| Amazon Farmers Lose Their Memory |
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| Written by Erika Fredrickson | |
| Monday, 31 March 2008 | |
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Small-scale farmers in the Amazon are losing their collective memory, according to a six-year study out of Indiana University Bloomington. Climate change has derailed once-predictable weather patterns, leaving farmers with little sense of what will hit them next. One of the co-authors of the study says that strangely enough, 50% of these farmers didn't remember the 1997 and 1998 El Nino-induced drought, and if they did it was only when it had “unusual relevance” to their lives. Part of this memory loss relates to the fact that even weather anomalies don't seem significant in the context of generally erratic weather. But another part is that small-scale farming in the Amazon has become a high-turnover business as young generations move to cities for work rather than carry on the family tradition. This city migration has disrupted collective farm memory where generations used to pass down knowledge about weather patterns. Collective memory loss combined with lack of technologies to deal with climate change and the lack of data technology to even predict things like another El Nino, compounds farmers' vulnerability in this region. Source: Science Daily |
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