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The climate debt agents are now safely back in DK, and reunited with their fellow agents. It has been a great trip! The Agents came home with their bags full of pictures, films and experiences, which they can’t wait to share with all of you! We hope to see you all on the streets of Copenhagen in the coming month!

Take the lead and pay the climate debt.

After spending time with the Masais it has become clear that their way of life is dying, climate change being the killer. The Masais are a pastoralist mini-culture, meaning they primarily live off livestock. This cattle needs grass and water to survive. This way of life has been a tradition for longer than most Masai remember. Now because of climate change there is a drought in the Kajiardo area, the home of the Masais.

This means that the grass won’t grow and the natural rivers and dams are drying out. Leaving almost nothing left for the cattle. People who used to have 200 cows now have 7, some have none at all.  Usually when ever there was a drought, the men would take the cows elsewhere to graze, but now there is a drought. They go to Tanzania, Nairobi, anywhere but they always come home with less cattle because there is no grass left.

So the cows are dying and with them the traditional life of the Masais. They see themselves forced to find other ways of life, which without an education is close to impossible.

As the climate debt agents visited Masia villages in Kajiardo, a rather unsuspected effect of climate change caught our attention. The drought in the area had caused a tremendous loss in livestock and income; this has made it difficult for the parents to keep their children in school. They are simply unable to pay the school fees.
In order to make sure that the children can finish the class they are already in, many parents have sold the little fertile land they own. This means that their last cattle have no place to graze, and either die or walk for months trying to find a little food. What then happens is that the whole family follows the cattle, however there is simply no where to go. The children then wander from place to place; never able to attend a class nor even go to an examination.
Masiwua who has 23 children says “God only knows what will happen to the children’s education”.
The lack of education will only make the situation worse. Many won’t be able to find an alternative to the traditional life as a pastoralist, and the vicious circle will continue as their cattle die and they can’t send their children to school.
To deal with these problems some suggest boarding schools so that the children don’t have to walk around with their parents. Others talk about free education and more water resources.
If the Masais could get a little help adapting to the climate changes, so they could at least feed their children and cattle, the children could stay in school and their society could gain the chance of a brighter future.
So take the lead at COP15 and pay the climate debt.

For the last two days the Climate Debt Agents had been in the village… to examine how the climate changes have affected the Massai people living there. The biggest problem is related to water. 10 years ago the area was green and fertile but now the rain has disappeared and most people haven’t been able to harvest for 3 years! And the cattle, sheep and goats are dying too. Now usually when there is a drought the men take the cattle elsewhere to grass and send home money to their families. In recent years they have had to go further and further away. And this time they have come back empty handed. Most have lost almost their entire livestock, simply because there is nowhere to go and look for green grass for the cattle!
This has a tremendous effect on the income that has gone down. This means that people are starving! A lot of children has dropped out of school because their parents can’t pay the fees, more people are getting sick because their diet has changed and people are fighting over the few resources that are left.
When faced with all these problems we offcourse asked what the Massais meant was the solution and the reply was clear: we need a political solution! The one adaptation that would help the masais most would be water, but there is no money for it! So take the lead Denmark, pay your climate debt and give the masais a change!

Today the Climate Debt Agents arrived in Kajiado where they will stay until the 11th of November. Upon arrival they met with various government officials and Kenny the Executive Director of NIA (Neighbourhood Initiative Alliance) who told about how the climate change affected the area. The predominant tribe of Kajiado is Massai who as pastoralists mainly depend on their livestock: cows, goats and sheep.
Climate change has caused more and longer droughts than ever seen before in the area. Usually some cattle would die and some would be sick but this time many have lost all their livestock. 184.000 people receive foodaid and many have died because the normal recovering time between droughts has despaired. Because of the big loss in cattle the Massais have tried farming but because of the lack of rain it is close to impossible to grow anything.
In the coming days the Climate Debt Agents will look closer in to these problems as we go to visit 3 Massai villages and learn from them about the problems with climate change

Once again the Kenyan Climate Debt Agents where reunited in the MS guesthouse tonight. However they will soon split up in two new groups for the fieldwork. One group is going to webouye and the other to Kajiado in order to document two different sides of climate change, drought and floods. The group that is going to webouye will stay with local families and will not have access to the internet but the Kajiado group will be able to use the internet a couple of times; so the blogs will properly come in small packs.
All the Agents are really excited about the fieldwork! And looking forward to present the results back in Denmark.

Today 3 Agents visited a holistic project just outside Nairobi, where it hasn’t been raining for 5 years. The project was about making a children’s home in a sustainable manner. Today, the international 350-day; we helped plant more than 400 trees.  In the desert environment, trees are a big task to grow so we planted special trees that needs a minimum of water. Hopefully in a couple of years the trees will have helped the troubled ecosystem so the rain will come back to the area.

The houses built for the project is made of recycled materials. Furthermore they are low on energy! The house constructions means that it is warm in the winter and cold in the summer. This means that they will have a very low need for electricity, and the small amount that is needed will in time come from solar power.

However the price of these initiatives are very high! The project we visited today is done by founding from outside Kenya.  So once again the message is clear: The solutions are here but they need the money. The money we owe to the developing world.

So for the Danish government – pay the climate debt!

Today 3 Agents visited a holistic project just outside Nairobi, where it hasn’t been raining for 5 years. The project was about making a children’s home in a sustainable manner. Today, the international 350-day; we helped plant more than 400 trees.  In the desert environment, trees are a big task to grow so we planted special trees that needs a minimum of water. Hopefully in a couple of years the trees will have helped the troubled ecosystem so the rain will come back to the area.

The houses built for the project is made of recycled materials. Furthermore they are low on energy! The house constructions means that it is warm in the winter and cold in the summer. This means that they will have a very low need for electricity, and the small amount that is needed will in time come from solar power.

However the price of these initiatives are very high! The project we visited today is done by founding from outside Kenya.  So once again the message is clear: The solutions are here but they need the money. The money we owe to the developing world.

So for the Danish government – pay the climate debt!