Don't worry, even though this may be the Part 2 in a series of feature articles covering climate activist 

, you're only a little late. I got you covered. 

Q) Through my research, I know that you are a pioneer in climate education. What changes have you seen since you started emphasizing climate education? What do you think the future holds for the same?

 First of all, my percentages might not be that accurate. Uganda has around 40-45 million people. In that around 60% of the people are youth. Climate change education should be in schools but it is not there and these are the schools that are accessed by the majority of young people. So, the biggest challenge is that it has not been implemented. I will give you my expectation and what I have seen during the time that I have been talking about it, spreading it in schools and working with young people themselves.

Last year, I managed to reach out to 15 schools. It was not only about climate education but also about what actions can they take. The biggest action that I was emphasizing was tree planting because I realized that it was cheap to do so. I have also seen that young people want action, they tell me, 

“Ok you are talking about climate change but what is it that we can do?”.

 That is always the question that comes up! So that is why I have been emphasizing food trees to make sure that after sensitizing them about climate change, we do some action. 

Nyombi works with schools to spread climate education

I also encountered some challenges. We had no educational resources like books or textbooks that can help us. I realized then that I had to leave them with one. I realized that if I tell you today about climate change, you might not follow up, but if I provide you with a book you might one day think, “Oh I was given this book, maybe I should see what it is”. 

I would say that it was also quite hard for us to provide them with books because firstly we had no source of information. I was just moving with my laptop. That would mean that maybe 10 people could see what I was sharing. I would say though, that teachers were very positive to receive me. But, they also did not know about climate change. They could ask kids what is climate and how it is impacting them, but that’s all, nothing beyond that. 

Today we as activists are spreading awareness about various things but the Children are not even aware of fossil fuels. They ask me, what is coal? For them, they see it as an important thing because the government is telling them, that it is going to generate jobs and we are going to earn money, please support it. But in the end, they do not know what they are supporting! The ignorance is high, I cannot hide it. We lack knowledge regarding climate change even when it is affecting us. 

So when I started, people were not aware but few reached out and wanted to learn more about it. That is what I can tell you. In the future, I am expecting more scientists, more environmentalists like me, to spread the word. 

So this year I thought to expand beyond my earlier efforts. I wanted a book of my publication, which was so hard to get. I reached out to my connections. I have a friend, who works in UNICEF, who told me about a book published in 2017 which speaks about climate change in Africa. We thought by doing some editing and by showing them what was happening in their own country, they will take responsibility into their own hands. Additionally, through this education, you can boost their skills. You can teach them, and you never know someone might come up with an innovation that will save the world. 

When we got the book titled, Our Changing Climate, we did some changes and wanted to distribute it to schools through my project called Climate School. However, I soon realized that it was way costlier than saplings since it involved printing these books. We do not have machines that can print out, and bind the books. So it is quite expensive! It makes it challenging for me to reach out to schools. I am supposed to reach out to 5 schools but I cannot do so. I do not want to go empty-handed!  

Nyombi Morris with his book, Our Changing Climate

Q) So am I right in saying that by emphasizing climate education, you hope that the children of today will be able to resist and protest against illegal activities. For example, illegal mining? Something that you faced as a child? 

 Yes. Once we invest in boosting our knowledge on climate change, projects such as these will have a hard time getting approved. The government is leading us, and driving us anywhere we want because they think that we are not aware of it. If we were aware, we would’ve risen. Once we kill the ignorance, trust me, we are going to challenge all our leaders, and hold them accountable. That is what I am pushing for. Beat them with facts and results. Once you challenge them they are in fear of being exposed. They might then call us to the table to discuss the matter and then we might see some results. So, young people need to be aware of what is happening. 

My government has been in power for 4 decades and if young people rise up today they might even lose their seats. So it is beneficial for them to keep us in ignorance, blindfolded. So it is my role, and the role of all activists to push for a climate curriculum.

Q) Talking about Uganda and developing countries in general, what do you say to those who state that there is a trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth? They say that for the economy to grow, some environmental crisis is inevitable.

 For economic growth, we can’t say we are creating jobs by approving fossil fuel projects, or oil refineries, no! I am telling you today the rate of unemployment is very high. 70% of youth who graduate every year do not get jobs. And they don’t get jobs for which they have studied. For example, I studied IT, but today I am talking about Environment. There is a very big gap! 

Today we also have inflation. Ever since the war in Ukraine, our leaders have used that war to hike prices on everything including bread. So you cannot tell me that by sacrificing Uganda’s environment we have a strong economic system. We are not even self-reliant, we have not even managed to sustain ourselves when there is a war on another continent. 

What is the reason behind this hike in price? The price of fuel! What if we had renewable energy? I should tell you about a project that my government has approved

 to a company called Blencow resources, a UK based company

. They would be mining graphite and sulphite, which should tell you the minerals that we have under the ground. 

Graphite is used for production of silicon

Speaking of renewables, Uganda receives enough sunlight to light the entire country. So why are we not investing in green energy? The price of electricity went high, and the price of food went high, even though we have all the resources to be self-reliant.

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You know what they say, perfect things come in 3s. This was the second part of a trifecta. Stay tuned for part 3 where we speak about the effects of climate funds, the upcoming COP 27 in November, the impact of climate change on his family, and his message to the world.  

Nyombi Morris; Uganda's beacon of Hope - Part II

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