FACTBOX - Deadly Floods Hit Africa's Usually Arid Sahel
AFRICA: August 16, 2007
Heavy seasonal rains have caused deadly and destructive flooding across Africa's Sahel region, a vast swathe of land on the southern edge of the Sahara which is dry for much of the year.
Following are details of some countries affected.
SUDAN - More than 70 people drowned in several states in the worst flooding for a generation after weeks of heavy rain in Africa's biggest country. Flood waters have spread diseases such as cholera, which has killed at least 53 people this rainy season. More than 30,000 homes have been destroyed and at least 40,000 more damaged. Some 365,000 people have lost all or part of their home, household goods or food stocks.
KENYA - Up to 20 people feared killed beneath mudslides which destroyed homes and injured 39 people last weekend in west of country, where such mudslips are rare.
NIGERIA - At least 14 people killed and some 7,000 forced from their homes in the central Plateau State since Sunday. Heavy rains caused damage and forced thousands more families from their homes in other areas, including sub-Saharan Africa's most populated city, Lagos.
CHAD - At least three people killed in southwest Chad after heavy rains last weekend of up to 5.7 inches in some areas. They destroyed more than 700 houses and damaged 5,000 more homes in the administrative areas of Torrock and Tikem. Thousands of livestock killed.
MALI - Heavy rains since July, including downpours of up to 9 inches in some places have killed at least four people, including three children swept away by floods in San. Rains damaged hundreds of homes and cut off major roads between the capital Bamako, on the banks of the Niger river, and provincial towns.
NIGER - 20,000 people left homeless by rain and flood damage since July.
BURKINA FASO - 6,000 people affected by floods in Bama area after 6.5 inches of rain fell on the night of July 28. Government appeals for 1,500 tents to house 4,000 homeless.
IVORY COAST - Heavy rains and floods in late July forced more than 1,000 people from their homes in southern town of Agboville. Some 2,000 people still struggling to find safe drinking water after floods contaminated wells with sewage.
SENEGAL - Heavy rains a fortnight ago and at the weekend damaged and destroyed houses in the town of Thies, where 5 inches of rain fell on Sunday night and Monday morning, forcing some businesses including banks and pharmacies to close for two days.
Sources: International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies/local Red Cross; United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; Malian Territorial Administration Ministry; Reuters; IRIN news; local media. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Related item: "NASA got caught presenting incorrect data and portraying 1998 as the warmest year on record when in reality it was 1934. It was global warming hype, no matter how you try to spin it."August 15, 2007 — July 2007 brought record and near-record warmth to the western United States, while much of the eastern and southern U.S. experienced cooler-than-average temperatures, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Below-average rainfall, combined with scorching temperatures, helped put 46 percent of the contiguous U.S. in some stage of drought by the end of July. The global average temperature was the seventh warmest on record for July, and the presence of cooler-than-average waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific reflected the possible development of a La Niña episode.
Aid to Help Asia and Africa With Effects of Warming
The Rockefeller Foundation says it will invest $70 million to help Asian cities and African farmers withstand floods, droughts and other global warming hazards.
10 comments:
Any 'reasonable person' can look around and agree that if Polar Bears are starving because the ice is gone, the Earth must be warming up. Does it matter why? Does it matter what's to blame? Or does it just matter that we start adjusting and adapting to our new environment?
Over 40,000 people are killed in the U.S. because of automobile wrecks. However no one has stopped driving because of the risk of dying in a collision.
So why does anyone think people are going to stop driving because of the so called risk due to climate change?
Cars are a menace to civilization. But the comparison with global warming is specious; warming has barely begun and hasn't started killing yet. When Dhaka floods, come back and try to tell me it's a non-issue.
I think Al Gore is the driving force behind global warming. It was proposed and widely accepted in the scientific community long before he made it his big cause. The fact that you first heard about global warming from Al Gore reflects the sad state of scientific knowledge in the general public.
How do you know that a weather related death is due to global warming or just part of the background level phenomena?
Hurricanes and tornadoes have been going on since the beginning of the planet and how do you tell a GW related tornado from an ordinary one?
By the way, you might want to look at this article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070803/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_forecast
People lack the knowledge of basic scientific concepts necessary to analyze the problem for themselves. They also seem to lack the ability to effectively evaluate the credentials and relative numbers of ACTUAL SCIENTISTS on both sides of the issue. Therefore, they listen to their favorite politician, reporter, or any random famous person to form their opinion. In the scientific community, global warming has still not become a partisan shouting match, but the overall population is either incapable of or uninterested in truly understanding the debate.
The Sierra Club's Mission is to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet. With Global Warming becoming one of the most prevalent threats facing our nation, the Global Warming and Energy program of the Sierra Club works to implement clean energy solutions to our global warming problem. By working with faith and labor groups, state governments, local governments, auto companies and utilities, we are working to curb the world's emissions of greenhouse gases today.
I wonder if the mammals alive during the end of the last ice age also panicked about rising temperatures?
The historical data on average annual changes in temperature as a result of ice ages is at least double the wildest predictions being made about global warming, yet the earth survived. Greenland was actually once green and covered in trees, and all that ice on it now was water in the ocean, yet the earth survived, and so did life.
And look at this graph:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vostok-ice-core-petit.png
On a historical basis, the temperatures and CO2 levels today still do not eclipse those of ages past. Natural temperatures have been higher in the past than any temperature increases predicted by global warming, and life has still thrived and exploded even in the hottest temperatures and highest CO2 levels, not to mention sea levels that include the melted ice of Greenland.
And now we get this substantial NASA error that indicates that totally changes temperature records, making 1913 the #1 hottest year in the past 100 years.
I just hope scientists don't end up tossing their reputation in with the likes of politicians and HMOs by abandoning the scientific method and attempting to vigorously disprove what they believe.
Grown-up scientists, theologians, historians, archaeologists and others who pursue facts and objective truths are rooted in reality and constantly adjusting their conclusions, theories and hypotheses when new information comes to light. Those who ignore facts and cling to outdated information, or outright falsehoods, can quickly embrace fanaticism.
So it is with ''global warming,'' the secular religion of our day that even has a good number of adherents among people of faith. Having decided to focus less on the eternal and whether anyone dwells there, global warming fundamentalists are pushing planet worship on us in a manner that would make a jihadist proud.
I hope you're happy, now that you destroyed everythang!
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