...1. Introduction Rural development is South Africa’s priority to achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs). The millennium development goals aim at cutting poverty by 50% by the year 2015. In South Africa about 40% of the country’s population resides in rural areas and they directly or indirectly depend on the land that they live in. Agriculture plays a significant role in the country’s economy, contributing in 2000 about 2.9% of GDP, 10% of formal employment and 10% of the total value of exports. Agriculture as a percentage of GDP has decreased over past four decades, currently contributing around 2%. This implies that the economy is maturing, moving towards the secondary and tertiary sectors. However, farming remains vitally important to the economy with 638 000 people formally employed (Statistics SA, 2012 Q2) – although it’s estimated that around 8,5-million people are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture for their employment and income. However, global climate change will affect the government’s efforts to alleviate poverty and fast-track development in rural areas. Definition of terms Global warming: refers to the increased temperature of Earth's surface, including land, water and near-surface air. Climate change: means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (UNFCCC)...
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...INTRODUCTION Despite being Africa’s biggest economy, the South African economy has a projected growth rate of an average of 5.4% per year till 2030. The country is facing pressure related to energy and the environment [1]. South Africa has rich coal deposits in the north eastern part of the country making coal a cheap and the primary source of energy in the country as about 77% of its energy needs are provided by coal [2]. Emissions from coal are a source of global concern as it has many undesirable consequences. The country is one of the top 20 carbon dioxide (CO2) emitting countries in the world as she emits in excess of 460 million metric tons and its NOx emissions exceeds 21 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent as of 2010 [3]. This emissions have potential to cause many undesirable consequences including acid rain, smog, air pollution, global warming and climate change. If these emissions are not curbed or reduced, they can cause an increase in climatic disasters such as floods, droughts and water shortages and imbalance in the ecosystem. Global warming is a threat to sustainable economic development. The Kyoto protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims to curb the air pollution resulting in global warming. It came into full force on February 16, 2005 requiring countries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The need to curb the emissions necessitate the switch to renewable sources of energy; with little or...
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...continent of Africa The African continent makes the least contribution to global warming, yet it is the most vulnerable to climate change- explain why? Africa is the continent that makes the least contribution to global warming, but yet it is the most vulnerable to climate change. This may be because the population is dependent on resources which are climate-sensitive such as local water for farming and drinking. Africa is the poorest continent in the world which means it has very limited resources to respond to changing climate. Apart from poverty is suffers more than any other region from corrupt governance, civil war and constant tribal conflicts. The political turmoil means the appropriate responses aren’t made, making the impacts of climate change worse. The country also heavily relies on agriculture (70% of all employment), which is highly sensitive to climate change. Only 4% African farmland is irrigated, making agriculture susceptible to drought. These people have a reduced capacity to cope, e.g. subsistence farmers, who only grow enough to meet the needs of their family and have no income, will be at risk of starvation it climate change affects their crops. Future prediction Areas that are already dry (arid and semi-arid environments) are getting drier. Wetter areas (tropical and sub-tropical environments) are getting wetter. The whole continent is getting warmer – around 0.5 *C warmer in the last century. Impacts of global warming Global warming is causing...
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...Global Warming is a major problem which our environment faces today terribly. This global warming is caused due to Greenhouse Effect which is a condition in which Earth’s heat trapping increases more from the normal levels. Climate change, devastation of the ecosystem, melting ice over Arctic and Antarctic regions, negative impacts in the agricultural sector are just the problems caused by global warming. Many damages have been caused by this phenomenon. Policies on global warming are made each day. Global average temperature rose significantly during the past century. The prevailing scientific view is that most of the temperature increases since mid-20th century has been caused by increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations produced by human activity. Most scientists agree that planet’s temperature has risen 0.5 degree Celsius since 1900 and will continue to increase at an increasing rate. As a result, the world is getting warmer. The year 1990 was the hottest year in the last century. There are both positives and negatives to global warming, although the good is heavily outweighed by the bad. Global warming is important for agriculture. It's conceivable that the world's current breadbaskets could become even more productive as temperatures warm, increasing yields. Farmers accustomed to one harvest a year may even see two. What's more, a larger variety of crops could be grown in more locations than is currently possible. As the globe warms, however, high-latitude...
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...AS GEOGRAPHY UNIT 1 WORLD AT RISK WORLD AT RISK GLOBAL HAZARDS Hazard – Potential threat to human life or property Natural Hazards – Caused by natural processes e.g. lava flow from volcanic eruption Hydro-meteorological Hazards – Caused by climatic processes (droughts, floods, tropical cyclones and storms Geophysical Hazards – Caused by land processes (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes) Disaster – When a hazard seriously affects humans Risk – Likelihood that humans will be seriously affected by a hazard Vulnerability – How susceptible a population is to the damage caused by a hazard. Disaster Risk Equation Risk (R) – Hazards (H) * Vulnerability (V) / Capacity to Cope (C) Risk increases if: * Frequency or severity of hazards increase * People vulnerability increase * Capacity to cope decreases (Capacity to cope is the ability to deal with the consequences of a hazard) e.g. people in remote areas are further from help in central areas, so have lower capacity to cope) * Global Warming – greatest global hazard * Recent increase in average global temp – climate change * Causes other types of climate change * Context hazard – global in scale (affects all parts of environment) – potential to trigger other hazards or make them worse * Chronic Hazard (Long term) * People who aren’t causing the problem are mostly affected * Difficult to find solutions * Hydro-meteorological hazards becoming more frequent ...
