Africa dying for a climate deal
Monday November 23 2009
As world leaders prepare to gather in Copenhagen for a summit on climate change, there appears to be widespread acceptance that they won't be able to agree a deal.
For a week in December, therefore, world attention will be focused on this giant piece of theatre, where everyone will express their concerns at global warming, without doing enough to stop it.
Africa's farmers can't wait for a deal on climate change -- they are adapting the way they work, because they will starve if they don't. So thousands of miles away from Copenhagen, the poor farmers of Africa are showing world 'leaders' the way.
Their landscape has changed dramatically -- with long droughts followed by floods. These are people who live on a knife-edge, with little or no savings to see them through hard times. Crop failures can, quite literally, be fatal for them.
Ethiopia and Kenya, to take just two countries, are now experiencing prolonged drought conditions that have pushed over eight million people to the brink of starvation.
The greatest irony is that climate change was mostly caused by us, in the developed world. The people paying the price for it are among the lowest carbon emitters in the world -- the small farmers. The world must wake up to the future -- both by cutting emissions and supporting those who are suffering from the consequences of our actions.
Ray Jordan
Self Help Africa
Irish Independent
