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1 T his book is concerned with Africa’s disadvantaged position at the receiving end of the devastating effects of global environmental change. Its analysis borders on how African communities are experiencing climate change – an aspect of the global changing environment – and how they are adapting to these dire conditions. It also presents cases for mitigation and adaptation that African countries can turn to as ways of playing their part in reducing and coping with global change. Most of the chapters contained in the book dwell on the human dimension of global environmental change. Stemming from proceedings of an emerging scholars’ symposium, held during the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban in 2011, the book comprises chapters written by scholars from multi-disciplinary backgrounds that look at the impact of climate change on African communities.1 Throughout history, global change has never before become this topical , possibly because, unlike before, it is occurring at an ever increasing rate. Although the human activities of Africans are least responsible for causing this change, it is nowhere felt more than in the delicate environmental systems of both the oceanic and terrestrial regions of the continent. Africa is faced with a myriad of socio-economic, political and environmental challenges that at times appear to be overwhelming. Unsurprisingly, the global changes of greatest interest today, like ozone depletion, climate change and the loss of biodiversity, are largely anthropogenic in origin. In addition, the scientific evidence for global environmental change in Africa presents a prima facia case for possible increased human migration and displacement2 . Before focusing on the effect of global change on Africa, it is imperative to explain how scholars have explained this phenomenon, especially within the frame of climate change, which is the major focus of this book. CHAPTER 1 Introduction Shingirirai Savious Mutanga and Nedson Pophiwa CHAPTER 1 2 GLOBAL CHANGE WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE In order to understand global change, the earth can be conceived as a complex system comprising a number of differentiable but interacting spheres or subsystems. Some of these, including the atmosphere, the biosphere, the geosphere, and the hydrosphere, can be thought of as environmental systems3 , which interact with the noosphere or the anthroposphere (often referred to as human systems)4 . The latter are subdivided into economic, political, cultural, and socio-technical systems. Approached in this way, the study of global change revolves around efforts at understanding how environmental systems and human systems (at the global level) affect or are affected by changes in any one of these spheres or subsystems. There is generally a lack of consensus in the scientific community concerning both a comprehensive definition and the conceptual scope of global change. The Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECFS) Project defines GEC as “a change in the physical and biogeochemical environment, either caused naturally or influenced by human activities such as deforestation, fossil fuel consumption, urbanisation, land reclamation, agricultural intensi fication, freshwater extraction, fisheries over-exploitation and waste production”5 . The definition then indicates that these changes can either: manifest at the global scale, as in the case of increasing atmospheric CO2 or occur on a local scale, but be so widespread as to be a global phenomenon – as seen in soil degradation6 . GEC includes, for example, changes in: land cover and soils; atmospheric composition; climate variability and means; water availability and quality; nitrogen availability and cycling; biodiversity ; sea currents and salinity; and sea level rise.7 The mid-nineteenth century has seen a broad range of literature about the human impacts on the natural landscape published. Classic examples are Man and Nature, The Earth as Modified by Human Action and Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth by George Perkins Marsh, published during the 60s. More recently there has been a returned emphasis on the concept of global environmental change. Initially this was focused almost solely on ‘alterations in the natural (e.g. physical or biological) systems whose impacts are not and cannot be localised’8 , however there has been more recognition of the human dimensions and the essential role that this plays in resolving global environmental problems. Essentially there is an increasing realisation that human activities combine with natural events to produce global changes. The processes of global change tend to be highly non-linear and are characterised by human responses that can have a positive or negative feedback9 . Global environmental change...

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