This week, the nations of the world descended upon Paris.
But unlike a month ago, when France was in the spotlight due to terrorist
attacks, this time it is a matter of grave importance to the entire world.
This, of course, is the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, running
from 30 November to 11 December. The conference aims to achieve a legally
binding and universal agreement on climate change from all the nations of the
world.
Here in Namibia, of course, we have been feeling the effects
of climate change quite a bit over the past few years. The increase in
temperatures globally has led to increasing weather abnormalities. In
particular, atmospheric circulation, which greatly determines precipitation, or
rainfall.
Specifically, atmospheric conditions are determined by three
circular patterns of winds that determine cloud movements and rainfall. The
first of these is called the Hadley cell, named after George Hadley, who
explained the trade winds that blow towards the equator low in the atmosphere
(where the rainclouds are), whereafter it heats up, and thus rises high up,
cools down, and has high atmospheric winds blowing outwards from the equator.
Similarly, the polar cells operate in the opposite
direction. Hot air from the 60th latitude line rises, and is blown
high in the atmosphere to the poles. There the air cools down, drops, and
results in low atmospheric winds blowing out from the poles, with the attendant
snow storms etc. that is common near the polar regions.
The third cell, named the Ferrel cell after William Ferrel,
who theorized it in the 19th century, exists in between the polar
and Hadley cell, in the sub-tropical semi-arid regions such as Namibia. This
cell, however, is not a closed loop like the other cells, and depends on them.
And unlike those cell that have north-south winds, the Ferrel cell is
characterised by westerly winds. It is from these winds that break away from
the Hadley cell, that we get our rainfall.
The increases in global temperature is causing the polar and
Ferrel cells to weaken, and cause the Hadley cell to grow. In effect, this
causes dry regions to become even drier, with wet regions becoming wetter, with
more storms.
Unfortunately, the Climate Change Conference only has a
stated aim of trying to limit global temperature increases to 2 °C. This
in itself will still cause devastation, as that will still entail the global
sea level rising between 3 and 6 meters. Even in Namibia, this will displace
between 2 000 and 28 000 people along the coast. Without this
agreement, temperatures could rise by 4 °C, raising sea levels by 7 to 10
meters. Along the coast, that will displace 48 000 to 56 000 Namibian
citizens.
http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/ |
At the conference, President Geingob stated, "We must
be decisive without further delay and adopt a legally binding agreement that
will limit the average global temperature below two degrees Celsius. In the
absence of the required political will and concrete actions, future generations
will judge us harshly." I cannot agree more.
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