My doubt about climate change was cleared.
I sat outside my house on a fateful evening in November last year. I noticed the fickle clouds playing the game of hide and seek with the sun, revealing it in one moment and then hiding it the next. It soon resulted in a murky clouds hanging low in the sky and obscuring the sun.
"Is this a sign of rain?" I asked myself.
"No, it can't be in November."
It never happened to my knowledge. On a very good year that increase in rainfall is recorded, you would have it for a few times in September. October is out of it, not to talk of November.
I waved the consequence of the dark clouds aside while I concentrated on a game that I was playing on my phone.
Within a few minutes, the rain approached from the east like bullets falling from the sky. I couldn't wait to wear my sandals. I had them in one hand and my plastic chair that I was sitting on on the other as I raced to my door. The rain took over the atmosphere, falling as if a dam was overflowing from heaven.
Everyone in the neighborhood was dumbstruck at the development.
This happened on Friday. The following day, which was Saturday, I decided not to go to the farm as I usually do on Saturdays. The road would be too wet and the ground muddy. I postponed my next visit to the farm till Monday.
On Sunday evening, my neighbor on the farm called me to brief me of the situation.
"You need to come and harvest your crops before the seeds start germinating. This rain has wreaked havoc to our farms," he told me on the phone.
The following morning, I went to the farm very early to see things by myself.
On my arrival, the damage caused by the rain ached my heart and kept my mouth wide open.
Bala had harvested his corn, removed the kernels from the cob and spread them in an open space to get dried. This had been the popular method by corn farmers for decades. His farm has a sloppy landscape. When the rain came with its high intensity, the resulting flood washed away more than 50% of the grains.
I saw another farmer that grew bambara nuts (Vigna subterranea), the same crop that I grew, hissing repeatedly as he tilled the ground to get the nuts out.
"My brother, the nuts are changing colors with some germinating already," he lamented to me as I moved closer to him.
I took a closer look at the nuts.
The damages were obvious. Once bambara nuts get dried, they can stay in the ground for as long as a farmer wishes. However, it must be harvested before the return of another rainy season. The nuts had dried since October and farmers were harvesting them at their convenience. No one saw the rain coming. The rain aided the dried nuts to start germinating. Every farmer in the area was caught off guard.
I was lucky because I had harvested about 85% of my farm. I picked my hoe and started digging mine to salvage whatever I could. My mind wasn't in what I was doing. I was thinking of Bala, who had just lost millions of Naira to the unexpected rain. I dropped my hoe and returned to his farm to further commiserate with him. I had the knowledge of the money he invested in the farm. Part of the money was a loan with interest.
"I am still in shock from this strange rain. Is God punishing us with this?" I lamented as I walked to meet him.
"Don't be too shocked. God is not punishing us. We are the ones punishing ourselves."
"What do you mean?" I asked for further clarification. I wondered how the strange rain could be blamed on human beings.
"This is the effect of the much talked about climate change. We have been hurting the planet for too long and it has decided to retaliate. It is not just about rain, have you noticed the increasing intensity of the sun in recent years? The planet is becoming warmer every year due to our activities.
"This is enough warning for us to stop the destruction of the planet through our activities. We need to take care of the planet in order for the planet to reciprocate by taking care of us."
I belonged to the category of people that, though they believe in the reality of climate change, they felt that the issue wasn't as serious as the advocates were presenting it to be.
"You are right," I responded to him. "If I ever had any doubt before now, it has been cleared. Indeed global warming is a problem.
"Your level of strength is enviable. With the level of loss and the loan that you will be paying, how will you handle this?"
"The way forward is not by allowing oneself to be overwhelmed with sadness. The next thing is to see if I can salvage anything out of the remaining kernels. We learn from every adversity that befalls a man," he tapped me on my shoulder and laughed softly.
"I will bring boys to come and transport the remaining kernels to my house for proper drying tomorrow. We will move on from there."
I was dumbfounded with the level of strength displayed by Bala. I'd expected him to be devastated but it was like water off the duck's back.
"Let's talk of solutions and future possibilities instead of getting stuck with our losses," he concluded.
True to his words, he faced the loss and navigated his way out unscathed.
This experience of mine changed my perspective totally about climate change. Hurting the planet is an action with repercussions. I became an advocate of climate change.
I take it as a major problem that requires the input of everyone to stop the damage.
These days rain fall whenever and wherever. Back in schools we were taught there were different types of seasons but I doubt that is in play now because the rain falls both during the rainy season and also the dry season. Bala is just a very optimistic man who did not want to allow his present situation to weigh him down. Wallowing in his loss wouldn't yield any effects so it was just the right thing he did.
@zyzymena Where have you been? Had a break?
Honestly, no definite or predictable pattern for the weather again. In the last two months, we have been battling with heat here in Kaduna. We were anticipating rainfall but I was shocked when hamattan resurfaced two days ago. I don't know what next.
You explored this topic very effectively, @lightpen. The doubts about climate change are challenging to believe and understand, but with more and more odd weather patterns, even the most die-hard deniers will ultimately not be able to ignore reality. You humanized this in a story of your farming friends. Thank you for sharing your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well, and for reading and commenting on the work of other community members.
Thank you for providing the platform @theinkwell. I am grateful.
Everyone has their own opinion about climate change, and I respect that. However, in recent years, I've become cautious when considering what people think and say about it. Yes, the weather has been unusually erratic lately, but we lack long-term data to fully understand historical climate patterns. Our records only go back about 100 years, which is a mere blip in Earth's millions of years of existence. Can we truly claim to have single-handedly destroyed the planet in just the last century? Yes we need to be coution with the burning of fossil fuels, as we know that this significantly contributing to climate change. And yes, we need to act now to help both present and future generations. This will definitely be a big problem in the future. But still, one more time, everyone has his own opinion...
I think that the technological advancements recorded in the last century or within a few more years are more pronounced than the advancements recorded in preceding centuries or millennia.
The main causative factors of global warming like burning of fossil fuels can't be said to be in existence even when the deposits of petroleum haven't been discovered anywhere.
Agents of pollution like indiscriminate dumping of plastics and non biodegradable chemicals are all our realities of recent years.
We may not have data beyond the last 100 to 200 years but we are sure, to a large extent, of some activities that were never in existence those years.
However, I agree with you on the fact that an individual has his or her own opinion about climate change which has to be respected.
Personally, I am convinced that human activities of the past few centuries have a consequence on the planet earth.
What bothers me personally the most is environmental pollution. We try to recycle waste, and they have also introduced penalties if you throw waste in the wrong bin. But while certain countries are really trying to do this, there are still countries that do not pay attention to it, and therefore a small percentage of countries cannot make a change. It will take a long time for the world to start realizing that climate change is not such a problem, but that pollution is what will destroy us...
Pollution is a big problem I must admit. There is a part of Nigeria where residents have no access to potable water due to oil spillage. No access to farming either.
Pollution is a monster that needs to be tackled collectively. It is a threat to the planet just like climate change.
I was thinking it only happened here in Akwa Ibom not knowing it happened there too, heat was too much everyone was praying for a rain but no. It actually rain some few weeks after but not much. I don’t know what the country is really going to or what is really happening.
It's getting serious. The natural heat and the economic heat unleashing hard times on Nigerians. I hope the rain fall soon to make the weather bearable.