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Introduction

'The cause of the warming of the African continent (and of the world as a whole) over the past 100 years is not clear. The change in atmospheric composition associated with rising levels of greenhouse gases must be one of the most plausible explanations, but there are other possibilities (Wigley et al., 1992). The trend may, for example, be the result of natural climate variability, shifts in the ocean temperature distribution or changes in the solar output. The progressive degradation of dryland areas, by reducing surface soil moisture, may have contributed to the warming over Africa, although the results of recent analyses suggest that the effects may account for no more than a small proportion of the trend observed over the continent as a whole (cf. ...read more.

Middle

then across the whole continent of Africa, on average violence and conflict was around 50 percent more likely to occur in abnormally warm years. The cause of this according to PNAS - National Academy of Sciences, is that people become uneasy and increasingly worried about the food supply when they see that the crops have had a particularly bad year generally this happens in times of extreme heat. An example of this is fighting in Darfur which took place killing 200,000 people and pressured two million people into evacuating from their homes and lives to escape it. Another example is the extended study between the years of 1981 to 2002 where researchers looked for trends to show correlation between above average heat and civil conflict which may result from it. ...read more.

Conclusion

Africa's current contribution to global markets (both for export and for consumption) is relatively small and highly variable depending on weather conditions and pricing policies.The region possesses a marked intra- seasonal and inter-annual variability of rainfall making it a high-risk environment for agriculture. To meet future food demands of the growing population, regional crop production by 2035 will have to expand by an estimated 3% per annum. In South Africa, 89% of the land area is currently used for agriculture with about 35,000 ha of land lost annually to urban and industrial expansion and afforestation. The effects of growing demand and shrinking area of agricultural land are forcing agriculture into more marginal areas with ever greater sensitivity to climate variability. Socio-economic and political impacts of climate change in Africa Socio-economic and political impacts of climate change in Africa ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Human Geography section.