A New Consciousness About Global Warming
Zoë Macintosh
Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: News
Quoting Ole Danbolt Mjøs, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in deeming that the conflict in Darfur was "the first climate war," Klare made the ominous and controversial statement that such wars were already underway.
Klare asserted that conflicts in Saharan Africa widely understood as "religious" or "ethnic" problems were actually largely driven by global warming's expansion of the Sahara desert. Besides Darfur, he included the current conflicts in Mali, Chad and Somalia as examples of incipient climate wars. All of these countries exist in the same Sahel belt as Darfur, a vast region currently experiencing desertification.
Klare predicted that these conflicts were "only the beginning" of what would be increasing clashes over critical river systems as droughts dramatically hurt their capacity to serve the populations that depend on them. Citing the earlier week's race-related riots in Paris, he also predicted increasing episodes of ethnic violence in Europe, as countries strain under the burden of the heavy illegal migration already taking place from uninhabitable regions of Mediterranean Africa.
Klare said that violence and hate crimes "are going to explode exponentially as all of Africa becomes one enormous desert."
Klare added that within the next 50 years, Central Mexico, too, would become a desert; the Rio Grande and Colorado River would be in danger. Within the 50 years after that, finally the United States would run out of water. In response to a question about this future, Klare stated the populations of the United States, a country with no water at this point, and Australia, a country that would still have water, at 300 million and 31 million people, respectively, and declared that he would be "very worried about the future sovereignty of [Australia]."
Reminding the audience of how difficult it is to solve the problem in Darfur, Klare insisted that the security threat posed by global warming was at least comparable to that of "the so-called rogue states."
He added that $500 billion a year goes toward alleviating this "single threat," while one one-thousandth as much goes towards addressing the danger caused by global warming.
Klare ended with the imperative that people must elevate climate change to the status of national security and urged listeners to scrutinize presidential candidate's energy policies.
Klare asserted that conflicts in Saharan Africa widely understood as "religious" or "ethnic" problems were actually largely driven by global warming's expansion of the Sahara desert. Besides Darfur, he included the current conflicts in Mali, Chad and Somalia as examples of incipient climate wars. All of these countries exist in the same Sahel belt as Darfur, a vast region currently experiencing desertification.
Klare predicted that these conflicts were "only the beginning" of what would be increasing clashes over critical river systems as droughts dramatically hurt their capacity to serve the populations that depend on them. Citing the earlier week's race-related riots in Paris, he also predicted increasing episodes of ethnic violence in Europe, as countries strain under the burden of the heavy illegal migration already taking place from uninhabitable regions of Mediterranean Africa.
Klare said that violence and hate crimes "are going to explode exponentially as all of Africa becomes one enormous desert."
Klare added that within the next 50 years, Central Mexico, too, would become a desert; the Rio Grande and Colorado River would be in danger. Within the 50 years after that, finally the United States would run out of water. In response to a question about this future, Klare stated the populations of the United States, a country with no water at this point, and Australia, a country that would still have water, at 300 million and 31 million people, respectively, and declared that he would be "very worried about the future sovereignty of [Australia]."
Reminding the audience of how difficult it is to solve the problem in Darfur, Klare insisted that the security threat posed by global warming was at least comparable to that of "the so-called rogue states."
He added that $500 billion a year goes toward alleviating this "single threat," while one one-thousandth as much goes towards addressing the danger caused by global warming.
Klare ended with the imperative that people must elevate climate change to the status of national security and urged listeners to scrutinize presidential candidate's energy policies.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
tomfeinberg
Writing a Dissertation
posted 11/16/09 @ 6:37 AM EST
"As far as I'm concerned, the work of working group one is finished," I think that it is really nice!
Post a Comment