By Amanda Wheat Although Somalis are no strangers to devastating droughts, uncertainty about weather patterns are rising with the temperature. As the climate changes and crops dwindle, many Somalis are forced to find alternate means of income. The result is an increase in charcoal production, which further compounds the degradation of Somalia’s forests and livelihoods. Read more. Continue reading
Regions
The seeds of change in Africa’s economic climate
Some entrepreneurs and financiers believe that Africa can benefit from the economic opportunities of climate change. They hold a radically different vision of the climate trends, seeing the chance for jobs and development, instead of just doom and gloom.
The Darfur Stoves Project: A Market Solution to Poverty
Today, three billion people—nearly half the world’s population—burn coal, wood, dung, or compost to heat their homes and cook their food. In addition to the deforestation associated with open fire cooking, especially in regions of conflict, the need for fuel often leaves searchers vulnerable, exposing them to risk of attack.
Hey, sub-Saharan Africa, feeling energy poor? Take a mobile phone and call me in the morning.
Suddenly everyone’s looking at the story of mobile phones in Africa as the silver bullet to just about anything.
Is someone selling you counterfeit malaria pills? Let a mobile phone check on that for you. (1)
Too poor to have a bank account? Try mobile banking.(2)
Are you a herder in Kenya or Tanzania and have a sick goat? Track it on a mobile phone. (3)
Someone trying to pull a real estate scam on you in Lagos? Let Google’s Android handle that for you.(4)
Now, the World Bank is wondering if the mobile phone story may be the ticket out of energy poverty for rural sub-Saharan Africa.
Tanzania to loose forest cover by the end of century
The Citizen Daily Tanzania’s entire forest cover will disappear in about 10 to 16 decades if the current high level of deforestation is not checked, a new survey warns. While the survey by Conservation International, a non-profit organisation with its headquarters in Washington, DC, United States, has revealed that 2,300 square kilometres of forests is being destroyed yearly, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has put the annual deforestation rate at whopping 4,200 square kilometres. (Read more.) Continue reading