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...GLOBAL WARMING Global warming simply put is the warming of the Earth including its atmosphere and oceans. Scientists have opposing viewpoints about why this may be happening. Some believe that it occurs naturally and is a part of a normal cycle over time and it is not significantly affected by human activities. Others believe that human activities have profound effects on the warming of the Earth. The global warming hypothesis originated back in 1896 when Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist, developed a theory that carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels would cause global temperatures to rise by trapping excess heat in the earth’s atmosphere. He understood that the earth’s climate is heated by a process known as the greenhouse effect. About half of the solar radiation reaching the earth is reflected back into space. The remainder is absorbed by land masses and oceans, warming the earth’s surface and atmosphere. This warming process radiates energy, most of which passes through the atmosphere and back into space. However, small amounts of greenhouse gases like water vapor and carbon dioxide convert some of this energy to heat and either absorb it or reflect it back to the earth’s surface. These heat trapping gases work like a greenhouse – sunlight passes through, but a certain amount of radiated heat remains trapped. The greenhouse effect plays an important role in preventing the planet from entering a never-ending ice-age. Without...
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...How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age... If you look at a globe, you'll see that the latitude of much of Europe and Scandinavia is the same as that of Alaska and permafrost-locked parts of northern Canada and central Siberia. Yet Europe has a climate more similar to that of the United States than northern Canada or Siberia. Why? The warmth in Europe is the result of ocean currents that bring warm surface water up from the equator into northern regions that would otherwise be so cold that even in summer they'd be covered with ice. The current of greatest concern is often referred to as "The Great Conveyor Belt," which includes what we call the Gulf Stream. The Great Conveyor Belt, while shaped by the Coriolis effect of the Earth's rotation, is mostly driven by the greater force created by differences in water temperatures and salinity. The North Atlantic Ocean is saltier and colder than the Pacific, the result of it being so much smaller and locked into place by the Northern and Southern American Hemispheres on the west and Europe and Africa on the east. As a result, the warm water of the Great Conveyor Belt evaporates out of the North Atlantic leaving behind saltier waters, and the cold continental winds off the northern parts of North America cool the waters. Salty, cool waters settle to the bottom of the sea, most at a point a few hundred kilometers south of the southern tip of Greenland, producing a whirlpool of falling water that's 5 to 10 miles across. While...
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...indicate a likely increase in the average intensity of tropical cyclones and hurricanes in all major formation basins (Mann 56) * We know that mountain glaciers over the world are disappearing, and that this disappearance is generally related to increased melting due to warmer atmospheric temperatures (Mann 58) * The combination of decreased summer precipitation and increased evaporation due to warming surface temperatures is predicted to lead to a greater tendency for drought in many regions (Mann 90) * Other likely impacts of climate change over the next century include increases in extreme weather phenomena, and rising sea levels due to melting ice and warming of the oceans (Mann 90) * Sea level is predicted to rise because water expands as it warms, and melting ice is also likely to have a major impact on the sea level (Mann 98) * Coastal regions will be subject to increased exposure to flood and storm damage, more intense coastal surges, and altered patterns of coastal erosion (Mann 111) * The most obvious threat associated with global sea level rise is costal inundation (Mann 110) * Ex. Significant loss of land on the mid-Atlantic and northeast coastlines could occur with just 6 m of sea level rise (Mann 110) * Coastal habitats will be lost if water levels and wave heights substantially increase (Mann 111) * Impact of...
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...Stretching for 294km around the Southern coast of Africa (City of Cape Town), Cape Town is a very special place. The Mother City is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world and is home to the Cape Floristic Region, a protected World Heritage Site (SANParks). Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate. Table Mountain and the cold Benguella Current of the South Atlantic Ocean, among others, have an impact on local climate (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The different ecosystems rely on warm and cold temperatures, winds, rainfall, and even fire to flourish. Due to historical issues such as Apartheid, the almost 4 million residents of Cape Town (City of Cape Town) are often times racially divided in terms of physical housing locations. Some areas are much more impoverished than others, causing the effects of climate change to be felt more intensely and mitigation efforts to be more difficult (Ziervogel, Shale and Du). Climate change is largely attributed to global warming. In a nutshell, this involves greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide to collect and form a layer in the atmosphere. The sun’s heat is then trapped in the atmosphere, causing a rise in the planet’s average temperature (NRDC). This collection of meteorological phenomena poses threats to the planet and the people living in it. Three different effects of climate change in Cape Town will be discussed, explaining the factors leading up to these, how the local people are affected, as well as mitigation efforts...
