How Rising Seas Turned A Would-be Farmer Into A Climate Migrant
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 November 2022
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
That's pushing young Senegalese like Mamadou Niang to make the treacherous journey to Europe. He's attempted it three times: twice he was deported, the third time, he narrowly escaped drowning. But he says he's still determined to make it there.
We visit Senegal to see how climate migration is reshaping life there. And we meet a rapper named Matador, who is trying to help young people realize a future in Senegal, so they don't have to go to Europe.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Mama Dunyong was supposed to be a farmer. |
| 0:02.7 | He wanted to work the same land as father did and the town of Gondzul in northern Senegal. |
| 0:07.6 | All of this area used to be fields. |
| 0:12.8 | We used to grow tomatoes and onions here. |
| 0:15.7 | But that's not an option for him anymore. |
| 0:17.6 | The town is near the coast and rising seas are pushing saltwater into the fields. |
| 0:25.9 | The saltwater runs through the village and it kills all the plants that are being grown. |
| 0:30.4 | That's why we can no longer grow anything here. |
| 0:32.4 | In many parts of the world, climate change is the disaster that's happening right now. |
| 0:37.4 | And every year it's pushing people like Mama Dunyong to do what they might not otherwise do. |
| 0:42.0 | Leave their homes and try to make a life somewhere else. |
| 0:45.4 | For Mama Dunyong that meant Europe. |
| 0:46.8 | He's tried three times. |
| 0:48.3 | The first two times he got deported. |
| 0:50.0 | The third time in 2020. |
| 0:52.2 | The troll boats from both Senegal and Spain stopped the boat he was on. |
| 0:56.9 | Senegal has given Spain's military permission to patrol these waters. |
| 1:00.8 | Things quickly turn tragic. |
| 1:05.4 | The Senegalese Navy tried to scare us by shooting into the water. |
| 1:09.6 | And then Mama Dunyong says the Senegalese Navy bumped the fishing boat and it capsized. |
| 1:14.7 | There were 84 people. |
| 1:20.5 | Only 39 out of 84 were rescued. |
... |
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