The environmental problems of Africa are of great importance for the whole world, because it is the second largest continent and its population exceeds 1 billion inhabitants. The average population density is 31 people per square kilometer.
Scale
The environmental problems of Africa affect 55 countries, in which there are 37 cities with a population of more than a million. It is the hottest continent on the planet because it is located in the tropics. However, due to the size of the territory, it is possible to distinguish zones with different climate regimes.
The territories of Africa that require solving environmental problems are deserts, tropical forests, and much more. Mostly plains prevail here, occasionally highlands and mountains. The highest point is Kilimanjaro, a volcano towering 5895 meters above sea level.
Neglect
Governments of the countries of the continent do not pay too much attention to the environmental problems of Africa and their solutions. Few people care about reducing the harmful effects on nature. Modern technologies for environmental protection are not being introduced. Africa's environmental problems of reducing or eliminating waste are not being addressed.
Considerable attention should be paid to such industries as heavy and light industry, metal processing, animal breeding, and the agricultural sector as well as mechanical engineering.
The environmental problems of African countries are due to the fact that safety precautions are neglected in the manufacture of certain goods, harmful emissions are not cleaned and enter the atmosphere in an unprocessed form, a large amount of wastewater goes into water bodies.
The main negative factors
Chemical waste enters the natural environment, polluting and spoiling it. The environmental problems of Africa arise because resources are spent chaotically, not rationally and thoughtfully.
The land is exploited, cities are too awash with people who live in poverty. Unemployment in settlements sometimes reaches 75%, which is a critical level. Specialists are poorly trained. So the environment is degrading, as is man - an integral part of it.
In fact, this continent has a unique wildlife and vegetation. In the local savannah you can find beautiful shrubs, small trees such as terminalia and bush, as well as many other beautiful views. The same can be said of animals. However, lions, cheetahs, chic leopards and other residents of local territories are very affected by poachers, whose criminal activity is not adequately suppressed by the state.
Disappearance already threatens very many representatives of wildlife, and someone completely disappeared from the face of the earth. For example, earlier here you could meet quagga, who is a close relative of the zebra, also an equid creature. Now she is completely exterminated. At first, people tamed this animal, but then abused its trust so much that it was brought to extinction. In the wild, the last such individual was killed in 1878. They tried to save them at the zoo, but there their family was interrupted in 1883.
Dying nature
The environmental problems of North Africa mainly consist of desertification, which is associated with uncontrolled deforestation, which spreads to new territories, devastating them. Thus, land resources are degrading, soils are prone to erosion.
From here, deserts appear, which on the continent are already enough. There are fewer forests that are the creators of oxygen.
The environmental problems of South Africa and the center are largely in the destruction of the tropical sector. Also a dangerous and harmful to nature place is a peculiar city formed on the continent, which acts as a landfill, called Agbogbloši.
It was created in the northwestern part of the continent near the capital of Ghana - Accra. This is the “resting place” for electronics waste collected around the globe. Here you can see old televisions and details of computers, telephones, scanners and other similar devices.
Mercury, harmful hydrochloric acid, poisonous arsenic, various metals, lead dust and other types of chemical compounds in terrifying amounts exceeding any burrows and concentration doses several hundred times fall into the ground from such garbage.
In the local water all fish died long ago, the birds do not dare to fly in the local air, there is no grass on the soil. People living nearby die very early.
Betrayal from within
Another negative factor is the fact that the heads of local countries have signed treaties according to which waste from the chemical industry is imported and buried in it.
This is either an unwillingness to understand the dangers of the consequences, or a simple greedy impulse to cash in on the destruction caused to the nature of one's own land. In any case, all this in a monstrous way affects the environment and people's lives.
From developed industrial countries it is here that toxic substances and radioactive compounds formed during the production process are brought in, since their processing will be much more expensive. Thus, for mercenary purposes, the nature of Africa is destroyed not only by representatives of other countries, but also by those who must patronize this territory and take care of it.
Fauna impoverishment
During the 18th century, the number of otters decreased, as their fur was very popular. For the sake of "soft gold" people went to this crime before nature. In 1984, the floodgates of the dam were opened, which killed 10 thousand caribou who migrated. Also affected were tigers, wolves and a lot of other animals.
Black rhinos are rapidly dying in the west of the continent. Conservation experts believe that the reason for this is the uncontrolled action of poachers, who are very attracted to the horns of these animals, which are sold at a high price on the black market.
White representatives of the species, which can be found in the north, also suffer. About a quarter of the mammalian species that inhabit the continent are close to total extinction. Amphibians disappear even faster. Statistics are constantly being updated, but they are by no means good news.
If governments do not seriously think about environmental protection, the list of problems can only increase, so at the moment it is very important to implement positive changes.