Africa and Europe’s “green policies” (Afrol News)

Read at :

FeedBlitz <feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com>

http://www.afrol.com/features/24556

Africa to pay for Europe’s “green policies”

“afrol News – In efforts to make quick and symbolic gains in Europe’s otherwise failed policies to curb climate gas emissions, environmental and anti-globalisation politicians are aiming at Africa’s few economic success stories. Campaigns to buy locally produced food and travel to local destinations particularly hit out against African products. Consumers in Europe are again growing more environmentally conscious and are willing to use their purchasing power to assist in what is widely seen as our era’s most pressing problems – the overspending of energy and global warming. Meanwhile, European politicians have been those pressuring strongest to gain support for the Kyoto Protocol while having totally failed to lower emissions of climate gases in their own countries. In every country, emissions have steadily increased.

Populist solutions that are to satisfy costumers, politicians and the European industry alike are therefore surfacing all over Africa’s neighbour continent and the main market of its products. And the solutions seem neat and nice – easy to understand and with the potential of creating more work locally. Even the industry starts propagating these solutions.

The victim mainly is Africa, because the message is that, as longer as a product or person is transported, the more energy is wasted unnecessarily. Worst of all is airborne transport, having the highest emissions of climate gases such as CO2. Unluckily, Africa is far away from European markets and poor transcontinental infrastructure puts most products and travellers on an airplane.

…………“

Agro-pastoralism in Niger – Agro-pastoralisme au Niger (5 African countries)

Lu au :

http://www.niger1.com/niger.html

http://www.temoust.org/spip.php?article1738

 

People’s Daily Online – Chine – 17-03-2007

Niger posts better agro-pastoral season

samedi 17 mars 2007, par temoust

 

“Niger has seen a better agro- pastoral season with more harvest of cereals and forage thanks to good weather conditions.

The agro-pastoral season which just came to an end was much better than that of the previous year, as it was positive in terms of surplus in cereals as well as in forage, said Bare Hawa, president of the national Food Crisis Prevention and Management Committee, at annual meeting on food crisis management held here Wednesday and Thursday.

The surplus is estimated at 450,000 tons of cereals and 788,793 tons of forage, said Hawa, attributing it to a good and evenly distributed rainfall in space and time, as well as negligible activities by predators and other enemies of farming.

Source : Xinhua”

MY COMMENT

Isn’t this in contradiction with the former message on “Hunger in Niger” ?

MON COMMENTAIRE

N’est il pas en contradiction avec le message précédent sur la “Faim au Niger” ?

Lake Chad disappears (Technorati)

Read at:

http://www.technorati.com/search/desertification

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/95-the-incredible-shrinking-lake-chad-that-is/

“Lake Chad is not the only inland body of water that’s disappearing under the dual assault of climate change and human overuse. Lake Aral, in formerly Soviet Central Asia, is well known for the picturesque images of boats stranded in the desert. I don’t know how fast the process went with Lake Aral, but as this map demonstrates, it’s been mercilessly swift with Lake Chad. The last of these five maps dates from 2001. I even wonder whether six years later there still is a Lake Chad. Gonna check up on that in a minute.

Decreasing vulnerability to desertification (Resilience Science)

Decreasing vulnerability to desertification

Garry Peterson December 16th, 2006 in Vulnerability, Greenlash

 

Today I have been reading at:

http://rs.resalliance.org/index.php/2006/12/16/decreasing-vulnerability-to-desertification/

“SciDev.net reports that Forced migration from desertification and land degradation is an emerging environmental issue. Researchers are trying to identify policies that increase the resilience of agro-ecosystems to climate change and decrease social vulnerability to desertification:

Desertification could create more than 135 million refugees, as droughts become more frequent and climate change makes water increasingly scarce in dryland regions, warn UN experts. …”Migration is a top-of-mind political issue in many countries. We are at the beginning of an unavoidably long process,” said Janos Bogardi, director of the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security.

Drylands are home to one third of the world’s population, but they contain only eight per cent of global freshwater resources.

Desertification and climate refugees (Algeria 2006)

Desertification Will Create Climate Refugees

Read at IGLO – International Action on Global Warming

http://www.astc.org/iglo/?p=39

“In a conference in Algeria December 17-19 2006, international delegates discussed issues surrounding desertification and policy. One of the most critical problems affecting those who live in dry areas, particularly in North Africa, is forced migration due to droughts caused by global warming. Scientists estimate that more than 135 million environmental refugees will be uprooted from their homes and livelihoods by the lack of fresh water. Increasingly frequent and severe climate extremes will cause entire communities to relocate in search of water.

The conference was part of the International Year of Deserts and Desertification, organized by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in 2006 as a way to raise global awareness of the issues facing more than 1 billion people living in dry regions and to raise funds for land degradation projects to occur in 2007-2010. Criticized from its inception by many scientists and environmental advocates, the year boosted the credibility of the UNCCD, which pledged to better publicize its work and link it with climate change and national security issues.”

Threats for top rivers (dgAlert)

Published at

http://topics.developmentgateway.org/environment/

Going nowhere fast: Top rivers face mounting threats

20 Mar 2007
Gland, Switzerland – Rivers on every continent are drying out, threatening severe water shortages, according to a new WWF report.

“The report, World’s Top Rivers at Risk, released ahead of World Water Day (22 March), lists the top ten rivers that are fast dying as a result of climate change, pollution and dams.

“All the rivers in the report symbolize the current freshwater crisis, which we have been signalling for years,” says WWF Global Freshwater Programme Director Jamie Pittock.

Spread of Desert and Mediterranean Exodus

Read at

http://www.technorati.com/search/desertification

Let me strongly recommend this website to all people interested in desertification (see link under BLOGROLL in the right column) ! Double click that link.

Spread of Desert “May Cause Mediterranean Exodus”

via Planet Ark

ATHENS – Parched land could trigger a mass exodus north from the Mediterranean if the long-term effects of climate change, construction and farming are not checked, a Greek environmental official warned on Tuesday.

Swathes of Greece are also in immediate danger of becoming permanent desert, said Professor Costas Kosmas, head of a government committee set up to battle desertification.

“Desertification is a slow-moving process and once we realise it is happening it will be too late to go back,” Kosmas told Reuters in an interview.

Climate change and desertification in Niger / Désertification au Niger

Ce matin j’ai reçu un message de <niger1.com@gmail.com>, me demandant des information supplémentaires sur le projet du Rotary belge au Niger (voir mon message antérieur sur ce sujet).

J’étais invité à voir aussi

NIGER LATEST NEWS ON
http://www.niger1.com/niger.html

et j’y ai trouvé la contribution suivante:

—————-

This morning I received a message from <niger1.com@gmail.com>, asking for more information on the Belgian Rotary project in Niger (see my former posting on that subject).

I was invited to have a look at the

NIGER LATEST NEWS ON
http://www.niger1.com/niger.html

and found the following interesting contribution :
Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Date: 21 Mar 2007

Climate change and desertification compounds water and sanitation needs in Niger

by Robert Fraser, Senior Officer, Water and Sanitation Unit, Geneva

“The vast landlocked West African country of Niger faces an increasing demand upon its scarce water resources, the lack of which – when added to poor sanitation and hygiene – results in high levels of death and disease among its 13 million inhabitants. Many of them subsist on less than a dollar a day following traditional farming and livestock rearing in this harsh and uncompromising climate. Niger is one of the countries that form the Sahel Region which has seen recurring drought, food insecurity, and increased desertification over the last 30 years, a result – at least partly – of global climate change and overuse of scant natural resources.

During the last two years, food insecurity and drought reached abnormally high levels, prompting a response from the international community and an intensive food security operation undertaken by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Water and climate change

Seen at <dgAlert@developmentgateway.org> 

Climate change and water adaptation issues

“The report reviews the challenges facing Europe to adapt to the impacts of climate change on water resources. Water is a critical sector for people’s lives and the economy. Even if emissions of greenhouse gases were stabilised today, increases in temperature and the associated impacts, including those on water availability and flooding, will continue for many decades to come. Using a policy analysis at European level, and a survey, the report reviews practices in countries and concludes that countries are aware of these impacts and have started to adapt to them but there is still much to do. This material is also presented by country in an annex.”