Reuters on Africa – Problems Caused by the West’s CO2

Africa’s problems are all apparently due to Western countries’ CO2 (just don’t look at the deforestation).

Reuters – 18 Nov. 2007

They forgot the fact checking part of reporting – rainfall and flooding problems are a result of deforestation.

The following figure shows historical annual precipitation for several long-term stations in the Global Historical Climate Network. Areas with decreasing rainfall are where major deforestation is occurring (see www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/Deforestation.htm )

The following figure shows historical average annual temperature anomalies for various regions of Africa (from the adjusted gridded data the Global Historical Climate Network).

See also www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/RS_EastAfrica.htm for a summary of East Africa and www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/RS_SouthernAfrica.htm for a summary of Southern Africa.

An example of “declining crop yields” -- of course not Malawi: The following figure shows Malawi total exports from 1964 to 2006 (in 000’s of Kwacha). (Data from the National Statistical Office of Malawi [http://www.nso.malawi.net/]. Since 80 percent of Malawi’s exports are agricultural it appears that the current “warming trend” is having a positive impact.

The World Bank World Development Report “Agriculture for Development” 2008 [www.worldbank.org/WDR2008] states: “Sub-Saharan African countries account for 89 percent of the rural population in agriculture-based countries … real agricultural GDP growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has accelerated from 2.3 percent per year in the 1980s, to 3.3 percent in the 1990s, and to 3.8 percent per year between 2000 and 2005. Rural poverty has started to decline in 10 of 13 countries analyzed over the 1990–2005 period.”

Reuters – 8 Nov. 2007

They forgot the fact checking part of reporting – sea level rise is not evident.

There is a lack of long-term sea level stations in Africa – but the “rising seas” don’t seem very threatening.

Reuters – 31 Oct. 2007

There appears to be a disconnect between Western ideas of CO2 and the reality of the effects of deforestation. The monkeys’ normal habitat is being destroyed by deforestation. A large rural population with a large growth rate is dependent on burning charcoal for fuel and subsistence agriculture to survive.

[Above photos from: http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/]

[http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/contemporary-01.html]

“The deforestation that has occurred in Mt Kenya, Mau, Aberdare, Mt Elgon and Kaptagat forests has negatively affected watersheds. Due to the loss of forest cover, the ability of water catchment areas to regulate run-off has been reduced, with subsequent flooding. The area under forest cover has rapidly diminished from 165,000 hectares in 1988 to 80,000 hectares in 2003.”[http://www.rio10.dk/index.php?a=show&doc_id=1846]

“The deforestation of the Mau Forest has continued unabated, Nuttal said, noting that charcoal burning and farming activities were the main causes of the destruction. An estimated 11,000 sq km of the forest have been affected by the destruction. Contrary to conventional wisdom, an estimated 62 percent of precipitation occurs over land as a result of evapotranspiration from lakes and wetlands and dense vegetation, particularly forests, which pump ground water into the sky.” [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=61528]

Deforestation: Kenya / Tanzania Border area (the brown areas were all formerly forested area – except the upper part of Mt Kilimanjaro)