Our Planet with Anthony Mugo

The declaration on June 1, 2017, by US President Donald Trump that the US would withdraw its commitment to the Paris Agreement seemed to confirm what many already suspected: that Trump might become the climate change denier in chief. Indeed, the leadership and rank and file supporters of the Republican Party are largely perceived as less supportive of efforts to counter the negative impacts of climate change than their counterparts in the Democratic Party. This perception has spurred hope among many that the recent win by Democrats, who took more than 30 seats in Congress during the November 6 mid-term elections, might herald an era of reinstatement of climate change policies formulated by the Obama administration, which Trump and his key appointees reversed or watered down since his ascendancy to the Presidency. According to an October 11, 2018 commentary by Randy Showstack in Earth and Space News , the win by Democrats signals the increased possibility for the enactment of

There are sustained efforts by various public and non-governmental agencies to promote conservation agriculture (CA) as an effective strategy for environmental conservation generally and climate change adaptation specifically. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) regards conservation agriculture as a crop production method that strives to achieve profits, sustained production levels while concurrently conserving the environment. The technique involves minimal disturbance of the soil while planting and weeding farms. There are three rules that need to be followed for a practice to be regarded as CA. These are: do not turn the soil, keep the soil covered, and rotate crops. It combines several basic principles namely: reduction in tillage; retention of adequate levels of crop residues and soil surface cover; and use of crop rotation. Immediate climate change related benefits from the practice include reduced emission of carbon dioxide stored ben

A decision on May 21, 2018, by a Nakuru court in Kenya to temporarily ban the Energy Regulation Commission (ERC) from cracking down on landlords who fail to install solar water heaters on their property has turned the spotlight on whether cost could be a barrier to the adoption of practices that promote climate change mitigation. In 2012 Kenya came up with the Energy (Solar Water Heating) Regulations, aiming to increase the use of renewable energy by residences and institutions whose occupants use more than 100 litres of heated water per day. These include residential apartments, universities, hospitals, schools and commercial laundries (dry cleaners) among others. This move was in tandem with Kenya’s desire to adopt a low carbon development pathway, having developed its National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) in 2010. At the time of coming up with the regulations, the country had just embarked on the development of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCAP), wh

Many Kenyans now say that the country’s climate has changed in a dramatic way. The current ongoing rains, which have resulted in the loss of unprecedented numbers of human lives and those of livestock, displacement and catastrophic damage to infrastructure are an ominous reminder that climate change is real. Tragically, the rains followed a protracted drought, which also took its share of loss of life and property. The reality of climate change has hit home. It has however taken a long time for the phenomenon to be recognised for what it is. A major issue about which if nothing is done has the potential to reverse gains made in all fronts of the development process: economic, social, environmental and political. At the national level, Kenya’s policy and legislative response to climate change has been pioneering. Climate change is no longer regarded as just a cross-cutting issue. Going by national policy and legal actions that have been taken in a very short space of time, the n

Kenya has been hailed as being at the forefront in the formulation of laws and policies on climate change. The 2010 National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) was a first in the region. By the time of its launch, other regional countries had not yet begun formulating their national climate change response plans. The launch of the NCCRS was followed by the first National Climate Change Action Plan (2013 – 2017), a comprehensive blueprint to guide Kenya in following a low carbon, climate resilient development pathway on its journey to becoming a middle-income country with a high standard of life in line with Vision 2030. A Report of a new study commissioned by a leading Kenyan NGO involved in diverse development initiatives, including environment and natural resources management, known as Act. Change. Transform! (Act!), reveals that counties in northern Kenya are yet to mainstream climate change in their laws and policies despite the area being the most vulnerable to its ne

Fatuma Hussein uses her foot to roll a 20-litre container of water along the newly built road that connects Merile Bridge in Isiolo County with Marsabit town in Marsabit County. It is yet another hot morning and Fatuma is anxious to get the first 20 litres of water to her home and help her mother to prepare a meal for the family. Her younger brother Ali Hussein resumed school this week. Their father decided to employ one of their older cousins to be taking their livestock, 100 goats and 15 camels, to pasture, to give Ali the chance to go to school. Fatuma will however not resume school until the long dry spell is over at which time water will be available closer to their home where her mother can easily fetch it and still do other routine chores. This scenario is replayed among many pastoralist families in northern Kenya. It is common to find parents opting to keep girls out of school or even having them drop out altogether while their brothers continue with their education.

