If you think climate change will only be a problem in the distant future, just take a look at Central America: people there are having to deal with its effects on a daily basis. Temperatures have risen across the board, but the increasingly extreme highs are posing an acute threat. A report from Panama and El Salvador on the eve of the Copenhagen climate conference.

By Cor Doeswijk and Thijs Westerbeek van Eerten

The effects of climate change in Panama and El Salvador are disastrous. Harvests are failing because of too much and sometimes too little water. The seasons are becoming so mixed up that farmers no longer know when to sow their seeds or plough and fertilise their land. Populated coastal islands are facing floods. The climate is simply no longer to be trusted.

Miguel Ramos, who lives in central El Salvador, says the climate used to be predictable. Over the last 20 years, however, it has become dangerously capricious.

“Nowadays, you can have not only one but even two dry periods in the middle of the rainy season. That means we’ve got to sow seed more than once to be sure we’ll have enough to eat. Seed sown in fields high up dries out, while lower down the water rots it. Cattle are also dying from hunger, thirst or simply from the heat. You can see the cows looking for shade as early as 10 o’clock, if they can find trees that is, because lots of them have disappeared.”

Mr Ramos says people have also been hit. He and his family used to work from 6 am and stop at 3 or 4 pm because of the heat. Now, to get something done, people begin at 5 am and have to stop at 10 am because the sun is just too fierce.

Mangrove
Flor Rivera can also no longer depend on the climate. She lives by the Pacific coast in El Salvador and has problems with both drought and flooding.

“My husband fishes for crab in the mangrove swamps but catches are down because the mangrove is shrinking. This is being caused by rising sea levels which push the salt water further inland.”

Mrs Rivera is trying to keep ahead of problems by finding a different way to produce food for her family.

“To make ends meet, we’re growing a bit of maize and beans on our own land and on some ground we’ve rented. But, last year, we lost everything to floods and, this year, it’s been so dry that almost nothing will grow. That means we’ll go hungry.”

Moving away
Gilberto Arias is one of the six 'caciques' (chiefs) of Kuna Yala, an autonomous region for the indigenous Kuna people which lies along Panama’s Caribbean coast. Most of the Kuna community live on low-lying islands and depend for their livelihood on fishing and tourism. Over recent years, the islands have been flooded a number of times by high seas. This meant there was no more dry wood with which to cook food. Many people want to move to the mainland but that will mean the end of centuries-old traditions.

Chief Arias wanted to explain what was happening and talked to the reporter through an interpreter:

"God has given us gold, silver, oil and all the rest. If we take these things from the earth without proper care, we change the environment. Look - You have a tape recorder. If it goes wrong and you don’t know how to repair it but try to anyway, you’ll probably make things worse. Nature’s the same. We’ve been given nature but, if we change it through deforestation or by doing things which are forbidden such as creating life through cloning, we try to be on a par with God and that causes Him to be angry. Now we’re having to accept the consequences of our actions."

This sort of explanation for climate change is not unusual in Central America. Poor local people, who are suffering its effects first hand, are often unaware that it is being caused by global warming, let alone that this is to do with carbon dioxide emissions. And the Copenhagen climate conference? They've never heard of it.