In a remote town in Mali, climate change takes on a sinister reality

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51027

Monitoring a Changing Climate

NAIROBI, Apr 13, 2010 (IPS) - The gathering environmental crisis presented by global warming makes effective weather information and prediction a matter of urgency. As Africa's farmers come to grips with adapting to climate change, it may be that the best way to equip them is to involve them directly in collecting the data. 


Evidence presented to the first conference of ministers responsible for meteorology in Africa, taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from Apr 12-16, shows that countries which have involved local communities in monitoring of climatic conditions have markedly better outcomes in terms of improved agricultural yields and public health.

African governments may need to localise meteorological services from the monitoring level, through data analysis, to dissemination, in order for weather and climate information to make sense to the people who need it most in agriculture and related sectors.

The need for the information is pressing.

"For years, African communities have used traditional methods of predicting climatic conditions. But in the wake of climate change, it is no longer easy for them to use natural indicators to determine the same," said Issa Djire, the director of the Upper Niger River Valley Programme (OHVN in French, Office de la Haute Vallée du Niger) based in Bamako, Mali.

Insuring against risk

Accurate weather information is a key part of more than one climate change adapation strategy. The UAP Insurance company in Kenya is offering pastoralists and small-scale farmers insurance against losses incurred in times of drought or excess rain. Vital to the schemes functioning is accurate weather information. The Kenyan insurance scheme relies on solar-powered meteorological equipment powered by solar energy, and is monitored in collaboration with local farmers.

So far, 5,000 farmers from Western Kenya have been enrolled in the insurance plan in a project that is expected to be replicated in other parts of the country.

Herders in the Marsabit Districtof northern Kenya have signed up to a different scheme serving pastoralists.
The past 40 years have seen both increased flooding and desertification in Mali. The country's national action programme for adaptation expects average temperatures to rise between 1 and 3.5 degrees by 2060. With nearly three quarters of the population living in rural areas, sustainable land management is a primary challenge. According to the UNDP, effects of global warming have already contributed to mass migration to urban centres.

Earlier in April, the Red Cross said it was nearly tripling food aid to Niger and Mali, citing government estimates that more than 250,000 people in northern Mali are facing food shortages due to drought. The situation in neighbouring Niger is worse, with half of the population of 16 million affected by food insecurity.

Twelve years ago, Mali adopted a new system in which rain monitoring is carried out entirely at the local level. Thousands of rain gauges are located in villages, and community members are involved in collection and analysis of rain patterns.

The information is then passed on at community meetings and through community radio stations broadcasting in local languages.

"Packaging of the information is extremely important. The farmers will use it accurately only if they understand it fully," Djire told IPS at the conference.

"Local monitoring of rainfall patterns has boosted preparedness among farmers, and through agricultural extension officers, they have been able to determine exactly the type of seed they should plant, when to plant them, and the insecticides they need to buy in advance," said Djire.

Improving resilience

Meteorologists at the conference want other African governments to emulate Mali’s strategy as a method of improving resilience to the impact of climate change.

"Collecting meteorological data is extremely expensive. Yet it is pointless if the data does not benefit the end user, who in most cases is a peasant farmer in a remote village," said Alhassane Adama Diallo, the director general of the African Centre of Meteorology Applications for Development (ACMAD).

cont.

Here we go again. The ultra-left Guardian has produced another tear-jerker - because you charged your Nokia, Mali roasts!!!

I like this comment, "Global warming is REAL, HAPPENING NOW and being exacerbated by HUMAN ACTIVITY." Yawn, ok, but where's the proof? Using capital letters makes it more believable, obviously. But let's imagine (and I know you need a good imagination for this) that global warming is real. Yes, the world warmed by about half a degree during the latter end of the 20th century, but this was natural, no-one's disputing that. The implication now is that global warming is roasting Mali, as JanforGore tells us it "is REAL, HAPPENING NOW". Gulp, nearly got scared there for a mo!
Then we find this line in the scare-article, "it is in remote places like this that climate change will hit first and hardest." Hello? But but... according to the scientific expert JanforGore climate change is happening NOW. Although, maybe she has decided to make climate change and global warming two separate entities?
Then she writes, "The people of Mali and people all over this world live the reality of climate change daily" Yes, but is it really all negative? Absolutely not, but that doesn't make a good story, does it?

