"Severe disturbance
events
and rapid environmental change tend to occur infrequently, but can have
a
lasting effect on both environment and society" says Dr. Gillson. This
was
no-where more evident than in the case of the Maasai "Emutai". The
period 1883-1902 was marked by epidemics of bovine pleuropneumonia,
rinderpest
and small pox. The rains failed completely in 1897 and 1898. The
Austrian
explorer Dr. Oscar Baumann, who traveled in Maasailand in 1891, wrote
chilling
eyewitness accounts of the horror experienced during a large ecological
disturbance: "There were women
wasted to
skeletons from whose eyes the madness of starvation glared ... warriors
scarcely able to crawl on all fours, and apathetic, languishing elders.
Swarms
of vultures followed them from high, awaiting their certain victims."
(Baumann 1894, Masailand) Ecological shocks
such as that
experienced by the Maasai are predicted to be a feature of global
warming.
"It is important to use long-term historical and palaeoecological data
to
try to understand the frequency and effects of extreme events, and the
way
societies and ecosystems respond to them" Lindsey Gillson explains. Her
work involved analyzing sediments from the famous Dr. Jon Lovett, who
has been
researching the impacts of climate change on Africa, says that we must
learn
from history and be prepared "Events like this are going to become more
common in the future, and we need to be ready for them" he says.
"Lindsey's work is important because it shows what has happened in the
past, we are now forewarned. But the big question remains –
will policy makers
take any notice?"
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