Monday, June 04, 2007

Drying up and flooding out

Temperatures in Africa are expected to increase by at least 2.5 degrees Celsius by 2030, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It places Kenya in the area most at risk from climate change.

Mount Kenya, near Kiangwachi (one of the villages VeSeL is working with) may disappear as its glaciers melt; only 7 of the 18 recorded in 1900 still remain.

The World Meteorological Organisation says that the collection of weather data in Africa has gotten worse as many of the automatic weather stations it helped set up have fallen into disrepair.

Source: Economist story, 12 May 2007

2 comments:

Kevin Walker said...

However, there is a vision that by 2030 Kenya could be 'a competitive and prosperous nation with high quality of life,' as Ellis Mbaka of Nairobi's Egerton University reports.

'To realise the dream, it is critical that universities and research institutions get involved. Scientific, social and economic research must broaden and deepen human understanding of development.'

This means continuous investment in research and development, focused on natural resources, infrastructure and equitable sharing of resources.

'Provision of quality water, soil and new crops should be introduced.'

See complete article here.

Kevin Walker said...

IT at weather stations helping farmers in Kenya: "At the foothills of Mount Kenya.... Climsoft, software installed at all major weather stations in the country, is helping to alleviate the problem for farmers.... Wanjiku, like many farmers in rural areas, does not know how to operate a computer or interpret the data generated by the software; she depends on officers at the meteorological department for translation into her native Gikuyu language. To get the information, a farmer needs to keep in touch with the officers at the weather station, via the phone or by visiting the offices."

Information on Climsoft here