Drought in Africa, Drought in California: How Climate Change turns Drought to Job losses
Drought in Africa, Drought in California: How Climate Change turns Drought to Job losses
Credit, Fileunemployment.org
Gianluca Grimalda's company ordered the climate researcher to return back to Kiel, Germany within five days or lose his job. The Island of Bougainville, off the coast of Papua New Guinea, lay fifteen thousand miles from Kiel. If he left Bougainville by flight, Grimalda would meet the deadline, but with the travel producing 5.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per passenger. Slow travel would produce twelve times less carbon dioxide, but meant Grimalda would miss the deadline by a week. Grimalda, a climate activist, decided to return by slow travel, meaning he would lose his job.
Bahile Hassan, a 60-year-old Somalian grandmother, knows she would lose her job one day too, from the death of her goats through drought. In 2016, the drought took 100 of her goats and three camels, out of a herd of 400 goats and five camels. The following year, 160 of the goats and two camels died. The next year, over 100 goats died, leaving her with a herd of just 40. Today, she waits for the drought to wipe everything away.
Alan Mazzoti, owner of a pumpkin patch in northeast of Colorado in the U.S., waits too for the dwindling reservoir he relies on to irrigate his crop to wipe everything away. Some of Mazzoti's colleagues lost 20 percent or more of their predicted yields and, with frustration, they left some of their land bare. Their margins narrowed as a consequence, affecting their ability to make profits off what they sold to garden centers and pumpkin patches. With margins small, many contemplate giving up the entire effort of farming, meaning losing their jobs.
Grimalda, Hassan, and Mazzoti share one thing in common - the possibility of losing their jobs over issues related to climate change. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the equivalent of 80 million people face the prospect of losing their jobs by 2030 due to climate change issues. The situation would lead to an equivalent of losses amounting to USD2,400 billion.
In 2019, more than 41,000 cattle died within a period of 10 months in Namibia, with the figure of losses climbing to 61,000 when the number for goats, donkeys, and sheep get included. By 2022, drought in Africa led to losses in billions of dollars through the death of livestock, with many thrown into unemployment. More than 62,000 livestock died in Tanzania in January of the year, 45,746 cattle, 15,136 sheep, 10,033 goats, and 1680 mules.
Something died in some US pumpkin farmers recently. In Texas, Lindsay Pyle became a victim, having lost about 20 percent of the yield of his pumpkin farm, with groundwater dropping. Jill Graves sources for pumpkins from wholesalers because water scarcity prevents him from growing his own stock. Mike Williams of Ponoka in Canada irrigated his pumpkin farm with 12,000 liters of water every week, but the bill to run the pump won't be covered by the harvest.
Moroccans also suffer the inability to pay bills after harvests, with 280,000 of them losing their jobs in the farming sector this year. A study estimates that the agriculture sector lost $1.1 billion and nearly 9,000 jobs directly from drought. Researchers estimate that drought conditions in California caused $1.7 billion in direct and indirect costs, more than 14,000 in lost jobs, and nearly 400,000 acres of fallowed farmland.
When fallowed farmlands through drought proliferate from Tanzania to Morocco and California, it becomes understandable why the ILO should estimate an equivalent of 80 million people losing their jobs by 2030 over issues pertaining with climate change.
The issue reduced labor productivity between 2000 and 2015, as 23 million working-life years got lost annually on a global level, according to the International Labour Organization On the level of G-20, countries such as China, Brazil, and India lost 8.7, 3.2, and 1.5 working-life years respectively per person per year between 2008 and 2015.Â
By 2030, the total number of work-hours in G-20 countries will experience a reduction by 1.9 percent. In addition to the reduction, the percentage of total hours of work lost due to heat stress may rise by two percent, a labor productivity loss equal to 72 million full-time jobs.Â
The reductions and wastes arising from job losses through fallow land can only be prevented or minimized with concerted efforts at tackling the root cause of the problem - climate change.
Four Exploding Products in Climate tech Sector
As climate change intensifies with the use of fossil fuels, new technologies emerge to lessen the effects. Here are some of the exploding products with the new trend this week. They provide ideas for activists, investors, creators, and founders.
(1) MPPT technology
Most inverters contain a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technology to optimize the effectiveness of the conversion of power time and time again adjusting for the greatest power output from solar panels.
Charge controlled with MPPT market size was valued at USD1.55 billion in 2021 and is projected to rise from USD1.70 billion in 2022 to USD3.27 I billion by 2030, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 9.08 percent during the forecast period (2023-2030).
(2) Cooling System
Solar inverters generate heat during operations, and they often include cooling systems like fans or heat sinks to dissipate the heat and prevent overheating.
The global industrial cooling system market was valued at $16.6 billion in 2022 and is forecast to hit $31.3 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 5.2 percent from 2023 to 2032.
(3) DC-AC Conversion Components
These components include power electronics such as MOSFETs (Metal-oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors) of IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors), which convert the DC power into AC.
The Global AC-DC Power Conversion Market Size hit USD9.7 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.54 percent from 2023-2030.
(4) Power Electronics
They play an important function in electrified vehicle applications to provide a compact and effective products to power conversions.
The global power electronics market was valued at $30.9 billion in 2022, and is forecast to hit $52.8 billion by 2032 growing at a CAGR of 5.5 percent from 2033 to 2032.
What to Eat
A vegan diet from Morocco, Credit, One Green Planet.