From the Mountain to the Sea: 'Climate Change' Changes More Than Just the Weather

February 2009 - Archive

Written by Olivier Kamanda

Melting Snowcaps of Mt. Kilimanjaro

DEVELOPMENTS

This month, ten underprivileged youth from Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana will climb Mount Kilimanjaro in order to draw international attention to climate change in Africa. The trip to the “rooftop of Africa” is sponsored by the Kilimanjaro Initiative, named after Africa’s highest mountain. The climb is also supported by the United Nations' UNite to Combat Climate Change campaign. The U.N. Special Advisor on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfred Lemke announced, “[t]his year’s climb will highlight–with the melting ice of Mount Kilimanjaro as a backdrop–how global warming has a direct impact on the living conditions of individuals and communities throughout the world.” But the mountain range is not the only region of Africa devastated by climate change.

BACKGROUND

What does climate change look like in Africa? In 2005, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair was quoted in the Economist describing the context of climate change in Africa “[t]he size of [Africa’s] land mass, means that in the middle of the continent, overall rises in temperature will be up to double the global rise, with increased risk of extreme droughts, floods and outbreaks of disease.” Unfortunately, the African coastline has not been spared either. NASA has identified a link between warming of the Indian Ocean and decreasing rainfall in eastern and southern Africa. In fact, rainfall levels have dropped 15% since the 1980s according to the NASA Global Precipitation Climatology Project.

But climate change has had the most profound impact on fishing and aquaculture in Africa. Fishing stocks are particularly vulnerable because of a process known as “oceanic acidification.” According to the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) in Africa, the oceans operate like “enormous vacuum cleaners,” naturally absorbing the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. But the oceans are capturing more CO2 than ever before, making the water more acidic than the ecosystem can handle. The increased acidity impairs fish larvae from growing healthy “shells, skeletons and cell coverings,” and developing into adulthood. A similar phenomenon is apparent in lakes and other smaller bodies of water.

Small fishing communities are the most likely to be immediately affected. Overcrowded fishing ports and low yields can have disastrous effects on small-stock fishing villages. And unfortunately, Africa is home to fourteen of the 20 countries whose fishing supply is most vulnerable to climate change. The first full-scale study into the effect of climate change on fisheries, conducted by the WorldFish Center, notes that the least developed countries are often the most dependent on fishing industries.

The study illustrates the need for sustainable development models that are ‘climate-proof.’ But it also demonstrates that climate change more than just the environment and the economy. Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change caught the attention of human rights advocates. As a result, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution making climate change a human rights issue. The resolution affirmed the inalienable right to development, but also highlighted the concern that the poorest nations are the most affected the climate change phenomenon.

ANALYSIS

In Africa, poverty, disease, and violent conflict often consume the attention of policymakers and development workers. New scientific research on the impact of climate change on the continent should cause these policymakers to integrate their solutions. As the youth ascending Mount Kilimanjaro know, there is much more at stake than the melting snow cap.

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Olivier Kamanda is Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Policy Digest.

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