The Eastern Cape is at the heart of the newly-established South East African Climate Consortium (SEACC)’s programme.
The Eastern Cape is at the heart of the newly-established South East African Climate Consortium (SEACC)’s programme.
The official launch of the SEACC, “Towards a 21st century renaissance to meet our new global challenges,” was held on Tuesday evening with Sir David King, the director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University, as guest speaker.
According to SEACC, the various communities in the Eastern Cape are dependent on resources that are diminishing rapidly. Alleviating poverty and dealing with an inadequate supply of clean water are urgent challenges.
The founding members of SEACC are the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Rhodes University, the Sustainable Seas Trust, the University of Fort Hare and the Wilderness Foundation.
SEACC hopes to raise awareness of the issues surrounding climate change so through the partnership, the universities can contribute research and expertise, and the NGOs will turn this knowledge into practical solutions. SEACC aims to work with business, government and civil society.
Its projects include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting water and food security, conserving ecological systems, and providing environmental services.
It aims to assist in the development of national and local programmes and would like to draw communities together. King, who used to be a special adviser on scientific issue to the UK government, used graphs, charts, tables containing data, and photographs to demonstrate the points he made during his lecture.
He said the growing human population is a critical issue in climate change and impacts on food production and the rising carbon levels in the atmosphere.
The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment engages with the private sector,civil society, governments and academics to provide solutions to the issue of climate change.
The school has the UK at the centre of the effort to tackle climate change, and aims to expand its work on a global scale.
“We don’t think that the school can change everything, but we can stimulate enterprise worldwide,” King said.
The school also engages with corporations at the “high carbon end”, such as Shell, BP and palm oil manufacturers.
“We need those corporations to make the massive change in the least expensive way for the economy”. King said the effect of the explosion of the human population on nature needs to be considered in economic terms.
“We have effectively ploughed our last furrow, and exponential growth is therefore not possible now.” According to King, it can be said with some certainty that the earth will be home to eight billion people in 2030.
Data shows that roughly every 12 years, another billion people are added to the population. King warned that “it would be foolhardy not to plan for a planet of over 12 billion people in 2100”.
Food production is an important sub-topic of climate change. Rising prices will mean a rise in malnutrition. Meat consumption means that there is a need for more crop production.
By 2030 50% more crop production will be needed to meet the demand for meat. Yet this will be counteracted by the diminishing water resources.
King pointed to drought-resistant crops, which could make geneticallymodified foods a solution for feeding the impoverished.
King said that if we pay attention to global temperatures, global warming cannot be denied. This is not a new problem as the earth experiences glacial and interglacial periods.
There have been 12 000 years of stable temperature and climate in this interglacial period, which is one of the longest.
Using a graph to display this data, King said that human beings appear to be responsible for sustaining this. It is also the period with the highest parts per million of carbon dioxide recorded 398.
“Human beings’ carbon footprint on the planet is huge because of the high population.” For King, it is clear that the doubling of greenhouse gases will make the planet hotter.
This effect on the planet could have a devastating impact on future generations. “Ecosystems are absolutely vital to our future”.
King emphasised the role of the youth in tackling climate change. “It is their future. Never before have young people been faced with such challenges.
“We need sustainable development now,” he said. “This is the renaissance. Consumerism has no place in the 21st century”.
