African Climes

Hello there people.👋 Howya doing? Christmas cheer in the air yet? Well before we end the year we are going to have the last post this year, looking at the things that happened this year in the climate change world. So yea, gather round the fire with a warm cuppa☕ and here we go: We started the year with the third warmest January in modern record keeping history, whereby gold was taken by January 2016, and silver by January 2007, this being according to NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies. I might also point out that the world in general was still coming to terms with the outcome of the American Presidential election of 2016 and what that meant for climate action and especially America’s leading role in it – formerly that is.  February 2017 was the second warmest in the 137 years of record keeping history after February 2016. March followed suit, taking silver after March 2016. There was also some good news in March in that Bloomberg Markets reported that renewables...

Climate change often seems to be a huge problem, a global problem, something that cannot be solved by the ordinary person. ‘But what can I do about such a huge problem, a global problem?’, you ask. It is true, climate change is a global problem, affecting the planet everywhere albeit in different ways. It is also true that most emissions are from big industries and some things like transport emissions seems unavoidable since we all use a vehicle at some point or the other. This is changing however, with the rise of electric cars powered by renewable energy. But worry not, there are things that every person, as an individual can do to reduce their carbon footprint [1] . The goal in climate action is to shift to a low carbon pathway. A low carbon pathway is a way of life that promotes the release of zero or very little amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. It is a collective effort, where the whole of society, industries, businesses, civil society, private sector, government...

T o recap, global warming is caused by the action of greenhouse gases refusing exit to outward bound infra-red radiation. In other words, these gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydro fluorocarbons, per fluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride) being concentrated in the lower atmosphere trap solar energy being reflected back to space. This heat, being retained, results in the warming of the atmosphere. N ow, oceans are the lifeblood of the Earth. These big masses of water covering most of the Earth regulate a lot of things, including absorbing gases. They also absorb most of the excess heat on Earth. Rising temperatures as a result of the action of excess amounts of ghgs [1] thereby also affects the seas. N ow, by its nature ocean water is stratified into layers, determined by density and temperature. Because oceans are very deep, they take time to fully react to external forcing mechanisms. For example the waters of the deep are still laggi...

Hi!☺ Glad you dropped by. Here’s today’s post. A griculture is the biggest contributor to Africa’s economy, a source of livelihood; employing over 50% of the continent’s labour force.  A lot of the more than one billion people that live in this our beloved continent rely on agriculture both directly and indirectly for a livelihood, to raise their children, to have a decent quality of life, for human dignity. A frica has 65% of the world’s arable land . Of this, only 2% is under irrigation while the potential stands at 25%. Also 66% of all land in Africa is arid and semi-arid.  It is also a fact that agriculture in Africa is largely rain fed and so dependent on the natural weather patterns which are now influenced by climate change. As a matter of fact, agriculture takes up 65% of Africa's labour force     and accounts for 32% of the continent’s overall GDP [i]   I n other words, we depend on agriculture not just for food, but for the ec...