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...They were found at the same time as well. This shows North America and Europe might’ve been connected at one point in time. This does make sense with the theory because the two continents do fit together like a puzzle piece. V. Effects From Pangaea to the World Today Believe it or not, Pangaea actually effected the world today. The reconfiguration of the continents caused: sea level changes, oceanic and atmospheric changes, and global warming. During the Mesozoic Era oceanic ridges were formed. Before the breakups occurred, the mantle was warming up. This energy was spread across the surface of the Earth as heat energy and this caused ocean warming. The sea level then rose because of the expansion of water. In addition, ice sheets melted because of the atmospheric warning. The effect of the sheets melting would’ve taken weight off of the continents and a sea-level change. When Pangaea began to break-up various seaways opened and closed. In 3 Ma when the North and South America continents joined, the equatorial currents that passed from the Atlantic to the Pacific stopped. This drove more warm currents toward Europe and that led to more evaporation then...
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...Climate change is one of the most severe environmental challenges facing the world at present. It refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity (Kinyangi et al., 2009). Global warming shows increasing trend and is expected to bring about long term changes in weather conditions (FAO, 2008). Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen. Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850. The period from...
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...AFRICA VS UNITED STATES In our world each country has a set of standards to follow in order to establish health care insurance for people in different communities. The state contributes about 40% of all the expenditures on health while the public health sector delivers 80% of the population. Many resources are concentrated in the private health sector. These resources see to the health needs of the remaining 20% of the population. Public health consumes around 11% of the government’s total budget. The way the resources are allotted, and the standard of health care delivered, varies from country to country. Although there are similarities between South Africa and the United States regarding healthcare, South Africa remains at a lower level than the United States because of funding, education, medical supplies, and equipment/ machines to complete diagnostic testing. South Africa has a private and public healthcare system. There are more than 200 private hospitals owned by different private physicians or large corporations. Private hospitals have 24,537 beds while public hospitals have 110,143, according to David Hidler of PHNP. Public health care is free to pregnant women and children under the age of six. Other patients receiving care pay on a fee for service basis. This means that the patient’s pays for only treatment received while under the physicians care. The gross inequity between the two sectors has led health ministers to threaten regulation that requires the private...
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...The Changing Global Environment----------------------------------------------11 North America---------------------------------------------------------------------------12 Latin America---------------------------------------------------------------------------23 The Caribbean--------------------------------------------------------------------------27 Sub-Saharan Africa-------------------------------------------------------------------31 Southwest Asia and North Africa------------------------------------------------32 Europe------------------------------------------------------------------------------------34 The Russian Domain-----------------------------------------------------------------39 Central Asia-----------------------------------------------------------------------------42 East Asia---------------------------------------------------------------------------------45 South Asia-------------------------------------------------------------------------------47 Southeast Asia-------------------------------------------------------------------------50 Australia and Oceania---------------------------------------------------------------57 Conclusion------------------------------------------------------------------------------60 Bibliography----------------------------------------------------------------------------61 Introduction Diversity Amid Globalization Project is organized to describe and explain the major world regions of Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas...
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...September 6th 2015 John Bryson Greene Effects of Global Warming Have you noticed that in the past few years the average temperature has changed? The summers are hotter the usual. The winters aren’t as cold as you remember them. Did you realize when storm season comes; instead of your regular thunderstorm you get super storms? All these effects are caused by global warming. Global warming is defined as “An increase in the earth's atmospheric and oceanic temperatures widely predicted to occur due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting especially from pollution” (Global Warming About). To put that in layman’s terms, global warming is an increase in air and water temperature due to pollution. Global warming has many effects on the Earth. Some of the effects are raising temperatures, melting icecaps, changing weather, and the effect it has on animals If you can’t tell by the name, global warming causes a raise in temperature. The decade of 2000-2010 has been the hottest decade since the 1980’s (Climate Hot). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average temperature of the earth has risen over 2.1 degrees (Enloe). Over the 50 years, the number of record low temperature around the world has declined (Climate). Since the 1970’s, the average temperatures between November and February in the USA have increased by 1-2 degrees (Global Warming And). As mentioned earlier, global warming is causing the atmosphere to be warm up more than...
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...their better life. But human beings did not care about nature. Deforestation is the result of unawareness of human beings about nature. Deforestation has direct relationship with success of human beings. Thousand years ago, more than 80% of total land area was covered with forests. In present days, less than 12% of total land area is covered with forests (Hermy 362). Is cutting of trees beneficial for society? Does it lead to serious problems? Some people argue that deforestation is deforestation is necessary for success of many government projects and humanity. However, I would argue that the environment, wild life and human life are negatively affected by deforestation. It has large number of demerits. It has degraded environment by global warming and acid rain in different areas of world. Moreover, deforestation destroys the natural home of wild animals. Wild animals have no homes for living in most of parts of the world. Deforestation disturbs human life by depletion of ozone layer of the earth, increase in concentration of carbon dioxide in environment and reduction in the number of trees, which are used in the production of many medicines. These problems had not fixed. These are increasing day by day with the rate of cutting trees. To illustrate, deforestation has brought bad dramatic changes in environment. Anthony Hall, a lecturer in London School of Economics and Political Science, says, “forests are currently net absorbers of carbon dioxide (CO2), a major greenhouse...
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