Madagascar is truly warming and having less rains, in sum, experiencing climate change! From the 1960s to date, the mean annual temperature has already increased by 0.5 degree Celsius and risks to ramp by approximately 3.4 degree Celsius by the year 2100 under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, according to the country profile 2021 produced by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.[1] Also, the total annual precipitation decreased each year since the 1970s to date and risks to drop even more by 4 percent from about 1,400 parts per thousand millimeters (PPT mm) in 2021 to 1,100 PPT mm by 2100 under a high emissions scenario. In 2020, it rained only once in the Big South region of the island during the normal rainy season November-December.[2]

Madagascar does participate to the changes of its climate conditions because it emits increasing greenhouse gas. The annual level of CO₂ emitted has augmented continuously since 1950 (304,082 tons) but has skyrocketed during the last decade, reaching its highest peak of 4.17 million tons in 2018.[3] Despite a slight decrease to 3.68 million tons in 2020[4], the nation’s annual CO₂ emissions participate to national warming and diminished rainfalls. Our World in Data reports that the Land-Use Change and Forestry and the agriculture sectors are the record sources of CO₂ emissions in our country (respectively 26.75 million tons CO_{2 equivalent} and 23.91 million tons CO_{2 eq.}).[5] During the last two decades, more than 1.5 million hectares of our island’s forests, about 80 percent of the initial tree cover, were deforested mainly to grow crops and produce wood energy, threatening our air quality and the lives of endemic plants and animals.[6] Back in 2007, WWF pointed out only 40 years remaining for all our forests to be cleared.[7]

Climate change aggravates drought, famine, poor health, and lack of education in Madagascar. As a result of absent rains, drought in the Big South is accentuated, does not favor agriculture, and leads to food insecurity, insalubrity, and school dropouts.[8] Even though climate change is not the sole responsible for these plagues, these latter are accentuated by the rising temperature and loss of precipitation, and hence deepen poverty.

Focusing efforts on the education system and sector is a primordial key solution to reverse the burdens of poverty, environmental degradation, and the effects of climate change. Efforts at the micro level exist but are not dependable. Health In Harmony for instance launched an agriculture teaching program for communities living around the Manombo Special Reserve of rainforests since mid-2020. Two thousand individuals were trained to utilize and pass on novel techniques on vegetable and rice planting, enabling them to harvest three times this year instead of once like the precedent years.[9] Likewise, a woman’s classes about “drought-resistant crops and techniques” provided three meals a day for 400 people in her neighborhood located at a dry zone in the South, reported BBC News.[10] Such kind of micro-scale initiatives plus donations and emergency aids from nonprofits and international organizations are helpful but not enough compared to the needs for longer term solutions in the whole country.

The government is a key agent than can upscale equal opportunity for all to learn, higher level of literacy, and better quality of education by building motivating education system and prioritizing investment in this sector. Yes, it has the responsibility to empower the population. Failure to do so will intensify chronic poverty and the incapacity to create, develop and implement smart solutions to our problems. It is worth to invest a major portion of our little financial resources on education. Some examples of governmental initiatives could be building schools where they are too far from villages, building houses for skilled teachers to motivate them to teach in remote places, training additional teachers at the regional level, giving higher monetary value to teaching positions by paying them well, increasing access to the internet at the regional level, developing energy projects at schools and universities, using universities, faculties and scholars as research centers for pilot projects, and constructing roads to liaise villages and schools.

The outcomes of a transformed education system can raise resilient population in our country. If all Malagasy people acquire the necessary skills, knowledge, civism[11], and civilization, they will be more likely able to research, create, test, implement, and improve innovative technologies, techniques, plans and strategies, behave as responsible citizens who agree to follow procedures, rules, and regulations, acquire a sense of community while pursuing personal goals, plan from the results of scientific research, and future generations will feel a possibility to prosper in their own land rather than a need to leave the country for a better life elsewhere. These dreams may come true with a combined consciousness and sacrifice from the leaders and the grassroots of the country.

[1] World Health Organization & United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 2021. Health and climate change country profile 2021. Small Island developing states initiatives. Url: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WHO-HEP-ECH-CCH-21.01.08-eng.pdf

[2] United Nations News. 2021, Jan. 12. “Humanitarian crisis looms in Madagascar amid drought and pandemic.” Url: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/01/1081892

[3] Ritchie, H., Roser, M. 2021. “Madagascar: CO₂ and GHG country profile.” Our World in Data. Url: https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/madagascar

[4] Idem

[5] Idem

[6] Carver, E. 2021, March 9. “Slash-and-burn farming eats away at a Madagascar haven for endangered lemurs, frogs.” Mongabay. Url: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/slash-and-burn-farming-eats-away-at-a-madagascar-haven-for-endangered-lemurs-frogs/

[7] World Wildlife Fund. 2007. Madagascar forests area key facts & carbon emissions from deforestation. Url: https://wwfeu.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/madagascar_forest_cc_final_12nov07.pdf

[8] United Nations News. 2021, Jan. 12. “Humanitarian crisis looms in Madagascar amid drought and pandemic.” Url: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/01/1081892

[9] Schmidt, D. 2021, May 21. “Forest loss and deforestation compounding crises in Madagascar.” Url: https://healthinharmony.org/2021/05/21/forest-loss-and-deforestation-compounding-crises-in-madagascar/

[10] Byaruhanga, C. 2021, Dec. 10. “Madagascar food crisis: How a woman helped save her village from starvation.” BBC News. Url: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59595276?piano-modal

[11] Good citizenship (The Free Dictionary definition); devotion to one's country or city, the virtues and sentiments of a good citizen (Merriam-Webster definition)