Final Statement

Like many regions around the world, sub-Saharan Africa is greatly affected by climate change, the water crisis, disease and malnutrition, hunger and poverty, and natural disasters. What separates sub-Saharan Africa, however, is its struggle to build up from an economic global co-dependence and fight these battles by itself. For many years, Africa has relied on the funds from industrialized nations to help carry it out of debt and alleviate poverty. Droughts and floods have hammered local economies in sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in famines and mass evacuations. Rapid deforestation is contributing to climate change and eliminating thousands of species of plants and animals. Hundreds of people die from AIDS every day, and hundreds more from malnutrition or lack of clean water, typically children. Sanitation is lacking and curable diseases are rampant. Consistent corruption and war are resulting in thousands of refugees and millions of lost lives. Because sub-Saharan Africa relies on us for aid, it can be up to us to give them the resources and the opportunities to help rebuild sustainably and locally. We can impact governments by working with them to bring equity to rural areas and provide subsidies for farmers. We can help communities identify appropriate technology and low-scale development. In many cases, we are the reason sub-Saharan Africa continues to struggle. We can be the reason sub-Saharan Africa survives.

Final Presentation

Our GapMinder World Graph

We found a graph illustrating the population growth and life expectancy of South Africa, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Somalia. We chose these countries because they have all had significant historical impacts that have drastically changed their population over the years.
You can find our graph here: Africa

Population Statistics

These are the population statistics for South Africa and the Democratic Republic on Congo.

South Africa:

Population: 49,109,107

Life expectancy:

total population: 49.2 years

male: 50.08 years

female: 48.29 years (2010 est.)

Infant Mortality:

total: 43.78 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 47.88 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 39.59 deaths/1,000 live births (2010 est.)

South Africa Population Pyramid for 2010

Age and sex distribution for the year 2010:

Democratic Republic of Congo:

Population: 70,916,439 

Life expectancy:

total population: 54.73 years

male: 52.93 years

female: 56.59 years (2010 est.)

Infant Mortality:

total: 79.36 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 87.13 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 71.36 deaths/1,000 live births (2010 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the Population Pyramid for 2010

Age and sex distribution for the year 2010:

Sources Used:

CIA-World Factbook

NationMaster.com

Sub-Saharan Africa: Stats

Because there are about 47 nations in sub-Saharan Africa, we chose to highlight two countries: South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. South Africa is the currently the wealthiest country in sub-Saharan Africa and Dem. Repub. of Congo is currently the poorest.

South Africa:

President: Jacob Zuma
Population: 49,109,107
Literacy: Male - 87% Female - 85.7%
Country carbon emissions: 433, 527 metric tons (1.48% of world total)
Average carbon emissions per capita: 8.98 metric tons
Country water footprint: 39.47 cubic meters
Water footprint per capita: 931 cubic meters
Unemployment: 23.3% (2010 est.)
Population below poverty line: 50%
Exports: Gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals, machinery and equipment
Imports: Machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, scientific experiments, foodstuffs
GDP: $527.5 billion (2010 est.)


Democratic Republic of the Congo:

President: Joseph Kabila

Population: 70,916,349

Literacy: Male - 80.9% Female - 54.1%

Country carbon emissions: 2,435 metric tons (.01% of world total)

Average carbon emissions per capita: .04 metric tons

Country water footprint: 36.89 cubic meters

Water footprint per capita: 734 cubic meters

Unemployment: N/A

Population below poverty line: N/A

Exports: Gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, coltan, wood products, coffee, crude oil

Imports: Machinery and equipment, transport equipment, fuels, foodstuffs

GDP: $22.92 billion (2010 est.)

Sources Cited:
CIA World Factbook
www.waterfootprint.org
World Bank, World Development Indicators (google.com)

Toxic Water in South Africa

South Africa: Toxic water 'threatens Johannesburg

Rapidly rising acidic water in the abandoned gold mines under Johannesburg in South Africa could leak out early next year, the water ministry warns.

Its report recommends building pumps and monitoring stations immediately.

The toxic liquid has been building up in mine shafts which were dug more than a century ago and stretch for many kilometres under the city.

Trevor Manuel, a minister in the president's office, reassured residents that there was no cause for panic.

