In science as in politics, easily grasped arguments grab headlines. And those that polarize issues can have even greater force. The Climategate saga that hit the press just before the Copenhagen conference on climate change late last year managed both to make headlines and to further polarize stands on whether climate is or is not … Continue reading
Category Archives: Climate Change
Africa / Animal Production / Climate Change / Drought / Food Security / Livestock / Niger / Pastoralism / West Africa
Millions face hunger in arid belt of Africa
At this time of year, the Gadabeji Reserve in Niger should be refuge for the nomadic tribes who travel across a moonscape on the edge of the Sahara to graze their cattle. But the grass is meager after a drought killed off the last year’s crops. Now the cattle are too weak to stand and … Continue reading
East Africa to take part in 10-year research on boosting food security
East Africa has been earmarked for a global research programme that seeks to strike a balance between food production and environment conservation. Faced with the new threat of climate change, the Consultative Group on International and Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) will spearhead the 10-year challenge programme on Climate Change, … Continue reading
Africa / Animal Diseases / Biotechnology / CGIAR / Climate Change / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Ghana / ILRI / Malawi / RVF / Senegal / Trypanosomiasis / Zoonotic Diseases
ILRI to build climate model to predict disease outbreaks
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), has received a $4.4 million award for research to build a climate model that can predict outbreaks of infectious disease in Africa. ILRI will work with 11 partners and researchers to integrate data from climate modeling and disease … Continue reading
Somalia: Somaliland needs own plan for climate change
The human and environmental disruption wreaked by drought in Somaliland, where more than 60 percent of people raise livestock for a living, means the self-declared, but barely recognized, independent state should draw up its own plan for climate change adaptation, according to a new report. The Impact of Climate Change on Pastoral Societies of Somaliland, … Continue reading
Africa / Climate Change / Drought / East Africa / French / Kenya / Pastoralism
ACTED améliore les capacités de résistance au changement climatique dans l’ouest du Kenya
ACTED répond à la crise alimentaire dans l’est du Pokot en conduisant des opération de soutien aux moyens de subsistance et de protection des ressources naturelles dans le district de Churo, avec le soutien financier d’OFDA et d’USAID. Après 9 mois de projet, les communautés ont grandement amélioré leur resistance à la sécheresse et à … Continue reading
Africa / Asia / Climate Change / Livestock / Research
Colorado State University to study impact of climate change on livestock
Colorado State University has received $15 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development to manage a Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP). The focus of the five-year, multi-disciplinary research and training program is to adapt livestock systems to climate change in the semi-arid regions of Africa and Central Asia. Read more … (Colorado State University) … Continue reading
Africa / Climate Change / Drought / East Africa / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Livestock Systems / Markets
What do NASA, insurance giants and Kenya have in common?
Cows. (No, really.) Kenya’s International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently cracked the code on a formula that could change cattle-herders’ lives — or at least line their pockets. The single biggest risk cattlemen in Kenya’s dry north face is drought. If seasonal rains fail, grasses don’t grow. And if nothing green grows, the hundreds of … Continue reading
Africa needs about $3 bln a year to adapt farming
The cost of preparing the world’s agriculture to deal with increasing global temperatures will be $7 billion annually, a senior climate change researcher said this week at an African conference designed to push farming up the climate change agenda. Africa, the world’s poorest continent that is forecast to be the most affected by global warming, … Continue reading
Africa / Agriculture / Climate Change / East Africa / Food Security / ILRI
Climate models paint bleak picture for East Africa
Climate change is expected to bring greater extremes in weather conditions, but climate models disagree about which problems – droughts, flooding, temperature increases – are most likely in much of northern, central and western Africa. In east Africa, however, the models largely agree: dry areas will suffer more prolonged droughts and wet areas will see … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 