This is all uphill work. Literally. We are puffing away in the high Andes of Peru at 3,800m (over 11,000 ft), where the air is thin and the sun burns hard. But the testimonies of small farmers about a rapidly-changing climate are now coming thick and fast.
We have spent the day in villages about 70 miles south east of Cusco talking about the changes they have observed and experienced in the last few years. Here's just three of the many we heard, from the village of Pampamarca.
Bruno: "We have lost three springs in the last few years. The snow-capped mountains have gone, too. There are new plagues and diseases in our cattle and crops.
Roberto: "It's definitely warmer, but it's also colder and drier. The extremes are greater. The rains used be from September to April. Now they are from December to the end of February. Frosts come at unusual times. The crops need more rain and they are getting smaller. We used to sell potatoes to other people; now we can only grow them for ourselves.
Angelina: "Our children get ill easier. They get pneumonia and bronchitis now".
Later, we meet a man from the Peruvian environment ministry. He says these observations support their findings. Scientists from the University of Ohio, he tells us, have recorded a staggering 30-50% decline in the ice mass of some glaciers in just 25 years. Government research shows a host of other phenomena: the rainy season is starting later; rainfall is decreasing steadily by about 12 mm a year; food production in the mountains is down; less water is available for farming and personal use; there has been a rise of nearly 2C in temperatures since 1965; the range of temperatures in 24 hours has grown to nearly 27C compared to 18C in 1980.
Then he makes a point I have not heard before. The people in lowland areas probably don't realise that less rain is falling, he says. They see as much water in the rivers and get water from their taps as ever, but this is because more water is being discharged from the melting glaciers. When that stops, he says, perhaps in 20 years time, or less in some places, the disaster now unfolding in the high mountains will hit the cities very dramatically.
The implications these climate changes have for Peruvian development are huge, he says. Climate change hits the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest, but how much should a government invest to keep people living in certain places? Adaptation may only be possible in certain cases. Be prepared. We must diversify economies.
"We are not alarming people," he says. "But we want people to be informed and prepared. The reality here is that 47% of children are already malnourished anyway. The impacts will be severe."
And on that cheerful note, we set off up the mountain with Oxfam once more.
John Vidal/The Guardian Post Title
→Water shortage fears as Andes glaciers retreat.
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