‘Widow’s wind’ brings climate change woes | The Jakarta Post
The nation’s fishermen have little choice except to return to seas that global warming has rendered unpredictable, if not lethal, according to Riza Damanik, the secretary-general of the People’s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA).
“We recorded the deaths or disappearances of 86 fishermen at sea in 2010, a number that jumped to 149 in 2011 and further increased to 186 in the first eight months of 2012,” Riza said.
...
Local fishermen in East Kalimantan, for example, have coined the phrase angin janda (the widow’s wind) to describe the recent appearance of winds that can whip up rogue waves up to five meters high in otherwise placid waters.
...
Similarly, fishermen in Central Java have noted the appearance of a new season, musim rendeng, or the soaking season, while those in North Sumatra fear the angin bakat, roughly translated as the omen wind.
“These concepts did not exist 10 years ago,” KIARA researcher Mida Saragih told The Jakarta Post.
That the ideas have become widespread in such a short time is evidence of how severe the affects of climate change have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment