we produced more maize, millet, beans, cassava among other food crops that can be stored for a long time. In a conversation with an expert from ACTADE she told me that Uganda should have setup national food granaries and now give people food instead of money.
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| The writer at a Green Campaign Africa's training sessions in local communities. |
Declaring a climate emergency saves us from a future worse than what we see now. A desert is eating us up from the North east, failing crops, dying cattle, rise in temperatures, polluted lakes coupled by the global heat rise, low ocean levels and animal extinction we have to act now.
My message to our leaders in Uganda is a message from Greta Thunberg, "I want you to panic, act like our house is fire, our earth is burning do not just sit there, do something".
Tags: #FridaysForFuture #ClimateStrikes #GretaThunberg
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