Ecuador 2019

Ecuador 2079

SOS Messages hidden inside the postcard from people living in Ecuador

Climate change has reflected in simple things such as an Andean tree. There is a forest in Ecuador, called Polylepis. The tree can survive in extreme climate conditions and its only external water source is rain. Because of the characteristics of this  tree is an indicator of how climate has changed. I remember I went to the Polylepis forest when I was 10 and then 7 years later.  My father friend has part of the property, I remember he always complained about climate change and warned us about the ecosystem being very affected within the next few years. He always said it is so sad that the next generation will not get to experience this forest as it was when he was a little kid. My research gets further into this forest. The surrounding flora has decreased because it does not stand extreme climates as the Andean trees (Polylepis specifically). There is also a river crossing this forest, coming from the Andes mountains. The students at Cuenca University have analyzed the changes on this specific river which has decreased in half in diameter over the past 45 years. This is because the extreme dryness and many other factors cause by climate change.

I grew up next to the beach in a small town called Bahia, in the coast of Ecuador. This city had a park at the end of the bay, In the middle of it there was a light house. Now this light house is completely covered in hide tide and it goes down about 40 meters. I saw one of the photographs of my grandmother when she arrived to this town and the beach was endless. Now it’s really small and due to construction its seems smaller. This proves that the sea level rise has affected this town, not drastically where it goes over the city, but it could in the next few decades because the city is so close to the water.

I interviewed my mother because she lived in Bahia her whole life and her whole family lived in the same city. First of all she told me that the climate in quito, an Andean city, has changed. Quito was known for being cold, now it has warm weather in the day and cold at night. she told me that when she was little she used winter coats in quito sometimes. Today, she doesn’t even own a coat. She also told me that one of the most beautiful things about Quito are the mountains and volcanoes, which were completely covered in snow. If you see them now half of the snow is gone.

I decided to make a postcard picturing four different cities in Ecuador, the beach where I grew up with the light house, the coast, an island and the volcanoes. I wanted to make a flip postcard to picture how these places will look like in 50 years. So I edited these pictures with climate changes. The postcard is supposedly send in 2079, and it has SOS and help messages hidden in the inside from people who are suffering climate changes in these places.

Citation

“Adaptation to Climate Change in Ecuador: María’s Story.” CARE Climate Change, July 5, 2019. https://careclimatechange.org/adaptation-to-climate-change-in-ecuador-marias-story/.