As South Africa’s climate changes, it poses major threats to South Africa’s resources. Climate change worsens existing environmental issues and adds to the strain on natural resources and damages the biodiversity of the environment. South Africa has a diverse biodiversity with a full range of landscapes including: forestry and desserts. However, the effects of climate change mean the country may experience an increase in extremely volatile weather and a loss in biodiversity. Not only does climate change affect South Africa’s natural resources it also has a negative impact on the countries economy as it changes the ability for industries to produce at a maximum efficiency.
Researchers from the energy and climate intelligence unit (2017) analyzed 59 studies and 41 of the 59 studies showed evidence that climate change led to adverse weather conditions. Dr Friederike Otto who is the deputy director of the University of Oxfords Environmental Change Institute said “We’re now finding that for many kinds of extreme weather events…we can be quite confident about the effect of climate change. Most South African droughts are caused by the El niño weather pattern, in which there are large cycles of high temperatures which usually last from 9 to 12 months but can last for years （World meteorological organization 2018）, and South Africa’s rainfall has always fluctuated. In spite of that, climate change models predict that South Africa will become hotter and drier. A rise of 4 degrees could mean that droughts happen twice as often. With about 98% of South Africa’s available water already allocated severe droughts are a risk, clean fresh water is becoming harder to obtain (GreenCape. (2017). Market intelligence report), in early 2018 it was thought that Cape Town would be the first urban city to run out of waterJosh Gabbatiss。（2018）. The consequences of decreased rainfall and a lack of available water would be seen and felt all across South Africa. One of the main industries that relies on water in South Africa, is agriculture, water is mainly used for irrigation（GreenCape 2017）, in order to water crops. Agricultural products don’t make up a large percentage of South Africa’s GDP (gross domestic product), however agriculture in South Africa remains an important sector, as most people who are a part of the industry are subsistence-oriented, meaning they live off of what they grow and may sell extra produce to generate extra income. There are large amounts of subsistence farmers live in rural areas, rural areas would be largely affected as they rely on dryland food production. The World Bank collection of development indicators reported that in 2016 the total percentage of South Africa’s population living in rural areas was 34.7%.
The negative effects of climate change on natural resources in South Africa are obvious when it turns to areas such as biodiversity and the mineral resources. To begin with biodiversity, both plants and animal species are affected by climate change. On the other hand, since the climate has changed, the average temperatures in the country have risen, the forestry has been negatively impacted, ocean currents have changed, and water has become acidic, the species may possibly lost their habitats and extinct in the country, the evidence can be witnessed in The National Climate Change Response White Paper, which wrote that biodiversity and ecosystems are influenced by climate change and it is believed that 30% of the terrestrial species will possibly disappear in the period of 2050 to 2100. The marine ecosystem is affected by the ocean current and the increasing acidity of the ocean which are the 2 typical forms of climate change (ibid, p. 20). The damage to the biodiversity has led to the change in areas such as fresh water systems and threatened ecosystems which are the areas that would be put under a management of partnership by both public and private companies instead of formal protection (2014, The National Climate Change Response White Paper) while the food chain would be damaged because of the biodiversity which threatens peoples and companies’ profits and food supply. From the ideas mentioned above, human’s benefits will be harmed through the economic sectors and biodiversity sectors. Additionally, the amount of mining and mineral resources leaves as declined due to climate change. It is a fact that the mining and mineral resources contributes to South Africa’s economy, in 2018, The Official Custodian recorded that, the outcome from the mineral industry occupied 7% of the South Africa’s total GDP last year. On the other hand, the amount of mineral would possibly decreases because of the declining of capacity of natural carbon-sequestration which influenced negatively on climate. Due to this factor and the policies which limit the emission of certain compounds which harms the environment, the Government of South Africa reported on the website that the GDP of the sector fall from 20% to 6.8% between the 1960s and the first 8 years in the 21st century. As a result, the economy system would be harmed if the mineral operations are cut down. To draw the conclusion, it is clear that the mineral resources are affected by the climate change.
To sum up, from the ideas mentioned, climate change has influenced negatively on resources in South Africa such as weather condition, fresh water, agricultural industry, biodiversity, and mineral resources. The areas harm the economy system, the efficiency of certain industries, and the life of local citizens. As a result, citizens could behave ecofriendly to create a place that has things well-developed.