Volume 2, Issue No. 2, April/May 2013
Content
- Chair’s forward
- Genetic Modification and African Food sovereignty
- A New Climate Science Theory – Implications for
African Wind Power?
- Earth Science Book Reviews
- Earth Science Events
- References and
Selected Reading
Foreword by the Acting Chair
of Society of African Earth Scientists, Dr Chukwunyere Kamalu
Welcome to the eighth issue of
the bi-monthly newsletter of the Society of African Earth Scientists (SAES).
In the current issue we address the issues
of genetic modification of crops in relation to food sovereignty and new
climate science with its implications for African renewable energy.
Genetic Modification and African Food Sovereignty
As a non-specialist, trying to fairly
consider the debate on genetic modification (GM) of food crops in terms of the
option most beneficial to Africa (rather than biotech companies), one is mindful
not to be carried away by hype; to be objective and avoid dogmatism and blanket
condemnation of what could be useful science.
It might be argued that there is good and
there is bad GM and that a blanket condemnation will make Africa possibly miss
out on science that could help to feed its people. It might be argued that not
all GM projects are in the vein of the workings of Bill Gates and Monsanto.
One of the instances of GM in Africa often
noted is that of “golden rice” – a rice
that has been modified to include beta carotene which gives the rice its colour
and also serves the role of providing a
nutritional supplement in the rice (vitamin A) that would otherwise be absent
from the diet of local children.
Aside from enabling the inclusion of
nutritional supplements to benefit the population, GM supporters also claim there
are benefits provided by GM in enabling pest and weed resistance of crops,
requiring less cost expenditure in herbicides and pesticides, making GM seeds,
eventually, cheaper. Furthermore, it is claimed that GM technology will double
the yield of crops and hence lead to the solution of food shortage in Africa.
Plants will be genetically modified to withstand drought and be resistant to
unpredictable climate patterns.
All this makes GM food technology sound
greatly beneficial. However, the evidence has not emerged to support the claim
that GM crops will increase food yield2; nor have we any way of
knowing that the genetic modification giving plant resistance against pests and
weeds, will not harm human health. Or make pests and weeds more tolerant to the
treatments, giving rise to the need to progressively
use larger amounts of pesticide and
herbicide, and damaging the soil and human health .
One study claiming GM to lead to increased yield is that conducted on GM cotton1.
There is no direct research to show food yields are increased on use of GM.
The truth of the matter is that foods yields
can be greatly improved in Africa by resuscitating traditional African
agricultural methods that are agro ecological and sustainable (IFAD, 1992; Jordan
et al, 2007)3,4. On the face of it, it is not hard to argue that GM is simply not a necessity.
Being untested technology, GM poses a risk
The stakes are huge if the roll of the dice turns out not to be in Africa’s
favour, it would, in the worst scenario, mean :-
i) Loss of African food sovereignty – We lose Africa’s capacity to produce its own foods and to feed itself
by traditional systems of farming that are agro-ecological. Foreign corporation
monopoly would lead to the seizure of the capacity to produce local crops and there
would become a total dependence of African countries on foreign corporations to
produce our food.
ii) The creation of new genetic diseases, inherited genetic disorders,
cannot be ruled out.
iii) Adverse effects on our wildlife and ecosystem cannot be ruled out.
iv) Contamination of non GM plants and elimination of non-GM crop varieties
by the (potentially) unsafe GM varieties forever.
Safety is an uppermost concern which has
already lead to some countries prohibiting the planting of GM crops on their soil. The paper by French
scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini and co-workers5 apparently stirred enough
concern on the dangers of GM corn to persuade some countries like Kenya, to
join the club of non-GMO nations [Germany, New Zealand, Austria, Hungary, Greece,
Bulgaria, Luxemborg, France (ban GM corn), Venezuela, etc]. Serralini’s paper
has been challenged on the grounds of inadequate sample size, but the results,
especially testing the effects of GM corn on the female rats used in the trial,
had high significance and gave an indication of a potential risk of GM food to
women in particular. The study is rare in being a long term study over the
entire lifetime of the rodents..
A New Climate Science Theory - Implications for African Wind power?
Where do winds come from? This
question was accepted as answered for more than a hundred years, until early
this year when the authors (Makarieva et al, 2013) managed to publish their
highly controversial paper, in the
journal of atmospheric chemistry and physics (ACP), entitled: “Where do winds come from? A new theory on
how water vapour condensation influences atmospheric pressure and dynamics”6.
Their
new climate theory is seen as so controversial that the editor had to make a
special note explaining his reason for daring to publish their results: “ The
authors have presented an entirely new view of what may be driving dynamics in
the atmosphere. This new view has been subject to considerable criticism...
Normally, the negative reviewer comments would not lead to final acceptance and
publication of a manuscript in ACP. ...The majority of reviewers and experts in
the field seem to disagree, whereas some colleagues provide support, and the
handling editor (and the executive committee) are not convinced that the new
view presented in the controversial paper is wrong.”
