IMPACT OF FLOODING ON FISHERMEN'S FAMILIES IN PEDRO COMMUNITY, IWAYA-LAGOS, NIGERIA - Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management, Vol. 18, No. 4

Climate change is getting much worse. While some self-interested individuals like to deny its very existence, many throughout the developing world are seeing it first hand. The Guardian's most recent publication: "Cameroon's fishing industry and tourism industry battered by extreme weather" outlines the struggles many in Kribi southern Cameroon, Africa are feeling. This is due to the increase in unusual heavy rains and inland flooding. Elias Ngalame - who is the author - first opens up the story with a compelling, yet very real, story of a struggling fisherman.

"I go for days without going to sea for my catch because of the frightening weather [...] this is the first time we are witnessing such aggressive weather".

The lack of fishing has essentially increased poverty according to Ngalame's article. The town of Kribi has seen a drastic decrease in tourism, which is another staple the locals rely on. All this due to the vicious increase of torrential rain and argued to be the externalities of global warming.

Chuckwu, MN's journal: "Impact of Flooding on Fishermen's Families in Pedro Community, Iwaya-Lagos, Nigeria" echoes Ngalame's above article. The study examined the effects flooding has had on a total of 50 fishermen within Iwaya-Lagos, Nigeria. Further, the fishermen were interviewed using structured questionnaires that were distributed through a simple random sampling technique. Data was then collected, summarized and computed using a technique called descriptive statistics. 

Results indicated that flooding was a dominant seasonal climate factor. Seventy-six percent of the individuals interviewed stated that flooding played a substantial role in the decrease in fishing. Destroying fishing implements and impacted negatively on their social lives. In turn, flooding also disrupted children's schooling, increased environmental pollution, and reduced the amount of fish caught. Consequently, it decreased family income and increased the occurrence of water born diseases. 

Most (96%) were recorded saying that they would not like their children to continue in the fishing business, and that if they had an alternative means of income, they would opt out altogether. 

The study concludes by suggesting that efforts to remedy the effects of flooding should include: provision of alternative skill development, as well as affordable health services for treatment of water born diseases.



For this journal and others from this issue, click here.

 

Climate change, sea level rise and coastal inundation along part of Nigeria Barrier Lagoon Coast - Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management, Vol. 18, No. 1

It's 2015: What does that mean, exactly? Well, 2015 was the end-year of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It seems it was just yesterday when the UN announced what some were saying to be a radical shift forward for development, and while much has been done to counter the worlds many issues, there is still much to do. Recently, The Guardian published an article and interactive web outlining the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): "Sustainable development goals: changing the world in 17-steps interactive". These goals were produced by the many participating nations within the United Nations Assembly. To say the goals are anything less than amazing, would certainly be an understatement in itself. For starters, the UN Assembly plans to eradicate all poverty by 2030. This alone, will take great dedication, however, there is many, many more goals set forth. 

While the UN has met most of its projected goals under the MDGs, some projections, it seems, have been harder to reach than the others. Climate change has actually increased since the MDGs came into existence in 2010. This is largely due to the increase in carbon emissions (CO2). While focus on the others were just as important, it is just as important to note that the increase of climate change does, in fact, have a great impact on the outcome of the other developmental goals. The negative external costs associated with the increase in carbon emissions creates a ripple-effect throughout the world, consequently increasing agricultural droughts, floods, and other environmental disasters, thus increasing the rate at which poverty exists. This issue, some would argue, needs to be addressed more seriously in the future by the developed world.

Odunuga et al., in their journal: "Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Coastal Inundation Along Part of Nigeria Barrier Lagoon Coast", analyzed the potential effects climate change could have on sea levels, as well as to evaluate the vulnerabilities of the surrounding infrastructure. Using an interactive GIS-based simulation, the authors of the study mapped the area of the Badagry coastal environment with data collected from two different sources: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (IPCC-SRES), and the Locally Oriented Economic Development Scenarios (LOEDS).

The resulting analysis of the IPCC-SRES scenario showed the area inundated with high emissions, as well as a worse-case sea level rise was less than 0.13%. Yet, the LOEDS inundation analysis showed a significant impact beginning at a 4 meter rise in sea level. It is suggested that since it is only environmental catastrophism and anthropogenic activities that can attain such serious dimension at local, regional, and global sea level scales; that significant coastal sea level infrastructures should be integrated in any developmental activities in and around the area. 

 For this journal and others from this issue, click here.

