SA Env. Minister - Effects Of Climate Breakdown Likely Worse Than Thought

[hatrack]

The potential impacts of climate change may be far greater than previously believed, Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk warned on Monday. Speaking at a meeting of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Somerset West, he said climate change in southern Africa would place "millions of lives at risk".

EDIT

The continent would also see "an increased incidence of extreme weather events; substantial reductions in surface water resources; accelerated desertification in sensitive arid zones; and greater threats to health, biodiversity and agricultural production". In southern Africa, government was concerned about projections - heard at last year's National Climate Change Conference - of significant reductions of perennial surface water by the end of the century.

"This could threaten key ecological and livelihood resources, such as the Okavango Delta in Botswana, and large urban centres such as greater Cape Town, where we find ourselves today. Overall, the projected impacts of unmitigated climate change in Africa will greatly affect human livelihoods. The cost will be counted not only by environmentalists, but also by economists, doctors, subsistence farmers and fisher folk.

"The cost will be measured not only in US dollars and species loss, but in human mortality and morbidity, in millions of African lives at risk," he said.

EDIT

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=14&art_id=qw1157964660562B251

[mainegreen]

1. Africa is doomed for so many reasons.

Its terrible to see all the disasters heading there way, or already arrived, and knowing there is very little being done to prevent it, if there is anything that can be done at all.