CLIMATE CHANGE

Viewpoint: Kenyan campaigner.

Peter and Michael testing and tasting the ice in their workshop. As the UN meets in the Canadian city of Montreal to discuss climate change, the BBC's Michael Kaloki explains how he became concerned about global warming. As a young boy growing up in Kenya, I used to look forward to the school holidays, when my family would travel down to our rural home in the country's Eastern Province.

I would savour the sight of the snow-covered top of Mount Kilimanjaro, glistening in the clear early morning sunlight. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. However, as the years went by, the mornings did not seem that clear anymore and the magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro seemed to lose part of its glory. The memories of the mountain are now just that, memories.

I think that those early mornings, where the mountain and I stared at each other, perhaps played a role in giving me the drive to start a snow and ice-sculpting team with my colleague Peter Walala. While representing Kenya at the international snow-sculpting edition of the 2003 Quebec Winter Carnival, part of our team's mission was to create awareness about climate change, specifically focusing on the depleting snow and ice caps on Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro. In subsequent events that we have participated in, we often speak about the worrying state of the snow and ice on these two mountains in our regions.

Africa's highest mountain Kilimanjaro has lost 85% of its ice cap over the past 100 years. Some people take us seriously, while others just stare at us with a questioning look. It is my wish that people in Africa and the rest of the world would take climate change seriously. Perhaps, if they see the look on my mother's face, when she worries about losing her crops, due to the erratic changes in the rain patterns, they would think again.

Perhaps, if they see the herds of cattle struggling through the long dry seasons, and the tears of my neighbours when they lose a cow each season to the parched scorched earth, they would ask why. Perhaps, then, all of us in Africa and the rest of the world will realise, that we need to pay close attention to climate change and the effects that it is having on us.

Who can save our mountains, land, animals and beautiful oceans? The answer lies with us all.

REPORT FOR THE BBC BY MICHAEL KALOKI.