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Introduction


The climate conditions have changed significantly in the last 50-100 years. Global temperatures are rising and so is the number of people who write about them. Now, I would also like to participate in this movement. As a geography student who has been dealing with the topic of climate change for a while, I would now like to deal intensively with a certain topic in the sometimes overstraining topic of climate change. I will deal with a previously unknown area (for me) and record my thoughts here every week. I would be more than happy if you would accompany me on this journey and participate in it. The focus of this blog will be on climate change and water in Africa. Probably these kinds of pictures show up in your head when you think about this topic.

source: www.worldvision.de
source: www.huffingtonpost.com
  soure:waterwellsforafrica.org
source: darkroom.baltimoresun.com
Is there something wrong about it? I don’t know. I just know that these clichés exist. But that’s why I want to explore more.
To go into details, I will specify myself into a special location where I can look at the effects of climate change more intensely. That’s the reason why I chose the Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. I’ll give you the facts about the lake: mean width: 50 km; mean length: 650 km; mean depth: 570 m; maximum depth: 1,470 m. Pretty large, right? For the bordering countries of Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it’s the basis for nutrition and revenue. The annual harvest can have a value of several million US Dollars (O’Reilly et al., 2003). As you can imagine the climate change has an impact on the characteristics of the lake and there is proof. Because there’s been regional warming in the surface-water since the twentieth century it can be linked with the global warming and its repercussions. Furthermore, there’s been a regional decrease in wind velocity which is followed by reduced mixing of the water (O’ Reilly et al., 2003). Logically, this phenomenon has further consequences. I will get to this and other conditions in the following weeks. I have brought myself and hopefully also you to the taste to learn more about the topic in the coming weeks.


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