African Climes

  Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is a term used to refer to the removal or absorption of carbon from the air and storing it away safely. Climate change mitigation is the reduction, avoidance or removal of greenhouse gas emissions. CDR therefore encompasses forestry and the climate services of all green plants as well as the use of negative emission technologies. When done mechanically, CDR is carried out through artificial (manmade) means. In a more in-depth way, these methods are known as negative emission technologies (NETS), because they absorb carbon from the air without re-releasing it. Thus they are “negative”. The goal of the Paris Agreement is to keep warming below 2 degrees above preindustrial levels this century and better still 1.5. To attain 1.5 degrees, emissions will have to reach “net zero” to mean that the amounts released into the atmosphere equal the amounts likewise removed. This should happen by 2050. From then on, in the second half of the 21 st century, the...

  Nature based solutions to climate change are exactly what they sound like. It is simply using nature to fight against climate change. This is done through both mitigation and adaptation, that is, in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and in protecting against the harshest impacts of climate change. It includes using the naturally existing solutions to climate change, such as those used in the carbon cycle as carbon sinks. In this it envelops oceans, forests, grasslands, peatlands, wetlands, croplands and in general all marine and terrestrial ecosystems to combat the phenomenon. Nature based solutions means the safeguarding (protection), restoration and sustainable management of these systems. According to the IPCC, we need to be carbon neutral by the half century mark, if at all we are going to keep warming this century below 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels, which is one of the goals of the Paris Agreement. Carbon neutrality, otherwise known as net zero, is a term used ...

  Agriculture refers to all the activities done in the process of raising livestock, planting crops and other types of farming. It refers to everything involved from start to finish, when the food is finally presented at the table. Agriculture has been a part of human life for millennia, for both domestic consumption and as an economic activity. Agriculture in all its forms takes up a third of the emissions that cause climate change. But unlike fossil fuels that can be done away with completely and substituted with renewables, agriculture is essential for human life and survival in terms of both food security and the economy. So, it can only be restructured to be less climate hazardous while still maintaining its purpose. Food security is both the ability to provide enough food, and food that is of satisfactory nutritional content. The current way of doing agriculture is resource intensive, and is one of the reasons why a third of global soils are degraded. Agriculture both...

The greenhouse effect is primarily natural, and is caused by a group of gases resident in the atmosphere that absorb and retain heat. The greenhouse effect is a phenomenon whereby there is a relatively thin envelope of gases in the lower atmosphere that act like a greenhouse does. A greenhouse glass cover lets in sunlight but blocks the escaping heat from leaving thus warming up the physical conditions of the enclosed space. This allows for the manual control of the weather in the greenhouse and so optimum environment for plant growth and crop production. In this case, greenhouse gases in the planetary atmosphere allow for incoming solar radiation to pass through the air and reach the earth’s surface. However, when this light hits the ground it is converted to infrared heat, and reflected back to outer space. But these gases absorb this heat, preventing it from escaping and warming up the entire planet. The earth from space - image credit (Visible earth/NASA)       ...

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. ...