Climate change is responsible for the genocide in Darfur, we’ve recently learned. According to the Secretary General of the U.N., Ban Ki-moon, the Darfur genocide is due in part to anthropogenic global warming:
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the slaughter in Darfur was triggered by global climate change and that more such conflicts may be on the horizon, in an article published Saturday.
“The Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change,” Ban said in a Washington Post opinion column.
UN statistics showed that rainfall declined some 40 percent over the past two decades, he said, as a rise in Indian Ocean temperatures disrupted monsoons.
“This suggests that the drying of sub-Saharan Africa derives, to some degree, from man-made global warming,” the South Korean diplomat wrote.
Those poor Darfurians, the U.N. has brought the genocide into the realm of climate science. When global governments reverse the trend of planet-wide climate change with their bureaucratic wisdom and wide-spread policy changes, can Darfurians really rest assured that the killing will stop? Of course, most of us would prefer that the international community take more immediate action on factors that are more directly linked to the conflict.
Unfortunately the world has not taken any real action to stop the Darfurian genocide. Is the U.N. really appealing the popularity of climate change and Darfur as issues in order to guilt us to turn off those extra light bulbs? Since the time-frame for starting to reverse global warming is 2025-2050, is this about stopping the genocide or this about using the genocide as a poster campaign to affect global attitudes surrounding climate change?
The secretary general of the U.N. claims that anthropogenic climate change is responsible for Darfur. The U.N. should stop thinking up twisted graduate thesis topics and take immediate steps in encouraging and enabling the international community in ending the genocide.
The industrial revolution has been responsible for generating the tools of wealth creation, has been responsible for removing barriers for the movement of labour and capital and has created the conditions for globalized and freer trade among nations. In fact, industrialization has done much to spread philosophy and enlightened ideas around the world. Arguably, the world is richer because of our emission of greenhouse gases and if Darfur is suffering, it is not because we drive SUVs, it is because of ethnic hatred that has existed long before the Watt steam engine or the mechanized loom.