Saturday, May 14, 2011

When the water ends: Africa's climate conflicts


When the water ends:Africa's climate conflicts

This is now reaching a point where climate related conflicts are also occurring amongst tribes. Water evaporation, decreasing water levels, drought, desertification, all leading to lack of crops, death of livestock and fish and the pastoralist culture being drastically affected by the changing climate. This will lead to climate refugees and already is, but many times it is the men who leave, leaving behind the women and children in order to look for a better place while the women are left trying to deal with the consequences.

Africa, Asia and the Middle East are cited as areas where water scarcity will only be getting much worse as the effects become more pronounced. It really does make all of these wars seem so meaningless when we could be using our resources to better mankind instead, no? Also remember, in these areas of Africa culture and tradition are big parts of their lives, with many not understanding what climate change is all about. People will not be able to help themselves if education is not part of this equation and they continue to live in countries with political corruption that allows the privitzation of what little resources they already have. These include landgrabs taking place by multinationals in collusion with other governments and organizations to grow biofuel and megadams which many times move water away from where it is needed most.

Another World Water Day Gone

We see another World Water Day pass us by. The theme, Water For All, signifies that though some progress has been made we are woefully behin...