SUSTAINABILITY - The African Mirror

Jan

15

2025

Climate information is useful at local level if people get it in good time: how African countries can build systems to share it

SUSTAINABILITY

AFRICAN countries collectively have emitted very little of the greenhouse gases that have caused climate change but are badly affected by climate-induced floods, droughts and heatwaves. To withstand some of the most devastating extreme weather events, African countries need to adapt fast. Setting up advanced climate information services that predict climate disasters ahead of time is critical. Environmental sciences lecturer Fredrick Kayusi was part of a group of researchers who investigated where climate information systems are falling short and what can be done to remedy the problem. What are climate information services? Why are they so important? Climate information services…

Jan

10

2025

By HANA JURIKOVA

Carbon dioxide has been regulating Earth’s climate for hundreds of millions of years – new study

SUSTAINABILITY

AROUND 370 million years ago, Earth gradually descended into the longest-lived and probably the most intense ice age witnessed by complex life: the Late Palaeozoic ice age. At its peak, huge continental ice sheets spread across much of the globe and the sea level fell by more than 100 metres. In all, this ice age lasted around 100 million years. The transition in and out of the Late Palaeozoic ice age was one of the biggest climate transitions in Earth’s history, a turning point in the evolution of life and the environment. It significantly shaped the two periods of time…

Dec

31

2024

By ALEXANDER RICHARD BRACZKOWSKI; ARJUN M. GOPALASWAMY; DUAN BIGGS and PETER LINDSEY

Counting Uganda’s lions: we found that wildlife rangers do a better job than machines

SUSTAINABILITY

LIONS are a symbol of Africa’s last wild places. It’s a species central to many of the continent’s cultures and religions. But lion populations have reportedly declined over the past 50 years, especially in parts of West and East Africa. Concern over this decline has prompted large financial commitments to shore up numbers. These investments must go hand in hand with the critical work of closely monitoring lion populations. It’s important to understand how their numbers and their distribution respond to conservation actions such as anti-poaching, managing conflicts with cattle farmers, and securing protected areas. Many traditional methods used to…

Dec

28

2024

By LIZ STEPHENS; DAN GREEN and LUIS ARTUR

Climate, migration and conflict mix to create ‘deadly’ intense tropical storms like Chido

SUSTAINABILITY

CYCLONE Chido was an “intense tropical cyclone”, equivalent to a category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic. It made landfall in Mayotte, a small island lying to the north-west of Madagascar on December 14, generating wind gusts approaching 155mph (250km/hr). Later on, it hit Mozambique, East Africa with the same ferocity. This storm skirted north of Madagascar and affected the Comoros archipelago before making landfall in Mozambique. It is well within the range of what is expected for this part of the Indian Ocean. But this region has experienced an increase in the most intense tropical cyclones in recent years. This,…

Dec

20

2024

By VELMA PAMELA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

From roadside to table: the “Plastic Man” transforming plastic bottles into eye-catching decor

SUSTAINABILITY, MULTIMEDIA

THE sound of snipping is audible some way before reaching the fishing settlement of Tezo. It's an unfamiliar sound in a community usually full of household hustle-bustle interrupted only by the occasional boda-boda (motorbike taxi) or the honking of far-off traffic. It's extra-loud because the the material being cut is not cloth, but plastic. The snipping comes from a large pair of scissors in the hands of Raymond Katana, a local artisan, as he wields them to expertly reshape plastic bottles. "Cutting the plastic into shapes is just the start," explained Katana as he used the scissors to fashion flower…

Dec

17

2024

By KAITANO DUBE

Planning a holiday? 3 ways to reduce your carbon footprint

SUSTAINABILITY

THESE holidays, planet Earth looks likely to be hotter than ever before. Research found that in 2024, global temperatures temporarily rose 1.5°C higher than the average from 1850 to 1900 – a pre-industrial time when the first global temperatures were recorded. This is a huge worry because, to avert the most damaging effects of climate change, global temperatures need to be kept below that 1.5°C increase. Corporations and governments in the global north are the main drivers of carbon emissions and climate change. The concept of a “carbon footprint” was invented by big corporations to try to put the responsibility…

Dec

14

2024

By HANNAH LACY

Hippos have been neglected by scientists – that’s why we’re building Africa’s first hippo database

SUSTAINABILITY

COMPARED with Africa’s other big animals, hippos have been relatively neglected in scientific research. Partly, this is because they’re hard to study and dangerous to encounter. Hippos tend to live in wetland areas often partly submerged in rivers, lakes and swamps – habitats that overlap with areas where people live, farm and fish. Though hippos are plant-eaters and don’t see humans as food, they’re highly territorial and aggressive in water. Along with their huge teeth and sheer size, this makes them one of the deadliest large mammals in the world: around 500 people are killed by hippos each year. Other…

Dec

10

2024

By MARK MASLIN; PRITI PARIKH; and SIMON CHIN-YEE

Cop29: five critical issues still left hanging after an underwhelming UN climate summit in Azerbaijan

SUSTAINABILITY

BILLED as the “finance Cop”, the 29th UN climate change summit (otherwise known as Cop29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, was expected to provide the money to enable the transition away from fossil fuels announced at last year’s Cop28. Negotiations were focused on increasing the US$100 billion (£79.4 billion) promised per year by developed countries to help the least developed countries build up their renewable energy capacity. Many demanded a ten-fold increase, as at least US$1 trillion is needed per year. Discussions also centred on who should finance the loss and damage fund agreed upon at COP27, which would compensate developing countries…

Dec

06

2024

By ANDREAS SCHWARZ MEYER and CHRISTOPHER TRISOS

Warming oceans are changing marine habitats – study explores the impact on thousands of species

SUSTAINABILITY

EVERY year, human activities release billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the Sun, making the Earth warmer than it would be without them. Over 90% of the extra heat from greenhouse gases gets absorbed by the ocean, driving marine temperatures to alarmingly high levels. Some estimates suggest that oceans have warmed over 1.5°C since the Industrial Revolution started, more than 250 years ago. Marine organisms are particularly sensitive to warming, partly because they have narrow “thermal safety margins”. This is the difference between the environmental temperature and the maximum temperature an organism…

Dec

04

2024

By ZEINA SHAHLA

“Happy COP”: Only for some

SUSTAINABILITY

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Zeina Shahla THIS was my second Conference of the Parties, after attending COP28 in Dubai. Last year, while struggling to comprehend the complex dynamics of this vast summit, I learned, wide-eyed, that the search for climate justice takes us down a very long and thorny path. This year, moving each day through the huge, fancy event space in and beside Baku stadium, and seeing thousands of people running from one place to another around the clock, I kept asking myself: “Where are we – in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and other countries…