ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the details and dynamics of environmental threats affecting Africa. It begins with an overview of indicators of such pressures and identifies the regions most challenged by these. The chapter outlines a set of economic tools useful for analyzing environmental issues – the concepts of externalities, public goods, common property resources and social cost-benefit analysis. It utilizes the tools to examine examples of water pollution, deforestation and wetlands usage across Africa. The chapter then turns to the analysis of global warming and climate change. It introduces a set of economic concepts to help understand environmental factors. The forces impacting Africa are reviewed as well as the implications of these, especially for women in fragile agricultural environments. Economic development considerations in post-independence Africa commonly underemphasized environmental factors. The chapter reviews consequent damaging externality, driven in large part by Greenhouse Gas emissions.
