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Climate

Witnesses to Climate Change

Climate change can be seen in the sky, felt in the air, heard, smelled and even tasted. Its effects on the natural world are already too numerous to count. Climate change is impossible to hide, and ought to be impossible to ignore.

WWF's witnesses to climate change can testify to rising sea levels, coral bleaching, violent storms and disappearing species, deadly heatwaves and drought. Read their stories and see, through their eyes, how climate change has already begun to affect some of our most precious natural treasures.

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Simon Oleekatalik, an Elder from Taloyoak, Nunavut.
© WWF / Julia Langer

April 22, 2007
Simon Oleekatalik, Nunavut, Canada
Simon Oleekatalik is 72 years old and lives in a town called Taloyoak, in Nunavut, the land of the Inuit people in north eastern Canada. He speaks about changed weather and snow conditions in his environment.
» Read more

Katsuo Sasaki, WWF Climate Witness from Japan
© WWF Japan

April 18, 2007
Katsuo Sasaki, Japan
Katsuo Sasaki, a Japanese farmer from the northern part of mainland Honshu, has been growing rice for more than 40 years. He talks about the changes he has witnessed over the last couple of years and about how they are affecting his farming activities.
» Read more

Van Beacham, WWF Climate Witness from Northern New Mexico, USA
© WWF USA

April 10, 2007
Van Beacham, New Mexico, USA
Van Beacham lives in northern New Mexico and has been fishing since he was 6 years old. He has been a professional fly fishing guide for over 20 years in southern Colorado and south-west Wyoming. Over the years he has witnessed many of the effects that warmer temperatures are having on the river systems and the fish that depend on them.
» Read more

Corey Marchbank, Climate Witness from Canada
© WWF Canada

April 4, 2007
Corey Marchbank, Canada
Corey Marchbank is a goose hunting guide in Prince Edward Island, Canada. In recent years he has noticed a dramatic rise in temperatures, a decrease of winter snow and ice, and how these changes have been affecting the migration patterns of Canadian geese in his region.
» Read more

Adrian Brunner, WWF Climate Witness from Switzerland.
© WWF Switzerland

March 25, 2007
Adrian Brunner, Switzerland
Adrian Brunner, 30-year-old bicyclist and snowboarder from Switzerland, describes the impacts of climate change on the nature that sorrounds him and on the tourism business in the Swiss Alps.
» Read more

Vladilen Ivanovich Kavry, WWF Climate Witness from Russia.
© WWF Russia

March 23, 2007
Vladilen Ivanovich Kavry, Russia
Vladilen Ivanovich Kavry lives at the far eastern edge of Russia on the coast of the Chukchi Sea, surrounded by Arctic wildlife such as walrus and polar bears. He talks about climate changes he has observed over the last few years.
» Read more

Jonathan Banks, WWF Climate Witness from Australia
© WWF Australia

Jan. 26, 2007
Jonathan Banks, Australia
Jonathan Banks, 63, from Pialligo, Australia, runs a small organically-certified orchard. Over the past several years he has witnessed the impacts of climatic changes on his farm.
» Read more

Rajabu Mohammed Soselo is WWF's climate witness from Kunduchi, a coastal village near Tanzania's capital Dar Es Salaam.
© WWF/ Godlove Mwamso

Nov. 16, 2006
Rajab Mohamed Soselo, Tanzania
Rajabu Mohammed Soselo is 62 years old and lives about 200m from the current shoreline in Kunduchi, a coastal village near Tanzania's capital Dar Es Salaam. Kunduchi is famous as a tourist destination because of the pristine sandy beaches. As a fisherman, he has witnessed climate change and its impacts.
» Read more

Nelly Nelly Damaris Chepkoskei, WWF Climate Witness from Kipchebor, Kenya, working in a tree nursery that she runs with 16 other women.
© WWF

Nov. 16, 2006
Nelly Damaris Chepkoskei, Kenya
Nelly Damaris Chepkoskei is a farmer in Kenya. She grows maize, tea and keeps a few dairy cattle. In addition, she is a volunteer Community Mobilizer working with the Forest Action Network. She talks about impacts of climate change in her region.
» Read more

