A distressed young girl from the Turkana tribe in Northern Kenya looks for her mother.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A woman from the remote Turkana tribe in Northern Kenya rests next to a goat skin as she waits her turn to see if she will be selected for food aid by other villagers at Kokuru.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A gigantic cloud of dust known as "Haboob" advances over Khartoum. These seasonal type of monsoons can reach a height of 3,000 feet and can change the landscape in the few hours that they last. AFP/Getty Images
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A Turkana village elder talks to Oxfam aid workers about the drought crisis near Lodwar, Kenya.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Children in northern Kenya wait their turn to fill an empty USA food aid tin with water at a river bed pit at Kaikor.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Bamako Encounters
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A malnourished Turkana boy looks on as Oxfam workers arrive to inform them of the next food distribution date in the village of Kaikor near Lodwar, Kenya. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Men and women from the Turkana tribe wait their turn to see if they will be selected for food aid by other villagers at Kokuru, Kenya.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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The carcass of a donkey, the victim of drought, lies in a dry riverbed in Kenya. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A woman makes her way across the windswept desert to meet Oxfam workers in Kenya. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Children from the remote Turkana tribe in northern Kenya look on as Oxfam workers arrive to inform them of the next food distribution date in the village of Kaikor.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A young boy in Northern Kenya stands on a dried up river bed.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A Turkana boy walks across a dried up river at Kokuro near Lodwar, Kenya.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Children in northern Kenya drink water from a nearly empty well.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Bamako Encounters
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Bamako Encounters
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Bamako Encounters
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Bamako Encounters
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Men and women in northern Kenya wait their turn to see if they will be selected for food aid by other villagers at Kokuru. The villagers themselves decide which family gets food in a democratic voting process. Selected villagers usually give food to those that lose out as there is never enough to go round. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Bamako Encounters
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A boy from the village of Bama, near Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Fasso (one of the countries hardest hit by droughts), drinks water at the village's fountain.Bamako Encounters
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Women from the Turkana area of Kanukurdio rush across the windswept desert to meet Oxfam workers in Kenya. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A young girl in Northern Kenya digs a hole in a river bed to retrieve water. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Children in northern Kenya dig a hole in a river bed to retrieve water. As water levels dwindle, many children are killed as the walls of the pits they collapse on top of them. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Women in northern Kenya carry water from a well. Some villagers are having to walk up to ten miles, leaving at 4 a.m. to miss the daytime heat, to get fresh water for their families as wells and river bed pits run dry.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A woman in northern Kenya and her children wait their turn to draw water from a river bed well.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A family prepares to settle down for the night after eating a sparse evening meal in Kenya.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Women in northern Kenya carry water from a well. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Children in northern Kenya drink water from a nearly empty well.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A woman in northern Kenya walks along a dry riverbed near Kanukurdio.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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In Kenya, children meet Oxfam workers to find out when the next aid delivery will arrive.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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Children in northern Kenya dig a hole in a river bed to retrieve water.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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A woman in northern Kenya carries water from a well. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Despite consuming a paltry amount of the world's resources, many predict that it is the people of Africa who will bear the brunt of climate change's disastrous effects.
From Nigeria to Ghana, African photographers convened at the Bamako Encounters exhibition to give their unique perspectives on the effects of climate change in Africa.
It is a perspective that is sorely needed. According to a recent Climate Change Vulnerability Index, seven of the ten countries that climate change is hitting the hardest are located in Africa.
350Africa.org lists the ways that climate change will make life even more difficult for these African countries.
Flooding and drought will be the main killers, ruining much-needed crops while also causing untold deaths in the decades to come. Its effects will reverberate throughout the world of agriculture and spread disease like nothing the continent has seen before.
Countless homes will be destroyed, all of which will affect the vulnerable populations -- women, children, and the elderly -- the most.
Climate change will also impact the water resource situation in Africa. For example, the glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro had acted as de facto water towers for the region surrounding it before they withered away to almost nothing. And when they disappeared, so did the rivers that those glaciers fed.
And as competition for resources increases, so too will violence that will pit populations against one another in bloody struggles.
And when that happens, the industrial world will once again be responsible for wreaking havoc on Africa.
Established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together a dedicated staff of digital publishing veterans and subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science. From the lesser-known byways of human history to the uncharted corners of the world, we seek out stories that bring our past, present, and future to life. Privately-owned since its founding, All That's Interesting maintains a commitment to unbiased reporting while taking great care in fact-checking and research to ensure that we meet the highest standards of accuracy.
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.
