AGEYO'S ANGLE: A climate of uncertainty as the world heads to Glasgow, Scotland

Now this weekend, all roads as it were, will be leading to the Scottish port city of Glasgow.

Famed for its Victorian and art nouveau architecture, Glasgow will for the next two or so weeks, play host to thousands of delegates from around the world, including President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Now, the delegates may not escape a visit to the scenic River Clyde or the city’s legendary Scottish Opera or the world-famous shipbuilding yards, but their core business will be a subject that is less romantic but is now a real and present danger – Climate Change.

You see, for years any talk about something called Climate Change, was almost always dismissed as a distant alarmist concern peddled by tree hugging environmentalists and theoretical scientists. But today, you have to be living on another planet to fail to notice that something has changed so dramatically around us, that it is difficult to ignore.

I mean what with the cold season that this year, began sometime in May, way before the usual onset in the month of July and went on till August or September in some places? Or the erratic rainfall patterns that have made nonsense of that old village habit of predicting the seasons and planting times with military precision? Or the droughts that used to be a generational affair but are now almost an annual ritual?

And haven’t you noticed how quickly floods follow droughts these days? Or that now Malaria can be found in places like Kericho that used to be too cold for mosquitoes?

Now the science of climate change is perhaps too complex to break down in one night but simply put, human activities such as running of industries and driving of cars release into the air huge quantities of that gas known as carbon dioxide and similar relatives.

These gases known generally by scientists as greenhouse gases have an intriguing ability to trap the sun’s heat in the atmosphere, thereby increasing the overall temperatures around the world.

Now, I wouldn’t go into this seemingly boring science if it didn’t matter to us here and now. I’d be happy to just give endless tales about which politician is defecting to which party? Or which rally had the biggest crowd and all that. And that is all fine, but I am reminded of one of my bosses who once told me that there are things that are so important but very boring.

 I would flip that and say that there are also things that sound boring but are extremely important. And Climate change is one of them. And that is because there is simply too much at stake.

You see, it may sound dreary to hear about greenhouse gases and emission levels, climate mitigation, adaption and all the climate mumbo-jumbo but believe me, when there is famine, it strikes home, real people feel the hunger.

When there is less rainfall and water has to be rationed in Nairobi, it is no longer an academic exercise, when Kenya Power has to limit how much electricity you get because the dams that generate a lot of our power can’t fill up, you will feel the darkness, when the economy takes a hit because tourism and agriculture are struggling because of erratic weather, it will show up in your pocket.

And sadly, these things are happening too frequently now.

Of course, most of these emissions that are causing problems here are in real sense

generated in other parts of the world, mainly rich countries that have run more industries

Yet, the impacts are greater here, mainly because countries such as Kenya don’t have all the resources that they need to tackle all the problems caused by this drastic change. That is why the word on everyone’s lips including the president’s as they head to Glasgow is money. That countries like Kenya need money to cope with these increasingly severe problems

And by all means those countries should honour their end of the bargain and give out the money. Just yesterday, it emerged that the World Bank had committed some Ksh.16 billion to Kenya to help in dealing with the impacts of climate change.

Locally some counties such as Makueni, Wajir and Garissa have already set up specific funds to deal with this growing crisis. The question tonight must therefore be, are these monies really going to be used to help communities cope better with climate change impacts or will it all end up in people’s pocket?  And will we care enough to ask the right questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, when something that used to sound like urban legend just a few years suddenly begins to show up at our doorsteps, it is time to smell the coffee. That is my angle for the week.