The BBC's Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg says the report, compiled by a group of experts in December, was published by the Department of Water Affairs on its website on Thursday.

The panel of experts warn that if the water is allowed to continue to rise, it will start decanting in low-lying areas in the vicinity of the former mine at Gold Reef City, popular with tourists.

The report states that water with low pH readings - the measure that indicates the acidity or alkalinity of a solution - will affect property and infrastructure.

It recommends that acid mine drainage intervention be made in the western, central and eastern basins as a matter of urgency.

The basins referred to are areas of interconnected mining tunnels underlying Johannesburg and surrounding areas.

The government has said it is feasible to have pump stations by March 2012.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12573284

Annotated Bibliography

Source on Population

Young, Anthony. "Poverty, Hunger and Population Policy: Linking Cairo with Johannesburg." The Geographical Journal Vol. 171, no. No. 1 (2005): pp.83-95. http://www.Jstor.org/stable/3451389 (accessed February 21, 2011).

In this highly rated journal article, the author discusses about reducing population increase in some countries like Malawi which is part of Sub-Saharan Africa. The situation of a high incidence of poverty, lack of food, and famine is nowhere better illustrated than in Malawi. Malawi which is among one of the poorest countries in the world had a population of three and a half million in 1960 but the population has risen to twelve million in the year 2004. This paper argues that some international institutions in the world do not look how overpopulation has affected some countries and they defined population as an independent, given variable. But the Third UN Conference on Population and Development that was held in Cairo in 1994 has taken a step forward by proposing a set of ethnicity acceptable measures for reducing population growth. For my impression, I think this journal was intended for the people in Africa to look because overpopulation is one of the factors that have led Africa to be so poor.

This source is a peer-reviewed journal source that tells us how population has affected some countries.

It is a reliable source, because it is a peer-review secondary journal source and it was been found in Jstor which is one of the most reliable sources for research.

(Abdirahman Mohamud)

 

Source for Climate Change

McClean, Colin, Jon Lovett, Kuper Wolfgang, Lee Hannah, Jan Sommer, Barthlott Wilhelm, Termansen Mette, Smith Gideon, Tokumine Simon, and James D. Taplin. "African Plant Diversity and Climate Change." Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 92, no. No. 2 (2005): 139-152. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3298511 (accessed February 21, 2011).

This highly technical paper talks about a study that was taken from Sub-Saharan Africa which shows the shifts in climatically suitable areas for around 5197 African plant species under future climate change models for the years 2025, 2055, and 2085 generated by the Hadley Center's third generation coupled ocean-atmosphere General Circulation Model. The results of the models show major shifts in areas suitable for most species with large geographical changes in species composition and the areas of suitable climate for 81 to 97 percent of the all the 5197 African plant species are predicted or projected to decrease in size and shift in location. Also 25-42 percent is projected to lose all of their area by 2085. Some of the models that were taken show dramatic change in the Guinea-Congo forests. Mainly the paper argues about shift changes for 5197 species. The main point of this article is to let people know that plant species are declining due to climate change.

This source is a peer-review journal secondary source that gives information about how plant species in sub-Saharan Africa are declining due to climate change.

It is a reliable source because the article was found at Jstor which is one of the most trusted cites for research and it is peer-reviewed.

(Abdirahman Mohamud)

Water Source

Haile, Menghestab. “Weather Patterns, Food Security and Humanitarian Response in Sub-Saharan Africa” Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences. 360, No. 1463, Food Crops in a Changing Climate (Nov. 29, 2005), pp. 2169-2182

This is text a peer reviewed article that provides information on African water sources based upon the weather. The article goes into depth about water's relationship to hunger and because it is so prevalent, progress with defeating poverty in Africa has been very limited. At present times a third of Africans face widespread hunger malnutrition with a threat of food crisis and famine. The people who are most affected are those who rely upon growing crops to feed themselves. The rainfall is influenced by a large scale system that varies year upon year which can bring floods one year and droughts the next. This brings food shortages to many households and they must find other ways to acquire food. With humanitarian aid we can help monitor the weather patterns to help them grow crops and create less failures and more food.

