Challenges faced by South Africa when adapting to climate change

Abstract

The intention of this presentation is to indicate what barriers many developing countries may be experiencing in attempting to align themselves with global programmes trying to alleviate global warming. In the southern hemisphere, including South Africa, climate change is a more acceptable concept, since this is what is being experienced in the south. The reason for this is that the Antarctic region displays different climatic conditions to that occurring at the Arctic circle. A German helicopter pilot, who has continuously been ferrying scientific staff and equipment to the South African base camp in the Antarctic for the past 13 years has witnessed a progressive increase in ice and snow over the past 6 years (E. Erik, 2011, Personal Communications). The icing up is so severe that the ships can no longer get as close to their destination as they used to 7 years ago. The only noticeable exception is a volcano on the west bank, which at most affects about 4 % of the surface area of the Antarctic. This view has been confirmed by numerous TV shows, showing a very different state of affairs than what is commonly experienced by visitors to the arctic region.