美国国家公共电台 NPR As The Climate Changes, Kenyan Herders Find Centuries-Old Way Of Life In Danger

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Kenya's Rift¹ Valley has played a fundamental role in the evolution of humanity. For centuries, nomadic² herders have relied on the vast expanses of grass in order to survive. But recently, all that grass has died. As part of our look at how climate change is impacting people around the world, NPR's Eyder Peralta reports now on a changing way of life.

EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE³: Out here, the landscape looks like Mars - red clay, rocks and, in the distance, a mountain so bare it looks like a giant boulder⁴. Still, nomadic herders walk an hour or two to bring their animals to this dam, where the water mixes with mud and turns into a dark brown color.

Stephen Long'uriareng is 80. She used to have eight cows, but six of them died because they didn't have enough to eat.

STEPHEN LONG'URIARENG: (Speaking Pokot).

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: OK. She's saying that when she was married at 20s, the whole place used to be green with a lot of pasture. There was nothing being experienced like drought.

PERALTA: James Tukay, who is standing⁵ just a few feet from her, is only 45. But he has seen drought after drought.

JAMES TUKAY: (Speaking Swahili).

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: He's saying that he cannot even explain what is going on. He cannot even understand why the climate is changing.

PERALTA: He points to the mountaintops in the distance. He points to the dark clouds slung⁶ on top of them. He can see the rain. And he can feel it, he says. But it never falls here.

That - I have to say, that has to be heartbreaking.

TUKAY: (Speaking Swahili).

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: It's so heartbreaking, but they have no option. They have nothing to do. But they just survive.

PERALTA: Pastoralists have been roaming these parts of Kenya for centuries. And all these years, not much has changed. All the progress of the cities in Kenya has mostly skipped people here. Only about 3 percent have electricity, and more than half of the population is not formally educated. That means that for a lot of people here, herding⁷ is the only way they know how to survive.

Caroline Mwongera is a scientist at the Center for Tropical Agriculture in Nairobi. She has found that in this region, temperatures have risen, rainfall has decreased and there is now a drought once every three years. Mwongera says this is analysis that covers decades of data.

CAROLINE MWONGERA: So we see that this is a trend that's not a one single event. It's just not about the weather. It's really a climate change event.

PERALTA: Mwongera says one of the reasons that the effects of climate change are so visible around here is because this was a tough environment to begin with.

MWONGERA: So if you compound the effect of climate change on that, then you have high impact, and people can feel that more strongly than in other regions.

PERALTA: Not only that, says William Okira, the county's minister for agriculture and livestock⁸, but people have made climate change worse. He says there has been a lot of overgrazing. And as animals started to die, herders cut down trees to make and sell charcoal⁹. That meant erosion, and it allowed for the growth of thorny¹⁰ bushes. It meant the place went from a typical African savannah to an arid¹¹ brush land.

WILLIAM OKIRA: So we are now trying to see, how do we change this environment to be able to sustain this livestock?

PERALTA: The bottom line, he says, is that traditional nomadic grazing, what people here have been doing for centuries, will not work anymore. So herders have to adapt.

OKIRA: We are not telling them to go into camel-keeping. And instead of now waiting for the natural grass to grow, we do some clearing of the bush and do tilling and then plant pasture.

PERALTA: Back in the field, the herding continues. Rael Korkapel has had to walk her animals to a well so they can drink. But as this drought has extended into yet another rainy season, she says even her goats are going hungry.

RAEL KORKAPEL: (Speaking Pokot).

PERALTA: "This is a harsh life." But at 65, she says she has never seen anything like this. She always thought her children and her grandchildren would grow up herding. But she's now ready to give up. If she has to fence in her cows, she'll do it. If she has to turn to farming, she'll do it. To her, it's a matter of survival.

Across the way, my interpreter and I meet Jane Lotulia.

JANE LOTULIA: (Speaking Swahili).

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: She's saying that they're not the meteorological department or God, but they're really sure this place will completely be dry simply because the times have changed.

PERALTA: Lotulia's cows have died, too. And now she's just herding goats. Most of the people here are surviving off of government food aid. Her friend Pauline Korkapel, however, says she can't imagine any kind of exotic grass will take here. And she can't really imagine selling produce at a market.

PAULINE KORKAPEL: (Speaking Swahili).

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: Many of us, we don't focus so much in business. We are only cattle keepers. And we were born to be cattle keepers, so we cannot change.

PERALTA: As we talk, I hear a bit of commotion¹² behind us.

(CROSSTALK)

PERALTA: Everyone starts walking up a hill, so I follow.

So right now we're walking on a dusty path. They've told us that there's some cows just along the way that have died because of hunger.

(SOUNDBITE OF FLIES BUZZING)

PERALTA: When we get there, we find one carcass inside a half-destroyed hut.

LOTULIA: (Speaking Swahili).

PERALTA: Jane says the cow was so hungry, it ate the roof of the hut. This happens a lot. The cows destroy huts in the middle of the night, and the dry grass makes them sick.

LOTULIA: (Speaking Swahili).

PERALTA: "This is a tragedy in a place like this," she says, "because that cow is food. It means survival."

Her friend Pauline stares at the dead cow. She says, if they keep doing what they are doing, they might end up just like her. Eyder Peralta, NPR News, West Pokot County, Kenya.

1 rift   

n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入

参考例句：

• He was anxious to mend the rift between the two men.他急于弥合这两个人之间的裂痕。
• The sun appeared through a rift in the clouds.太阳从云层间隙中冒出来。

2 nomadic   

adj.流浪的；游牧的

参考例句：

• This tribe still live a nomadic life.这个民族仍然过着游牧生活。
• The plowing culture and the nomadic culture are two traditional principal cultures in China.农耕文化与游牧文化是我国传统的两大主体文化。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 boulder   

n.巨砾；卵石，圆石

参考例句：

• We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
• He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 slung   

抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往

参考例句：

• He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩，挎在肩上。
• He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。

7 herding   

中畜群

参考例句：

• The little boy is herding the cattle. 这个小男孩在放牛。
• They have been herding cattle on the tableland for generations. 他们世世代代在这高原上放牧。

8 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

9 charcoal   

n.炭，木炭，生物炭

参考例句：

• We need to get some more charcoal for the barbecue.我们烧烤需要更多的碳。
• Charcoal is used to filter water.木炭是用来过滤水的。

10 thorny   

adj.多刺的，棘手的

参考例句：

• The young captain is pondering over a thorny problem.年轻的上尉正在思考一个棘手的问题。
• The boys argued over the thorny points in the lesson.孩子们辩论功课中的难点。

11 arid   

adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的

参考例句：

• These trees will shield off arid winds and protect the fields.这些树能挡住旱风,保护农田。
• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。

12 commotion   

n.骚动，动乱

参考例句：

• They made a commotion by yelling at each other in the theatre.他们在剧院里相互争吵，引起了一阵骚乱。
• Suddenly the whole street was in commotion.突然间，整条街道变得一片混乱。