(Cody Johnson)

Culture/History Source

Valentine, Carol Hopkins and Joanne E. Revson. "Cultural Traditions, Social Change, and Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa." The Journal of Modern African Studies 17, No. 3 (Sep., 1979), pp. 453-472

This journal entry offers a very detailed view on not only cultural and traditional aspect of African culture, but also looks at other aspects of a community. It focuses on family dynamics, infant mortality and increased fertility, the environment, resources and agriculture, and traditions within their culture in various ways.  It goes into depth on the societal structure of typical African communities in recent history and in modern times. Valentine and Revson talk extensively about how in different tribes and communities, polygamy was common based on the expectations of family growth. They also mention the differences between Western society in terms of cultural traditions, also explaining why certain peoples in Africa did things one way many years ago and now do things differently today. The article offers the information in a way that is very easy to understand and it doesn't seem particularly biased. It is valuable because it delivers general information that is important in understanding the culture of sub-Saharan tribes and doesn't focus on the just one aspect of the culture, allowing for a more general study.

Even though this article is a bit dated, it is a reliable source because it is peer-reviewed and other scholarly journals and articles have cited this article. The journal that the article was written for, The Journal of Modern African Studies, is a reputed academic journal allowing for well-written and researched work.

(Laura Chase) 

Media Source

Rosenthal, Elizabeth. "In Kenya, Huts Far Off the Grid Harness the Sun - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/science/earth/25fossil.html?_r=2&ref=africa (accessed February 21, 2011)

Because we have been focusing so much on carbon emissions and the loss of resources, this article featured in the New York Times came as breath of fresh air. It focuses on renewable energy taking place all over Africa. Starting with a story in rural Kenya, the article explains that while 1.5 billion people worldwide still do not have electricity, there are ways to bring electricity and energy to rural areas in a low-scale way. The story in Kenya mentions a woman who did not have electricity and managed to purchase a small solar panel that changed the life of her family. The story discusses that small-scale energy sources like this are becoming more and more available to rural communities who do not have electricity. Though they are being dwarfed by larger scale development projects in hopes to lessen carbon emissions, they are transforming energy village by village. The article also mentions "mini" hydroelectric dams and other forms of energy that are taking place within sub-Saharan Africa. It was a very informative article focusing on present-day solutions instead of present-day problems.

This is a reliable source, specifically because of the newspaper that it was written for. The New York Times is a very well-known newspaper, read world-wide and highly reputable. It focuses on issues all over the world as well as culture and several other things, aiming to please people everywhere.

(Laura Chase)

Tertiary Source

Mark, New. 2011. "Four degrees and beyond: the potential for a global temperature increase of four degrees and its implications." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences 369, no. 1934: 6-19. 

This article is a tertiary source because it is a published source and is also a peer-reviewed source. The article discusses that in 1992, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change got many signatures to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system but was unclear of what levels of global warming were dangerous. In the late 90’s it was said that an increase in just two degrees Celsius would be the cap on what would be dangerous climate changes. It was later said that two degrees could be too much for the system to handle. We are inevitably going to hit the two degrees mark but it is forecasted that we could possible hit a four degrees increase in temperature. This increase would be catastrophic for coastal cities and also sub-Saharan Africa farming would completely crash. How it stands today we are heading for large disasters throughout the world. Technology needs to be put towards solving this problem of climate change and it needs to be done soon.

(Cody Johnson)

Internet Source

Butler, Rhett. "Congo Deforestation." Rainforests. http://rainforests.mongabay.com/congo/deforestation.html (accessed February 21, 2011).

This is a good internet source that the author has been involves in writing multiple peer reviewed sources. The Congo has the largest deforestation rate in the world and continues to do so. Logging is the largest employer to people in the Congo and is encourages to keep logging by the World Bank. The people have no choice but to cut the forests down to get money. Farmers in the region are cutting down forests so they can plant high yielding crops to make money. This is destroying the land further. Before the turn of the century the West African coast had 193,000 square miles of forests, now only 22.8 percent remain due to deforestation and agriculture in the region.

