World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007 - (Page 45)

People wanting to cross the overﬂowing Moroto river in northern Uganda wade through the water. In September, Ugandan authorities said that fresh rainfall was complicating efforts to deliver aid to areas devastated by massive ﬂoods. Some of the worst rainfall and ﬂoods in three decades have swept across Africa, affecting at least 1.5 million people in 18 different countries on the continent. and other stresses to farmland that is likely to interact with climate change. As agricultural productivity declines, the number of farm jobs and the wages they pay are likely to decline as well. The poor already spend an inordinate amount of time securing and hauling water; and climate change threatens to reverse some encouraging improvements in safe water availability. Growing water stress poses new dangers to fragile areas. The crisis in Darfur is believed by analysts at the U.N. Environment Programme to have been triggered by environmental stress. In future decades, rising altitudes at which malaria-carrying mosquitoes can thrive will newly threaten highlands in East Africa, and areas of southern Africa, such as Nairobi and Harare. The predicted drying in other areas such as the western Sahel may reduce malaria, but increase vulnerability to other diseases. Cholera and meningitis are among the diseases that have been linked to variations of climate. One of the most discussed consequences of warming is the rise in ocean levels due to the natural expansion of warmer water and the melting of ice on land. Projections vary of the number of people living in areas likely to be submerged in the Indian Ocean and at greater ocean flooding vulnerability, but millions will have to migrate. Floods are a natural phenomenon in Bangladesh, where about a third of cultivated land floods in a normal monsoon season. This predictable flooding can be managed reasonably well and even replenishes soil fertility. But extreme flooding from cyclones and swollen rivers drowns people along with their livestock, and are followed by dangerous water-borne illnesses, as witnessed this August. At the national level, floods can destroy infrastructure, setting back prospects for economic growth. Bangladesh, with its recent progress against poverty and efforts to build better flood protection, may be repeatedly tested as global warming gathers pace. ADAPTING FOR SURVIVAL Just as climate change may worsen hunger and poverty, poverty compounds the diffi culties of adapting to climate change. The global poor try to adapt to vulnerabilities by saving what they can, practicing informal local insurance, diversifying family liveli- www.heifer.org November/December 2007 | WORLD ARK 45 PHOTO BY PETER BUSOMOKE/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

World Ark - November/December 2007 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked & Answered Pursuing Happiness (PRODUCT) RED: Consumer Power Fights AIDS in Africa Rwanda Reconciles End Hunger Now Protecting the Poor from Climate Change Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit Heifer Calendar Reflection

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

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