As Africa's Glaciers Melt, Millions Face Drought And Floods, Says UN
NDTV
The latest report on the state of Africa's climate by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and African Union agencies paints a dire picture of the continent's ability to adapt to increasingly frequent weather disasters.
Africa's fabled eastern glaciers will vanish in two decades, 118 million poor people face drought, floods or extreme heat, and climate change could shrink the continent's economy by 3% by mid-century, the U.N. climate agency warned on Tuesday.
The latest report on the state of Africa's climate by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and African Union agencies paints a dire picture of the continent's ability to adapt to increasingly frequent weather disasters.
The report says last year was Africa's third warmest on record, according to one set of data, 0.86 degrees Celsius above the average in the three decades leading to 2010. It has mostly warmed slower than high-latitude temperate zones, but the impact is still devastating.
"The rapid shrinking of the last remaining glaciers in eastern Africa, which are expected to melt entirely in the near future, signals the threat of ... irreversible change to the Earth system," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a foreword to the report.
