Warming up of Lake Tanganyika

An article on effects of a warming planet on its various communities has recently appeared on Salon.com. This is part of a series of reports on the effect of global warming on the various communities, jointly produced by NPR's 'Living on Earth', U.C. Berekely graduate School of Journalism and Salon.com

KALALANGABO, Tanzania: Tanganyika is the longest freshwater lake in the world, the second deepest and the second most biologically diverse. It is also getting warmer.

Along the shores of Lake Tanganyika, there are two kinds of fishermen: the ones who fish for an abundant nocturnal sardine called dagaa and the ones who don't. ... For generations, the dagaa were so plentiful, it never occurred to anyone the abundance wouldn't last. ... But now, Seph said, the catch is down. All along the Tanganyika basin, from Bujumbura in Burundi to Kalemie in the Congo to Mpulungu in Zambia, fishermen like Seph are beginning to say their lake is changing and with it, their way of life.

Whenever any discussion of global warming is brought up, the picture soon gets cluttered with indications to apocalyptic melting of arctic glaciers and flooding of mainlands in the future. People are now reminded that there could a slower and continuous destruction that is happening right now, as we speak, elsewhere farther from the artics, where communities have lived and thrived. It is time we took note.