Editor's Note [Volume 23 No. 9 (2023)]

The New Reality: An Unsettled NATURE

Climate change and its attendant fierce impacts, furious and devastating and almost everywhere, paint a grim future for humanity. What worked before is no longer viable.

We have severe droughts and killer fires, heavy rains and furious floods, mudslides and receding ice lines! What does this mean? Well, it means that the most basic needs: food, water, and shelter are affected. But then, moving food and other essential items is impaired by destroyed roads, bridges, and airports. Take the cases of Morocco and Libya, for example. We often hear of hurricanes in other parts of the world, mostly coastal countries of Asia and the Americas, but rarely in Africa. Well, until recently. The Africa I know has had its share of natural calamities, mostly frequent droughts. Droughts are extreme and tend to wipe out livestock and crops, interfere with water and forest food sources, and result in famines that threaten human life.

In the northern part of my country Kenya, which is mostly arid and semi-arid, droughts were predictable, occurring every 5 years, atleast in the 1980s, and that is what we knew and even prepared for. Yet, in the past 10 years, there are times when rains have failed for four consecutive years. The earthquake in Morocco and the heavy dam-breaking rains in Libya are signs that all is not well and preparedness is now absolutely key, by governments and everyone.

Welcome to this issue of AJFAND, which has 14 vigorously reviewed manuscripts on diverse topics. As far as SPECIAL issues are concerned, the one on Extension will close its call on October 31, 2023. The one on Right to Food will close on November 30, 2023. If one intends to contribute to any of these, please act fast.



Ruth Oniang'o
Founder Editor-in-Chief, AJFAND

 

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