While future effects of climate change are often in the news, an April 30 event will discuss how the problem is already affecting communities around the world, particularly in Africa.
The Africana Studies and Research Center is hosting, “Disaster: Cyclone Idai, Climate Change & Climate Migration,” a talk that will discuss impacts of climate change, climate migration and food scarcity and takes place at 4:30 pm in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall.
In 2015-16, the El Niño weather cycle led to food shortages caused by drought conditions in large swathes of Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, and Mozambique. By 2018, the climate change-related drought led to fears about Cape Town becoming the first city in the world to run out of water.
The event will bring together faculty members across different colleges whose research focuses on agriculture, food security, refugee and immigration history. A panel discussion moderated by Noliwe Rooks, professor of Africana studies, will include Natalie Mahowald, the Irving Porter Church Professor in Engineering in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the Atkinson Center faculty director of Environment; Rachel Bezner Kerr, associate professor of development sociology in the the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; N’Dri Therese Assie-Lumumba, professor of Africana studies and the president of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies; and Maria Cristina Garcia, the Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies.
The event is sponsored by the Africana Studies & Research Center and the College of Arts & Sciences.
