A South African climate-change app, the Explorer, was launched at the world climate conference, Cop24, in Katowice, Poland this week.
The visual and data-rich app tracks SA’s efforts to mitigate against the impacts of a shifting, hard to predict climate.It was launched by the SA department of environmental affairs (DEA).
The app, named the SA Biennial Update Report Explorer, was developed in collaboration with World Resource Institute and gives civil society as well as policymakers, businesses and researchers access to data on SA’s goals and progress in contributing to the international effort to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
The increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are the main drivers of climate change – a threat that is causing havoc to the environment globally, according to the latest report by the World Metrological Organisation (WMO).
The WMO found that since the start of industrialisation in 1750 until 2017 greenhouse gas concentrations rose astronomically. There has been a 146% increase in CO², a 257% increase in CH4 and a 122% increase in N2O.
The WMO says 90% of the energy trapped by greenhouse gases is being absorbed by the oceans, which were becoming warmer and more acidic, and that sea levels rose in the first six months of this year by 2mm to 3mm.
Climate change is the reason polar bears are dying of starvation in the Arctic, there is mass coral bleaching (die off) and many parts of SA have received some of the worst rainfall ever recorded this year.
“If some good rain does not fall before 31 December, East London will have had the second lowest rainfall on record. Other centres also recorded similar low figures, with Port Elizabeth at the fourth, George at sixth lowest and Cradock seventh lowest,” said Eastern Cape SA Weather Services spokesperson, Garth Sampson, on Friday.
International science has found that climate change means warmer temperatures, shifting seasons, changing rainfall patterns, and rising sea levels, which disrupt the behaviour of the earth’s flora, fauna, marine life and the ecosystems that support them. Hence there is the dire need for a global effort to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
The Explorer will allow South Africans to track SA’s progress toward tackling climate change, and give live statistics on SA’s greenhouse gas, said deputy director-general for climate change, Dr Tsakani Ngomane.
The app is available at www.southafricaclimateexplorer.org..