Hello to everyone reading this blog!
Hello to everyone coming to this blog to learn about water and environmental change in Africa. It'll leave you with *hopefully* a greater knowledge and appreciation of the wider issues surrounding water and its evolving relationship with environmental change in Africa, both in time and space. I bring to this blog a keen passion for issues relating to water; with my university undergraduate dissertation research focusing on the changes in perception that environmental context can have on water between the United Kingdom and South Africa. Furthermore, I have also covered modules in my previous two years at university that have sought to investigate the roles of development in Africa and the wider ramifications of interventions from outside 'actors' in all contexts of their social, political and economic development.
Water and environmental change beyond this go hand in hand, as the increasing threat of detrimental environmental alterations to both the terrestrial and aerial have the capacity to cause wide scale issues for water resources across the whole of Africa. It is the impact of human expansion across the globe that has led to much of the environmental change that we are experiencing. Crutzen and Stroemer highlight that we have entered a new geological epoch termed the 'Anthropocene'. They state that is it this new anthropogenic forcing factor that is leading to this large and unprecedented global environmental change (Crutzen, 2003). Due to this, resources are being stretched and reduced; for example, fresh water reserves are being put under more strain due to increasing populations for instance. This means that if we surpass the 1.5 degrees of warming target (IPCC, 2018) places that are already experiencing water shortages, such as South Africa and Botswana in the south, and Egypt and Libya in the north of the African continent will very likely suffer further and more significantly (Oestigaard, 2011).
This topic is of extreme importance in the realm of academia, but also public understanding. The issues of water insecurity and scarcity in certain locations, due to a wide range of factors, needs to be understand and appreciated by everyone to help change and alleviate the negative externalities that are associated with it. Due to this, blogs such as this one are increasingly valuable in the path to increasing public awareness and understanding of water issues in Africa. It shouldn't be a topic that everyone is aware of, but not engaging with by just expecting that to be the status quo. This objective of attempting to increase the awareness and participation in this issue is a key reason for this blogs creation and only increases my passion to write an interesting and enlightening blog.
Due to this, this blog will aim to investigate this issue thoroughly, delving into a wide range of literature, whilst keeping its finger on the trigger to highlight the most up to date developments in research on water and environmental change in Africa. This I hope will lead to an interesting, educational and rewarding read for anyone that wishes to learn and increase their understanding of the issues relating to water and environmental change across Africa. I look forward to not only informing and offering new insights to you, the readers, but also to broadening and enhancing my own knowledge and appreciation of the issues currently facing Africa.
Water and environmental change beyond this go hand in hand, as the increasing threat of detrimental environmental alterations to both the terrestrial and aerial have the capacity to cause wide scale issues for water resources across the whole of Africa. It is the impact of human expansion across the globe that has led to much of the environmental change that we are experiencing. Crutzen and Stroemer highlight that we have entered a new geological epoch termed the 'Anthropocene'. They state that is it this new anthropogenic forcing factor that is leading to this large and unprecedented global environmental change (Crutzen, 2003). Due to this, resources are being stretched and reduced; for example, fresh water reserves are being put under more strain due to increasing populations for instance. This means that if we surpass the 1.5 degrees of warming target (IPCC, 2018) places that are already experiencing water shortages, such as South Africa and Botswana in the south, and Egypt and Libya in the north of the African continent will very likely suffer further and more significantly (Oestigaard, 2011).
This topic is of extreme importance in the realm of academia, but also public understanding. The issues of water insecurity and scarcity in certain locations, due to a wide range of factors, needs to be understand and appreciated by everyone to help change and alleviate the negative externalities that are associated with it. Due to this, blogs such as this one are increasingly valuable in the path to increasing public awareness and understanding of water issues in Africa. It shouldn't be a topic that everyone is aware of, but not engaging with by just expecting that to be the status quo. This objective of attempting to increase the awareness and participation in this issue is a key reason for this blogs creation and only increases my passion to write an interesting and enlightening blog.
Due to this, this blog will aim to investigate this issue thoroughly, delving into a wide range of literature, whilst keeping its finger on the trigger to highlight the most up to date developments in research on water and environmental change in Africa. This I hope will lead to an interesting, educational and rewarding read for anyone that wishes to learn and increase their understanding of the issues relating to water and environmental change across Africa. I look forward to not only informing and offering new insights to you, the readers, but also to broadening and enhancing my own knowledge and appreciation of the issues currently facing Africa.
A clear statement of intent! As recommended in next post, do make hyperlinks to citations as you would do in a normal essay: "(Crutzen, 2002)".
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