Captain Juma from Murungaru, Kenya, Climate Witness
© WWF

Nov. 16, 2006
Captain Juma, Kenya
Juma Njunge Macharia has lived in a village 100km West of Nairobi for over 40 years. The 81-year-old is married and has nine children. He talks about the changes he has witnessed in the climate and in the vegetation of his area.
» Read more

May 2, 2006
Hugh and Libby McMicking, Australia
Hugh and Libby McMicking operate a mixed grain and livestock enterprise on "Manus", a property north of Goondiwindi, Queensland. Sixteen years ago Hugh and Libby made the move to no-till farming - a method of conserving and managing moisture. Hugh says now, without no-till techniques it would be nearly impossible to grow crops in the district.
» Read more

Team Panda students with WWF's Chief Scientist for Climate Change Dr. Lara Hansen, and Eric Mielbrecht, WWF's consultant on coral reef resiliency in American Samoa. Marathon, FL. 2004.
© WWF US

April 18, 2006
Team Panda, Florida, USA
Team Panda is a group of sixteen high school students from the Florida Keys dedicated to learning about and acting as stewards for the irreplaceable south Florida environment. After considerable efforts in protecting their daily surroundings, Team Panda has now chosen to turn its efforts toward understanding global warming, and acting to minimize its impacts on their environment.
» Read more

April 11, 2006
Osvaldo Bonino, Argentina
Osvaldo Bonino, a technical analyst programmer, was elected Head of the District of Castellanos in 2003. The province of Santa Fe belongs to the region of La Pampa where the land is very flat and mainly used for agriculture and farming. Due to increased rainfall during the last 7 years the La Picasa lagoon spread from 10,000 to 30,000 hectares - washing away many farms, crops and homes.
» Read more

Giuseppe Miranti, a 26-year old beekeeper from Italy, explains that because of warmer temperatures, flowers are blooming at unusual times, which makes the bees change their behaviour and reduce their activity.
© WWF Italy

Dec. 18, 2006
Giuseppe Miranti, Italy
Giuseppe Miranti, a 26-year old beekeeper from Italy, said that because of warmer temperatures, flowers are blooming at unusual times, which makes the bees change their behavior and reduce their activity. Stronger attacks from parasites also undermine the production of honey.
» Read more

"The sea is slowly eroding our coastline" Penina Moce - Kabara Island, Fiji
© WWF

Dec. 10, 2005
Penina Moce, Kabara Island, Fiji
Penina Moce, 43, is married and has five children. She lives with her family in Udu, on Kabara Island in Fiji. She is a witness to the sea's slow erosion of their coastline.
» Read more

Alan Stewart runs a sled dog centre in Scotland but his business is facing the threat of increasing temperatures and disappearing snow.
© WWF UK

Dec. 5, 2005
Alan Stewart, Scotland
Alan Stewart, 49, runs a sled dog centre in Scotland but his business is facing the threat of increasing temperatures and disappearing snow. This has also resulted in Siberian huskies moulting in the middle of the winter.
» Read more

Georg Sperber, a 72 year-old forester from Germany, explains the dramatic consequences of higher temperatures for spruce trees in the "Steigerwald" forest in Bavaria.
© WWF Germany

Dec. 1, 2005
Georg Sperber, Germany
Georg Sperber, a 72 year-old forester from Germany, explained the dramatic consequences of higher temperatures for spruce trees in the "Steigerwald" forest in Bavaria. Such trees are the backbone of the German forest industry, but they are suffering more and more from attacks of bark beetle populations which are putting their future at risk.
» Read more

Nov. 30, 2005
Shitanath Sarkar, Sundarbans Delta, India
Shitanath Sarkar and his large family lead a precarious existence in the Sundarbans delta, the world's largest, where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra Rivers meet and flow into the Bay of Bengal.
» Read more

Ngawang Tenzing Jangpo, Khumbu Nepal
The Abbot of Tengboche monastery, Ngawang Tenzing Jangpo, is the most revered monk in Khumbu, Nepal. He has lived there for more than 30 years and witnessed floods from lakes bursting with glacial meltwater.
» Read more

Tulsi Khara, Sundarbans Delta, India
Tulsi Khara has lived all her 70 years in the world's largest delta, where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra Rivers meet and flow into the Bay of Bengal. But now steadily rising water levels have engulfed most of the two hectares of land she used to own.
» Read more