Roughly 6,000 years ago, Saharan Lake Mega-Chad spanned 361,000 square kilometres, surpassing all five North American Great Lakes. A scientific study reconstructed its history, showing how orbital changes created the African Humid Period before the lake's abrupt collapse.
A comprehensive global assessment published in Nature reveals that African Great Lakes freshwater species face extreme extinction risks due to pollution, overfishing, and climate change.
The lake whitefish, once a staple of the Great Lakes' ecosystem and economy, is vanishing due to invasive quagga and zebra mussels, which have devastated its food chain. Biologists warn the species could disappear from parts of the Great Lakes within five years.
Invasive sea lampreys, dubbed 'vampire fish,' devastate Great Lakes fish populations, impacting a multi-billion dollar industry. A US-Canada partnership and a chemical lampricide control them, but a 2020-21 lapse saw populations surge. New legislation proposes $500M to find solutions for this and other invasive species.
Wildfire smoke from Ontario and Minnesota affects US mid-Atlantic, northeast, Midwest, and Great Lakes, causing poor air quality, health concerns, and event disruptions, with some relief possible by Sunday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia shares the African Union's deep concerns about the complex situations in various African regions, including the Sahara-Sahel, Great Lakes, Horn of Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, and Libya. He emphasized Russia's commitment to supporting African-led solutions to these crises, inherited from the colonial era.
China, the UN, and the African Union partnered to train security officials from Africa's Great Lakes region in Beijing on small arms control. This initiative aims to reduce illicit weapons circulation and support the AU's "Silencing the Guns" project, addressing instability that threatens China's economic interests.
