Launch of Africa Atlas

When the much-praised guide to climate science The Atlas of Climate Change was first launched, the late Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Wangari Maathai, wrote in her foreword: “We have come a long way on climate change, from ignorance and denial to policy recommendations and global negotiations. The Atlas of Climate Change should inspire us all to action.”

• The primary objective of Africa Atlas was to be a scientifically accurate exploration into the depth and breadth of the issue of climate change. The key question posed at the session was whether Africa is competent to effectively deal with climate change.
• Two key challenges came with compiling and subsequently revising Africa Atlas on climate change:  making the data practical and easily understood and making the data reliable.
• The authors of Africa Atlas dealt with these challenges by sourcing primary resource data and performing thorough research on all data received, as well as presenting the data in a user-friendly format.
• The result is a singular source of information that is as usable to the local community as it is to members of national governments.
• The Atlas has simplified regional goals of education on climate change and may assist with issues of resistance to the pro-green movement by national and local government and community leaders.
• Other suggested benefits include the empowerment and uplifting of women in rural communities. The women will gain the necessary knowledge to start combating the effects of climate change within their communities by implementing practical pro-green and sustainability programmes.
• Further suggested strategies to achieve the goals of Africa Atlas are to simplify the structure into a booklet format with simplified language and images. This will allow community members to easily understand the content and distribute it amongst the communities.