How Greatly Climate Change The Surface Of African Desert
From the ochre dunes of the Namib Desert to the expansive plains of Etosha National Park, from the flamingo-thronged, coastal lagoons of the cold Atlantic Ocean to the land-locked papyrus swamps of the Okavango River, Namibia offers excellent birding in an amazing variety of bird-rich habitats. With sixteen near-endemics and a host of specials that are difficult to see elsewhere, a visit to Namibia is an essential part of the southern African birding experience.
One of the first studies to examine how climate change might alter the surface of African desert has been published by scientists from Oxford University.
Their research details how the immense dunefields of the Kalahari could be stirred up by global warming. The investigation, reported in the journal Nature, warns that large areas of currently productive land could become engulfed by shifting sands. “The social consequences of these changes could be drastic,” they say.
The team, led by Professor David Thomas, urges politicians in the region not to pursue development policies that might exacerbate the coming problems, turning currently semi-arid areas into desert. “We’ve seen in Botswana, for example, with European Union support, an enormous growth in livestock production using groundwater. That in itself has put great pressure on the Botswana landscape,” Professor Thomas told BBC News.
The Oxford team took data from three different computer models that are used to forecast likely climate change over the course of the next century. The scientists ran this information through their own simulator, which has been specifically tuned to the dynamics of the Kalahari dunefields.
These dunes punctuate 2.5 million sq km of Africa – from the northern end of South Africa, right up through Angola, Botswana and Namibia, to western Zimbabwe and western Zambia. They were built up thousands of years ago and are now reasonably well covered by vegetation.
But Professor Thomas and colleagues found that no matter which general climate model data they used, their simulator came out with projections for dramatic increases in dune “activity” – they will start to erode and move as precipitation falls and wind speeds increase.
The southern dunefields of Botswana and Namibia become activated by 2040, while the more northerly and easterly dunes in Angola, Zimbabwe and Zambia begin to shift significantly by 2070. By the end of the 21st Century, all the dunes from South Africa to Zambia and Angola are likely to be reactivated. Tens or even hundreds of thousands of people would be affected by such changes, the team said. “The Kalahari is a large area that supports a reasonably big rural population that lives by farming,” Professor Thomas explained. “It’s these people who are vulnerable to their currently savannah-like environment becoming a rather more hostile, active, dune landscape than it is today.
The Information About African Climate Characteristics
Afica is located in the southwest of the eastern hemisphere, across the equator north and south, northwest part of the region stretching from the Western Hemisphere. East near the Indian Ocean, west Atlantic, North, separated from the Mediterranean and the Strait of Gibraltar and across Europe, the northeastern corner of the narrow Red Sea and Suez Canal, close to Asia, mainland east Hafun angle (longitude 51 ° 24 ‘north latitude and 10 ° 27′), the south agulhas angle (longitude 20 ° 02 ‘south latitude 34 ° 51′), west of Cape Verde ( longitude 17 ° 33 ‘north latitude and 14 ° 45′), the Guillain angle to the north (this race card angle) (longitude 9 ° 50 ‘north latitude and 37 ° 21′). It is all about 0.2 million square kilometers (including nearby islands). About 20.2 percent of the world’s total land area, after Asia, the second largest continent in the world.
Africa is also called the tropical continent, African climate is characterized by hot, dry, dry, climate belt north-south symmetrical. The equator running through the center of the climate is generally lower with increasing latitude from the equator. Continent-wide annual average temperature above 20 ℃ zone accounts for about 95% of the continent-wide area, of which more than half of the region’s year-round hot, nearly half of the region has a hot warm season and cool season, warm. Ethiopia northeast dalol average temperature was 34.5 ° C, is the world one of the highest average temperature. Aziziyah south of the Libyan capital Tripoli, September 13, 1922 temperatures as high as 57.8 ° C, for the extreme maximum temperature in Africa. Kilimanjaro near the equator, due to the high altitude, Peak snow.
According to the different characteristics of the regional climate, the climate in Africa can be divided into a tropical rainforest, savannah, desert, tropical and Mediterranean climate of four types, was something obvious zonal distribution, and the equator as the center, with a north-south symmetry season the opposite characteristics. Near the equator, the Congo Basin and the Gulf of Guinea in the tropical rain forest climate year-round high temperature and rainfall; dry winter for the summer rain in the tropical rain forest climate zones north and south sides and the highlands of East Africa, a year-round hot tropical steppe climate; savannah climatic zone of the lateral South near the Tropic of Cancer by the return to high pressure subsiding air control for year-round hot, dry tropical desert climate; the continent north and south ends of coastal areas, compared to the summer hot and dry, subtropical Mediterranean climate of mild winters and rainy. The formation of this climate type was the main reason things zonal distribution, and north-south symmetry, the equator across Africa and Central, northern and southern parts of the cross-latitude roughly equal and Africa cross-pressure belt, the wind with a roughly north-south symmetry determined. In addition, with the terrain ups and downs of a small plateau continent, the lack of Gao Taishan to the barrier, small vertical changes in climate, so that the distribution of temperature and precipitation in Africa changed little, the heart of more obvious also.
