CLIMATE CRIRIS IN AFRICA
Since we are all now talking about the climate crisis, can we talk about how the climate crisis has already been affecting so many people in Africa? The entire continent of Africa is responsible for less than 4% of global emissions. Africans are already suffering some of the most brutal impacts fueled by the climate crisis: rapidly intensifying hurricanes, devastating floods and withering droughts. Many Africans have lost their lives — while countless more have lost their homes, farms and businesses. The World Health Organization announced that 1 in 3 people across Africa are facing water scarcity. The World Bank announced that by 2050, 86 million Africans will be forced to leave their homes and try to find somewhere else to exist.
picture by Natasha Simma
Cyclone Idai was one of the worst cyclones to affect the African continent: ripping apart and flooding large parts of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The strong winds and heavy rainfall left more than 1,300 people dead and many more were recorded as missing Cyclone Kenneth arrived destroying areas of Northern Madagascar, Northern Mozambique, Southern Tanzania and Malawi. Tropical cyclone Eloise caused massive devastation with strong winds, heavy rains and severe flooding in areas of Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, affecting more than 467,000 people in January 2021. The water levels of Lake Victoria rose as a result of heavy rainfall in East Africa. The water level rose to a record 13.42 meter surpassing the 13.41 meter mark recorded in 1964. Homes were flooded. Farms were washed away. The rising water levels led to the displacement of over 200,000 people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
East Africa was invaded by swarms of locusts brought on by heavy rainfall and abnormally warm temperatures. The locusts ate everything in their path. Crops were devoured. Southern parts of Africa have experienced terrible droughts that are leading to food insecurity and water scarcity. The water levels of Zambezi River, Lake Chad, Victoria Falls are lower than they have been for decades. Millions of people are facing starvation on the Horn of Africa. In the Karamoja region of Uganda, more than half a million people are going hungry. Crops there have failed due to harsh drought, damaging floods and landslides in many parts of the African continent.
By 2030, the report projects that 108 to 116 million people in Africa will be exposed to sea-level rise — and that without adaptation measures, 12 major coastal cities will suffer a total of $65 billion to $86.5 billion in damages. Africa's mountain glaciers are shrinking faster than the global average - and could mean total deglaciation by the 2040s, with Mount Kenya's glaciers disappearing a decade earlier. By 2030, it is estimated that up to 118 million extremely poor people will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat in Africa, if adequate response measures are not put in place." This year, the heaviest rains in at least six decades killed 459 people around the South African city of Durban and the Horn of Africa is suffering its worst drought in 40 years. In Nigeria, for example, "A sea level rise of one meter could displace 6.3 million people in Lagos alone and change the spatial distribution and density of both formal and informal urban settlements” (Grant, 2015) African people, and people from the places most affected by the climate crisis, need our demands to be heard.
Africa needs its climate impacts to be recognized. We need people to see the death, destruction, hunger and thirst that the climate crisis is causing. The climate crisis is an unequal crisis. It is affecting some people more than others. We need to hear those on the front lines of it Listen to the most affected people and areas. We need people to be able to hear our calls for polluters to cut emissions, and our need for finance to fund the transition to clean energy here.
Warming temperatures will weaken Africa’s food production system by leading to water scarcity and shorter growing seasons.
By Natasha Simma