Africa
-
![]()
![]()
Roll-up for the world’s largest mangrove planting project
A mangrove seedling planted in the Saloum Delta in Senegal.Atlantic Rising “Become a superhero, plant your mangrove today,” declared the poster. Eager to enter the pantheon of mangrove superheroes, we headed to the Saloum Delta in Senegal where the world’s largest mangrove planting project is underway. Organized by local NGO, Oceanium, almost 30 million mangroves […]
-
![]()
![]()
Disappearing beaches in Gambia
Hotel managers in Gambia say without the beach the tourists will not come. But the beach in front of the country’s two landmark hotels is disappearing pretty fast. It is a very serious state of affairs for a country that derives a major percentage of its income from tourism. Beach erosion is clearly visible at […]
-
![]()
![]()
The rising tide of environmental refugees
Desertification of formerly productive farm land is one of the many reasons for a growing number of environmental refugees around the world.Photo: pizzodisevo via FlickrOur early twenty-first century civilization is being squeezed between advancing deserts and rising seas. Measured by the biologically productive land area that can support human habitation, the earth is shrinking. Mounting […]
-
![]()
![]()
Bill Gates reveals support for GMO ag
As it has come to dominate the agenda for reshaping African agriculture over the years, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been very careful not to associate itself too closely with patent-protected biotechnology as a panacea for African farmers. True, the foundation named 25-year Monsanto veteran Rob Horsch to the position of “senior program […]
-
![]()
![]()
Where the Sahara meets the Atlantic
Rising sea levels are threatening the island homes of Mauritania’s Imraguen fishermen. Above, child plays alongside flooded landscape on Nair Island.Tim Bromfield / Atlantic Rising The Banc d’Arguin, where the Sahara meets the Atlantic in Mauritania, is a staging post for over two million exhausted migratory birds from Europe and Siberia. Terns dive for fish, […]
-
Sardines head south
Emile Azran stands in the sun in front of his sardine processing factory in Safi, Morocco, smoking a cigarette. Business is slow because it is the Eid holidays but soon he says the chimneys will be pumping at full steam again. The smell is putrid. Sardines, once cheap foodstuff for the poor, have become a […]
-
![]()
![]()
Actor Djimon Hounsou wants to show the human costs of climate change
Djimon Hounsou at the U.N. Climate SummitPhoto: United NationsActor Djimon Hounsou is just as snacky in real life as he was on the big screen in Blood Diamond, The Island, and Gladiator. Better yet, he’s also a climate activist and humanitarian. As a global ambassador for the aid and development group Oxfam, Hounsou has traveled […]
-
![]()
![]()
Morocco’s beaches may become launching point for climate refugees
A Saharawi fisherman on the beach north of Tarfaya in Morocco, just 70km from the Canary Islands.Tim Bromfield Uniformed men patrol the beaches of southern Morocco at night. Their torches are trained on the Atlantic Ocean searching for boats overflowing with economic migrants heading for the Canary Islands. From the beach just north of Tafaya, […]
-
![]()
![]()
Worldwatch gets $1.3 million Gates grant to look at sustainable ag in Africa
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been roundly criticized in sustainable-ag circles for throwing its considerable girth behind a “New Green Revolution for Africa.” According to critics (including me), the “green revolution” approach promotes high-tech, expensive solutions to Africa’s agriculture woes — ones more suited to the interests of a few agribusiness giants than […]
