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)