FACT: We all know that the world is hotting up and for people living in sensitive climates or those who depend on certain weather patterns to survive, climate change has become a matter of life and death. This “global warming” has induced changes in precipitation and wind patterns, changes in the frequency and intensity of storms, ecosystem stress and species loss, reduced availability of fresh water, and a rising global mean sea level.

EVIDENCE: Although the actual impacts may not be easily predicted, changes in weather patterns have either led to the prevalence of severe drought conditions or extreme flood events in some parts of Malawi in recent years. The existence of prolonged drought periods has surely seriously affected agricultural production on which this country heavily depends for the sustenance of her economy. Water for domestic consumption has also become scarce as experienced since the 1991‹ 92 drought. The capacity to generate sustainable hydroelectric power has drastically declined and the water flow in Shire river has also been seriously affected. On the other hand, very wet conditions during every rainy season have caused heavy floods with subsequent loss of life and property along the lake shore and shire valley.

For this reason and many more unexplained , I thought climate change is not a problem we can leave out for discussion on this forum for other simple daily-life thoughts. Global warming is happening now and I feel that its effects are felt in Malawi. Millions of people around the world today are taking action to improve quality of life now in a way that safeguards the environment for future generations. Malawi signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, and ratified the Convention in March 1994. Realizing further the importance of the environment, Malawi launched its National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) in November 1994. However, I still believe  that to  many more Malawians air pollution and climate change issues are currently relatively small environmental concerns. Do we Malawians aspire like the rest of the world to have sustainably managed natural resources and the environment?