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Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
Received date: June 12, 2015; Accepted date: March 31, 2016; Published date: April 07, 2016
Citation: Peter S (2016) How to Tackle Global Warming. J Ecosys Ecograph S5:009. doi:10.4172/2157-7625.S5-009
Copyright: © 2016 Peter S. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Visit for more related articles at Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Global warming and climate change are terms for the observed century - scale rises in average temperature of the earth’s climate system and its related effects. According to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climatic change (IPCC); they are 95% certain that global warming is mostly about increasing greenhouse gases and other anthropogenic activities.
Furthermore, climate change impacts differ from region to region and around the globe.
Effects of climatic global warming
Increase of global temperature, rising sea levels, changing population, expansion of deserts. Other changes include more frequent extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts heavy rainfall and heavy snow fall [1].
There are also ocean acidification and species extinctions. Effects to humans include food security from decreased crop yields and abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels.
Social responses to global warming
In bid to the Mitigation of emissions reduction, adaption to its effects most countries are parties to the United Nations frame work conclusion on climatic change (UNFCCC) whose aim is to prevent anthropogenic climatic change.
On 12th November 2015, NASA scientists reported that human made carbon dioxide continues to increase above levels not seen in hundreds of years.
Greenhouse gases
Gases that are trap heat in the atmosphere. These do include Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen oxide, ozone plus water vapour. Without greenhouse gases the average temperature of the earth would be about 15°C (27°F) colder than the present average of 14°C (57°F).
Anthropogenic carbon emissions have contributed close to 40% in the concentration of carbon dioxide that is from 280 ppm in 1750 to 400 ppm in 2015.
They mainly come from combustion of carbon based fuels principally coal, oil and natural gas along deforestation and soil erosion.
Global warming as the name suggests is global. Africa is no exemption. However, Africa has come up with solutions to global warming which do include effective land use planning to avoid forest degradation, developing renewable energy and lacking the expansion of coal fired power plants. Africa is likely to be most affected by impacts of global warming which are in the form of drought, famine, and desertification and population displacement [2].
By pioneering renewable energy projects and establishing forward thinking innovation centers, many countries in Africa are looking to renewable energy as a solution to meet their growing energy needs in a sustainable way while working towards practical adaptation strategies to migrate global warming impacts.
Africa, along with South America and South East Asia, has experienced a significant loss of forests in past two decades. The Congo basin rain forest is the worth second largest tropical forest and spans 700,000 sq. miles in six countries.
Fortunately, deforestation and forest degradation in Congo basin are historically low. New efforts however, are underway to ensure effective land use planning balancing local subsistence needs with consideration.
Effects of global warming in Africa
Temperature rise will trigger “Sharp declines in crop yield in tropical regions” estimated at 5 to 10% in Africa with an associated increase in under nourishment, Malnutrition, Malaria and related deaths. 50% of all Malnutrition related deaths occur in Africa while a 2°C rise in temperature will increase the people affected by hunger potentially by 30 to 200 million worldwide.
Globally, Africa and Western Asia will suffer the largest crop losses yet these regions depend on agriculture and are limited in purchasing power. The African development bank views tackling climate change as an essential component of drawing its mission of poverty reduction and economic growth.
The African - Europe Energy partnership seeks to promote Renewable Energy and Energy efficiency in Africa by mobilizing increased, financial, technical and human resources in support of Africa’s Energy development [3].
The PARIS COP 21
The United Nations climatic change conference Cop 21 was held in Paris France from 30th November to 12th December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the conference of the parties (COP) of the 1992 United Nations Frame Work Convention on Climatic change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the meeting of the parties to the 1997 Kyoto protocol.
The key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels [4].
The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions to be reached by the second half of the 21st century.
It also called for limiting temperatures to 1.5°C. The 1.5°C goal will require zero emissions between 2030 and 2050.
All in all, global warming is the major challenge for our global society. There is very little doubt that global warming will not changes our Climate in the next century. So there ought to be solutions to global warming including an international political solution much as funding for developing cheap and clean energy production must be increased as well as Economic development based on increased energy usage.
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