2008 Woodie Awards
A convenient excuse
Nadine Goldman
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: Op/Ed
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Last week, I received a rather bizarre email directed to members of the now inactive Do It for Darfur group on campus. Sent by the Environmental Action Team (EnAcT), the email asserted that the genocide in Darfur "has been partially caused and escalated as a result of climate change causing increased desertification, starvation and water shortages." But never fear! The email went on to explain that "EnAcT is working hard to educate the campus about what each individual can do to combat climate change." Finally, the email encouraged me to get involved by attending the next EnAcT meeting.
My initial reaction was something along the lines of confusion, shock and horror. How could anyone suggest that a genocide that has been going on for three years, in which 400,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced, be the result of climate change? How could anyone suggest that the genocide was caused by something abstract like global warming, while the Janjaweed militia is murdering and brutalizing more people every day? Finally, I wrote off the email as a lame (and rather disturbing) attempt to get more people to show up to a meeting.
Later on, however, I did some Google searching and realized that our EnAcT group wasn't the first to blame the Darfur genocide on global warming. In an article for SEED Magazine, writer Josh Braun claims that Darfur "may well be the first war influenced by climate change" and that "the acknowledgment of how the dispute began" has been "lost in discussions about ending the Sudanese government's attacks on its people." Michael Klare, author of the book Resource Wars, suggests that Darfur represents a pattern of resource conflict. He argues that in Africa, the pressures of climate change, population growth, rising consumption patterns and globalization mount into conflicts along ethnic and religious lines "because that's how communities are organized," but Klare believes that "they're really fighting over land or water or timber or diamonds."
My initial reaction was something along the lines of confusion, shock and horror. How could anyone suggest that a genocide that has been going on for three years, in which 400,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced, be the result of climate change? How could anyone suggest that the genocide was caused by something abstract like global warming, while the Janjaweed militia is murdering and brutalizing more people every day? Finally, I wrote off the email as a lame (and rather disturbing) attempt to get more people to show up to a meeting.
Later on, however, I did some Google searching and realized that our EnAcT group wasn't the first to blame the Darfur genocide on global warming. In an article for SEED Magazine, writer Josh Braun claims that Darfur "may well be the first war influenced by climate change" and that "the acknowledgment of how the dispute began" has been "lost in discussions about ending the Sudanese government's attacks on its people." Michael Klare, author of the book Resource Wars, suggests that Darfur represents a pattern of resource conflict. He argues that in Africa, the pressures of climate change, population growth, rising consumption patterns and globalization mount into conflicts along ethnic and religious lines "because that's how communities are organized," but Klare believes that "they're really fighting over land or water or timber or diamonds."