Climate change and Darfur

Climate Progress highlights an article in the Atlantic Monthly arguing that:

The violence in Darfur is usually attributed to ethnic hatred. But global warming may be primarily to blame.

I don't have a subscription, so I'm relying on Climate Progress's account. Apparently, the author argues that changes in sea surface temperature are likely to have weakened monsoon rains in Darfur. The ecological crisis that resulted from lower rainfall led to the conflict over land, and then to the genocide.

There is another way that climate change is involved. A major political barrier to action on Darfur is the geopolitical maneuvering over Sudan's oilfields. China is making friends in the Sudanese government, and the US has little interest in losing access to that oil, especially as major existing oilfields start to peak. Our addiction to petroleum – the cause of climate change – ties our hands in dealing with geopolitics and global security.

More like this

The following article is mirrored from TomDispatch.com. I thought that while we are watching the weather heat up, we should not forget that geo-politics heats up with it. Six Recent Clashes and Conflicts on a Planet Heading Into Energy Overdrive By Michael T. Klare Conflict and intrigue over…
How do you activate an otherwise disinterested Republican base on the issue of global warming? As we argued in our Policy Forum article at Science, two possible frames are to recast the issue as really a matter of moral duty or alternatively as an issue that might promote increased profits from…
Sipping from the internet firehose... This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H.E.Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup (skip to bottom) Top Stories, $100 Oil, Northern Carbon, Old/New Year Arctic Warming, North Atlantic Warming, USCCSP, Earth…
This post was written by Peter Sinclair and Greg Laden in response to a recent Wall Street Journal Op Ed piece by Matt Ridley and Benny Peiser. In a recent Wall Street Journal commentary, “Your Complete Guide to the Climate Debate,” Matt Ridley and Benny Peiser ask what might make world leaders…

Let's not let Europe off the hook. The US has had a ban on trade with Sudan since 1997. Europe and Canada, however, have had continuous trade with Sudan throughout the genocide in southern Sudan and the Darfur genocide, and France and other investors have repeatedly opposed or tried to limit sanctions on Sudan.

President Clinton, 1997: Executive Order 13067Blocking Sudanese Government Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Sudan. (Renewed by Bush in 2002.)
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=53505

Switzerland, Darfur, and oil
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12146

Map of oil concessions in central and southern Sudan
http://www.rightsmaps.com/html/sudmap2.html

Anti-black racism is certainly an aspect of the Darfur genocide.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16001-2004Jun29.html

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engafr540762004

That's it... I'm going to blame another crummy season of Royal's baseball on global warming.
Why not... it causes everything from teenage pregnancy to an increase in marijuana and opium production. It's got to also be causing the increases in my high scores at pinball too.