Background Info/ Guides

IDRC: Africa and climate change

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is an excellent online resource for information related to climate change. This site outlines projects undertaken by the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) exploring adaptation strategies for smallholder farmers in Africa. Special emphasis is on local initiatives, including enlisting the support of local radio organizations.

Desert Voices – Ethiopia and Sudan
Launched by Panos London, an international non-governmental organisation, this project is a collection of stories and testimonies of how climate change affects individual lives in Ethiopia and Sudan. Compiled and published online, the radio and print testimonies of individuals, produced by journalists, aim to show the long term impact of desertification for the African region. Published for the World Day to Combat Desertification on June 17 2007, the collection looks beyond the environmental impact of desertification and highlights its wide-ranging consequences, from migration in search of employment, increased conflict over resources, to changes in tradition and in the roles of women.

For further information, contact Risha Chande risha.chande@panos.org.uk OR media@panos.org.uk

Climate Change: A Guide to the Information and Disinformation
This online document is a journalists’ resource guide devoted to climate. It is a collection of links, which are at this time (January 2008) primarily United States (US)-based, to various resources on climate from a wide range of sources, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, National Academies’ National Research Council, American Bird Conservancy and National Wildlife Federation, Evangelical Environmental Network, Sierra Club, and the Pew Center, among many other individuals and groups. Chapters group the links according to their field of expertise, and, in some cases, give tips, such as: “50+ Really Serious Scientist Sources on Climate (who would probably be glad to talk to a journalist).”

LEISA Magazine: Issue on ecological small-scale farming
This magazine focuses on small-scale farming. Its contents attempt to present technical and social options for farmers who seek to improve productivity and income in an ecologically sound way. This issue has a focus on documentation as a knowledge building process. According to its editors: “The articles in this issue show that the purpose of documentation is not only descriptive: the process needs to examine closely what results and impacts are achieved in a given case, and why. Going through this process is an opportunity to learn and to discover interesting and useful links, opinions and learning points.”

Climate Change guide from One world UK portal
OneWorld Guides offer an introduction to relevant sustainable development and human rights issues, with pointers to more detailed content.

A combination of science and observation makes it clear that climate change will impact developing countries much harder and sooner than the richer countries which have caused the phenomenon.

Various topics are discussed such as Millennium Development Goals and Climate Change, Climate Justice, Beyond the Kyoto Protocol, Technology Transfer and Carbon Neutrality.

News Stories linked to Climate Change

Climate change a further challenge for gender equity

 

The effect of climate change “on gender equality and women´s empowerment could be profound, and could in many areas of the world diminish considerably the progress we have made so far in securing gender equality,” said Iceland’s Minister of the Environment, Ms Thorunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, at an FAO event marking International Women’s Day.

Africans unite in calling for  moratorium on switch from food to fuel

Scientists and NGOs across Africa are calling for a moratorium on new biofuels projects as millions of acres of prime agricultural land in sub-Saharan Africa are switched from food to fuel.  Rich nations concerned with future energy security and climate change have begun to seek alternatives to fossil fuels that won’t carry the political costs of calling for consumer restraint.

Panel addresses gender perspectives on climate change

With women making up the majority of the poor in developing countries and in communities that are highly dependent on natural resources, experts participating in the work of the Commission on the Status of Women today argued that practical solutions to the escalating global warming crisis hinge on women’s participation in all aspects of the climate change debate, including mitigation and adaptation.

European consumers’ environmental concerns could impact African farmers

European consumers shunning imported food supposedly to limit climate change should not make African farmers a scapegoat, a Brussels conference has been told.

Climate change could lower maize yields by 30% in Southern Africa

Agricultural problems caused by global warming in the next two decades could be most damaging in southern Africa, India and Pakistan. According a new report in the journal Science, the researchers said the nations of southern Africa — Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe — could lose about 30 percent of their main crop of corn, also known as maize.

Adapting our farms and gardens to climate change

An example of what small scale husbandry can do is shown by Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement, which has planted more than 30 million trees in Kenya, a nation deforested by a combination of colonialism and poor management. As deserts encroached, Maathai demonstrated the only way to keep them back was to create oases of trees, producing food, drawing up water, cooling people and making areas livable.

Alternative agricultural practices can reduce CO2 emisions

Many conventional agricultural practices such as artificial fertilizing, ploughing, stubble burning, and bare fallows can reduce the soil’s ability to store carbon. Tony Lovell of Soil Carbon P/L in Australia estimates that by actively supporting regrowth of vegetation in damaged ecosystems, billions of tons of carbon dioxide can be sequestered from the atmosphere.

Africa: Climate Change ‘Poses Drought Risk for Africa’

Climate change could pose a new threat to food-insecure Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the USAID Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET). FEWS NET claims that Some of the most profound and direct impacts of climate change over the next few decades will be on agricultural and food systems.

“Forest Day” to help shape debate on forests and climate change in Central Africa

The Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is organizing Forest Day to be held on 24 April 2008. Forest Day aims to provide a regional perspective on the discussions surrounding forests and climate change. By debating and analyzing the social, economic, scientific, technological and political issues, Forest Day will provide stepping stones for informed climate policies in the region.

New drought-resistant varieties of the black-eyed pea under development

A team of University of Virginia researchers is working to increase the drought- and disease-resistance of the black-eyed pea, a staple of the diets of roughly 200 million people in west and central Africa.

Climate change could could affect human rights and livelihoods of Africans, UN officials claim

Kyung-wha Kang, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, claims that climate change could cause hunger, malnutrition, and exposure to disease and lost livelihoods, particularly in poor rural areas dependent on fertile soil.

Agricultural expansion fueling deforestation and climate change

Article investigates link between deforestation and climate change in Africa and explores eco-friendly alternative forms of agriculture.

Climate change will adversely affect health of Africans

A British Medical Journal (BMJ) report claims that climate change will have a dramatic effect on the health of sub-Saharan Africans. Among the findings are that climate change will result in higher rates of malnutrition, malaria, and HIV infection.