As part of our tasks during the Climate Reality Leaderships Corps Global Training of June 2020, and motivated on having this space to share my story on Climate Reality, I’ll make public my responses and encourage more people to think about our climate reality, share your stories and take action!

Born in Maracaibo (Zulia), Venezuela, the region where all of the South American petroleum industry bloomed back in early 1900’s and boosted a nefast, rent based economy; when I was a child, I had the opportunity to dive and swim in to some yet-clean and crystalline waters of the north-west shore of the Lake Maracaibo, the biggest lake in South America and home of the magical infinite energy phenomena of the Catatumbo Lightning.

I clearly remember that when coming out of the water, me and my sisters usually had to clean our feet with kerosene because of the oil/bitumen stains adhered to our skin, and our parents speaking about that the shore where we were located, was still «apt» for swimming because most part of the lake was contaminated! so we were lucky to have such privilege. Indeed, I feel privileged to swim in our lake when it was possible, back in 1981 to 1985 as I can barely remember.

Fortunately, my parents took us on travels to many beautiful parts of Venezuela, and the other places I remember the most are the splendid Sierra Nevada peaks of Mérida, where we used to go on vacations. When we were kids, we used to play with the snow in the Pico del Aguila which used to have constant snows during July to September and also to take the «teleférico» to climb up to the highest station in the Pico Espejo, which used to be always covered by snow, and sadly, due to the climate change, it is celebrated and this year considered a miracle the plenty snow fall in July 2020.

It was my surprise, going back to the Pico Espejo in my 2014 honeymoon with my wife, that there was only a few spots with snow, and no snow at all at the Pico El Aguila…as per the Maracaibo Lake, around 1990 most it shores were forbidden for tourists and locals to swim because of its contamination.

I can count more experiences related to the effects of climate change, like rivers that we used to visit that no longer exist, to forest zones that were devastated by uncontrolled commercial actions, but my memories of those beautiful times when you could dive in the Lake Maracaibo or enjoy the snow in our Sierra Nevada our Humboldt Glaciar which is in danger of disappear, are simply gone! That has the biggest impact on me and my awareness on the fact that we have to act now!

I don’t want to tell histories to my grandsons about places that no longer exists because of our own actions, so I’m encouraging anyone I can to act, starting with my actions and those of my family.

Climate change is real, don’t pretend it is just «natural».

Ed