Photographing Climate Change In Africa

Published February 9, 2012
Updated March 6, 2017
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Photographing Climate Change In Africa
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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.


Next, see how climate change is wreaking havoc around the world before checking out how humanity is accelerating natural climate change by a factor of 170.

All That's Interesting
All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future.