Mohammed Nuru
Global warming is a very serious problem in the world now, many people and many resources are getting lost due to the climate change. Unexpected whether and accidents rises every year in our world. Many people lost their lives because of unexpected accidents of climate change every year. To solve this wide serious problem, we are the only animals on earth to have the struggle, we have the power called knowledge and knowledge is our power >“POWER CREATS RESPONSIBILITY “so we have the responsibility to solve world crises or we can call it climate crisis. Our mission is to solve this kind of serious crises. This case needs coordination of all countries in the world. Now we see…We are in Africa and this coordination includes us, so our mother land (Africa) needs us to solve global warming. What it make it different (Africa) is our land`s temperature is not the same as the others, It is too warm. So Temperature is our aim to make it suitable. 350 is the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Our aim is to reduce dangerous carbon emissions by decreasing pollutions and by making green world [generally].There are movements in Africa for this solution, Trainings in Kenya-Nairobi 22nd – 23rd July 2011 organized in collaboration with AYICC-Kenya (African Youth Initiative on climate Change) also in Nigeria – Lagos 4th -5th August 2011 Organized in collaboration with NYCC (Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition and I get the opportunity to have three days training in Ethiopia-Addis Ababa 31st July – 2nd August 2011 Organized in collaboration with ENYCC (Ethiopian National Youth Coalition for Climate change).The training was interesting, we were around 30 in number. In thus days, we raised our confidence in succession of our mission. The other big thing is about sharing experiences. These 30 persons were not easy, there were students, Young Professionals, community organizers and interested persons were too. I am student actually; I hate to spend my time in noncore places, so I am graphic designer, Editor, Chief Architecture (Home), Psychologist, Computer maintenance and Networking Expert. I found environmental science is basic knowledge which every one of us has to know about it, even we don’t have to study it but it is essential to know it as general knowledge. Now the Environmental issues are important for every bit of those. In Africa Drought, famine and conflicts are main problems to solve. In Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya… millions of people are in danger of their lives. I can say that all of those problems can be maintained in global warming. Unexpected whether accidents are getting wider and wider.
350. org is network of citizens organizers and advocates who believe that we will solve the climate crises and remark our world. Now 392ppm (parts per millions) is the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere our aim is to make it suitable for human beings (decrease to 350ppm).Actually we live in many deferent places. We have different aims, goals and styles, we speak different languages, live in different hoods and we have different spiritual and cultural beliefs. “OUR DIVERSTY IS OUR STRENGTH”. We can fix every thing together; we can save a millions of lives by solving climate crises. Generally, I think we have to solve this problem now before it become unsolvable.
350. org is network of citizens organizers and advocates who believe that we will solve the climate crises and remark our world. Now 392ppm (parts per millions) is the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere our aim is to make it suitable for human beings (decrease to 350ppm).Actually we live in many deferent places. We have different aims, goals and styles, we speak different languages, live in different hoods and we have different spiritual and cultural beliefs. “OUR DIVERSTY IS OUR STRENGTH”. We can fix every thing together; we can save a millions of lives by solving climate crises. Generally, I think we have to solve this problem now before it become unsolvable.
Sarah Rifaat
Arab World Coordinator, Egypt Lead Coordinator
Cairo, Egypt
Random fact: I'm a cyclist and I've played sports like tennis and kickboxing, yet I've never broken a bone!
Contact: sarah[at]350.org
On July 31st 2011, I arrived in the rain-soaked Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to help facilitate a 3-day climate leadership workshop. Samantha, the 350 Africa coordinator, and I worked with the newly established Ethiopian National Youth Coalition for Climate Change (ENYCCC) to run this workshop for 30 youth on the premises of the British Council.
For 3 days, students, young professionals, community organizers and famous Ethiopian singer, Michael Belayneh, came together to network, learn about the current reality of climate change, map out local impacts and concerns, and become part of the global climate movement. Ethiopian youth are no strangers to climate activism. In fact, the team behind the ENYCCC managed to organize probably the largest 350 demonstration to date -- 15,000 school children in streets of Addis Ababa back in 2009 -- and they have been actively organizing ever since.
It was shocking to realize that while it was constantly raining on Addis Ababa for the duration of my visit, drought and famine were killing thousands of people and putting millions at risk of starvation in the eastern portion of Ethiopia and in Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti. To me, this was a constant and sobering reminder of how fragile human life is and how much more frequently extreme weather was going to devastate African communities if we didn't stabilize our climate, and get back to 350 ppm.
Being an Egyptian, it was inevitable that the topic of the Ethiopian Grand Millennium dam project would come up. As much as there is positive government hype about it in Ethiopia, the opposite is true for Egypt -- people here are scared of the dam and the possible impacts it would have on Egypt's share of Nile water. According to several studies the dam is not likely to affect Egypt negatively, but the fear is still there.
My new Ethiopian friends were open to discussions about the dam and were genuinely concerned about the effect it would have on Egypt. It was through this discussion that I came to realize our common fate and the very real threat that climate change might pose to both our countries' water resources, if reduced rain patterns affected the flow of the Nile.
