Africa Geographic July 2007 [antikvár]

founder's noteC a mere fraction ofa second ago, when the great Pleistocene Ice Age was drawing to a close, a flight over northern Africa would have revealed a very different world j jWhat a wondrous thing, an elephant in mud. The joy is palpable on the face of the animal captured in Carlton Ward's photograph on page 39. But Ward's image also carries a certain poignancy, for looking at the dusty world in which this hardy tribe of pachyderms ekes out a livelihood, such moments of intense, watery pleasure must be few and far between.The Sahel wasn't always a place of tenuous life. If all of our planet's history were compressed into a single day, a mere fraction of a second ago, when the great Pleistocene Ice Age was drawing to a close, a flight over northern Africa would have revealed a very different world. This was a time known as 'The African Humid Period', when the atmospheric monsoon engines were so powerful off Africa's north-western coast that they drove heavy rains into and across the Sahara. Lake Chad was then almost as big as Germany, one of many lakes that dotted a steppe-like landscape abundant with life.The climate-changing forces that altered the Saharan wetland cannot be laid at the door of the human species for we were then only at the threshold of crop farming, let alone industrial endeavour. The changes came quickly, nonetheless - scientists now believe that the movement into, and out of, this wet period may have happened within decades.Might the Sahel return to a time of bounty? Of course, hot and cold as well as humid and dry cycles define the earth's climate, but in the shorter term the planet is warming. Sahelian expansion is likely not only farther down into Africa, but it could well jump the Mediterranean into southern Europe, making life even harder for people, not to mention elephants. This time, though, the hand of humankind will rest heavily on the event for there is little doubt that the industries of the developed and developing nations are playing their part.In fact, we have an abject reminder from our most recent past. Those very monsoons that drove 'The African Humid Period' still operate, albeit more weakly, bringing vital rainfall to a parched Sahel. But even this meagre precipitation was cruelly interrupted in the 1970s and 'SOs causing untold death and suffering as famine gripped Ethiopia. Scientists now believe that fossil-fuel by-products released into the northern atmosphere throughout the prior decades were enough to alter rainfall patterns in faraway Africa.We can, perhaps, draw some encouragement from such sobering knowledge. By the 1990s, rigorous clean air legislation in the industrial countries was already lowering atmospheric pollution and the 'normal' rain cycles in north-eastern Africa were showing signs of recovery.The irony, though, is that the same atmospheric pollution also had the effect of dampening global temperatures. Its continuing removal could exacerbate the warming process if international action is insufficient to check and lower greenhouse gas emissions.An even greater irony is that global warming scenarios indicate Africa as one of the regions of the world likely to be hardest hit. Perhaps there is a hint of injustice for a continent that represents 20 per cent of the planet's land surface and 13 per cent of its human population, but that has historically been responsible for a mere 2,5 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions?Africa Ceograpljic is editorialiy and financially independent. It enjoys tile support and endorsement of several non-government organisations, but it is not affiliated in any way to tfiese bodies or to any other publishing, environmental or political Interest group. Africa Geographic strives to foster an awareness of wildlife, conservation, eco-travel, indigenous cultures and the general environment. It consistently advocates the wisest use of natural resources In a manner that involves and Is of real benefit to the people of Alrica. Africa Geographic Is published 11 times a year.