African Climes

Gender is the sum total of the societal roles that come assigned to a given sex. This means that there are implicit and explicit roles and way of life that a person is expected to abide by based on their biological makeup. For example, women are expected to be mothers and wives, home keepers but also career women. Climate change affects everyone on the globe but in different ways and with different intensity. Some people are affected more because of other secondary factors. One of these factors is gender. In terms of gender, women are affected significantly more than men and in unique ways. The effects of climate change manifest as heat waves, intense floods, long droughts, rising sea levels, hurricanes and erratic weather patterns among others. All these affect natural resources in such ways as impacting the availability and quality of water as well as the fertility and ability of soils to produce crop harvests. In the global South and elsewhere in the world, people rely on s

Climate justice. A loaded term. What does it mean? Climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are mostly caused by fossil fuel use. Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) are used as energy to power economic growth and to industrialize. For many years, since the beginning of the industrial era, fossil fuels have been the main source of energy for the industrialization of Europe, America and the entire western world. The nature of the planet’s atmosphere is that it is one, and therefore emissions released in any part of the world will affect the atmosphere anywhere. As these greenhouse gases absorb solar radiation leaving the earth, air temperatures rise, and the entire global climate system is affected. The difference however is in the impacts and effects. And this is where climate justice comes in.  image courtesy Greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change are largely from one area but climate change impacts will hit every single c

The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a report last year   about the state of biodiversity in the world. Here are some key takeaways. The opening statement is a look at the all-important role of nature in the world. It documents the functions of nature in supporting human existence and civilization, the role of all other life excluding mankind as well as acknowledgement of how different elements and processes interact in the natural world so as to support the existence of the millions of species on the planet. The report opens by articulating some of the gifts of nature such as   goods and services, food and feed, air regulation and supply, water supply, physical benefits, psychological benefits, provision of medicines, protection and buffering against extreme weather events, genetic resources, provision of fuel and energy, ensuring the health of soils, carbon sequestration