A Ricardian Analysis Of The Impact Of Climate Change On South American Farms - Chilean Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. 68 No. 1

"Some people said it was the end of the world...", said Wenceslao Mamio, chief of the Capiana community (Jones, Sam, The Guardian). While it was not the end of humanity, it was the beginning of lost dreams, lost lives, and lost hope for the people that reside along the river Beni, Bolivia, in South America. 

Recently, Bolivia has witnessed an immense amount of rain - breaking the previous record from more than 60 years prior. The Guardian has published an article called "Bolivia after the floods: the climate is changing; we are living that change" by Sam Jones, which links the torrential downpours to climate change, with emphasis on the socioeconomic impact it has had, and in effect, has "marginaliz[ed]" the indigenous peoples even further. 

To understand this issue of global warming and the overall socioeconomic impact it has on residents, not just within Bolivia, but in all of South America, S. Niggol Seo and Robert Mendelsohn in their article "A Ricardian Analysis of The Impact of Climate Change On south American Farms", break the numbers down more extensively. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to gather data in order to estimate the severity climate change has had on South American agriculture, taking into account farmer adaptations. 

The methods used was a Ricardian analysis of 2300 farms to dig further into the effects climate change has had on land values. In order to predict climate change for this century, Seo and Mendelsohn used three Atmospheric Oceanic General Circulation Models (AOGCM): the Canadian Climate Centre, the Centre For Climate Research, and the Parallel Climate Model. Several econometric specifications were tested and five separate regressions were run for all farm types: small household farms,large commercial farms, rain-fed farms, as well as irrigated farms.

Results of the study were staggering: Seo and Mendelsohn found that the increase in temperature and rainfall would predictably decrease land values over time. Under the Canadian Climate Centre scenario, South American farmers will lose on average 14% of their income by the year 2020, 20% by 2060, and 53% by 2100. While using the less severe Centre for Climate System Research scenario, the loss of income was recorded to be only half the above percentages. 

Yet, while viewing the farms using the mild and wet Parallel Climate Model scenario, it is estimated that they will lose only small amounts of income. Further, both small household farms and large commercial farms are under extreme vulnerability to global warming. Small farms are vulnerable to warming, whereas the latter is vulnerable to the increase in rainfall. It is suggested that both rain-fed and irrigated farms will lose their incomes by more than 50% by 2100, with slightly more damaged being done to irrigated farms. 

For this journal and others from this issue, click here.

African Crop Science Journal - vol. 20 no. 4 and vol. 20 supp. 2

Bioline is happy to announce that vol. 20 no. 4 and vol. 20 supplement 2 of the African Crop Science Society's journal have been uploaded to the Bioline website!

Vol. 20 no. 4 of African Crop Science journal covers a range of topics, including the Effect of Nitrogen on Safflower Physiology and Productivity as well as the Impact of Some Climatic and Phenological Parameters on the Callogenesis and Somatic Embryogenesis Variations in Cocoa. The topic of climate is continued in articles through vol. 20 supplement 2. Bagamba, Bashaasha, Claessens and Antle tackle adaptation strategies in response to climate change in their article, titled Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies for Smallholder Agricultural Systems in Uganda.

Full text PDF articles with abstracts in English and French are available through the following links:

• Vol. 20 no. 4 - http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=cs&year=2012&vol=20&num=04&keys=V20N4
• Vol. 20 supp. 2 - http://www.bioline.org.br/titles?id=cs&year=2012&vol=20&num=S2&keys=V20NS2

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The African Crop Science Society also recently announced that two fully funded Crop Science PhD studentships are available at Lancaster University:
The Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC), Lancaster University, is pleased to announce a significant number of PhD Studentships for October 2013. LEC forms one of the largest centres for environmental research in Europe. LEC's inter-disciplinary research themes focus on atmospheric science, biodiversity and global change, catchment and aquatic processes, environmental geosciences and the relationships between the environment and society. The excellent research environment and facilities these themes offer provides the setting for our PhD training. LEC has 160 full and part time PhD and Masters by Research students who contribute to a vibrant research environment and the research achievements of LEC. Enquiries and applications from well-qualified applicants who wish to join this thriving research community are welcomed.

LEC is pleased to be offering two BBSRC funded PhDs, which are part of a Doctoral Training Programme in Food Security:

• Benefits of controlled soil drying on crop yields: disentangling nutritional and phytohormonal effects PhD
• Using chemical genetics as a tool to explore nitrogen regulatory pathways in wheat development PhD

Deadline: 22 February

For more information, see: http://www.lec.lancs.ac.uk/postgraduate/pg_news/?article_id=1277