African Climes

Plastics are directly derived from the refining of crude oil, natural gas and coal. As an element, plastics don’t naturally exist, and are manufactured artificially by mankind. Since they are not a naturally occurring substance, they do not decompose easily, and can take up to five hundred years to return to basic elements. Therefore, every inch of plastic that has ever been manufactured exists in nature to this day. Unfortunately that means that plastic litters almost every corner of the globe, from frozen mountaintops to the thick sheets of ice which contain embedded plastic, to the deep ocean trenches thousands of feet below and on waterways globally. But most ubiquitous has to be the plastic found on dry ground, in the soil and literally everywhere you look. Plastic is used everywhere in the world, and in every sector. From shower caps to detergent bottles, to cutlery and cars, and buildings and computers, plastic is used in one form or another by practically all of mankind.

  2021 was a busy year in climate, as events rescheduled from 2020 finally took place. The year was also part of the warmest seven years streak and emissions continued to rise as economies resumed in full swing.   January 2021 tied with January 2018 as the sixth warmest, coming in at 0.24 degrees above the 1991-2020 average. This was according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Holland convened a virtual climate adaptation summit attended by different stakeholders to discuss adaptation and creating a climate resilient future. The result was the adaptation action agenda, meant to put the focus of climate action on adaptation. Intense snowstorms pelted Spain, while the UK was hit by record rain. Cyclone Ana wreaked havoc in Fiji. February recorded the lowest temperatures globally in 6 years. In the same month, UN Climate Change launched a report that showed that the world was still off track in terms of ambition to cut emissions to match the 1.5 temperature goal this century.