What I learned from my Ethiopian friends is that now, more than ever, there is a real need for collaboration between all of us in the African continent, just as it makes sense for the world to unite in tackling the climate crisis. Livelihoods - and lives - are at stake and it is through collaboration that we can hope to both overcome our local issues, and the global climate crisis.
During the workshop, there was a particular group game where participants got in a circle, stretched both their hands towards the middle and grabbed random hands of other people, which caused them to get "tangled-up.” Their task as a group was to untangle themselves without letting go of each other's hands. This image was a very striking metaphor for the state of our world, as pointed out by one workshop participant. Though the climate crisis affects each of us in a different way, it inextricably ties us all in one huge knot. It is through coordinated and unified global effort that we can all get untangled.
For 3 days, students, young professionals, community organizers and famous Ethiopian singer, Michael Belayneh, came together to network, learn about the current reality of climate change, map out local impacts and concerns, and become part of the global climate movement. Ethiopian youth are no strangers to climate activism. In fact, the team behind the ENYCCC managed to organize probably the largest 350 demonstration to date -- 15,000 school children in streets of Addis Ababa back in 2009 -- and they have been actively organizing ever since.
It was shocking to realize that while it was constantly raining on Addis Ababa for the duration of my visit, drought and famine were killing thousands of people and putting millions at risk of starvation in the eastern portion of Ethiopia and in Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti. To me, this was a constant and sobering reminder of how fragile human life is and how much more frequently extreme weather was going to devastate African communities if we didn't stabilize our climate, and get back to 350 ppm.
Being an Egyptian, it was inevitable that the topic of the Ethiopian Grand Millennium dam project would come up. As much as there is positive government hype about it in Ethiopia, the opposite is true for Egypt -- people here are scared of the dam and the possible impacts it would have on Egypt's share of Nile water. According to several studies the dam is not likely to affect Egypt negatively, but the fear is still there.
My new Ethiopian friends were open to discussions about the dam and were genuinely concerned about the effect it would have on Egypt. It was through this discussion that I came to realize our common fate and the very real threat that climate change might pose to both our countries' water resources, if reduced rain patterns affected the flow of the Nile.
What I learned from my Ethiopian friends is that now, more than ever, there is a real need for collaboration between all of us in the African continent, just as it makes sense for the world to unite in tackling the climate crisis. Livelihoods - and lives - are at stake and it is through collaboration that we can hope to both overcome our local issues, and the global climate crisis.
During the workshop, there was a particular group game where participants got in a circle, stretched both their hands towards the middle and grabbed random hands of other people, which caused them to get "tangled-up.” Their task as a group was to untangle themselves without letting go of each other's hands. This image was a very striking metaphor for the state of our world, as pointed out by one workshop participant. Though the climate crisis affects each of us in a different way, it inextricably ties us all in one huge knot. It is through coordinated and unified global effort that we can all get untangled.
Samantha Bailey
Africa Coordinator
Cape Town, South Africa
Random fact: I have a minor obsession with 18th century sailing ships all because of Patrick O'Brian.
Contact: [email protected]
50.org's Africa Coordinator, Samantha Bailey, reports from her recent travelings across the continent to meet and train a new wave of climate activists...
It's late Saturday night in Lagos and I've a hacking cough and tight lungs. All the carbon monoxide I've been breathing in here and in Addis Ababa and Nairobi over the past 3 weeks has caught up with my body, a minor unexpected fallout of the series of "climate leadership" workshops I've been running in each city with local partners and my 350 team mates. These workshops were primarily attended by young people, and boy, have I had an invaluable education from these amazing, bright, passionate activists.
Africa's vulnerability to climate change could not be more present for me than now with the drought hitting Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, and the flooding that Lagos just suffered through. And the images are still sharp in my mind of my recent visit to the terraced slopes of Ethiopia's north-eastern Tigray region, all bright green from recent rains and brimming over with barley, tiff (millet) and cactus fruit that seem in sharp contrast to the drought slamming the south-east where people are starving amidst desert-like conditions. And yet should the rainfall patterns shift just enough to "confuse the crops", as one workshop participant put it, the millions of people living in Tigray utterly dependent on their environment for their daily meals could soon feel the suffering their brothers and sisters are down south.
In Kenya, debate is thick in the media and ordinary conversations about genetically modified food crops as Monsanto and others continue to promise drought-resistant 'super' crop varieties, but not everyone is buying it (literally and figuratively). As I ate ogali (maize) in Nairobi, injera (millet) in Addis and cassava in Lagos, locals discussed the rise of 'colonist' crops such as maize and the decline of indigenous, drought-resistant (and far more nutritious) crops such as sorghum and millet. The Kenyan workshop participants were particularly passionate about the link between the loss of tree cover and encroaching desert, and how the reverse provides conditions to enable food production and livelihood support.
