Climate influences our environment. In terms of vulnerabilities, different groups of people are affected differently by climate change and this depends on several factors and where you are located.

For instance, subsistence economies such as Uganda are highly tied to nature.

Our economies are nature-based and rely on tourism and rain-fed agriculture. So any change in rainfall patterns directly hits us.

What do we learn from the current high temperatures that are leading to wildfires? Some people were saying climate change is a hoax, I think now there is no doubt. It is now very clear and obvious.

The rains now come in bits and temperatures are high. And if rain is now falling for shorter days, that means there will more flooding. That is why you see flooding in Kampala and Butaleja.

The rainfall you would receive in 80 days, now falls in 60 days. And also you realise that you cannot predict when it will come. So you pity the farmers because as they prepare to plant, they only end up making losses.

Take coffee, for instance, the harvest is usually followed by a dry season that stimulates flowering. But what is happening now is that after harvesting, people get some showers and coffee responds by flowering, then it becomes dry again.

So you will find that farmers do not harvest at the same time, they have to pick the coffee at different times.

If you go to the cattle corridor in February, you will realise that most cattle farmers lose their animals due to severe dry spells.

Many are forced to sell them. So there should not be doubt anymore. What should be done? From our perspective as a country, we should think about how prepared we are for climate change to be able to survive. The perspective is how ready we are regardless of people’s opinions.

Have you ever figured out why there are so many strikes that happen in schools around the second term? Have you taken the time to ponder that the cause of the strikes could be because of food? The second term usually coincides with the dry period; this is when food is scarce.

Does climate change affect all age groups? 

Age does not matter. We always talk of vulnerable people including women, children, the old, people with disabilities, and the sick.

For instance, when the climate changes the youth can decide to go and ride bodaboda to patch up for the losses in agriculture. But children have nothing they can do.

Have you seen children crossing flooded roads during heavy downpours? All those are effects. Bridges have been washed away, what does it mean to a child who has to study in the neighbouring school? Climate change affects us all.

Even the rich are affected. You have seen infrastructure being washed away, cutting off people from their businesses. All of us have to act according to our different capabilities.

How does climate change affect schools?

Schools are like a double-edged sword. On one side, they are the causers of climate change. On the other, they can be solutions to climate change.

A boarding school uses about 12 trucks of firewood in a term, so imagine how many schools we have – like 40,000 – that use firewood. And they don’t know where it comes from, they just have suppliers.

That is why you see the river line around our banks are disappearing and no one is asking about this. Then talk about the paper. The paper that we use here comes from trees.

Does anyone think about this, now that people are doing examinations? And then food itself comes from such areas, we know that rice is grown in wetlands. And when you look at the emissions, Uganda is the biggest emitter and we call that land use and land change, which is agriculture, deforestation, and so on.

So schools through food production are also contributors. The schools use water as well, which goes through generations.

They also produce waste during visiting days, the pollution of plastics, and containers. All these are waste.

So now how do we divert this and use schools as solutions for climate change One is that we can create efficiency within the schools. 

Instead of using too much wood, we can convert to systems that use less energy. Interestingly, all school buildings have rooftops, but we don’t think about rainwater collection, you can have water and not need water pumps from National Water and Sewerage Corporation.

A boy washing in muddy water after a heavy downpour

We have to change people’s attitudes. The actions of an individual can impact a big population. We want to create that kind of mindset in children as well.

So first, we change their attitudes. What approach do you apply when changing your mindset? There is no one-size-fits-all. So the approaches we take are dependent on what will work.

In climate change action, we talk of indigenous knowledge. People are completely green on what they are supposed to do.

You will be surprised by the wealth of information that people have. Do you know that local communities have their weather prediction mechanisms? Where I come from, the sound of frogs signals that the rain is about to come.

What we need to appreciate is that because the changes happen fast, they overwhelm the capacity of the people. So that is where we need innovation, we have to work on science, and we have to work with research.

For example, the National Agricultural Research Organisation and Food and Agriculture Organisation have been working on early maturing crops, but people don’t know.

Speak the language that the people use. You cannot tell them about greenhouse emissions, they cannot understand that. So you have to tell them that the climate is changing and that is why their food is dying, that is why there is flooding and food production has gone down.

When they contextualize these problems, they will understand and respond. What is the missing link between children and adapting to climate change? The movement may be slow, but I think there is a shift.

The only worry is that it is easy to make a change at the community level, but at the level of policymaking, we must strive to live by example, especially by practicing what we preach. At the end of the day, people look at our actions and the inconsistencies.

What is failing policymakers to comply with their policies?

We need to do more than what we are doing. We need to understand this problem in our context. All the water that is being drained from swamps, tomorrow will be needed for animals.

If you have a wetland, it is wealth and it is an asset. Most times we are looking at quick gains. So a country like ours which is vulnerable, we have got to think in the long run and say what will happen.

We must protect these natural systems, we must be rational and we must be aggressive in protecting these natural systems because our life depends on them.

What I want to emphasize is that we follow certain perspectives and they are the ones that drive this kind of thinking, one is that we focus on the poorest people and if you focus on poor people then the environment becomes an issue because the vulnerability of the poor increases when you have climate change or environmental degradation.