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Creating green patches in the heart of desert

Bangladeshi peacekeepers helping Malians grow vegetables
Mohammad Al-Masum Molla, back from Mali
With much of it set across the barren Sahara, Mali does not grow a lot of vegetables. The people are more used to meat and dairy, since traditionally they are not accustomed to vegetable cultivation.
But things started changing since last year. That was when Bangladeshi peacekeepers started encouraging local people to cultivate vegetables.
Now, Malians grow vegetables on a one-hectare plot on the bank of the Niger river that traverses 2,000 kilometres of Mali.
Bangladeshi troops have also set up water pumps on the river for irrigation.
Food is mostly imported into the landlocked Mali. But that need not be the case at all.
"The land is so fertile that all one needs to do is sow the seeds and tend to them. The production is
quite impressive," said Contingent Commander of Bangladesh Battalion-6 Col M Khair Uddin.
Peacekeepers distributed seeds and other agricultural supplies among the locals and trained them in vegetable farming. They also showed Malians how to cook vegetables.
"Now the farmers in Mali are capable of producing beans, watermelons, tomatoes and more. We regularly monitor their activities and guide them," said Maj Abu Gofiir, who looks after the civil-military activities.
He also said as part of civil-military cooperation, they have undertaken such engagement with the local community to win them over - enabling the peacekeeping operations to run smoothly.
Mostafa Younesa, a 50-year-old farmer in Wabaria of the Gao region, said Bangladeshi peacekeepers have opened their eyes and created greenery in the heart of the desert.
"They give us all kinds of support, including seeds and guidance," he said, expressing gratitude.
Sixty-year-old Yeahia Yousuf, another local, said he never had the opportunity to try vegetables but now they have become part of his regular diet.
He also earns some money selling the vegetables, Yousuf said.
"Bangladeshi peacekeepers provide us seeds and we produce the vegetables. We consume some and sell the rest," he said.
Col M Khair Uddin said the extreme weather makes it difficult to cultivate vegetables in the heart of the desert.
"But we encourage them through various initiatives. We buy their vegetables so that they feel more encouraged to produce," he said.
Deputy Speaker of the Mali Parliament, Mamadou Fah Simpara, said the Bangladeshi government
the increasing influence of climate change, the response of humanity thus far, and projected changes in global climate in the future.
It highlights the urgency and the potential of ambitious climate action in order to limit irreversible impacts.
An accompanying WMO report on greenhouse gas concentrations shows that 2015-2019 has seen a continued increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and other key greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to new records, with CO2 growth rates nearly 20 percent higher than the previous five years.
CO2 remains in the atmosphere for centuries and in the ocean for even longer. Preliminary data from a subset of greenhouse gas observational sites for 2019 indicate that CO2 global concentrations are on track to reach, or even exceed 410ppm by the end of 2019.
"Climate change causes and impacts are increasing rather than slowing down," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, who is co-chair of the Science Advisory Group of the UN Climate Summit.
He said sea level rise has accelerated and they are concerned
by an abrupt decline in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, which will exacerbate future rise. "As we have seen this year with tragic effect in the Bahamas and Mozambique, sea level rise and intense tropical storms led to humanitarian and economic catastrophes."
SEA LEVEL RISE
Over the five-year period, May 2014 -2019, the rate of global mean sealevel rise has amounted to 5mm per year, compared with 4mm per year in the 2007-2016 ten-year period.
This is substantially faster than the average rate since 1993 of 3.2mm/year. The contribution of ice melting from the glaciers and the ice sheets has increased over time and now dominate the sea level budget, rather than thermal expansion.
SHRINKING ICE
Throughout 2015-2018, the Arctic's average September minimum (summer) sea-ice extent was well below the 1981-2010 average, as was the average winter sea-ice extent.
The four lowest records for winter occurred during this period. Multiyear ice has almost disappeared.
Antarctic summer sea ice reached its lowest and second lowest extent on record in 2017 and 2018,
respectively, with 2017 also being the second lowest winter extent.
The amount of ice lost annually from the Antarctic ice sheet increased at least six-fold, from 40Gt per year in 1979-1990 to 252Gt per year in 2009-2017.
OCEAN HEAT AND ACIDITY
More than 90 percent of the excess heat caused by climate change is stored in the oceans. The year 2018 had the largest ocean heat content values on record measured over the upper 700 metres, with 2017 ranking second and 2015 third.
The ocean absorbs around 30 percent of the annual anthropogenic emissions of CO2, thereby helping to alleviate additional warming.
The ecological costs to the ocean, however, are high, as the absorbed CO2 reacts with seawater and changes the acidity of the ocean.
There has been an overall increase in acidity of 26 percent, since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
EXTREME EVENTS
More than 90 percent of natural disasters are related to weather. The dominant disasters are storms and flooding, which have also led to highest economic losses.
Heatwaves and drought have led
to human losses, intensification of forest fires and loss of harvest.
Heatwaves, which were the deadliest meteorological hazard in the 2015-2019 period, affected all continents and resulted in numerous new temperature records.
Almost every study of a significant heatwave since 2015 has found the hallmark of climate change, according to the report.
The largest economic losses were associated with tropical cyclones. The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the most devastating on record with more than USD 125 billion in losses associated with Hurricane Harvey alone.
On the Indian Ocean, in March and April 2019, unprecedented and devastating back-to-back tropical cyclones hit Mozambique.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXTREME EVENTS
According to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, over the period 2015 to 2017, 62 of the 77 events reported show a significant anthropogenic influence on the events' occurrence.
An increasing number of studies are also finding a human influence on the risk of extreme rainfall events.