You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. Today we go to Uganda, the landlocked

East African country, which faces prolonged droughts, landslides, and flooding that stem from climate change.

Climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate is a voice on the global stage for the dangers her country and continent face.

In a 2022 interview recorded for TED Women Presents, she sits down with former Irish President Mary Robinson

to talk through the challenges and the potential solutions.

After the break.

Vanessa, thank you so much for inviting us to your home here in Kampala, in Uganda,

for this TED women conversation. I really appreciate that. It's so much nicer to be in

somebody's home, having a conversation. So let's start with what prompted you or what brought you to become a climate activist, to become

aware of the climate issue from the beginning. You must have been very young because you're still

very young. My journey started in 2018. That is when I started reading about the challenges

that the people in my country Uganda were facing. And at that point, I started reading about the challenges that the people in my country, Uganda, were facing.

And at that point, I found out that climate change was one of those challenges.

And I remember in school, studying about climate change in geography class,

it never made me realize that it was actually an emergency or something that was happening at that time.

So I was really surprised to find that it is the greatest threat facing the lives of so many people.

And what was it in 2018 that kind of prompted you?

I remember speaking to one of my uncle's child and asking him if he has seen any changes from when he was much younger

and right now and he explained to me that 20 years ago in a specific place he mentioned in

me tia now that they would expect trains at a specific time.

But then he said, now 20 years later,

the farmers cannot tell when the rains would come.

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