“Projections are that Africa will be hit first by climate change, and it will be hit hardest," said Kevin Chika Urama, a Kenyan ecological economist who's analyzing the effects of changing weather patterns on Africa.
There's compelling evidence to suggest, though, that Africa has been suffering the negative consequences of climate change for quite some time. Urama himself has co-authored a paper showing that disasters - from cyclones to droughts to floods to resulting famines - have shown marked increases in number and severity across the continent in recent decades.
Taken as a whole, these events correspond with rising temperatures in Africa and around the world that scientists say are caused by the emission of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, from industrial activity - mainly the burning of coal for energy.
African ‘Armageddon'
According to the United Nations Environment Program, Africa produces only four percent of the world's total carbon discharges, because the continent is still largely undeveloped in terms of big industry. Yet Africa will be most affected by climate change and is “staring at an Armageddon," said Urama.
“The technologies that we have in order to be able to buffer the effects of climate change are weaker in Africa. Human capacities in order to be able to adapt are also weaker in Africa and so are our disaster response systems," he explained. “While advanced countries have a large measure of technological insulation against climate change, Africa does not."
Lack of investment in science, said Urama, means that the region is mostly unable to accurately forecast “radical weather events" associated with climate change. This, he insisted, is already costing many lives and could lead to many preventable deaths in the near future. Read the full report here.
Source: Voice of America.
