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The Vancouver Sun
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=93ef4993-e9a2-4f1b-8897-491ae4495277
Fobbing off human atrocities on the weather is absurd
Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, April 26, 2007
The cause of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur couldn’t be more obvious: The Sudanese government in Khartoum is encouraging and supporting Arab militias to wreak havoc on a civilian population it perceives as a threat. But John Ashton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s “special ambassador” on climate change, sees things differently. Ashton argues that the changing climate in Darfur has driven two communities into competition for the same land. He would have us believe that global warming rather than a rogue government is responsible for the conflict that has claimed 300,000 lives and displaced two million people, including more than 200,000 refugees in Chad. He went on to attribute a 40-per-cent drop in rainfall in northern Darfur over the last 20 to 30 years to climate change, saying it was consistent with what the climate models predicted. “It’s another early sign of what we’re in for to a much larger degree unless we get the mitigation side of this right,” he said last week.
Can it be that a senior representative of the British government believes that the violence and concomitant disease and malnutrition can be resolved by cutting greenhouse gas emissions? Some Brits are famed for their dottiness, but this hypothesis borders on lunacy.
CARE, one of the humanitarian organizations on the ground in Darfur and itself a target of intimidation by the Sudanese regime, knows full well what the conflict is all about — government manipulation of ethnic and tribal tensions, a politically disenfranchised population seeking a national voice, widespread lawlessness and a proliferation of weapons, all exacerbated by poverty.
Drought was a common natural occurrence in this region long before climate change became a global mantra. Bible readers may recall Joseph’s warning to Pharaoh of seven years of famine in Egypt. Experts in desertification agree that overgrazing, deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices are largely responsible for the soil degradation that leads to desertification. If anything, desertification contributes to global warming by releasing carbon dioxide stored in vegetation and soil into the atmosphere, rather than the other way around.
Curbing greenhouse gas emissions won’t end the suffering in Darfur. Tough sanctions against the Sudanese government, a powerful United Nations/African Union military force and security for aid organizations helping victims in this ongoing affront to humanity just might do the job.
The climate change narrative has taken a wrong turn when officials begin to excuse human atrocities because of the weather.
