African Climes

The 25 th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or COP 25 in short, will take place in Madrid, Spain from 2 nd to 13 th December under the presidency of Chile. It’s clarion call this year is ‘Time For Action’. This is meant to convey the urgency of and rally people around the most pressing need of our times: to save our planet and ourselves from the very real threat of climate change. The conference, an annual event, is meant to discuss policy and international law around climate action. It is supposed to be a united and consolidated global effort to counter the biggest threat to our way of life this century: climate change. Notably, this conference is the last before the Paris Agreement comes into force next year, 2020. 2020 is also the year the United States will officially be able to leave the agreement signed in 2015. The meet will also be the last before signatories of the agreement issue new nationa...

Water is life.  W e have often heard the saying, water is life or in Kiswahili Maji ni uhai . In many, very many ways water is life itself. Let’s start with the human body which is about 60% water. All life on Earth needs water for survival starting from the earthworm deriving its share from soil moisture to the animals that live in water, to water used for drinking and in growing crops and keeping livestock. 70% of Earth is covered by water. See the importance now? W e all need water to survive. C limate change refers to the associated effects on climate caused by the rise in global atmospheric temperatures occasioned by the greenhouse effect. This rise in global temperatures is known as global warming. In terms of water, climate change will and has already started affecting water supply and thus demand especially surface and groundwater recharge. It also impacts the availability, duration, timing and amount of rainfall, snow melt as well as the quality of water. ...

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...

N ow let’s turn the tide a bit, talk about how #ActOnClimate makes business sense for us. Embed from Getty Images T he other very important way in which the low carbon pathway makes business sense is the very altruistic reason of human and animal/ plant health. Fossil fuels right from when they are being mined right up the chain to the level when they are combusted or used, are harmful to the health of the inhabitants of planet Earth. F or example, burning coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, can cause neurological damage, heart failure, cancer and respiratory problems in humans just to name a few. This occurs as result of contact with dioxins and furans (harmful chemical compounds), heavy metals as well as fly and bottom ash. If these harmful by products leached into the soil and neighboring water sources, then we are certainly a doomed lot, one for the direct effects and two because we ware feeding the very thing that devours us. A nd we all know, if we want to have mon...