COMMENT
T
The climes they are
a-changin’
here has been increasing focus over the past few years on According to a report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
limiting the effects of climate change on the planet. These have millions of people fled their homes following last year’s extreme
ranged from alternative energy sources and ‘green’ construction, weather events, and tens of millions more will likely similarly be forced
to recycling and reusing waste in order to better manage our limited by climate change in the next decade. Another report, this one
resources. And for anyone who might have been on the fence about the published by the Environmental Justice Foundation, highlights how
potential effects of climate change, the extreme weather experienced the effects of climate change can act as a ‘threat multiplier’, fomenting
last year will hopefully have provided some perspective. conflict. It gives as an example the case of Syria, where changing
A big buzzword of 2017 was ‘climate change’, and while there are
weather patterns led to the worst drought in 900 years, impacting food
many reasons to examine the potential role of China in Africa, this is security and helping to fuel the Syrian war. Over one million people
not one of them. No matter what US President Donald Trump may were on the move from drought-stricken regions before a single shot
claim, climate change is not a “total and complete hoax conceived by was fired.
Chinese conspirators”.
In a year of record-breaking temperatures, storms, wildfires, and
In South Africa, we have experienced our own fair share of extreme
weather, together with ongoing political and socio-economic turmoil.
droughts, the sheer number of extreme weather events we saw in And with Cape Town’s water predicted to run out by as early as
2017 — from the catastrophic back-to-back hurricanes hitting North February 2018, this matter is more pressing than ever.
America and the Caribbean, to debilitating heat waves and, closer
Our focus, therefore, should increasingly be on sustainability. If we
to home, the extreme drought being experienced in Cape Town want to build a lasting legacy for future generations, we need to ensure
— should wake people up to the potentially devastating long-term that each of us is doing our part, from minimising electricity and water
effects if this goes unabated. consumption, to using alternative fuel and power sources. And at the
Therefore, it came as no surprise when, in early November, the
same time, we need to balance this need for sustainability against the
World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released a report stating need for increased economic growth: how do we develop and build
that 2017 would likely be one of the three hottest years on record. At our infrastructure while minimising the effect on the environment?
around the same time, the 12th annual Global Carbon Budget report Superficial change will not be enough. There needs to be a sea
was published. It is produced by 76 of the world’s leading emissions change in how we approach not only our environment, but our future.
experts from 57 research institutions, and estimated that global carbon We need to embed sustainability within every level of our plans for
emissions from fossil fuels would have risen by 2% by the end of 2017 growth and expansion. It is no longer enough to pay lip service to the
to reach record highs. idea of a sustainable future — we need to embark on a new type of
But while countries across the globe are looking for ways to mitigate
transformation strategy, this time focusing on ensuring not only that
this and cut down on their CO 2 emissions by, for example, banning our population has inroads into the economy, but also that our plans
petrol and diesel vehicles on the roads, the US is going the opposite and development are sustainable in the long term. ■
direction. In June last year, Trump announced his plan for the country
to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. Should the US follow Robyn Grimsley – Editor
through on this statement of intent, it will become the only country in Plant Equipment & Hire
the world that is not a signatory to the Agreement, with even Syria and
Nicaragua having finally signed up.
The data on fossil fuel use and carbon emissions has an effect that
goes beyond the increasing incidence of extreme weather, however.
The WMO report references findings from the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) regarding the impact of increasing global temperatures,
stating that “for the median low-income developing country with
annual average temperature conditions around 25°C, a 1°C increase
in temperature could lower per capita economic output by about 1.2
per cent.”
Given the already precarious economic situation throughout much
of Africa, this is definitely a pressing concern. And it becomes even
more so when we realise that extreme weather, rising sea levels, and
climbing temperatures are behind an ever-growing number of what are
termed ‘climate refugees’.
www.equipmentandhire.co.za
JANUARY 2018
1