climate crisis - The African Mirror

Oct

2023

By TAKUDZWA CHANGADEYA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Agroecology triumphs over climate crisis in a southern Zimbabwe village

WHEN small-hold farmer Gift Chisvo was given land in Zimbabwe's midlands in the early 2000s under a Land Reform Programme introduced by President Robert Mugabe, he initially battled to make use of the land. "Before the land reform program, I resided in Hwange, where farming was impractical due to low rainfall and high temperatures. Upon securing a farming opportunity in Shashe, we encountered difficulties in revitalizing the region's productivity through traditional farming methods," explained Chisvo, who was born in Shashe. White commercial farmers had ranched cattle in the area prior to being pushed out during the reforms. The village has…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Somalis suffering from climate crisis they did nothing to create, U.N. chief says

NEWS

SOMALIA is suffering from the impact of a climate crisis it has done almost nothing to create, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday, as a full-blown famine threatens to follow a drought that killed 43,000 people last year. Some 8.3 million Somalis, almost half the population, require urgent humanitarian assistance, Guterres said, adding that only 15% of the country's $2.6 billion aid requirement for this year has been met. "When famine looms, this is totally unacceptable," Guterres told reporters in Mogadishu. He was speaking after visiting a camp in Baidoa, southwest Somalia, for people displaced by the drought…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

The protection of our planet, and the protection of women’s rights, are intertwine

ENVIRONMENT

ADENIKE OLADOSU I call myself an ecofeminist because the climate crisis is not gender-neutral – it is first and foremost a crisis for women and girls. Women bear the largest burden of the climate crisis, despite having the smallest carbon footprint. In my region, women tend to be the closest to nature and the environment, as they are more dependent on natural resources like land, forests and water for their livelihoods. Therefore, when natural resources are depleted, women are the first victims. In rural Nigeria, women produce the majority of food grown for consumption and local markets, yet they have little…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

How climate change could lead to a hunger pandemic

MULTIMEDIA

CORMAC O'BRIEN FOOD insecurity is reaching an all-time high. The growing climate crisis could force an extra 183 million people into hunger by 2050, so how do we ensure a worldwide food shortage doesn't become the next global pandemic? https://youtu.be/ZCiRzSgo3A0

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Women key to solving climate crisis, says Ugandan school striker

ENVIRONMENT

SONIA ELKS STUDENT Hilda Flavia Nakabuye is at the forefront of Uganda's Fridays for Future strikes - but it was years until the 22-year-old realised her own family were victims of climate change. Storms and drought forced Nakabuye's family to sell their livestock and almost all their land a decade ago, and she was forced out of school for months over unpaid tuition fees. None of them understood why their luck had turned so bad. "We all didn't know it was because of climate change," Nakabuye told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview from the Ugandan capital, Kampala,…