Simon Reeve: “I see the reality of climate change everywhere I go”
What is the true impact of global warming? Simon Reeve – who’s ventured to over 120 countries – should know. Here, he shares his tales from the road, and ponders what we can do to protect the earth
When did you first learn about climate change?
I’m not sure when I first learned about climate change. It just feels like it’s just been part of my life for most of my existence – and that is something I find really frightening.
Where is the place you’ve been to that you’ve noticed the biggest effects of climate change?
I’m seeing the reality of climate change on the ground almost everywhere I go now, to lesser or greater degrees. I was recently in Kenya in Africa and I was talking to a grandmother from the Maasai community there, a woman called Lucy. She was telling me that she knows their climate is changing, she knows that her way of life may be coming to an end. Her people have herded cattle on the plains of Africa for centuries, but the lack of rain in that area means that it’s no longer going to be possible in the future.
I remember going on a boat down a river in Bangladesh and seeing the bank of the river being eroded and eaten away as we watched, and of course it’s perfectly normal for there to be erosion of a river bank by the river, but scientists are absolutely convinced that what’s happening in Bangladesh is an increased rate of river erosion, partly or largely caused by an increasing melt in the mountains in which the river has its source. So I was seeing peoples’ land being clawed away not by the river, but by our change in climate as well. And it was very upsetting to see the people in the village in tears; they were pulling their hair out because they’re poor, they are desperate and their only means of providing for their families is being taken away from them. It was very upsetting.