Climate-smart agriculture has been described as the approach that addresses all the three elements of sustainable development namely: economic, social and environmental. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) views climate-smart agriculture as an approach that sustainably increases productivity, enhances resilience to climate change by reducing or removing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and enhances the achievement of national food security and development goals. The term “climate-smart agriculture” (CSA) was adopted in late 2010 at the 1st Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change at The Hague. It describes tensions between maximizing global agricultural productivity, increasing the resilience of agricultural systems in the face of climate change, and concerns to GHG emissions from agriculture. Projections show that while the global population will rise to 9.6 billion by 2050. Over the same period, there will be a reduct

Every year, the world’s most influential philanthropist couple, Bill and Melinda Gates, release an annual letter detailing what continues to motivate them to give so much money towards various causes around the world.   In the 2018 Annual Letter, they have focused on what they refer to as “The 10 Toughest Questions We Get.” The questions come through various social media platforms such as Twitter and Linked and from people writing from different countries focusing on various dimensions of development. The couple then responds from their respective perspectives giving candid answers and using the opportunity to share what drives their philanthropic work which they carry out through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Out of the 10 questions, question number three in the 2018 Annual Letter focuses on climate change: “Why don’t you give money to fight climate change? To this, Bill Gates responds in part: “ Personally, we’re investing in innovations that will cut back on gr

In Kenya, climate change is predicted to result in increased frequency of extreme events, particularly droughts and floods. It has been noted that droughts in the East and Horn of Africa region used to occur after every 10 years between the 1960s and the 1970s. This frequency has increased to the extent that drought started occurring after every five years during the 1990s and could become even more frequent in the future due to climate change. In addition, droughts and floods have become more severe and rainfall less predictable due to the phenomenon. More than 80 per cent of Kenya’s land mass is categorised as arid and semi-arid. All counties in the North of Kenya are in this category. The only sustainable livelihood activity that has been possible there is pastoralism. Communities that live in this region are therefore very dependent on natural climate-sensitive resources namely water, pasture and livestock. Conflict: a consequence resource scarcity As competition for

One of the key pillars of Kenya’s President, H E Uhuru Kenyatta’ "Big Four" strategy aimed at securing his legacy is food security, the others being universal health, access to housing and manufacturing. Despite Kenya being an agricultural country, food shortages have been experienced on regular basis with some communities facing malnutrition and even famine that is in some areas severe enough to cause loss of human lives. This situation has often required emergency measures of an international scale. It is estimated that 98 per cent of agricultural production in Kenya is rain fed. Therefore the leading cause of food insecurity is shortage of water due to drought. According to the National Climate Change Action Plan (2013 – 2017), droughts are expected to become more frequent with increasing global warming. Before the adverse effects of climate change started to be felt in the country, drought used to occur in cycles of 5 – 10 years. With climate change however, this

In recent years, there has been much talk about increasing the use of “clean” energy and even more preferably “green,” clean energy. Demand for use of clean and green energy has been spurred by the raised global consciousness about the dangers posed by use of non-renewable fossil fuels: petroleum, natural gas and coal to power industries, transportation and homes. Except for the so called climate change deniers, majority of the world’s population is in agreement that something needs to be done urgently in order to reduce emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and to forestall global warming that has resulted in the climate change being observed today. For many people however, the quest for countries to increase the proportion of energy in use from a mix dominated by fossil fuels to one with more clean and green energy raises the question, what is green energy and what is clean energy? Many people use the phrases “clean energy” and “green energy” interchangeably. Respected inte

Beginning in 1958 an American scientist known as Charles David Keeling devoted his life to meticulously and regularly track precise levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere until his death in 2005. He monitored carbon dioxide that is present in the atmosphere (atmospheric carbon dioxide) from a laboratory located on an isolated island volcanic mountain in Hawaii known as Mauna Loa. The exact place where Keeling undertook this work was the Mauna Loa Observatory set up by the  U.S. Weather Bureau (now a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA).  In the course of this period, the Mauna Loa Observatory has generated data that scientists have been using to draw firm conclusions to the effect that carbon dioxide emission levels over the last four decades have been increased by human activities generally and the burning of fossil fuels specifically. This accumulated carbon dioxide together with other greenhouse gases is responsible for global warming which