Contributor :
Stacie Harker
Action Plan
I would love to build a comprehensive, real world, data-driven, and service-oriented climate change unit for my students. Tanzania is an excellent choice for a case study as it represents so many of the challenges humans will face as we adapt our infrastructure to survive in a changing climate. According to USAID Climate Risk Profile: Tanzania, the varied biomes support many endemic species that will be at risk of extinction, resulting in negative ecological and tourism impacts. This economic loss will be compounded by lowered crop yields, affecting not only food supply, but also the 75-80% of Tanzanians employed in the agriculture sector. Some areas will experience increased flooding during the rainy season, while also experiencing increased evaporation from rivers, affecting both crops and hydropower energy. Increasing temperatures will result in increased pests, impacting crops and human health. Sea level rise will affect the coastal region, impacting Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania.
Through the GEEO Tanzania institute, I feel confident in my ability to take my unit on climate change to the next level by empowering students to take action in service to our community. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the U.S ranks second in total CO2 emissions, and third in per CO2 capita emissions. This means by making a difference in the way we do things here, we can make a lasting impact on world climate. Although it may seem like a global problem like climate change is too big for our small changes to make a difference, I encourage my students to ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’(debatably coined by David Brower or Rene Dubois).
Pre-Departure Preparation
Read and research the effects of climate change on Tanzania.
Preparation During Travel
I hope to gain insight into how people in Tanzania live, and their relationship with the land and its many creatures. Anytime I have lived in another culture it has broadened my ideas about society, and my place within its constructs. Sometimes I think we live in a culture that is so far removed from the landscape and nature that surrounds us that we are disconnected from where our resources come from. In contrast, the daily life of the Maasai people revolves around meeting their basic needs directly from the rural landscape within which they live. The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust describes how they practice community-based conservation whereby they act as stewards of the precious land they gain their livelihood from, and have found solutions to co-exist with the wildlife that abounds in it. I am eager to learn more, and to bring these ideas back to my classroom as we discuss solutions to habitat loss.
The amazing flora and fauna of the Serengeti have always intrigued me, and I often refer to the African savanna when we study ecosystems. I would love to bring first-hand experience to these lessons to make it more impactful. Predator-prey, competition, and symbiotic relationships are all present there in a beautiful and stunning array of the circle of life. I would also expand my knowledge to include our experiences of the rainforest ecosystem of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the beautiful island of Zanzibar.
The Great Rift Valley region is on my science nerd ‘must-see’ list. The divergent continental plate boundary that forms the East African Rift system is one of only a few places on Earth where you can actually see evidence of a continent breaking away. I would love to share pictures of it when I am teaching about plate tectonics and continental drift. Along these same lines, I traveled to Iceland’s Thingvellir rift so that I could walk between the two diverging oceanic plates of the Mid-Atlantic ridge.
Coming face-to-face with the place of my ancestral origins at the Olduvai Gorge, aka “Cradle of Mankind” where human evolution began is another science nerd ‘must do.’ Interestingly, a previous period of climate change occurred when the Isthmus of Panama formed, drastically changing oceanic and atmospheric patterns, and having the far-reaching effect of drying up the African forest, changing it into grassland. Apes living in trees were forced to venture onto the ground, thus evolving to walk upright (Rodman and McHenry). This tidbit can be tied in as we study climatic change, and how small changes in one part of the world can have drastic consequences in another.