Stephanie Sammartino McPherson - Hothouse Earth: The Climate Crisis and the Importance of Carbon Neutrality

C onstance Okollet had never experienced anything like the torrential rains that devastated Uganda in 2007. Houses toppled. Crops washed away or rotted in the standing water. Floods like weve never seen before came and swept up everything, she would recall two years later. As the waters receded, mosquitoes bred in huge numbers and spread malaria among the hungry, homeless villagers. Five members of Okollets family became ill. Contaminated drinking water sickened more villagers with cholera. Many people died.

Survivors depended on the government to provide the seeds they needed to resume their farming. But after the rains, drought set in. The newly planted crops shriveled and dried up. More people died of starvation. Ugandans couldnt help but ask themselves why this was happening to them. Many feared they were being punished.

Okollet did what she could, forming a network of women to help one another through the crisis. She took their concerns and stories of suffering to the local council, which provided seeds, fertilizer, and better farming equipment. She started a credit union so women could take out small loans for medicine, flour, or other needs.

But the year 2009 brought more miseryanother lengthy drought followed by pounding rains. The Okollets cows died. Their kitchen and their latrine were lost in the raging floods. Determined to fight for the well-being of her family and the other people in her country and to learn everything she could, Okollet attended a meeting held by Oxfam in a nearby village. Oxfam is a nongovernmental organization dedicated to ending world poverty.

Flooding in Ugandas Teso subregion left fields waterlogged and ruined crops.

Okollet was an eloquent spokesperson for her people, sharing their hardships and misery. She spoke so forcefully that one week later, a representative from the organization asked her to attend another meeting. This time, she would have to travel 130 miles (209 km) to Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

These boys waded through the overflowing Achwra River in Uganda after the record rainfalls and devastating floods in September 2007. With swollen waterways like this one covering roads, it is difficult for emergency aid to reach the many people who need assistance.

There, the same words came up over and over again. Okollet had never heard them before. But what is this climate change? she asked at last.

Climate Hero Constance Okollet

When she first learned about climate change at an Oxfam meeting, Constance Okollet knew she had to do something. Why do they (people in wealthy nations) do this to us? she asked. Can we talk to these people? Cant they reduce the pollution? Aware of her strong desire to help her people, an Oxfam representative asked her to speak at a meeting in London. Okollet had never flown before or seen many modern conveniences such as automatic doors and lights. She had never spoken before a large audience, and she was frankly scared. But she stood up and shared her story with honesty and deep feeling. More speeches followed, including one to an international audience of lawmakers.

Okollets London trip was only the beginning. Since then she has participated in panel discussions and met with women from all over the world. She has taken part in UN Climate Change Conferences from Copenhagen to Paris to Marrakech. As a member of Climate Wise Women, an organization that encourages women suffering the effects of climate change firsthand to speak out, she has toured the United States and Europe.

I ask the leaders of the rich countries to take action to reduce their carbon emissions so that we can look forward to rains to plant our crops without having to face floods that wash them away, Okollet wrote in the Guardian newspaper in 2009. And I ask them to help my community fight the climate change that destroys our houses, increases diseases and stops our children from attending schools. Thats all I am asking on behalf of my fellow villagers.

Constance Okollet ( right ) and Shorbanu Khatun ( left ) examine an ice sculpture of a Kenyan Maasai warrior while attending the UN Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009. Okollet and Khatun are both climate witnesses, or people whose lives are impacted by the changing climate.