None of the 90+ participants needed any help understanding the relationship between climate change and the exacerbation of Africa's drought and flood cycles. (Should any of the USA's House of Representatives still be unclear on this link, feel free to come visit us.) As an Ethiopian meterologist noted in our Addis workshop, Ethiopia used to experience droughts every 15 - 20 years; now it's every 2 - 3 years. And the intimate weaving of the coastline of Lagos with its inhabitants is making sea level rise and the dangers of flooding a life-threatening reality for its feisty locals.
What I am bouyed by is the energy and commitment and creativity of the workshop participants - these are Africans facing the climate crisis head-, heart- and hands-on, looking at ways their own countries can reduce emissions (including the city car fumes that have haunted my lungs), and at how they can stand by their brave sister and brother activists in the major polluting countries to push those leaders to wake the hell up and start getting emissions down below the 350 threshold.
They're getting more strategic and bold in their own plans, and they're collaborating across various society groupings, from artists to elders, from business people to stand-up comedians, from youth to faith leaders. I'm particularly excited about the weaving of the traditional wisdom rich in Africa among the elders of how to live in harmony with the natural world with the energy of the youth who are full of new ideas and incredibly savvy at using new media to share information.
There's a lot of work to do to get us below 350 once again, to get our climate more stable once again. And yes, Africa will still suffer droughts and floods once we've back below 350, but not of the severity and frequency we're getting hit with now.
Knowing that the East Africa drought and Lagos flooding and all the suffering caused could become a more and more frequent occurrence the longer and further we're beyond 350 is plenty motivation to get onto the streets, write the letters, brainstorm creative tactics and spread the word to grow this movement to kick some stubborn polluters' butts, and at the same time to remake our continent and world so as to have a more socially just, environmentally harmonious, and spiritually fulfilling future.
It's late Saturday night in Lagos and I've a hacking cough and tight lungs. All the carbon monoxide I've been breathing in here and in Addis Ababa and Nairobi over the past 3 weeks has caught up with my body, a minor unexpected fallout of the series of "climate leadership" workshops I've been running in each city with local partners and my 350 team mates. These workshops were primarily attended by young people, and boy, have I had an invaluable education from these amazing, bright, passionate activists.
Africa's vulnerability to climate change could not be more present for me than now with the drought hitting Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, and the flooding that Lagos just suffered through. And the images are still sharp in my mind of my recent visit to the terraced slopes of Ethiopia's north-eastern Tigray region, all bright green from recent rains and brimming over with barley, tiff (millet) and cactus fruit that seem in sharp contrast to the drought slamming the south-east where people are starving amidst desert-like conditions. And yet should the rainfall patterns shift just enough to "confuse the crops", as one workshop participant put it, the millions of people living in Tigray utterly dependent on their environment for their daily meals could soon feel the suffering their brothers and sisters are down south.
In Kenya, debate is thick in the media and ordinary conversations about genetically modified food crops as Monsanto and others continue to promise drought-resistant 'super' crop varieties, but not everyone is buying it (literally and figuratively). As I ate ogali (maize) in Nairobi, injera (millet) in Addis and cassava in Lagos, locals discussed the rise of 'colonist' crops such as maize and the decline of indigenous, drought-resistant (and far more nutritious) crops such as sorghum and millet. The Kenyan workshop participants were particularly passionate about the link between the loss of tree cover and encroaching desert, and how the reverse provides conditions to enable food production and livelihood support.
None of the 90+ participants needed any help understanding the relationship between climate change and the exacerbation of Africa's drought and flood cycles. (Should any of the USA's House of Representatives still be unclear on this link, feel free to come visit us.) As an Ethiopian meterologist noted in our Addis workshop, Ethiopia used to experience droughts every 15 - 20 years; now it's every 2 - 3 years. And the intimate weaving of the coastline of Lagos with its inhabitants is making sea level rise and the dangers of flooding a life-threatening reality for its feisty locals.
What I am bouyed by is the energy and commitment and creativity of the workshop participants - these are Africans facing the climate crisis head-, heart- and hands-on, looking at ways their own countries can reduce emissions (including the city car fumes that have haunted my lungs), and at how they can stand by their brave sister and brother activists in the major polluting countries to push those leaders to wake the hell up and start getting emissions down below the 350 threshold.
They're getting more strategic and bold in their own plans, and they're collaborating across various society groupings, from artists to elders, from business people to stand-up comedians, from youth to faith leaders. I'm particularly excited about the weaving of the traditional wisdom rich in Africa among the elders of how to live in harmony with the natural world with the energy of the youth who are full of new ideas and incredibly savvy at using new media to share information.
There's a lot of work to do to get us below 350 once again, to get our climate more stable once again. And yes, Africa will still suffer droughts and floods once we've back below 350, but not of the severity and frequency we're getting hit with now.
Knowing that the East Africa drought and Lagos flooding and all the suffering caused could become a more and more frequent occurrence the longer and further we're beyond 350 is plenty motivation to get onto the streets, write the letters, brainstorm creative tactics and spread the word to grow this movement to kick some stubborn polluters' butts, and at the same time to remake our continent and world so as to have a more socially just, environmentally harmonious, and spiritually fulfilling future.