[wvns] Desmond Tutu: World Of Katrinas
A World Of Katrinas
Desmond Tutu
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/09/a_world_of_katrinas.php
What if dealing with climate change meant more than a flick of a
switch? Would our friends in the industrialized world think
differently if the effects of climate change were worse than extended
summer months and the arrival of exotic species? Cushioned and
cosseted, they have had the luxury of closing their minds to the real
impact of what is happening in the fragile and precious atmosphere
that surrounds the planet we live on. Where climate change has
occurred in the industrialized world, the effects have so far been
relatively benign. With the exception of events such as Hurricane
Katrina in 2005, the inhabitants of North America and Europe have felt
just a gentle caress from the winds of change.
I wonder how much more anxious they might be if they depended on the
cycle of Mother Nature to feed their families. How much greater would
their concerns be if they lived in slums and townships, in mud houses,
or shelters made of plastic bags? In large parts of sub-Saharan
Africa, this is a reality. The poor, the vulnerable and the hungry are
exposed to the harsh edge of climate change every day of their lives.
The melting of the snows on the peak of Kilimanjaro is a warning of
the changes taking place in Africa. Across this beautiful but
vulnerable continent, people are already feeling the change in the
weather. But rain or drought, the result is the same: more hunger and
more misery for millions of people living on the margins of global
society. Even in places such as Darfur, climate change has played a
role. In the semi-arid zones of the world, there is fierce competition
for access to grazing lands and watering holes. Where water is scarce
and populations are growing, conflict will never be far behind.
In so many of the countries where the poorest live, governments are
ill-equipped to cope. Katrina was a challenge for the U.S., so why
should we be surprised that the annual cyclone season off the east
coast of Africa continues to stretch the governments of Mozambique and
Madagascar to their limits? Where governments are weak, the reliance
on humanitarian agencies is greater.
People who work for bodies such as the UN World Food Program are
finding their work is a humanitarian "growth industry." Indeed, the
numbers of people who know what it's like to go hungry stands at more
than 850 million, and they are still growing by almost 4 million a
year. The increasing frequency of natural disasters makes the fight
against hunger even more challenging. The World Bank estimates that
the number of natural disasters has quadrupled from 100 a year in 1975
to 400 in 2005.
In the past 10 years, 2.6 billion people have suffered from natural
disasters. That is more than a third of the global population—most of
them in the developing world. The human impact is obvious, but what is
not so apparent is the extent to which climatic events can undo the
developmental gains put in place over decades. Droughts and floods
destroy lives, but theyalso destroy schools, economies and opportunity.
Every child will remember the story of the three little pigs and the
big bad wolf. In the world we live in, the bad wolf of climate change
has already ransacked the straw house and the house made of sticks,
and the inhabitants of both are knocking on the door of the brick
house where the people of the developed world live. Our friends there
should think about this the next time they reach for the thermostat
switch. They should realize that while the problems of the Mozambican
farmer might seem far away, it may not be long before their troubles
wash up on their shores.
Desmond Tutu is a former archbishop of Cape Town and a Nobel peace
laureate. This article originally appeared in The Guardian and is
reprinted from Black Agenda Report.
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