(Cody Johnson)

Policy Document

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.” unfccc.int. http://unfccc.int/2860.php (accessed February 20, 2011)

Recently, there was a conference on climate change with the United Nations in Cancun, Mexico. There were many country representatives and they discussed a large panel of topics, focusing primarily on environmental restoration and climate change. Mentioning the Kyoto Protocol several times, some things they talked about were capacity-building for developing countries, how to capture and store carbon dioxide in geological formations, clean development mechanisms, land use and forestry, assessment of the Special Change Climate Fund, and various communication methods. It encompassed the sixteenth Conference of the Parties as well as the sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. They came up with many agreements involving the mentioned topics as well as others. The next conference is set to be in Bangkok in April, 2011, and will discuss the progress of the agreements spoken about in this conference and past conferences.

This is a reliable source due to the fact that it is through a United Nations source and involved many prestigious representatives from all over the world. It is a globally recognized policy document, therefore making it one of the most reliable sources found.

(Laura Chase)

Climate Change Could Devastate Africa

Climate change will devastate Africa, top UK scientist warns

Professor Sir Gordon Conway warns continent will face intense droughts, famine, disease and floods

 

One of the main water sources outside Moyale in Kenya runs dry. Photograph: Sarah Elliott/EPA

One of the world's most influential scientists has warned that climate change could devastate Africa, predicting an increase in catastrophic food shortages.

Professor Sir Gordon Conway, the outgoing chief scientist at the UK's Department for International Development, and former head of the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, argued in a new scientific paper (pdf) that the continent is already warming faster than the global average and that people living there can expect more intense droughts, floods and storm surges.

There will be less drinking water, diseases such as malaria will spread and the poorest will be hit the hardest as farmland is damaged in the coming century, Conway wrote.

"There is already evidence that Africa is warming faster than the global average, with more warm spells and fewer extremely cold days. Northern and southern Africa are likely to become as much as 4C hotter over the next 100 years, and [will become ] much drier," he said.

Conway predicts hunger on the continent could increase dramatically in the short term as droughts and desertification increase, and climate change affects water supplies. "Projected reductions in crop yields could be as much as 50% by 2020 and 90% by 2100," the paper says.

Conway held out some hope that east Africa and the Horn of Africa, presently experiencing its worst drought and food shortages in 20 years, will become wetter. But he said that the widely hoped-for 8-15% increase in African crop yields as a direct result of more CO2 in the atmosphere may fail to materialise.

"The latest analyses of more realistic field trials suggest the benefits of carbon dioxide may be significantly less than initially thought," he said.

Instead, population growth combined with climate change would mean countries face extreme problems growing more food: "We are going to need an awful lot more crop production, 70-100% more food will be needed than we have at present. Part of [what is needed] is getting more organic matter into Africa's soils, which are very depleted, but we also have to improve water availability and produce crops that yield more, and use nitrogen and water more efficiently."

Sir Gordon, now professor of international development at Imperial College London, oversaw a major expansion in the UK government's support for GM research in developing countries, and said that new technologies must be part of the African response to tackling hunger and droughts. "In certain circumstances we will need GM crops because we wont be able to find the gene naturally. GM may be the speediest and most efficient way to increase yields. Drought tolerance is governed by a range of genes. It is a big problem for breeders of [both] GM and ordinary plants", he said.

He called for more research into climate change. "There is much that we do not know. The Sahel may get wetter or remain dry. The flow of the Nile may be greater or less. We do not know if the fall in agricultural production will be very large or relatively small. The best assumption is that many regions of Africa will suffer more droughts and floods with greater intensity and frequency. We have to plan for the certainty that more extreme events will occur in the future but with uncertain regularity".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/28/africa-climate-change-sir-gordon-conway

Picture of an oasis in the Sahara Desert

Article for Water

Via EBSCO:

Reference List

Mark, New. 2011. "Four degrees and beyond: the potential for a global temperature increase of four degrees and its implications." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences 369, no. 1934: 6-19. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed January 27, 2011).
<!--Additional Information:
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Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa

Contributions to Climate Change:

Though Africa may be seen as an uncivilized section of the world by a lot of people living in America and other wealthy sections of the world this is absolutely untrue. They may not be producing the same amount of carbon as the United States but they are still contributing to the CO2 problem that is causing global climate change. Yes there are the tribes that live out in the country still and live off the land, but there are also large cities in all of the African countries. In these cities there are a lot of cars being driven, electricity being used and factories pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. Cape Town is one of South Africa’s capital cities and is on par with major cities in the United States. The average person in South Africa is producing 9.2 metric tons of carbon per year which is almost half of what the average person in the US produces.

