Taking a Tan on Top of the World

Timothy M. Currie knows his way among the tops of the Andes of Peru, and he knows it's getting warmer at higher elevations. How does he know? He is documenting the upslope movement of farmers who claim that they can now grow potatoes with less risk of loss to frost and freeze, a possible sign of climate warming.

As an Anton Fellow (2004) and Condakes Fellow (2005), and most recently the recipient of an EPA GRO fellowship, Tim explored socioeconomic and cultural factors that potentially explain how and why the potato farmers believe that it is warmer at higher elevations, and thus worth the increased risk of crop losses taken upslope. He wanted to determine if the move was voluntary to take advantage of climate change, or if farmers were being "pushed" upslope owing to socioeconomic conditions downslope.

Tim is a double major at Clark, studying both geography and international development and social change on an Academic Achievement Scholarship. He achieved the Dean's High Honors List in his first year of study, and is a member of the Association of American Geographers, International Association for the Study of Common Property, New England Conference of Latin American Studies, and South American Explorers. In 2005, he received an EPA Fellowship to support his studies at Clark.

Standing tall in the high Andes
Tim has worked with three different projects of the National Geographic Society in Peru, a far cry culturally, but not temperature-wise, from the suburbs of Toronto from which he hails.