The Road to Durban: Tracking Global Warming’s Devastating Impact Across the African Continent

 For more on the impact of climate change on the African continent and an update on the U.N. Climate Change Conference COP 17 talks, we’re joined in Durban by John Vidal, environment editor for The Guardian. Vidal has just returned from a journey between Africa’s two most industrialized countries — Egypt and South Africa. His route included one of Africa’s poorest nations, Malawi — its newest, Southern Sudan — and its hungriest, Ethiopia. He visited some of the continent’s most remote tribes in Uganda and Kenya, and coastal areas here in South Africa. For all of these countries, the stakes of what comes out of COP 17 are high. "It was a terrifying journey of reality," says Vidal. "Very little science has been done, but there is absolutely no doubt about the consequences — which are going to be very much hotter temperatures, making it almost impossible to live in many areas, huge effects on the poor people."