The Asia Pacific Region is the largest carbon dioxide gas emitter, followed by North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Africa is the lowest, whether by total emissions or per capita contribution, despite having 17% of world population. However, it is the most vulnerable to climate change according to climate specialist Richard Washington. So why is Africa on the receiving end of climate change?
Africa On The Receiving End The Root Causes
Richard Washington told BBC World Africa hundreds of millions of Africans depend on rain to grow their own food. Moreover, a complex mix of large climate systems controls their weather, and many of these are far away.
Furthermore, end-of-century projections predict North Africa and Southern Africa will experience the greatest decreases in rainfall anywhere in the world. Finally, Africa’s poverty levels will make it difficult for her people to adapt, for as long as her governments fail to act on climate change. Is Africa on the receiving end unfairly, or sleepwalking into a potential catastrophe Richard Washington asks.
The Sahel Drought and Famine Return to Haunt
The Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert received 30% less rainfall between the 1960’s and 1984. Hundreds of thousands of people died, millions were displaced. Sahel refugee camps persist in one of the world’s most conflict-ridden and neglected areas.
We shall see Africa on the receiving end even more cruelly in future. Southern African temperatures will rise five degrees and even more. Already intolerably hot parts of Botswana, Namibia and Zambia could become uninhabitable. East Africa will lose a third of its rainfall, Central Africa’s thunderstorms may no longer sustain Earth’s second largest rain forest system.
Our understanding of Africa’s climate systems is so sketchy that’s about all we know at the present moment. The poor will always be with us, as will be our duty to offer support.
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Preview Image: Refugee Camp in Southern Mauritania, Sahel
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