Volume 14, Issue 4, October - December 2025
CONTENT
Chair's Foreword*
African Earth Sciences Must Aim for Africa's Climate Resilience Alongside the Sovereignty of its Resources
Earth Science Events
References and selected reading
Chair's Foreword*
We again address climate. Inevitably, the prominent current concern addressed by earth and atmopheric sciences is climate warming. However, we must not in the the rush to progress with the science, neglect the economic necessity of diligent resource management, for the betterment of African lives.
This issue is dedicated to the memory of a dear friend and collaborator, Explo Nani Kofi, who directed the Kilombo Centre in Ghana and invited SAES to run a solar energy workshop at its annual Ghana Street Parliament event in Peki in 2016. Our sincere condolences to his family. Members and readers are free to review the reports on that event in our newsletter archives. There were well over 30 young and enthusiastic participants in that workshop, which our brother Explo had the mind to have translated live in Ewe language for the benefit of the wider population. It reminded us that language is perhaps the most powerful tool in our attempts to decolonise our knowledge systems.
African Earth Sciences Must Aim for Africa's Climate Resilience Alongside the Sovereignty of its Resources, in Particular, it's Energy Transition Materials (ETMs)
A foray into the latest earth science research alerts us to more evidence of accelerating climate change.
Increased Water Vapour:
Studies from 2024 [1] show record levels of atmospheric vapour, which is a key driver of the temperature-vapour feedback loop that amplifies warming. This increased water vapour correlates directly with the potential for more extreme and intense rainfall events, especially from tropical storms [2]
Extreme Precipitation Trends:
Research confirms a significant increase in extreme rainfall events over recent decades, with regional variations. [3]
The frequency and intensity of weather disasters, including floods and rapidly intensifying cyclones, is rising.
Record Global Temperatures:
2024 was the warmest year on record, exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above industrial levels for the first time on an annual basis[4]. Although this seems alarming, a limit of 1.5 degrees annually above preindustrial levels would have to be breached over a period of two decades before 1.5 degrees C is accepted as breached. One year observed over 1.5 degrees is not enough.
This unprecedented warmth leads, as we expect, to more atmospheric water vapour and hence more extreme rainfall. The warmth contributes to unprecedented sea level rise and affects atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns governing the weather.
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| Groundwater Mapping of Africa |
In summary, global earth science research and discussions at the present are dominated by the present dangers and existential threat of climate change. The research indicating increased trends in extreme rainfall are borne out this year. 2025 has been a notable year for extreme flooding and rainfall events across Africa [5].
And even in the African Diaspora, 2025 can point to Hurricane Melissa, which devastated parts of Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba, with dozens of lives lost.
Although Africa only contributes 3-4% of global emissions, we have seen that it suffers disproportionately from the effects of climate change [6]. Success in managing the effects of climate change in Africa is grounded in local and regional action involving:-
*Hydrological and geological mapping: identifying and managing water resources to combat scarcity
*Agricultural science: developing climate resilient farming practices and soil management[7]
*Early Warning Systems: Utilizing meteorological and Geophysical data to predict weather events.
As well as an African imperative to fight climate change on the front foot and on the front line; there is the risk and threat of economic doom that looms on the horizon; whereby the rising demand for renewable energies is accompanied by a leap in demand for energy transition materials.
From an African economic development viewpoint account must be taken of the Continent's deep economic vulnerability to the exploitation of its mineral resources; particularly in being the world's treasure chest of energy transition minerals - that is, those minerals of critical value in enabling the global energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables. Such minerals are: cobalt, lithium, copper, platinum and rare earth metals.
The value of these minerals is exported when they are exported in their raw state. When the raw materials are shipped abroad for processing, this transfers jobs that could have employed Africans, along with the accompanying industrial development, to the industrialised countries, to Europe and USA. In addition to this, mining agreements are often more favourable to multinational corporations than to the source nation.
Furthermore, the resource extraction takes an environmental toll. Local communities must continue to bear the cost of environmental degradation resulting from badly regulated extraction industries whilst the economic benefits of the extraction are enjoyed elsewhere.
The dynamic described above represents a colonial cycle of unending exploitation which destroys Africa's long term economic potential. A key question for Africa's economic future is: How can Africa avoid being exploited for its ever more critical mineral wealth, when in addition to supplying for global energy transition, it is also needed to improve the quality of lives of generations of African people.
A powerful tool in regard to the trading of African minerals is collective bargaining. African countries can negotiate more powerfully as a block, rather than individual countries.
The idea of an "OPEC (organisation of petroleum exporting countries) for minerals seems to urgently require being made into a concrete reality for Africa's economic survival. The case of the Congo makes this Continental block [ an African "OMEC (organisation of mineral exporting countries) ] more complex, yet more of an urgent priority.
Africa has since independence been the victim of the so called "resource curse". It now has to forge a path of climate resilience; but it must do this at the same time as guarding its wealth of critical minerals, that are in peak demand for the eventual transition from fossil fuels to renewables.
Earth Science Events
15 November 2025
International Conference on Applied Icthyology, Oceanography & Aquatic Environment
VENUE: Cairo, Egypt
12 January 2026
International Conference on Water Resources, Hydraulics & Hydrology
VENUE: Elmohndseen, Egypt
18 January 2026
International Conference on Maritime Biology & Oceanography
VENUE: Lilongwe, Malawi
27 January 2026
International Conference on Oceanography & Climate Change
VENUE: Cairo, Egypt
12 January 2026
International Conference on Geology and Geophysics
VENUE: Nairobi, Kenya
18 January 2026
International Conference on Marine Biology & Oceanography
VENUE: Lilongwe, Malawi
27 January 2026
International Conference on Oceanography and Climate Change
VENUE: Cairo, Egypt
12 February January 2026
International Conference on Water Resources, Hydraulics and Hydrology
VENUE: Elmohndseen, Egypt
21-23 April 2026
Future Health Africa 2026: Re-imagining Healthcare through technology in Africa
VENUE: Casablanca, Morocco
References and Selected Reading
[1] State of the Climate Report, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2024 & Fowler, J., How Atmospheric Water Vapour Amplifies Earth's Greenhouse Effect, Feb. 2022. Https://science.nasa.gov/earth/climate-change/]steamy-relationships-how-atmospheric-vapour-amplifies-the-greenhouse-eeffect.
[2] Yoo-Jun Kim; Joon-Bum Jee and Byunghwan Lim, Investigating the Influence of Water Vapour on Heavy Rainfall Events in the South Korean Peninsula, Remote Sensing, Volume 15, Issue 2, 2023.
[3] Water - at the Centre of the Climate Crisis, United Nations, https://un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/water & Martinez-Villalobos and Neelin, J.D., Regionally high risk increase for precipitation extreme events under global warming, Scientific Reports, Volume 13, article 5579, 2023.
[4] Global Climate Highlights 2024, Copernicus. Https: // www.copernicus.eu.
[5] See SAES NEWSLETTER #56.
[6] UNEP, Responding to Climate Change, Feb. 2024.
[7] SAES Newsletter #54
*Board of the Society of African Earth Scientists: Dr Enas Ahmed (Egypt), Osmin Callis (Secretary - Guyana/Nigeria), Dr Stanley Echebima (Nigeria), Mathada Humphrey (South Africa), Damola Nadi (Nigeria), Dr Chukwunyere Kamalu (Chair - Nigeria).
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