Climate Change in Africa
Considering that climate change is the biggest threat to the future of our planet and the whole of humanity it certainly does affect some areas on the earth more than others. One continent that might suffer severe results of climate change is Africa. In general you can say that the poorest countries in the world are most likely to be affected even worse than most of the industrialized countries. This is due to a range of different factors but also caused by the lack of resilience to extreme weather events. Another very specific problem in Africa is the lack of sanitary water supply. One of the major causes for this is the lack of water in general as it is the driest and hottest continent covered by 60% of deserts and drylands.
If you look at the climate of Africa from a historical perspective you will realize that there have always been droughts but considering global warming continues as predicted this could increase drastically. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and CMIP5 especially northern and southern Africa are projected to experience a decrease in precipitation accompanied by general drying and the daily maximum temperature is expected to increase by up to 8°C. This rise in temperature is going to cause increased evaporation as well as decreased runoff and so an overall higher risk of drought. As Africa is well known to be already very short and uncertain in water supply this problem is going to become even more severe if you considers these projections. The consequences following this decrease in water will be analyzed in detail in future blog entries.
This post attempts well to contextualise climate change and the increased risk of drought in Africa but, in doings so, appears to make two conceptual errors despite its reference to the peer-reviewed literature. First, Africa is not the driest continent - that honour is held by Antarctica. Second, there is no relationship between 'water scarcity' and 'access to safe water' as this post contends. Finally, you would do well to consult the latest 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC when discussing climate change impacts - see Chapter by Niang et al. (2014) in the GEOG0036 reading list. The overall impression conveyed is of a dry continent that is going to get drier. Is that a fair characterisation of climate change across Africa?
ReplyDeleteThank you for the feedback! Yes I made some false assumptions in here as it was just at the start of the course and I just wrote what I thought or assumed. They are to be challenged in my blogging journey while getting more into depth on the topic and I will definitely read the IPCC report. I know now that Africa is neither the driest country nor is it necessarily getting drier due to climate change. Also yes there is not really a relationship between water scarcity and access to safe water. I will correct this!
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