Writes on climate change:
Where climate change has occurred in the industrialised 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.
Err, no, Katrina was not caused by climate change.
The melting of the snows on the peak of Kilimanjaro is a warning of the changes taking place in Africa.
Nope, not that either. However, this is most certainly true:
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.
It’s poverty that makes them vulnerable so the solution (not just for climate change reasons) is to try and remove the poverty. Less subsistence and peasant agriculture, more efficient large scale such. More industrialisation, greater wealth. These things require well known priors…the rule of law, economic freedom and so on. That, in turn, means regime change.. Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea and many other places will never develop while the current bunch of murderous thugs are in charge.
Quite how to acheive that though is a rather more difficult question.
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