Elaboration of a strategy to integrate training on adaptation to climate change within the educational system of cameroon
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- 1.1. Definitions of Key Concepts
- 1.1.2- Causes and impacts of climate change
1.0. INTRODUCTIONThe teaching of climate change knowledge and adaptation strategies to its impacts in the education system in Cameroon is dispersed. Since climate change has been shown to have an important effect on economic development, it has been deemed necessary to introduce its teaching in a systematic manner within the official programmes of the primary, secondary and tertiary education system of the country. Developing countries are the most vulnerable to climate change impacts because they have fewer resources to adapt socially, technologically and financially. Climate change will therefore have far reaching effects on their sustainable development including their ability to attain the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 each of which is affected by climate change (UN, 2007). Governments of many developing countries have accordingly given adaptation action a high, even urgent, priority with systematic planning and capacity-building activities aimed at reducing the risk of disasters and raise the resilience of communities to increasing extreme events such as droughts, floods, etc. It is for these reasons that in September 2007, while addressing the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, the Head of State H.E. President Paul Biya made a solemn announcement of a plan to create a National Observatory for Climate Change. As a follow up, the Observatoire National de Changements Climatiques (ONACC) was created in Decree No.2009/410 of 10 December 2009 and placed under the tutelage of the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Finance with its overall mission being to follow up and evaluate the socio-economic and environmental impacts, measures of prevention, mitigation and/or of adaptation to the consequences and risks linked to these changes. Since adaptation to climate change is a cross-cutting issue that has an impact on all development sectors of the economy and on climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water resources, human health, terrestrial ecosystems, biodiversity and coastal zones, aspects of adaptation to climate change should therefore be integrated into all levels of the educational system using cross-cutting approaches and/or other strategies that will ensure knowledge acquisition by the future generation on the increasing effects of this phenomenon on the environment and on humanity. The urgency for adaptation is highlighted by projections in reports produced by the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 in which it is estimated that gas emissions could rise by 25 – 90 per cent by 2030 relative to 2000 and that the Earth could warm by 3°C this century (IPCC, 2007). Even with a temperature rise of 1– 2.5°C, the IPCC predicts serious effects including reduced crop yields in tropical areas leading to increased risk of hunger, spread of climate sensitive diseases such as malaria, and an increased risk of extinction of 20 to 30 per cent of all plant and animal species. Concerted global action is therefore needed now to enable developing countries and Cameroon in particular to adapt to the effects of climate change for it has been predicted that billions of people will face shortages of water and food, and greater risks to health as a result of climate change over the next decades. 1.1. Definitions of Key Concepts1.1.1. Definition of climate changeThe free encyclopedia (Wikipedia) defines climate change as: “a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years”;
“a periodic modification of Earth's climate brought about as a result of changes in the atmosphere as well as interactions between the atmosphere and various other geologic, chemical, biological, and geographic factors within the Earth system”. A new definition by the IPCC on 19 November 2011 is : “a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer”. A further statement to this states that climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines it as: “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is, in addition to natural climate variability, observed over comparable time periods.” The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between climate change attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition and climate variability attributable to natural causes. 1.1.2- Causes and impacts of climate changeGreenhouse gases (GHGs) which include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrogen triflouride (NF3), nitrous oxide (N2O), halocarbons such as hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), have been identified by scientists as the main cause of global warming, which is intrinsically linked to climate change (Johansen, 2009). They are commonly called greenhouse gases due to their characteristic nature of trapping atmospheric heat within the atmosphere, thus leading to increase in temperature. These gases, whose sources are predominantly from anthropogenic activities, are known to be accumulating in the atmosphere with life spans of over 100 years. A rise in these gases has caused a rise in the amount of heat from the sun which is withheld in the Earth’s atmosphere. This increase in heat has led to the greenhouse effect, resulting in climate change with its main characteristics in Cameroon being increases in average temperature, changes in cloud cover, and changes in precipitation patterns leading to droughts in some areas and floods and landslides in others. In fact, an increasing rate of global warming has particularly taken place over the last 25 years, and 11 of the 12 warmest years on record have occurred in the past 12 years. Predictions to 2100 range from a minimum of 1.8° C to as much as 4° C rise in global average temperatures. Although human beings have been adapting to the variations of climate around them for centuries, the current local climate variability is influencing peoples’ decisions with consequences on their social, economic, political and personal conditions. Directory: sites sites -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 sites -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 sites -> Glossary for Chapter 1 Algorithm sites -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose sites -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations sites -> Physical custody of 1033 program property accountibility form statement of Physical Custody: By signing for the below 1033 property I am a Law Enforcement Officer of the aforementioned Law Enforcement Agency sites -> Nstructions for Acquiring Excess Equipment online, through the 1033 Program sites -> Memorandum of agreement Download 1.08 Mb. Share with your friends:
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