In the
textbook view, winds are derived from air currents
created when air particles are heated by the sun. On land heat is retained more
than at sea, where the water has a cooling
effect. The warm air from the land rises and has high pressure
compared to the cooler air above the sea which has a lower pressure. As the
warm air from the land flows to the region of low pressure above the sea
surface, the cold air from the sea replaces the warm air rising from the land.
This cold air in turn gets heated up by the warmth of the land, which in turn
rises, and so on. The cycle of air currents and hence winds are thus
established.
In contrast, the authors, in their
controversial paper, argue that atmospheric water vapour represents a store of
potential energy, ready to be released as rainfall, which accelerates the
surrounding air and drives winds. The potential energy released by the
condensation of atmospheric water vapour, and its precipitation into rain, is
similar to that energy required to drive atmospheric circulation; i.e. wind currents.
This ground breaking approach could be of real
importance in our scientific understanding of the challenge of climate change;
for the authors note:”...the current incomplete understanding of the general
circulation precludes a theory-based analysis, from fundamental physical
principles, of the role of latitudinal atmospheric mixing in stabilizing the
Earth’s thermal regime...”. In other
words, it points to the hydrological cycle as playing a key role in the Earth’s
atmospheric dynamics and temperature regulation.
What implications, if any, are to follow
from this new climate science being true for Africa? Well an interesting point
was made in SAES facebook discussions by Leslie Tetteh: That windpower
infrastructure should be situated in the vicinity of Africa’s great expanse of
lakes. If the new climate science of Makarieva and colleagues is true, then
Africa will also be blessed with renewable inland wind energy resources, with
the winds driven by the continuous cycle of evaporation and condensation over
its great expanse of lakes.
Earth Science Book
Reviews
An Introduction to Atmospheric
Thermo-dynamics by Anastasios Tsonis 4
The text is recommended for students of
atmospheric science, meteorology, physics and natural science.
Affiliation and Association with other organisations
SAES is affiliated to the
African Association of Women in the Geosciences, Solar Sister, and is an active
supporter of the African led counter land grab initiatives, Stop Africa Land
Grab and Stop Land Grabbing.
Earth Science Events
September 8 – 12, 2013
Geological
Society of South Africa – Geoheritage 2013 Conference
Venue: Klein
Karoo, Western Province, SA.
Conference invites
papers focusing on various aspects of geoheritage, including Geo-education in relation to heritage and
conservation, management of geoparks and
important gelogical/geomorphological sites. There will be an exhibition of landscape art. Contributions on the role of
landscape art in geoconservation are invited.
Weblink: http://www.gssa.org.za/
October 15-18, 2013
The Africa Climate Conference
Venue: University of Dar es Salam,
Arusha, Tanzania
Africa is
highly vulnerable to current climate variability and extremes, and most likely
to suffer adverse effects of change. Current limits to our collective
understanding of the African climate systemimpede our collective ability to
deliver adequate early warnings and climate predictions and restrict the use of
climate information by those most vulnerable to the current and future impacts
of changing climate.
October 28-29, 2013
2nd Annual International Conference on
Geological & Earth Sciences (GEOS 2013)
Venue: Phuket, Thailand
With the
advent of technology and industrialization, the Earth's resources are being
pushed to the brink of depletion. Conference looks at the role of earth
scientists in maintaining the balance
between the Earth’s limited resources and the demands of
industrialisation.
November 24-26, 2013
7th
International Conference on Africa Geology
Venue: Assiut,
Egypt
A conference to
present new advances, and research results in the fields of theoretical,
experimental and applied geology of Africa.
References, Selected Reading,
etc
3.
International
Fund for Agricultural Development, Soil
and Water Conservation in Subsaharan Africa, Rome, 1992.
4.
Jordan, et al (eds), Land & Power: Sustainable
agriculture and African Americans - A collection of essays from the
2007 Black environmental thought http://www.tehelka.com/qaim-theory-gm-crops-good-for-food-security/?singlepage=1conference. Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), 2007.
5. Seralini, G, Clair, E., Mesnage, R., Gress, S., Defarge, N., Malatesa, M., Hennequin, D., and de Vendomois, J.S., Long term toxicity of a Roundup
herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize, Food
and Chemical Toxicology, 50(2012), 4221 - 4231.
6.
Makarieva,
A.M, V.G. Gorshkov, DSheil, A.D. Nobre, and B.L. Li, Where do winds come from? A new theory on how water vapour condensation
influences atmospheric pressure and dynamics, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 1039-1056, 2013.
7.
Gupta,
S.K., Modern Hydrology and Sustainable
Water Development, Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, 2011.
8.
A link
on “Groundwater and Rural Water Supply in
Africa”: http://www.iah.org/downloads/occpub/IAH_ruralwater.pdf
9.
Link to Journal of African Earth Sciences: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-african-earth-sciences/
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