Human induced cumulative environmental tweaks are leading to Climate Change
As Africa prepares to celebrate Earth Day this week, there is a growing unease as new scientific evidence puts Africa square in the same carbon foot print with India and China in contributing towards climate change. Africa has been very vocal about climate change (the scenario of global warming), and not willing to shoulder any blame about green house gas emissions, until the latest NASA black carbon report.
Lately however, the issue of landuse change especially deforestation has been discussed at length and there is almost consensus that forestry needs all the different forms of support to arrest the continued degradation. REDD has become a favourite tool and most African States are in favour. A few civil society organisations are however critical and questioning the design of the model.
Agriculture on the other hand remains a topic outside the climate change discussions despite it being at high risk and a main livelihood for the 500 million inhabitants of Africa. Agriculture is one of the most central issue towards the security of Africa and the survival of its people. The focus has remained in the protecting the forestry sector and promoting good practice in an area where options have yet to be identified; eg where will the locals get their fuel wood, building material etc.
The question of Africas contribution to climate change has narrowed down to what Africa can get out of the global Financial mechanisms, but little in terms of the innovation that can come from this continent. In fact, it is becoming almost gospel that “our own home grown problems” of poor governance and environmental corruption are no longer issues and it all boils down to climate change. Whether it is illegal logging, inept politicians, poor land policies, self driven land degradation, the blame has shifted to global warming or climate change.
It is the high time we faced the reality, the short term fluctuations do not negate the fact that “there is human induced” environmental changes whose cumulative effect is leading to Climate Change, and especially so in Africa!!
Sphere: Related Content
As I have argued before, Africa missed out on three previous revolutions-industrial, agricultural, and information. Africa cannot afford to miss out on the energy revolution of the 21st Century precipitated by the climate-food-energy-water crises. To turn the curve, Africa must master energy science, technology and engineering. With over 10,000 engineers graduating from African universities each year, this manpower must be put to work. The stakes are too high to predicate our future on other civilizations.