{"id":52,"date":"2015-12-01T16:16:04","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T16:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop21\/?p=52"},"modified":"2022-03-09T21:39:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T21:39:20","slug":"climate-impacts-in-west-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/2015\/12\/01\/climate-impacts-in-west-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Impacts in West Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the usual unease of trying to navigate where to set my tray down in a bustling cafeteria. Except the scenario was a bit different at the UN conference because I happened to sit across from a Ghanaian party representative.<\/p>\n

I assumed that this man of high-level position would be disinterested in engaging with a student, but instead he immediately lit up when I sat down and we had a stimulating lunch discussion.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ramses Cleland had just had a meeting with French President, Francois Hollande, and the other African nations about climate mitigation plans across the continent. Cleland particularly described to me his worries and the projects that related to West Africa.<\/p>\n

Cleland focused on the shrinking of Lake Chad, an important fishing and water resource for the 5 countries that surround it. \u201cWhen hope shrinks\u201d, Cleland lamented, \u201cit causes countries to despair.\u201d He then detailed the climate-related migration of young people from the Lake Chad region who were no longer able to sustain a livelihood. Many residents thus take the journey across the Mediterranean to find work, are often rejected, and then sometimes even turn to terrorist groups for support. Climate change, he said, is linked to migration and terrorism. It makes people feel hopeless. With this example, Cleland explained to me how \u201cthe world is one\u201d and that we must think of climate resiliency on a global scale.<\/p>\n

Climate projects in Africa affect Europe and the vice versa. Mitigation now means less adaptation later. On a more hopeful note Cleland described initiatives to channel economic and environmental growth in the Lake Chad region instead of sending its inhabitants away. He talked about massive tree plantings via the Green Belt Movement to absorb increasing temperatures and to slow the desertification spreading southward from the Sahara.<\/p>\n

I am excited to find out what passionate person I share a table with tomorrow at the COP.<\/p>\n

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It was the usual unease of trying to navigate where to set my tray down in a bustling cafeteria. Except the scenario was a bit different at the UN conference because I happened to sit across from a Ghanaian party representative. I assumed that this man of high-level position would be disinterested in engaging with … Continue reading Climate Impacts in West Africa<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":54,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/55"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}