Effects of global warming seen in Africa

By John C. Bersia

President Barack Obama’s ominous warning about climate change stayed in my mind long after his historic address to Ghana’s Parliament was over. He was correct in noting that a warming planet will spread disease, shrink water resources and deplete crops, creating conditions that contribute to the spread of famine and conflict. Still, as he optimistically added, we can “work with Africans to turn this crisis into opportunity.”

Obama’s assessment is not a projection based on what could happen as climate change unfolds. It reflects what is happening now. Across the continent from where the president spoke, in Kenya — the country of his father’s birth — an urgent example of the crisis brings his words to life. An article titled “A new (under) class of travelers” in a recent issue of The Economist summarized the issue well. It described the Turkana people’s plight in a region that is growing hotter and drier, and providing a diminishing supply of water, grazing land and firewood.

The article also noted that the drought cycle in northern Kenya, formerly once every eight years, now occurs at a rate of one in three. In other words, an already difficult search for the necessities of life has become increasingly desperate, leaving many with just one option: moving to another place, which only intensifies competition for scarce resources and prompts disputes and conflicts.

The Turkana people’s situation is a microcosm of what is occurring on a global basis. Multitudes of other people are also on the move, planning to “travel” or in danger of being forced out of their homes. By the middle of this century, the total could reach a quarter billion. During the short term, most will likely face internal displacement. As time goes by and the number of climate-change victims surges, however, regional disruption becomes inevitable.

What can be done?

Obama offered some general ideas, such as energy partnerships that would help African countries increase their access to power while “leapfrogging the dirtier phase of development.”

Citing the continent’s wind and solar possibilities, geothermal energy and biofuels, he emphasized how it could produce its own power while exporting profitable, clean energy to other countries. Beyond that, detailed recommendations can be found in a newly published report, In “Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement” (http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/documents/clim-migr-report-june09_final.pdf) written by specialists at the United Nations University, CARE International and Columbia University. Among other things, the report urges:

(1) Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to safe levels.

(2) Protecting the dignity and basic rights of persons displaced by climate change.

(3) Increasing people’s resilience to the impacts of climate change so that fewer are forced to migrate.

(4) Establishing mechanisms and binding commitments to ensure that adaptation funding reaches the people that need it most.

(5) Recognizing and facilitating the role that migration will inevitably play in individual, household and national adaptation strategies.

(6) Integrating climate change into existing international and national frameworks for dealing with displacement and migration.

It should be underscored that the suggestions mentioned above are hardly exhaustive; indeed, they represent merely a starting point. We are far from extending our hands around the climate-change problem or its effects, such as displacement and migration. But we owe it to ourselves and future generations to devote our best efforts to finding solutions and, as Obama said, turning this crisis into opportunity.

X John C. Bersia, who won a Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing for the Orlando Sentinel in 2000, is the special assistant to the president for global perspectives at the University of Central Florida. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.