Zimbabwe is no exception. Climate change

smoky Shanghai.. pic by EGU news&press

SO many times when we hear about the climate change conversation we think  its a foreign problem. We picture China with its large industrial and smoky cities of Shanghai and New York city where there is just as much cars as there are people and far is it from our brains that global warming is creeping at our very own doorstep.

A new article by The Zimbabwean cites that Africa is predicted to be the continent that will be most affected by climate change, which is a daily experience in people’s lives. Nowhere in the world is this more likely than Zimbabwe – because of its unique position between two great continental weather systems. One covers the southern states of Africa, where the wet seasons are set by successive cold fronts that sweep across the continent bringing moist air from the Atlantic Ocean. The second is controlled by the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which waters the central African region – shifting annually to the north from March onwards, and then moving to the south in October and November.

Regional rivers that rise in areas predicted to become wetter will see a rise in average river flow. The Zambezi is the classic example. Pic by Add caption

. The ITCZ is forecast to shift 18 degrees north on average and this will affect the southern/central states of Africa mostly. It may also result in greater precipitation to the north of the equator. This summer we have seen a series of cyclones develop off the Mozambique coast, drawing moisture and rain out of Zimbabwe and causing havoc in Malawi, northern Mozambique and Madagascar.

Overall we can expect more precipitation on average and greater extremes. This has serious implications and may impact the following areas.

Potential energy sources

Zambezi River rise

Regional power pools

Large-scale agriculture

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