Scientists in Tanzania: Do not blame every environmental disaster on climate change

Usually when politicians and environmental scientists get together in Africa, you can be certain of at least one thing: Having been brainwashed educated by American or European "experts", the participants of these gatherings will always produce a document, statement or at least interviews blaming global warming/climate change for almost anything environmentally bad that has happened - or will happen - in their respective countries.

That´s why it is refreshing to read about what local scientists said at a recent "climate change adaptation workshop" in Kigoma, Tanzania:

Scientists meeting here have expressed concern over what they saw as the government’s tendency to blame every environmental disaster on climate change.This was a sentiment expressed by local scientists attending a western Tanzania climate change adaptation workshop on Wednesday. 
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Mr Godlove Mwamsojo, an environmental expert with the Lake Tanganyika Integrated Regional Development Programme, disagreed, for instance,  that the 100-year two-kilometre wall in Pangani District in Tanga Region was succumbing to the effects of climate change on account of the fact that the level of the Indian Ocean waters has been rising fast in recent years, eating away the wall away and flushing water onto the streets.
“This wall was built by German colonialists over 100 years ago. For how long do we want this wall to last? What kind of material was used to build it?” queried Mr Mwamsojo, calling on the government to avail more funding for the wall’s preservation.

He was reacting to a presentation by an environmental officer with the Vice President’s Office, Eng Alphonce Bikulamchi, who told the workshop that rising seawater caused by climate change has eroded parts of the wall, paving the way for sea water to flow inland and destroy nearby houses.


“We are overplaying theories. We lack scientific proof,” said the environmental expert (Godlove Mwamsojo).

Eng Bikulamchi also told the two-day workshop, jointly organised by The Nature Conservancy, the Jane Goodall Institute and the Frankfurt Zoological Society, to raise awareness on climate change and its impacts throughout western Tanzania, that Lake Victoria water level has dropped by about 2.57 metres between 1965 and 2006 due to climate change.

This observation was also disputed by Dr Ismael Kimirei, acting centre director for the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (Tafiri) in Kigoma Region, who said that the drop in water levels in Lake Victoria might have been caused by an over use of water in Uganda.Lake Victoria, the world’s second largest freshwater body shared by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, is the source of the Nile.


In addition, Eng Bikulamchi told the workshop that the Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, is losing its snow fast, noting that 80 per cent of its glacier has vanished since 1912 because of climate change.
Again this observation was strongly objected by Dr Hudson Nkotagu, the Lake Tanganyika Integrated Regional Development Programme national coordinator, who said that volcanic activities might have been the reason behind the decrease of the glacier.

The reaction of an American participant in the workshop, was not surprising. She felt a need to "correct" the "heretics" who had dared to question the teachings of the global warming religion:

Reacting to these observations by the local scientists, Dr Elizabeth Gray, Global Climate Change Fellow with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a US charitable environmental organisation that seeks to preserve lands, said such environmental calamities might have been caused by other factors, but climate change was magnifying the current situations.


Read the entire article here

Kudos to the local environmental scientists in western Tanzania!