Here is another input from the newspaper; TABI, Mexico- The first time Araceli Bastida Be heard the phrase "climate change" was on the TV two years ago. Then she began to understand why strange thing have been happening in her village.
Tabi was in its second year of drought , and the corn that sustains the village was left stunted on the stalks. farmers couldn't bear the midday heat anymore, and were in their fields at dawn in order to finish before noon.
After a half-mile walk from school, Bastida Be's son would return with headaches. Summer nights were too hot to sleep. And winters were so cold the villagers had to buy blankets.
A year earlier, Hurricane Dean reached deep into Mexico's rain forests, destroying Tabi's beehives and blowing down several thatched-roof homes. "we don't know what's going on. All we know is that something has changed,' said Bastida Be, 31, who tends her own corn crop.
In Cancun, a resort 155 miles to the north, world governments are grappling with Tabi's problem. A 193- nation climate conference is debating measures to restrain emissions of carbon and other gases that are causing the Earth's temperatures to rise. They also are discussing how to help people like Tabi's 400 residents adjust their lives to new conditions.
But the subsistence farmers of Tabi can't wait. Their traditional practices, rooted in 2,500 years of Mayan culture, can no longer produce enough to feed them.
The hot weather has reduced yield by 50% to 60% during the past 15 years, according to Mexico's department of rural development, culminating in 2009 with the worst drought in 60 years.
Scientists said average global temperatures have been rising markedly, with each of the past three decades hotter than the previous. The villagers say they began to notice about 10 years ago that days were warmer and trees were not flowering as they used to.
Tabi was in its second year of drought , and the corn that sustains the village was left stunted on the stalks. farmers couldn't bear the midday heat anymore, and were in their fields at dawn in order to finish before noon.
After a half-mile walk from school, Bastida Be's son would return with headaches. Summer nights were too hot to sleep. And winters were so cold the villagers had to buy blankets.
A year earlier, Hurricane Dean reached deep into Mexico's rain forests, destroying Tabi's beehives and blowing down several thatched-roof homes. "we don't know what's going on. All we know is that something has changed,' said Bastida Be, 31, who tends her own corn crop.
In Cancun, a resort 155 miles to the north, world governments are grappling with Tabi's problem. A 193- nation climate conference is debating measures to restrain emissions of carbon and other gases that are causing the Earth's temperatures to rise. They also are discussing how to help people like Tabi's 400 residents adjust their lives to new conditions.
But the subsistence farmers of Tabi can't wait. Their traditional practices, rooted in 2,500 years of Mayan culture, can no longer produce enough to feed them.
The hot weather has reduced yield by 50% to 60% during the past 15 years, according to Mexico's department of rural development, culminating in 2009 with the worst drought in 60 years.
Scientists said average global temperatures have been rising markedly, with each of the past three decades hotter than the previous. The villagers say they began to notice about 10 years ago that days were warmer and trees were not flowering as they used to.
