So how is this a first world problem? Human-induced climate change has been primarily caused by the First World through their strive to develop over the past few hundred years. The changes made to the Earth's climate is very much a Tragedy of the Commons scenario; no country can achieve much by themselves and so rely on others to make the progress. The result - significant alteration of the Earth's climate.
Africa's climate is set to change dramatically, a change that Africans have played next to no part in inducing. But Africa is set to be the continent hit hardest by the first world problem of climate change. This blog seeks to enhance my own, and spread to others, understanding of what these changes will mean to Africa and how to adapt to them.
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I'm new to blogging too! I'm very interested to see how you will expand on this complicated issue which I struggle to get my head round. What I would like to know is, you post that "Africa have played next to no part in inducing" I understand this from emissions point of view but what about deforestation? Surely that will play a huge part in all this....
ReplyDeleteYes deforestation is a contributor to climate change. 1.5billion tonnes of CO2 are released to the atmosphere every year, mainly from slash and burn farming. Deforestation emissions are actually included in total emissions for a country, so I will take this into account.
DeleteRelatively, the emissions from deforestation aren't as high as emissions from say burning coal.
This is also an interesting list of countries with the highest deforestation rates and not one is in Africa: http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/10-countries-with-the-highest-deforestation-rates-in-the-world-362910/