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Dr Neville Sweijd, CSIR researcher and ACCESS project leader. |
Southern Africa's remarkable geographic, biological, social and economic diversity make the region ideal for the study and inculcation of the principle of improved earth stewardship - therefore the establishment of an Applied Centre for Climate and Earth Systems Science (ACCESS).
ACCESS was officially established by a consortium of institutions and agencies as a DST / NRF Centre of Excellence in November this year and is a key element of DST's Global Change Grand Challenge which sets out to address these challenges and opportunities (see related article in this edition of CSIR eNews).
According to CSIR researcher and ACCESS project leader, Dr Neville Sweijd, ACCESS will be the vehicle "to develop novel methods for helping the poor cope with future climate variations, by learning from and working with them in their efforts to deal with the droughts, floods and fires they already suffer every season."
He says South Africa finds itself in a very challenging position: "We have a relatively well-developed physical and economic infrastructure, yet suffer high levels of poverty. As a consequence we are a relatively small absolute emitter of CO2 on a global scale, but a high per capita emitter and a very high emitter per unit of GDP. We are a major fossil-fuel (in the form of coal) user and exporter. Yet, we currently have a shortage of electrical power."
But rather than seeing the glass half full, these scientists argue that we are presented with a unique opportunity for true integration of planning and development: "The increased awareness of climate change represents an opportunity. Given that climate change is such a sectoral cross-cutting, trans-disciplinary issue, all facets of society are beginning to engage with it.
"ACCESS will provide the opportunity to create a distinctive African institution for the study of earth system climate dynamics and the human dimension from a uniquely southern African perspective, thereby making a significant impact on the global state of knowledge on earth-systems science," Drs Sweijd, Pedro Monteiro and Bob Scholes (all from the CSIR) wrote with Dr Guy Midgley (SANBI) and Profs George Philander, Clifford Shearing and Bruce Hewiston (all from the University of Cape Town) and Rashid Hassan (University of Pretoria).
"Probably most importantly, it is an opportunity for education - the environmental crisis provides the opportunity to engage the youth in their own world and provide a platform for broad education about earth systems and how people interact with it. This harbours the prospect of a new generation of graduates, with the skills, knowledge and values to tackle the difficult problems of the coming century," they wrote in a presentation to a joint sitting of the portfolio committees on climate change and the environment in November this year.
"ACCESS will provide a unique educational opportunity to bring the youth into science and technology and to teach them about their world, thereby skilling students in a set of multidisciplinary and socially conscious approaches to problem-solving. South Africa has a selectively-developed educational system, characterised by pockets of excellence that are unevenly distributed. There is a largely untapped resource of under-educated people and thus, with the appropriate investment, we have the potential to produce a new and transformed generation of expertise," they conclude.
For more information on ACCESS, visit the website at www.africaclimatescience.org
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