Climate change from the African Perspective

Impacts of Climate Change from the African perspective:

Here is madam Melanie Nakagawa, a policy advisor on climate change to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. And learnt all this from her, she leads us through the the impacts of climate change on the African context.

Nearly 40 years ago, women living in Kenya — my home country — reported a troubling phenomenon. Their streams were drying up. Crops were failing, and they were being forced to travel farther and farther away from their villages to gather firewood. Today, this story remains all too common across Africa. Climate change may seem like something distant and abstract, but it’s very real and it impacts every one of us.

As you have now come to learn from the previous passage, climate change causes our Earth’s temperature to rise. It brings about changes in precipitation levels, a rise in sea level, and more frequent and intense weather events. And it can threaten our access to such basic needs as food, water, health and shelter. Let’s look more closely at some of these impacts.

Changes in our Earth’s climate have a direct impact on what we grow and eat in Africa. We know that agriculture is extremely important to Africa’s economy. Seventy percent of the population lives by farming and a third of the income in Africa is generated by agriculture.

Most crops in Africa — over 95 percent — are primarily watered by rainfall. This makes food crops on our continent vulnerable to health stress from our warming planet and extreme weather events linked to climate change. These include changes to seasonal rainfall, droughts and floods. In fact, rain-fed agriculture in Africa could drop by half in 2020.

Climate change is already affecting many fisheries around the world. The warming brought about by climate change increases ocean temperatures, which causes some fish to move to cooler waters beyond their normal range. These changes to the marine environment have devastating consequences for people dependent on fishing for food and their income.

Climate change will also have a huge impact on our health. Changes in rainfall associated with climate change can increase the population of disease-carrying mosquitoes. This can result in more malaria, the biggest killer in Africa. Scientists have noted that malaria is already spreading to higher elevations in Africa — in part due to climate change. Predictions are for a 5 to 7 percent increase in malaria distribution by the end of the century.

A warmer environment with more rainfall can also increase the cases of other deadly diseases, such as yellow fever and dengue fever. In addition to these diseases, the poor air quality that often accompanies a heat wave can lead to breathing problems and worsen respiratory conditions.

All too often it is the most vulnerable among us —urban poor, older adults, young children, traditional societies, and subsistence farmers — who are most harmed by these threats.

Extreme weather events linked to our changing climate can cause huge migrations of people.

Flooding, drought, and other competition for resources like fresh water can ignite conflict. It can impel people to leave their homes and migrate. And as my mother once said, “In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources, and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy, and peace.”

But I don’t want to leave you without hope — far from it. These impacts of climate change are real and very serious. But there is much that we can do to combat it, here in Africa and around the world. Let's proceed to see and realise how we can together get to act, in addressing climate change.

Actions to addressing Climate change

In this Topic, we’ll learn about technologies that allow us to power our homes, industries and agriculture using cleaner energy, and, finally, the ways each of you can get involved in this important movement.

Still with us, is madam Nakagawa, till the end of this topic. Thank you

Climate change is a matter of life and death. This is how my mother, Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, described the potential devastating impacts of a changing climate on Africa.

But she also had a strong sense of optimism that our generation, the first to really feel the impact of climate change, will also be the first to do something about it.

The threat of climate change — to Africa and the world — is very real. But there are ways to stem and even reverse the dangerous path we’re on.

As we discussed in previous lessons, energy sources take many forms, including fossil fuels, like oil and gas and coal, and renewable sources, like solar, wind and hydropower. These primary energy sources are converted into electricity, a secondary source, which then flows through power lines to our homes and businesses.

Today, four-fifths of all electricity in southern and eastern Africa is generated from fossil fuels.

And as we learned, burning these fuels produces carbon dioxide emissions which trap the sun’s energy, and this makes our Earth too warm and contributes to extreme weather events.

But other types of cleaner energy, known as renewable energy sources, offer tremendous potential. With the right infrastructure, half of all electricity in southern and eastern Africa could come from clean, cost-effective renewables by 2030. We would then see a substantial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Now let’s examine some of these renewable sources in more detail.

Solar energy. This is simply the light and heat that comes from the sun. It is the most abundant energy resource on Earth. The amount of solar striking the Earth each day is more than 10,000 times the world’s total energy use!

There are two common ways to convert solar energy into electricity: photovoltaic and solar-thermal technologies.

When sunlight hits photovoltaic cells made of silicon or other materials, a chemical reaction occurs. This results in the release of electricity. These cells can then be packaged together to make solar panels. And solar-thermal technologies concentrate the sun’s rays with mirrors to heat a liquid and create steam. This steam is then used to power a generator and create electricity.

The wind, like the sun, is also a clean and renewable energy source. For thousands of years, people have used windmills to grind grain and pump water. Today, modern machines called wind turbines are used to make electricity. To produce electricity on a large scale, many wind turbines can be placed together on wind farms. And this is catching on: Wind power has been the fastest-growing energy source in the world since 1990.

And finally, the energy inherent in water and steam can also produce electricity. If you’ve ever stood in a fast–moving stream, under a waterfall, or on the ocean shore as waves come crashing in, then you’ve felt the power of moving water. Now this power is captured through hydroelectric power plants, which force flowing water through wheels or rotors known as turbines, and that produces energy.

Another source of energy is the heat built up inside the Earth itself. Now if you dig a deep hole straight down into the Earth and you encounter what is known as geothermal energy. At geothermal power plants, wells are drilled 1 to 3 kilometers into the Earth to pump steam or hot water to the surface to make energy.

Now these renewable sources are not only exciting, but they offer tremendous potential for Africa. Think about it. Our continent contains bountiful solar and wind resources and some of the world’s largest hydropower and geothermal resources. Much of this energy is untapped.

And the World Bank estimates that only 7 to 8 percent of Africa’s hydropower potential is currently utilized.

The good news is that many African countries are starting efforts to use these clean and renewable resources. Kenya was the first African nation to begin drilling for geothermal power.

In other countries like South Africa, wind farms are beginning to produce energy. But we have only begun to unlock the potential of our continent’s clean, renewable resources.

There is so much more to be done to ensure that our generation and future generations can benefit from this clean energy. I urge each of you to get involved and join this environmental movement, which is so important for all of us and our beloved continent, Africa.

Reach out and join some of the many community and national organizations that are working to promote clean energy sources and preserve Africa’s forests. Or, gather your friends and peers and start your own!

And just as important, I encourage each of you to help educate your communities about the challenge of climate change and the solutions that we need to adopt.

Share these lessons with your peers, friends and colleagues, and encourage conversation on this very important topic. And as my mother once said, “You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, and they must protect them.”

Great!😄, Now you have been made aware of climate change and it's implications at a level of these trying topics, so let's now go further with information brought up by the tireless researchers of our time and scientists of today, by advancing through the following pages of this blog.
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