the African Uptimist

Live Earth, Climate Change and African priorities

Kofi Bentil speaks for millions of Africans when he observes that most of them have "neither television nor electricity" and hence will be unable to "...see Al Gore and his troupe of rock-star ecologists strutting their stuff during the series of Live Earth concerts..." taking place this weekend.  Kofi might not yet be aware that a power system featuring a combination of renewable electricity  and energy efficient appliances is at least 10 times cheaper than one dominated by oil.  This is the main reason--rather than just climate change--why it makes sense for African countries to consider integrating more renewable energy and energy efficiency into their energy portfolios.

Nevertheless, Kofi scores some very good points with the following hard-hitting message to the promoters of the Live Earth concerts, and some African leaders--especially the so-called hippos:

Even if we accept that global warming may have a significant effect on our climate, limiting the use of fossil fuels in Africa would be counterproductive. Respiratory infections are the leading cause of childhood deaths on my continent, mainly from inhaling the smoke produced by burning wood and dung in our quaint mud huts...
The second leading cause of childhood deaths is not malaria or AIDS, it is diarrhoea, caused by drinking dirty water. Why is our water dirty? Mainly because we lack cheap, efficient means of pumping and cleaning it. That requires fossil fuels--either directly or to produce electricity...
An underlying cause of many health problems in Africa is malnutrition. This is a consequence both of inefficient farming and poor food distribution. To rectify this situation will mean using cheap and relatively clean fuels, such as gasoline and diesel.
(Of course we also need better roads--which can only be built using machines that burn… fossil fuels.)
Unfortunately, our beggarly governments are very susceptible to diktats from on high, especially when they are offered aid (which they use to line the coffers of their bank accounts): don’t encourage them!

So, Kofi Bentil has some very good points, but they should be taken with a grain of salt.  For one thing, it would be short-sighted for African countries to embark on an all-out pursuit of fossil energy systems in the name of 'development.' Many dangers lurk in ambush along that route, not the least of which are the economic and political instabilities associated with oil supply chains.  Oil imports gobble up sizable chunks of African countries' GDPs, accounting in some countries for up to 50 percent of their total import bill.  We all know the situation in many oil producing regions at this time. These issues seem to be getting worse, not better.  Faced with high, unstable and generally rising costs of reliance on oil-based energy economies, African countries are better advised to pursue a more balanced energy strategy: invest in cleaner fossil technologies as intermediate solutions, while seriously pursuing a long-term agenda of renewable energy and energy efficiency for sustainable development.

The "jesting seriousness" of Global Warming

Professor John Brignell has devoted his site, Number Watch, "...to the monitoring of the misleading numbers that rain down on us via the media."  He wants to nail at least a few of the "growing band of people whose livelihoods depend on creating and maintaining panic...[and] some who are trying to keep numbers away from your notice and others who hope that you will not  make comparisons..."  Although he doesn't attempt to separate the bogus from the serious facts about climate change, his "complete list of things caused by global warming" makes good reading for the discerning reviewer.  It also helps, in going through the list to note that Brignell is obviously inspired by John Marston, the "savage and misanthropic" English satirist of the 16th century who wrote "The Scourge of Villanie."  An excerpt of his namesake's work adorns  John's 21st century webpage: " In serious jest and jesting seriousness, I strive to scourge polluting beastliness."

clipped from www.numberwatch.co.uk A complete list of things caused by global warming

A neat visualization tool from Visual-Literacy.Org

Update--reposted with additional information/link:

Mechanical engineering professor Abeeku Brew-Hammond (KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana) sent me and a group of friends email yesterday with a link to this Periodic Table of Visualization Tools.  "This very useful compilation" he wrote, "came from a Berkeley Professor friend - very neat (internet access permitting!)." i had quite a bit of fun with it just now--what a colorful matrix of ingenious ideas for displaying information!  A nice addition to your toolkit if you are in the business of communicating otherwise dry concepts or facts in refreshingly new and interesting ways.  Curiosity about the tool led me to the source, Visual-Literacy.Org, an e-learning site that "focuses on a critical, but often neglected skill for business, communication, and engineering students, namely visual literacy or the ability to evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual representations."  Many thanks to Abeeku--and of course his anonymous "Berkeley Professor friend" :)