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'Climate Witnesses' Testify About Effects Of Global Warming

As scientists debate whether global warming is affecting Earth, “climate witnesses” told a U.N. environmental conference Friday they are already feeling the heat of the changing weather patterns they say are drastically affecting the way of life from the Himalayas to the South Pacific.

“In the past we just accepted it was the will of God,” said Penina Moce, a woman from Udu, a fishing village in Fiji. “But now we believe there could be other easons.”

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With only a few months remaining before Kyoto takes effect, the science over global warming remains divided. The United States – the largest industrialized country not to join the treaty – has cited scientific uncertainties as one of the reasons.

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But Anil Krishna Mistry, a 37-year-old rice farmer living in mangrove swamps along India’s border with Bangladesh, said he is worried by what he sees as changing climate patterns.

He said the region is under constant threat of flooding from heavy rains and that rising sea levels have washed away huge tracts of land and made others too salty for rice growing.

“There were 64 types of mangrove plants in the region, but now half of those species are dying out,” said Krishna Mistry. “The mangrove stands act as a barrier against high tides from the oceans,” he said, but rising sea levels and high tides are making the freshwater salty.

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