Glacier retreat testimony

at Uhuru - top of Kilimanjaro - 5.895 m

Reaching Kibo hut - 4.700m

3rd day at Kilimanjaro

Name: Paula Pereira

Position: Official Health Service by HPP Saúde

Location: at Horombo Hut

Altitude: 3.800 m

2nd day at Kilimanjaro

Name: José Abecasis Soares
Position: Founder of the ICE CARE Project

Track: from Mandara Hut to Horombo Hut
Altitude: 3.800 m

Silva Watch Info:
Steps: 19.000
Distance: 11,5 km
Time: 5:20h
Heart rate: 123 bpm

1st day on Kilimanjaro

Name: José Abecasis Soares
Position: Founder of the ICE CARE Project

Track: from the Park's gate to the Mandara Hut
Altitude: 2.772 m

Silva Watch Info:
Steps: 12.000
Distance: 7,3km
Time: 4h
Heart rate: 112 bpm

Kilimanjaro here we go!

Today we woke up to a clear sky and a perfect view of the mountain! Kilimanjaro invites us to visit him! We are on our way...

Working with the Maasai people

A school becomes a church and a kitchen becomes a meeting room. They received us as if we were family, because they knew we were going to talk about very important issues for the livelihoods of the Maasai people and cultures. More than 300 people attended the meeting. First the prayers, then the elders and after this, my turn came. I explained the causes of global warming and how it’s affecting the Kilimanjaro’s glaciers and consequently the climate of their region. Then it was time for the photographers to present their work, showing the human consequences of the drought. In the end we talked about ways of working together and solutions to mitigate the problem.

PÁPA-LÉGUAS!

This ICE CARE expedition was for first time, open the 'social-tourists' - for those who want to travel and at the same time provide some support to local communities. The program of social-tourism was created in partnership with PÁPA-LÉGUAS, and should be repeated at least once a year. The needs of the Maasai people to tackle climate change are so many, that we should establish a permanent volunteer program on the field...but...for now... annual visits are the best we can do.

Maasai and their new Asus Eee PC!

Three of the MPC Photographers spent the night with us in our camp and the next morning was another opportunity to explore some more of the possibilities of the new Asus computer.

When the night came...

Richard and some of the MPC Photographers joined us at sundowner, where we drank, sang and danced in the Maasai traditional choreography, jumping and screaming. When the night came, no one wanted to risk an encounter with leopards and lions so we had to stick 15 people in a land rover and drive into the woods....result...a flat tire....

Sundowners....

Sundowners were new to me. Joana had been telling me about this and I was eager to experience it! The concept is to cross the savannah, starting at our camp and up to this huge rock blocks about 2 hours away. From the top the view is breathtaking and the track there is biblical! We walked without any kind of protection, and always accompanied by zebras and antelopes. That night we had had the company of a lion in our camp, so none of us was completely relaxed and prepared for a 2h walk in hunting territory. But everything went very well, thanks to the Maasai who accompanied us, and to the relationship that their people have been establishing with the wildlife for generations.

Maasai tradicional gifts

The Maasai community rewarded our visit with gifts for each of the participants in the debate of ideas between the Ice Care Association and the Maasai PHOTOGRAFERS FOR CONSERVATION NGO. With this gesture, we have formalized a relationship that I believe will continue for many years and could provide the platform for collaboration to help the Maasai people dealing with the problems of global warming, which are increasingly evident.

Our contribution to Maasai Photographers for Conservation

With ASUS’s fantastic support, the ICE CARE Association delivered an Eee PC to the newly created NGOs MPC! Thus, each photographer can download his photos and manage everything with the laptop. ICE CARE’s official sponsor, Meo, also sent USB flash drives, so that each photographer can carry and keep his photos!

Meeting with the Maasai Photograhers

Joana Roque de Pinho (aka NASHIPAI) created an extraordinary social sustainability project, giving cameras to some Maasai and specific training. This way the Maasai people could document the drought and raise political awareness for their problems. They formed the Maasai Photographers for Conservation - NGO that aims to train photographers as a way of tackling the problems of climate change and nature conservation. One of the goals of the expedition was the direct contact with the Maasai people to collect their testimonies about the consequences of climate change and understand how the ICE CARE Association can help lessen this problem or create sustainability projects in that region.

Wild Life!

Gradually, life begins returning to the park. Animals that survived the worst drought in living memory, are now celebrating the coming of rain and life, walking in the vicinity of our camp. The cracked and dusty ground, in shades of red and brown, now gives place to the lush greens.

Animal cemetery...the result from drought!

The drought caused by global warming, was the biggest in living memory, so we have been told by the Maasai people. The consequences on the Amboseli’s park wildlife were also devastating, killing rhinos, zebras, warthogs and gazelles.

… how does it affect Portugal?

We were explaining the receding of the glaciers of Kilimanjaro ... The journalist asked: “and how does it affect Portugal?”. Well, the lack of water coming down the mountain may turn dry the Mara river and erase the big migration of the wild beast … and so much for the tourism … This would be just a minor collateral damage to the portuguese travel agencies. We talked about the Theory of Caos (a butterfly in Japan …): as an integrated system, a problem on one area of the planet can have consequencies on the rest of the world. At this moment, the effects of global warming are permanently visible in high latitudes (near the poles) and altitudes (say, above 2.500 meters). In lower latitudes (closer to the tropics) those effects are seen as casual and violent phenomena, but their frequency and intensity is increasing at a scary rate! I am talking about hurricanes, snow and sand storms, floods, droughts … In the past, China registered winds of 130km/h, once every 5 years. Nowadays, the same windstorms devastate Beijing 2 or 3 times a year. ‘Climate refugies’ is the new expression to designate people deslocated from their usual habitat due to its destruction by ‘natural’ causes. The number will reach 50 million refugies in 2011 (200M in 2080, according to the a Environment Defense Fund). The European Union already estimated the loss of millions of euros (65?) per year, due to direct effects of the global warming. Portugal could be one of the most affected countries (in domains such as water shortage, impact on coast lines, agriculture, forests …), as well as other coastal cities. A hurricane level 4 over New York could represent a 1 billion dolars loss to the city …