Climate Change and Dar Fur (Conflict and Drought)

Climate change and poverty in Africa, two key foci of Tony Blair during last July's G8 meeting. Two foci, but one issue according to economicst Jeffery Sachs, head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

According to Sachs, a peace settlement in Dar Fur is dependant not primarily on political manovering but on measures being taken to secure water supplies.

"In general, crises like these are viewed through the optic of
geopolitics and the military,"

"But when you are dealing with very hungry people and desperately poor
people, unless you also put forward a realistic and viable development option,
you can't make peace."

He told reporters that the international community would need to come up with a global framework for dealing with growing migration caused by droughts, floods and other disasters linked to climate change.

"The world needs a better response than locked gates, barbed wire and
shooting people. The political challenge is enormous and governments need to get
serious about addressing it,"

With the current situation deteriorating by the day little mention is being made of the climate, such avoidance of the truth is damaging for action on climate change and therefore damaging to our prospects of avoiding many more such situations in the future.

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