Impact of Climate Change

Climate is and will continue to change in the world. Due to many circumstances the climate has already being changing so far in some regions of the world, for example, the Sub-Saharan Africa. The Sub-Saharan Africa is vulnerable to climate change because of its dependence on natural resources. In sub-Saharan Africa, people clear-cut forests which cause climate change. According to Southwick, “forests reduce soil erosion, maintain water quality, transpire great quantities of water vapor into the atmosphere, contribute to atmospheric humidity, and cloud cover, migrate certain types of air and water pollution, absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen, and maintain rich assemblages of plant and animal life” (p118). Climate change in the sub-Saharan Africa is expected to rise due to their dependence on natural resources. The sub-Saharan Africa production of greenhouse gases has been small compared to developed countries like Canada. This will possibly reduce their carbon footprint to a low percentage or number.

Proposed Solutions to Climate Change:

Africa has made various efforts to not only bring awareness to the implications of climate change and global warming, but to also take action to decrease outputs and sequester carbon. The African Climate Solution, established in 2008, is “the most ambitious initiative towards climate mitigation, adaptation and improved rural livelihoods for the continent”, according to news.mongabay.com. Efforts to reduce greenhouse gases throughout sub-saharan Africa include reforestation, agro-forestry, natural resource regeneration, re-vegetation of degraded lands, reduced soil tillages, more sustainable agricultural practices, and attempts to bring more general awareness to people in urban and rural areas. Because Africa is particularly vulnerable to extreme climate change, governments have also demanded to be a part of the global market for carbon emissions so poorer farmers can be educated and lifted out of poverty. With these various outreach programs and the African Climate Solution, Africa has set the framework for the creation of an African Fund, used as a financial mechanism to fund direct sustainable and agro-forestry projects. It is believed that with the success of these programs, Africa can be an international example of carbon decreasing and sequestering and can alleviate land degradation and poverty.

Sources used:

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/africa-spearheading-solutions-to-climate-change.html

http://news.mongabay.com/bioenergy/2008/12/africa-proposes-own-solution-to-climate.html

Drought in Somalia

Somalia 'worst drought in decade'

Some 3.2 million Somalis need life-saving food aid, says the UN Somalia is facing its worst drought for at least a decade, says the UN. Satellite surveys of rainfall and ground research show the drought's severity, said UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden. He said many cattle were dying from the lack of water, and that this was contributing to nearly half the population suffering from malnutrition. Mr Bowden said humanitarian assistance to Somalia needed to start "increasing dramatically". He said that Somalis were not currently dying of starvation but some 3.2 million of the population needed life-saving food assistance. "We're now facing a drought in Somalia that is worse than people have seen for at least a decade," Mr Bowden said. "Roughly 45% of the [Somali] population is suffering from moderate malnutrition." In parts of central and southern Somalia, 24% of children under five suffer from acute malnutrition, he told a news briefing in Geneva. Some 1.1 million people in Somalia have been driven from their homes because of conflict in recent years. Since the weekend thousands of civilians have fled fierce fighting in the capital Mogadishu between Islamist militants and the government.

< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8047273.stm >

South African Floods

Thanks to BBC news...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12199879

There are horrible floods in South Africa...
-weather-related?

Picture of Laura's Trip to Senegal

This picture is from when Laura stayed in a village in Southern Senegal.
This is an excellent example of sustainability. Each day, the father with his oldest sons would go out to the maaro faaro (rice fields) and harvest rice, peanuts, millet, and sorghum. On the top of this roof-like contraption, they would store whatever they were not using for the day, so it could dry out naturally in the sun. The bicycle is also an example of sustainability. They do not own a car, so they use the bicycle as their main mode of transportation when they are traversing between other villages, particularly on market days.
They live off, and depend on, the land surrounding their compound. It was inspiring to see and live with such self-sufficient people who understand their land so well.

1/11/11

Hello!
Welcome to our blog on Sub-Saharan Africa!

--Laura, Abdirahman, and Cody