African Climes

Water is essential for life. To start with, every person on the planet (about 8 billion of us) need drinking water to survive. Climate change, population growth and economic development are increasingly putting pressure on freshwater supply from which drinking water is obtained. Supplies are finite and climate change is changing the availability, access and quality of drinking water. Normally, a large portion of human society relies on rainfall which recharges lakes and rivers (surface water) and aquifers (groundwater), as well as glaciers and snow which provide water in hot months. Climate change has altered the entire water cycle. Higher temperatures mean more water is removed from the earth’s surface through evapotranspiration. A warmer atmosphere absorbs more water vapour while more moisture in the air increases its ability to hold heat and on and on it goes. When this vapour cools it distills as heavy and sudden rain. Lack of enough drinking water caused by droughts, heatwaves

 Cities and urban centres house about half of mankind, with that number expected to reach three quarters of the world by 2050. By virtue of being some of the most populated areas on Earth, they are also by default the biggest consumers of both energy and water, and the biggest source of greenhouse gases. Water is paramount for all living creatures. Specifically so, majority, if not all of land based species need freshwater to survive and thrive. This includes human beings, whose population recently hit the 8 billion mark. Now, about 70% of the Earth is made up of water, and of this, 97% is salt water. The remaining 3% is freshwater, and less than half of this, about 0.05% is in liquid form. The rest is locked up in glaciers, snow and ice. Cities need a good amount of freshwater to function, and to serve the needs of the human populace, household use and all industrial activities undertaken within. In terms of energy, all means of energy production and generation require water, an

Wildlife refers to all animal and plant life that thrives in the wild and is undomesticated. The natural world is expansive and diverse, with millions of species and probably millions more that have never been discovered in the seas and deep within tropical forests and other places. Climate change affects wildlife because it affects the planet, which is their home. Climate effects determine the physical characteristics of an ecosystem. For example, ample amounts of rain and hot humid weather characterize tropical forests, which then support a variety of wildlife which are adapted to such kind of climate. With climate change, entire regional and micro-climates are altered, with different areas globally experiencing longer and unexpected droughts, flash floods and sudden heavy rain, tropical cyclones and sea level rise, permafrost thaw and glacier retreat, heatwaves and wildfires. Climate change first of all aggravates other threats to wildlife such as poaching and habitat loss.