GEOGRAPHICAL GENOCIDE - “Climate change is having a growing impact on the African continent, hitting the most vulnerable hardest, and contributing to food insecurity, population displacement and stress on water resources. In recent months we have seen devastating floods, an invasion of desert locusts and now face the looming spectre of drought because of a La Niña event. The human and economic toll has been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

The Universal Declaration of human rights 1948, recognizes the right of persons to seek asylum from persecution in other countries, the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, adopted in 1951, is the centerpiece of international refugee protection today.

Warming of the planet by nations refusing to change or adapt from fossil fuels to sustainable sources that do not generate greenhouse gases, constitutes persecution of a kind that the G20 group have known about since at least 1990, but failed to address with due diligence. Indeed, the signs from Australia, China, India and Russia, are that they intend further climate warming persecution, that in our view equates to geographical genocide, a crime as per the Convention and Rome Statute, International Criminal Court.

Storms and weather-related events have displaced an average of 24.1 million people every year around the world since 2008. The World Bank estimates that another 143 million people will be displaced by 2050 in just three regions: sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America. These are the regions most affected by desertification.

Merely having a Conference once a year, does not mitigate the crime in progress. As with climate COPs, they have been held to be disingenuous Flops and Cop-Outs, rather than any genuine effort toward rectification.

Climate refugees should be able to seek compensation of sufficient magnitude to dissuade those rogue nations from continuing on their present commercial expansionism, especially concerning the burning of coal and the use of oil for transport and heating.

DESERTIFICATION

Desertification is such a serious problem that the United Nations has a Convention to Combat the problem. They also hold annual conferences involving something like 197 parties, known as COPs. But so far they have been FLOPS, unable to halt the loss of agricultural land, with talk and little action. As Greta Thunberg says: blah, blah, blah.

The problem is fossil fuels and deforestation, coupled with professional climate deniers, known as climate nazis or criminals, who lobby to keep burning coal, gas and oil, instead of providing the infrastructure for electric vehicles, battery and hydrogen - also catering for fossil fuels during phase in - requiring some 600,000 service stations world wide. A mammoth task that none of the G20 seem to appreciate, and will not tackle until they can award contracts to their cronies. Because, politics is all about profits.

Clearly, the loss of potential agricultural land to barren wastes puts additional pressure on ocean fisheries in the harvesting of wild fish and aquaculture for farmed fish, to make up for the loss of food production leading to security issues that is sure to involve millions starving and dying from malnutrition as world populations increase from 7 billion to 9 billion souls.

By 2025 the UN says two-thirds of the world will be living under “water-stressed” conditions – when demand outstrips supply during certain periods – with 1.8 billion people experience absolute water scarcity, where a region’s natural water resources are inadequate to supply the demand. Migration is likely to increase as a result of desertification, with the UN estimating that, by 2045, it will be responsible for the displacement of some 135 million people.

The importance of ensuring that land is well-managed is noted in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which declares that “we are determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations”. Specifically, Goal 15 states our resolve to halt and reverse land degradation.

WATER SECURITY - A study published by United Nations’ water researchers says there has been an “exponential increase” in global desalination capacity compared to 20 years ago — and a concomitant increase in the flow of polluted, hyper-salty brine water into the ocean.

While the biggest plants are located in the Middle East, North Africa, Spain and small island nations, the study estimates that there are now 15,906 desalination plants operating in 177 countries (with more than 300 in Sub-Saharan Africa).

South Africa has about 10 small desalination projects, including pilot plants built in the coastal cities of Cape Town and Richards Bay after the recent severe drought. Similar plans have been proposed to ease growing water demand in the Durban area.

The new research suggests that 40% of the world’s people face severe water scarcity already, and that this bleak situation will only get worse because of human population growth, development, inland water pollution and climate change. Desertification is partly cause by desalination.

..

FOOD AID - Desertification gives rise to mass human migration as climate change refugees who will need feeding as a result of the excesses of the developed world.

THE FIVE WORLD REGIONS

Five world regions – Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Northern Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe - have the important job of deciding how to implement the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. 

...

____

__

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://unfccc.int/news/climate-change-is-an-increasing-threat-to-africa

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

https://www.unccd.int/

https://www.unccd.int/convention/about-convention

https://www.un.org/

Please use our A-Z INDEX to navigate this site