African climatic characteristics
(1) Africa’s climate is characterized by: high temperature, dry areas, a wide climate zone was obviously symmetrical distribution.
(2) North Africa, tropical desert climate, annual precipitation is 200 mm; sub-Saharan African savannah and tropical rainforest. The main climate, precipitation in most parts of more than 1000 mm.
(3) The type of climate in Africa showed the zonal distribution, and north and south roughly symmetrical.
How Much Do You Know Afica Weather?
Our South Africa weather is mild, pleasant and subtropical all year round.The moderating effect of the oceans east, south and west of the country together with the altitude of the interior plateau accounts for the warm temperate conditions so typical of South Africa and so popular with its foreign visitors.
In South Africa we have spring during the months September, October and November. The changeover from winter to spring can be somewhat windy in the interior, until the first rains have fallen. Day temperatures rise to an average of between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. The nights are still rather cool, but not cold anymore.
In Cape Town the winter rainfall has come to an end and the springtime weather becomes quite pleasant, calm and stable with little wind. Actually a good time to visit Cape town.
In the Mpumalanga lowveld and the Kwazulu Natal coastal regions with a tropic to sub-tropic South Africa weather climate, temperature differences between spring and winter season are considerably smaller then in the rest of the country. Here temperatures and humidity quickly rise from quite pleasant during winter and spring, to the less comfortable hot summertime levels.
Our summer season is during the months December, January and February. For most of the country this is the rainfall season. On the interior plateau South Africa weather in summer is characterised by dry, warm to hot conditions with day temperatures averaging between 25 and 35 degrees Celsius and from time to time heavy afternoon thunder storms which clear quickly. 
The afternoon rainfall helps to keep night temperatures comfortable, cool to warm but not hot. In the Mpumalanga lowveld region and the Kwazulu natal coastal area, the humidity is high and temperatures can sometimes touch the 40 degree Celsius mark. Here the nights can become very balmy.
In Cape Town with its Mediterranean climate there is little or no rain during summer. The prevailing south easterly winds, known by the local Capetonians as the Cape Doctor, helps to keep day temperatures at a pleasant average of between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius.
Bergwinds coming in down-slope the escarpment, bringing in the heat from the interior, see temperatures sometimes rise well beyond 30 degrees Celsius. The nights in Cape Town are balmy, but not uncomfortable, with a very nice atmosphere.
Our Autumn is during the months March, April and May. The grassy plains turn dry, yellow and brown and the trees shed their leaves, like everywhere else when it’s autumn time. The changeover from summer to autumn is rather abrupt in south Africa, making the autumn season feel relatively short. 
Autumn offers probably the best South Africa weather overall. Very little rain falls over the whole country and it is warm but not hot, getting colder as the season progresses. Nights are cool, but not yet cold.
In the Mpumalanga lowveld and Kwazulu natal coastal areas hot and humid conditions slowly turn into the very pleasant dry and comfortably warm winter weather that these regions are known for. In Cape Town autumn is fantastic, with little wind, warm sunny days and balmy nights. Autumn and spring are the perfect seasons to visit Cape town.
The winter season in our country are the months June, July and August. Cloudless skies the whole season, with virtually no rain. Sunshine all the way with sometimes dry, windy and dusty conditions. Cold nights with some frost in the morning. That about sums up our South Africa weather in the winter for most of the country, mainly the interior plateau and the escarpment. 
Variation between average day temperatures of between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius and average night temperatures of between -5 to 10 degrees Celsius is quite dramatic. Light snowfall can be expected on the peaks of the Cape and Drakensberg mountain ranges above thea 1500 meter mark.
In the Mpumalanga lowveld and Kwazulu natal coast regions, humidity levels have dropped to virtually zero with very little wind. Day and night temperatures are just perfect, pleasant enough for a swim in the sea or an outdoor barbeque or “braai”.
Cape Town and the south western part of the Western Cape province is a different story. With its Mediterranean climate it gets most of its rain during the winter. There are a considerable number of cold, grey, cloudy and rainy days. But then again, these are interspersed with beautiful days that can be compared with the best that a British summer has to offer.
That is not so easy to answer. There is not really a bad time to visit our country. South Africa weather conditions are warm and sunny all year round in most of the country. It mainly depends on what you want to do.
