Having spent years in the US, journalist Caroline Kimeu is now seeing the agonising impacts of the climate crisis in Kenya
- This is one of a short series of pieces – Between two worlds – reflecting on the different way that climate change will hit in different parts of the world
Recently, I interviewed a 70-year-old coconut farmer, who told me about the hundreds of trees he was losing to the drought ravaging his home town of Rabaiin southern Kenya. Fighting back tears, he told me how weather patterns that he could no longer master or predict had left him without a way to provide for his family. He and the other farmers here may not know the science behind climate change but it’s a part of their lived reality.
I live in my home country of Kenya now, but have spent several years in the USwhere I’ve experienced the effects of climate change too. In 2015, when I graduated from one graduate programme, Boston was experiencing one of its most intense snowstorms on record. About 108 inches (9ft) of snowfall blocked the roads and sidewalks, prompting the city to impose driving bans and shut down public transport. At university, classes were cancelled due to extreme weather.
