Africa is one of the regions most exposed to extreme effects of climate change, warming faster than the global average temperature, and the least able to afford the cost of implementing policies and practices that collectively make up what is called “adaptation” to climate change. Madagascar is one of the countries in Africa, most vulnerable to climate change with 72 deaths — 0.27 per 100,000 inhabitants — about 568 million dollars in economic losses and a drop in per capita GDP of 1.32%.
One of the widely known reasons for the aggravation of climate change in Africa, is drought. Its impact is caused by the continuous increase in population growth, which has huge implications when complemented with poverty and inadequate policies to tame the same. As a result, water supplies are jeopardized and food insecurity grows when biodiversity – the variety of animal and plant life is lost. Livelihoods are endangered when fishing areas, forests, and grasslands are polluted or overexploited, especially by large companies that dispossess indigenous inhabitants, we will cause our own demise. We must agree it is African habitats, and livelihoods that are most threatened by climate change.
These destructive activities weaken the ability of nature to continue to provide us with food and economic livelihoods. And just as a healthy patient is better able to survive major surgery, a healthy ecosystem is better able to withstand climate change. Everyone can help limit climate change. From the way we travel, to the electricity we use and the food we eat, we can make a difference. We thus must do all we can, to protect and promote the health and resilience of natural systems, so that they can provide us with the food and economic benefits, on which the entire continent depends.