The fast-spreading dangers of climate change is at the origin of calamities and deepening poverty.

Climate Change has brought about severe and possibly alterations in our planet’s geological, biological and ecological systems, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated in 2003. In effect, the changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health, such as extreme weather, ozone depletion, loss of biodiversity, stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases. Each region of the world is diversely affected by the negative impact of climate change.

African Region

Cameroon, commonly described as “Africa in miniature” is witnessing unprecedented changes in temperature, rainfall and seasonality that compromise agricultural production. Extreme weather resulting in heavy rainfall in 2012 caused floods in Lake Maga in Far North Region, River Benoué in the North Region, Babessi in the North West Region and some parts of the East Region.  The desert has kept on advancing with the immediate effect being the drying off of Lake Chad.

According to a report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health, over 90 per cent of malaria and diarrhea deaths are borne by children aged five or younger, mostly in developing countries as a result of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that by 2020, between 75 and 250 million people in Africa will be exposed to increase water stress; yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 per cent and agricultural production including access to food may be severely compromised.

Asian Region

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected that freshwater availability will decrease in Asia by the 2050s; coastal areas will be at risk due to increased flooding and death rate from diseases associated with floods and droughts expected to rise in some regions. Asia  is presently one of the worse hit regions  by climate change manifestations such as storms, floods, heat and cold waves, drought and sea-level rise. 

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, more than 42 million people were displaced in Asia and the Pacific during 2010 and 2011.  Palpable examples are the typhoons and tsunamis that constantly hit Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011was the peak of climate change-related calamities.

Danger in Europe

Europe is more and more exposed to increased risk of inland flash floods, frequent coastal flooding and increased erosion from storms and sea level rise, glacial retreat in mountainous areas, reduced snow cover and winter tourism.  Reports say that extreme temperatures reduced nuclear power production nine times in Germany due to high temperatures in 1979 and 2007. Similarly in France, 17 nuclear reactors were shut down during the 2003 and 2006 heat waves. Heat waves in France again in 2009 created an 8 GW shortage of power forcing government to import electricity.

The Americas

Flooding, cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes and storms are common features in the United States of America and some countries of Central and South America. The memorable case was the Hurricane Katrina in the U.S.A. that had serious consequences on oil extraction in the Gulf of Mexico as it destroyed 126 oil and gas platforms and damaged 183 more. It is reported that Brazil could have seven per cent of its total energy production reduced annually by the end of the century due to increasing temperatures, lower water flow and alterations in rainfall regime.