| Researchers see a positive side to climate change | Send to a friend |
| Monday, 16 August 2010 08:09 |
 By Lucas LigangaLocal and international researchers, and environmental experts are now predicting a positive side to climate change, apart from the devastating consequences caused by it on humanity. “In some areas people are enjoying the benefits of climate,” said Ms Linda Cilliers, the head of One World, a well known figure in the field of energy development, climate change strategizing and socio-economic development based in South Africa. However, Ms Linda told journalists at the University of Dar es Salaam’s Institute of Resource Assessment (IRA) recently that there was little cause for celebration, noting that only pockets of areas on the African continent were enjoying the benefits of climate change. The IRA director, Prof Pius Yanda, a renowned environmental research professor, said findings showing that snow on top of Mount Kilimanjaro was melting fast due to global warming could also be a blessing in disguise. “Tens of hundreds of tourists and researchers who want to believe by seeing with their naked eyes will climb to the top of the mountain to observe the disappearance of the snow,” he said. Prof Yanda recently told Tanzanian and Kenyan journalists, who were attending a workshop on reporting the impacts of climate change in East Africa, that “these tourists will pay millions of dollars to see the disappearance of the snow”. The research professor was giving his views during the workshop, jointly organized by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and the Michigan State University, in Arusha. Studies by various scientists have found that the ice at the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro had shrunk from about 12 square kilometers in 1912 to about two square kilometers now, adding that it accounted for about 80 per cent reduction in the ice. The scientists say the ice will be gone by 2020 if it continues to melt at its current rate. About 20,000 people visit Mount Kilimanjaro every year to see the famous snow-capped mountain, but the government of Tanzania fears that the melting ice will affect tourism and weaken the economy. The decreasing ice has already reduced the amount of water flowing from the mountain to some Tanzanian rivers. Prof Jennifer Olson, a professor in the geography and communication arts department at Michigan State University in the United States, said changing temperatures in highlands would also be beneficial to maize growers. “Warmer temperatures in highlands will raise maize yields, and lower tea and coffee yields,” she said. Maasai pastoral communities at Loswira village in Monduli District, Arusha Region, told the journalists that a long spell of drought that was experienced in their area in 2009, which was caused by climate change, was also a blessing in disguise. “When thousands of our cattle were killed for lack of water and pasture following the drought, we bought a new breed of cattle from our colleagues in neighbouring Kenya, which is very resistant to diseases,” said Saibul Julius Ole Mariki, 46, a former village chairman. “Had it not been for the climate change, we could not have been able to get these cattle,” added Ole Mariki when giving his testimony on the effects of climate change. Mr Deodatus Mfugale, chairman of the Journalists’ Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET), said some areas are enjoying benefits from climate change, with farmers recording two harvest seasons. “If farmers harvest twice in one season, it means that they have improved their food security,” said Mr Mfugale. Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner. Effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring. They include loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves. "Taken as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time." says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of scientists created by the United Nations to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activities. Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. The IPCC, which includes more than 1,300 scientists from across the world, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. According to the IPCC, the extent of climate change effects on individual regions will vary over time and with the ability of different societal and environmental systems to mitigate or adapt to change. The IPCC predicts that increases in global mean temperatures of less than 1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 3 degrees Celsius) above 1990 levels will produce beneficial impacts in some regions and harmful ones in others. In Africa, by 2020, between 75 and 250 million people are projected to been exposed to increased water stress. Yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 percent in some regions by 2020, whereas agricultural production, including access to food, may be severely compromised. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
