Why is Africa the way it is?
Why are its countries where they are?
The relationships between them
The people? The deserts?
Here are X to easily understand Africa better (politics, geography, history, demographics, climate & more)
One of the key ways to look at Africa is through this map: its river basins.
Let's start with the big one in the northeast. It's the Nile's watershed.
Here's northeast Africa at night. See that flower in the middle? That's the Nile through Egypt.
100 million Egyptians live within ~15 miles of its banks. That's ~99% of them.
More details here.
Because all the rest is just desert. The Sahara. But why is the Sahara where it is? Because of Horse Latitudes
Across the world, at that latitude—called horse latitude—there are hot deserts.
But why?
Because of winds
The equator is so hot that air goes high up in the atmosphere, where it gets cold and its water falls.
Due to the size of the earth, that air falls down at the horse latitudes. Dry air falling means no rain.
Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia are just at the limit of Horse Latitudes, have humidity from the Mediterranean sea, and the Atlas mountains condensate the water from the wind. So there's enough water on the north of the Atlas mountain range—so ppl—but nothing south.
That sliver of green in Northwest Africa hosts 92M Africans.
But farther east it's too far south into the Horse Latitudes, so even if Libya is bigger than Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt combined, it only has 5M ppl!
If you look at the river basins in the Sahara, you can see few of these rivers end in the sea: they dry up before they arrive.
Only the Nile manages to cross the Sahara. In fact, it's so unique, it's the longest north-south river in the world.
But where is it born? The Nile is the combination of the White Nile from Lake Victoria, in the middle of Africa, and the Blue Nile, from Ethiopia.
What ppl don't know is that ~90% of the water of the Nile comes from Ethiopia!
Why?
Again, because of rains, obviously
It makes sense that the equator has so much rain, but why Ethiopia? Because of its highlands
Ethiopia's highlands are super high, so they catch all the water from the winds blowing into it.
Here's a closeup of the Ethiopian Highlands. Very high
Why does Ethiopia have so much rain but Somalia is so dry? Because once winds pass Ethiopia, they're empty of water. It's called the rain shadow effect.
But why do winds blow in this direction in Africa, from west to east, and not the other way around? Because of the monsoon winds.
In june-sept, winds blow from the Atlantic towards Africa, bathing the continent with water.
In dec-mar, when the hottest part is farther south, they blow from the Indian Ocean.
That's why Somalia is dry: by the time the jun-sep winds reach it, all the water fell in the Ethiopian highlands.
It's also why the Kalahari (esp Namibia) and the west of South Africa are so dry: by the time eastern winds arrive in jan-mar, all their water has already fallen
Obviously, the more rain, the more food, the more ppl. That's why the map of water precipitation in Africa matches the map of population density pretty well
Except for that hole in the middle. What is that?
Around the equator, land is actually not fertile at all. It's so hot and humid that plants and animals recycle waste extremely fast, before sediments litter the floor. And then rain washes away any potential fertilizer
That's why the same thing happens at the Amazon in America: it's not fertile land, and few live there.
So although the Congo (middle green) is huge and has lots of water, it "only" has 90M ppl (to Nigeria's 200M)
But why are there so many mountains stopping rains across Africa?
Because of the Rift Valley: 2 mountain ranges with a valley in the middle that cross Africa.
These are the mountains that stop all the monsoon water that later become so many rivers, including the Nile.
And why is the Rift Valley there? Because of plate tectonics.
Africa is splitting in two in the Rift Valley. The plates are separating at that level. Central African lakes Victoria, Tanganyka, Malawi, and others are just the central Rift valley trapping water from the 2 mountain ranges on the sides
So there you are: the earth's plate tectonics and size cause Africa's mountains and winds, which cause the continent's geography, and create all these climates where humans thrive—or not:
- Egypt's Nile feeds 100M ppl
- Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia are the Med coast above the Atlas
- Libya is nothing because it has no water. Same as most Saharan countries
- The few Saharan countries that survive live around internal lakes: eg Chad / Niger around Lake Chad
- Ethiopia's highlands catch wind's water, which supports 120M ppl
- But Somalia has none left, so it's desert
- The Rift Valley creates rivers and lakes that can feed populations: Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zimbabwe..
- Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, and South Africa get enough water from eastern monsoon winds that they can support big pops
- Namibia doesn't, so it's desertic. Southern Angola isn't great either. But the north could have a bigger population
- Congo: too hot and humid to be fertile, so its population is limited.
- But the West Africa pop is huge: it has humidity + heat w/o too much as the Congo. That's all the countries btw Senegal & Nigeria
Two shocking events from last week unmasked eco-terrorists disguised as environmentalists:
1. The Philippines banned golden rice, condemning thousands of children to blindness and death 2. German Greens lied to closed nuclear plants
This is what happened and how to reverse it:
1. Golden Rice Ban
Golden Rice has added vitamin A over 100,000 children every year and turns blind over 100,000 more
Golden Rice has additional vitamin A, and eliminates that problem
But Greenpeace got a Filipino court to ban it. Why?
The court says "there's not enough evidence". But there is, proven by safety tests from countries like the US, Canada, and NZ. It is just like rice, except with more Vit A
You think housing prices will keep going up because you've seen it all your life. But this is a historic anomaly that is likely to reverse soon: Prices might start shrinking in many places.
This thread is the case against investing in housing:
Our perception of real estate prices is extremely biased.
Most ppl alive today have only experienced them since WW2, but that's a completely anomalous period!
Prices before did not grow as much. Here are real prices for 14 countries
What happened?
Supply and demand
The last 80 years have seen a growth of housing demand never seen before. At the same time, supply has been shrinking consistently. These trends are all reverting now. Let's look at them in detail:
Why do Jamaicans speak English, when most of its neighboring countries don’t?
Why was the pirate capital there?
Why is it underwater now?
Why did pirates drink rum?
Why are most Jamaicans black?
This map of shipping lanes today gives you a hint:
Jamaica is in the middle of all these shipping lanes, but isn't a major shipping hub today
This is not new: Back in Spanish colonial times, Jamaica was not in the main trade routes either
Spain's main goods were silver from Mexico and Peru and luxury goods from China
Spaniards gathered them in Panama, Portobello, Cartagena, and Veracruz
Ships arrived from Spain to Puerto Rico and left via Habana (Cuba)
Jamaica was not a main port
Why?
This machine makes fuel from thin air
It's carbon neutral
And it does this at record-low costs
Energy and the environment will look completely different in 10 years
Here's why: 🧵
The problem with fossil fuels today is not that we burn them, it's where they come from: They had been locked in the ground for millions of years and now they're back in the atmosphere. The pbm is the "fossil", not the "fuels"
If we make fuels out of thin air, we can burn them
How can we do it?
Natural gas is mostly methane (CH4)
You just need some energy to force some carbon (C) to bing to hydrogen (H)
Carbon can come from air (CO2)
Hydrogen can come from water (H2O)
The energy can come from the sun (solar panels)
This video of the Rock of Gibraltar gives an intuition for why some areas of the world have deserts next to rainforests
What's happening here?
How can you use that to predict where there will be deserts or rainforests?🧵
Look at the map below: In some places, deserts and lush forests are side by side. Why?
The mountain chains between them
The effect is called the Rain Shadow:
• Air comes wet from the sea
• As it hits mountains, it goes up
• Higher altitudes are cooler, so the air cools
• That condenses water (like the droplets on you Coke glass)
• Rain falls
• Air is dry past the mountains
Egyptian pyramids are not where they're supposed to be. Why?
Why is Cairo, the biggest African city, where it is today?
Alexandria?
Why do over 100M Egyptians live so densely clustered?
These questions all have the same answer. Look:
1st map: population density
2nd map: satellite
The "flower" is the inhabited part of Egypt, which is basically the Nile
It makes sense: outside of the Nile, Egypt is like the rest of the Sahara desert, an inhospitable hell for humans