AMONG the dissenters are Dirk Verschuren of Ghent University (Belgium), and colleagues, who found evidence of 'strong droughts in Central Africa during the Little Ice Age' and wetter than average conditions in Kenya'the latter based on magnesium/calcium ratio studies at Lake Naivasga.Likewise, T.M. Cronin et. al. noted that sea surface temperatures off West Africa were one to three degrees lower during the same period, while P.D. Tyson et. al., in The South African Journal of Science, reported low temperature in South Africa that 'are coeval with the Maunder and Sporer Minima in solar irradiance'.The fact remains though, that the most severe consequences for Africa were strategic rather than climatic. The coming of avaricious Europeans, first as slave traders and then as colonial conquerors, disrupted and retarded the social, scientific and economic development of Africa and reshaped its destiny.In light of this, the likelihood of a recurrence'the possibility that a new Little Ice Age is looming' should be, for African policy makers, a concern of the highest priority. It ought to be central to all strategic planning.Is there a Little Ice Age lurking just around the climatic corner' Nobody can say for sure. Scientific opinions vary. But views seem to be skewed towards what, for African states, must be considered a worse case scenario: Towards the prospect that a new Little Ice Age is approaching.Nor should we be distracted by the reality of global warming. In an article entitled, 'Are We On The Brink Of a 'New Little Ice Age,'' Terrence Joyce and Lloyd Keigwin, of the highly authoritative Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (U.S.A.) cautions, sternly, that such reasoning is flawed.'It ignores the well-established fact that Earth's climate has changed rapidly in the past,' they counsel, 'and could change rapidly in the future'. Indeed, the oceanographers argue, quite ironically, that global warming could even be powerful trigger'astronomical factors aside.'The issue centres around the paradox that global warming could instigate a new Little Ice Age in the Northern Hemisphere'. The trigger, the authors assert, may well be a change in the density and flow of ocean currents.'Presently,' they continue, 'there is only one mechanism'that may play a major role'It involves ocean dynamics'.But from the vantage point of African policy makers, it's not the triggering mechanism that matters. It is the strategic implications. Yet Black intellectuals, civic leaders, academicians and elected officials the world over seem utterly unconcerned'even as the rest of the world prepares!In Western countries, preparations run the gambit, from stocking up with food and supplies'against the prospect of famine in the temperate zone countries Europe, Asia and North America'to opening a 'Doomsday Seed Vault' in Norway and buying up land in the tropics, especially Black Africa.'The last time we faced this type of disaster,' counsels James A. Marusek, in the introduction to his 'Solar 'Grand Minima' Preparedness Plan (i.e., Little Ice Age Preparedness Plan), 'was over 300 years ago; as a result, it has almost been erased from our collective memory'.He then warns that, 'A solar 'Grand Minima' produces a time of great hardship, a time of significant natural global cooling, a time of great famine and starvation and a time of major epidemics'.To be continued
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