The seasonal forecast of the forthcoming rainy season is of paramount importance, particularly in the SADC counties where rain fed agriculture is the backbone of the economies of many member states in the region. It has become an important tool in many key sectors such as disaster risk reduction, water management and health. Recent developments… Read more »
CSAG Blog
5 Ways Weather Has Changed History
While searching for some topic of interest to bumble on about in this blog, I remembered an article I read ages ago that left an impression. Maybe the weather is something that most of us at CSAG think about on a daily basis (I hope), but it is interesting to hear how the weather has… Read more »
Signal vs. Noise
What is the difference? What is the optimal length of time to separate signal from noise in a period of climate warming? Happy new year!!! For the last couple of weeks I have been reading articles related to climate change and global warming and have found the use of certain technical terms very interesting. The… Read more »
Is it because of climate change?
First and foremost, happy new year! I hope you enjoyed reading articles on the CSAG blog last year. Let’s see if we can keep the momentum going in 2013. Please do share the blog with interested friends and colleagues and feel free to post comments on current and past blog articles. I hope everyone had… Read more »
More reflection on interdisciplinary research and how funding institutions such as the NRF play a pivotal role in fostering interdisciplinary scholarship
In her blog Zoe pointed out some of the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary research. I would like to follow Zoe’s lead as I believe that interdisciplinary work will in the future become the norm rather than the expectation. But I am also of the opinion that until now we still lack some of the… Read more »
Did Hurricane Sandy help Obama to win the US election?
Mother Nature timed one of her catastrophic onslaughts perfectly during the build up towards the election of the new leader of the world’s largest economy. It almost seemed as though hurricane Sandy intended to steal the US election campaign’s “thunder” while at the same time remained the US (and the rest of the world) who… Read more »
Cli-fi
Do you ever wonder how will the future, warmer world look like? What will changing climate bring upon us? No, not in terms of extreme temperatures, frequency of storms, magnitude of floods and sea levels rise, but in terms of our daily activities, relationships with our neighbours, workings of the community, city, nation, or all… Read more »
Ozone Recovery and its Future Impact
The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered by three British Antarctic survey scientists in 1985 to the disbelief of the scientific community, as no one had anticipated the extent of the decline in the polar ozone. Shortly after, chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) (responsible for the depletion of the ozone) production was curbed thanks to the negotiations of the… Read more »
Oh…what about the Oceans?
Being a marine biologist by training, I find the connection between the ocean and climate systems most interesting. The oceans play a critical role in our climate system. Unfortunately our oceans are not immune to climate change and are significantly affected by it. It has been documented and observed that alterations of the environment are… Read more »