The best times for game watching for instance, are the winter and spring seasons, let us say from May until about mid-October. The wale watching season around our coasts is from about mid-June to the end of October. Diving is best in most coastal areas over the winter period from April to September, except for maybe the Western Cape coast. The same applies for surfing.
Reasons To Be Long On SA
This is the elephant that greets you when you visit Maponya Mall in Soweto. It’s an impressive statue, fit for an impressive place. Maponya Mall makes the average big box shopping precinct in an affluent American suburb seem rather drab and lifeless by comparison.
Today’s Soweto is not the Soweto captured in the heartrending black-and-white images shot when the segregated township’s schoolchildren rose up against apartheid in 1976. Thanks to those children, Soweto is today the pulsing heart of a dynamic democracy at the gateway of a transforming continent.
Maponya Mall and its elephant give you an inkling of why Wal-Mart understands it has to get into the African market, why the $20 billion Harvard endowment’s fourth largest single holding in 2010 was a South African index fund, and why JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently described himself as “incredibly impressed” by the opportunities he saw in South Africa and its region.
In picking its metaphor for Africa, McKinsey and Co. chooses another animal. It talks about “lions on the move”, and figures that by the end of this decade consumer-driven industries in Africa — agriculture, resources and infrastructure — will be generating $2.6 trillion a year in revenue, over two and half times the current figure.
South Africa will be a big part of the story. PriceWaterhouseCoopers projectsthat between now and 2050 South Africa will be the world’s seventh fastest growing economy, with an average real annual growth rate of 5%.
Judged strictly in terms of GDP and population, South Africa may not automatically be ranked among the BRIC nations — to use the acronym for the big emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India and China coined by Goldman Sachs. But the BRICs themselves see South Africa as a peer and have invited us to join their club.
What South Africa may lack in size, it more than makes up for both as a connector with a region that is being called the world’s last great investment frontier and from the respect the country of Nelson Mandela commands on the international stage. The way we prepared for and hosted the 2010 Fifa soccerWorld Cup hasn’t hurt our reputation, either.
Under the World Economic Forum’s rating system, South Africa’scompetitiveness score is all but indistinguishable from those of Brazil, India and Russia. In many areas of importance to investors, including strength of institutions, protection of property rights, quality of infrastructure, strength of investment protection and corporate ethics, we are ranked ahead of all the BRICs, sometimes by a wide margin.
In a comparison of 92 countries, South Africa’s budget process was recently ranked number one for transparency. The World Bank says that, overall, it is far easier to launch and run a business in South Africa than it is in any of the BRICs.
An important part of what gives South Africa its competitive edge is the quality of our people and the way we do things. And we do a lot more than many imagine.
Boko Haram And US Plans In Africa
ABUJA, Nigeria, Jan. 9 (UPI) — Oil-rich Nigeria is gripped by an escalating uprising by Islamist militants that has triggered massacres of Christians, including a Christmas Day suicide bombing blitz, which the federal government seems unable to contain.
Amid deepening suspicions the Islamists are aided by al-Qaida’s North African wing, which has been extending its operations southward of late, there are fears the bloodletting could plunge Africa’s most populous state into a sectarian civil war.Nigeria is a major oil producer that provides 8 percent of U.S. crude imports and there are signs that Washington is growing concerned about the swelling crisis there.
In October, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed to take action against the main Nigerian Islamist group, Boko Haram, which until a few months ago was widely seen as a northeastern Nigerian sect primarily concerned with domestic issues.But as the group, whose name translates as “Western education is a sin,” has escalated its religious war from drive-by shootings and killing Christians to more sophisticated operations and suicide bombings, it has evolved into a serious threat to Nigeria’s stability.
Formed in the 1990s, the group demanded Islamic Sharia law to be introduced into northern Nigeria, which is predominantly Muslim. But in recent years it has repeatedly clashed with Nigeria’s Christians in the central region where the two religions collide.Nigeria’s population of 150 million is roughly split evenly between the two faiths.
But the country’s oil wealth is in the Christian-dominated south and little has reached the long-neglected north, which has fanned regional resentment.Boko Haram’s growing expertise in terrorist attacks, in which hundreds of people have been killed, has deepened suspicions it has developed links with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the jihadists’ North African arm.
In November, it was disclosed that the U.S. Army has sent 100 Special Forces soldiers to Nigeria to provide counter-insurgency training for national troops engaged against Boko Haram, the country’s largest military deployment since the 1967-70 Biafra war.This opened up a new front in the U.S. administration’s shadow war in Africa, where U.S. Special Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency are engaged in countering jihadist groups in the north and east, particularly Somalia.
On Nov. 30, the U.S. House of Representatives’ subcommittee on counter-terrorism and intelligence identified Boko Haram as an “emerging threat” to the United States and its interests and called for greater interaction with Nigerian security forces.
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