And this Guardian article is just that, a scare-story and nothing more. Read carefully and you find absolutely no substance or fact, just a few well placed lines with which to construct your own conclusion - that Mali is on the brink of disaster and it's your fault.

In the first paragraph the author states, "He [an engineer] explained how everything we could see around us would be under water if sea levels rose as they are predicted to do"
Altogether now - how bad, oh no... but then think about it for a moment. "would be underwater"? Notice it's a prediction! A prediction that the nearby city of Alexandria is at severe risk from climate change. This was written during the author's time in the Nile delta ten years ago.
He now moves the story ten years forward and we find ourselves in the present. Seems Alexandria didn't succumb to the impending doom the author predicted so he had to move to Mali to hunt out something more dramatic with which to invent his story.
Read on and you're left with the impression that the sand dunes are about to swamp Mali. And here's the key, "This area was once forest, but gradual deforestation has thinned the tree cover and exposed the sandy soils." So are we talking climate change or deforestation now? You're left to make up your own assumptions because the author doesn't elaborate. So I found another article which states, "In the mostly desert nation of Mali, environmentalists and government officials are concerned about the increasing amount of wood used, largely for cooking." So there you go, they're cutting the trees down and burning them! That is what is causing the encroaching dunes, not global warming!

The rest of the article falls into some sort of political rant and emotive babbling, "But their experience of threat, potential devastation and loss of livelihood is discounted and ignored. No dunes are threatening Manchester." and notice the wording, "potential", because you're always left thinking this is impending.
Why didn't the author go back to the Nile delta or to Alexandria? Simple, because he wouldn't have found the scare story he was looking for, he had to hunt that out and exaggerate, and leave a lot to your imagination in order to produce a story like this.
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Update: Hot off the press. October's satellite temperatures have been released. The temperature anomaly now stands at +0.42C, and that's down 0.2C from last month. Hardly the image of global warming! CO2 continues to rise, showing absolutely no correlation with temperatures.

Tragic.

And do these spammers know that with every piece of spam they only bring the post up in the ranks? ... ;-)

That's libertarianism for ya, they destroy villages and don't give a damn.

This is one VERY IMPORTANT reason why Republicans and all others who peddle lies regarding this crisis must be voted out of office. They are deliberately lying to people regarding the urgency of global warming in order to suit their own campaign contributors at the expense of our planet's sustianability and our health. Global warming is REAL, HAPPENING NOW and being exacerbated by HUMAN ACTIVITY. This is settled science going back to the seventies, and these bastards in government have done nothing all of these years but obfuscate and block any measure meant to deal with it even knowing the consequences of not doing so all for their precious ideology!

Now, I also know there are Democrats who have stalled on this as well and those who have appeased Republicans, but there are more Democrats seeing this reality than Republicans and at least they have made an effort to do something about it and I can concede that. And while it was not what we needed on the whole, it was a start. Should Republicans take over with the help of their planted tea party skeptic pals however, we will see NO movement regarding this crisis as it continues to affect people globally including the USA and that WILL be detrimental to our national security, our health, and our economy.

We as a people can no longer afford to allow these obstructionists to deny our children the sustainable future they deserve. The people of Mali and people all over this world live the reality of climate change daily, but we do not hear of it over the din of our distractionary political and media noise. It is now time for us to make some noise for climate justice which will be positive for our economy, our health, and the health of our world, and to see our responsibility regarding the plight of others brought on by our rapacious way of life. That is humanity. That is our moral imperative.