Millions hungry as warming shifts seasons

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* Poor communities hit by effects of global warming

* Rainfall more erratic, shorter

* Need to explore alternative sources of energy

The rainmakers were convinced the god was angry.

Holding a sheep on its hind legs, a young man sank a spear into its neck. Those present drank its blood and splashed the rest around the local water catchment area in the hope of appeasing Ekipe, the rain god.

But rituals like this in Nassapir village, in northeastern Uganda's semi-arid and under-developed Karamoja region, no longer seem to pay off.

"We don't know why the god is no longer answering our requests," said Laurien Lokwareng, an elder of the Jie ethnic group. "For years, we used to ask the god for rain and we got it in abundance, but we have had four years without enough rain now, and this is very strange."

In a new report, global aid agency Oxfam says impoverished communities like Nassapir are already being hit hard by the effects of global warming, including increased drought.

Without international funding to help them cope and tough targets for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the food, water, health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people will be put at even greater risk.

Oxfam says interviews it carried out with farmers in 15 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America show that seasons are shrinking in number and variety.

This is destroying harvests, pushing farmers to abandon traditional crops and causing widespread hunger -- which, the agency predicts, will likely be "climate change's most savage impact on humanity in the near future".

Rainfall is reported to be more erratic, shorter and more violent. Unusual weather events -- including storms, drier spells and fluctuating temperatures -- are happening more often. And farmers say winds and storms have got stronger.

"We think that 'changing seasonality' may be one of the most significant impacts of climate change for poor farmers, and that is happening now," said Oxfam programme researcher John Magrath in the report.



INCREASED HUNGER

Savio Carvalho, Oxfam's climate change adviser for the developing world, told Reuters global warming was already affecting people across Africa, and would wipe out efforts to tackle poverty without urgent action like massive tree planting.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, (yields of) maize, which is a staple crop, will decrease by 15 percent by 2020 and that is a big number," he said.

"Drought is now happening on a yearly basis, and there is increased hunger and starvation because of declining food stocks, as we see here in Karamoja," added Carvalho.

Uganda's Health Ministry says the malnutrition rate in the region -- which has experienced 14 droughts in 25 years -- is 19 percent. The U.N. World Food Programme provides food aid to at least 970,000 of Karamoja's 1.1 million people.

Oxfam also warns that in places like Karamoja -- already plagued by high levels of violence due to armed cattle raids between ethnic groups -- failure to improve access to water is likely to exacerbate conflict.

The report says the worst effects of climate change on hunger and poverty can be avoided if communities and governments start adapting now.

The agency is taking practical steps, building a dam in Nassapir to capture any rain that does fall for people and animals.

Oxfam's Carvalho also recommended developing drought-tolerant maize seeds, and experimenting with alternative sources of energy in poor rural areas, where most people rely on cutting down trees for firewood and construction.

He said there were several possibilities in Kotido, the district that includes Nassapir.

"Poverty is compounded when people don't have access to energy, and people in places like Kotido could start exploring bio-gas from cow dung and solar energy from the abundant sunshine, with a bit of investment," Carvalho said.
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Apocalipstick
  • added July 06, 2009

7 comments // Millions hungry as warming shifts seasons

  •  

    This is the kind of story that needs to be read. We desperately must unite this planet around the very fundamedals of life for it's citizens. Or we, and that is we as a collective, will go the way of the dinosaur. Heads up.
    -canofmeatfilm

    canofmeatfilm
  •  

    Perhaps soon the spiking solar radiation will evaporate more water from the rising oceans... unless we do something stupid to prevent the ocean levels from rising.

    Gravity_Man
  •  

    Under the ground a few feet deep the temperature reduces to around 45-50 degrees. IF they dug a deep pit and covered it during the day to keep it low temperature... then uncovered it at night... the moisture-heavy air would fall into the pit NATURALLY. So in the pit if they had a metal mesh like metal trees the moisture would condense on all the tree branches AND RUN DOWN INTO A COLLECTION CISTERN.

    Gee, I wonder if that would work? Anyway, if there ever did come a good rain shower, the pits would be there for the water to run into and filling the cisterns. Hmm, I like it... because then when the sun comes up the rain water would be protected underground from being evaporated away.

    If you had the foresight to make doors that would open out you could catch more rainwater and also collect more moisture from the air if they were also metal... as long as it wasn't in a lodestone area prone to lightning might not work out so well.

    Gravity_Man
  •  

    G-is for the “guilt” and envy and hate you warmies breed instead of preserving our planet.
    L-is for "L"eave my kids alone and stop denying them a future.
    O-is for “OH my God! The sky is falling!”
    B-as in “bow” to what paid consultants in lab coats say.
    A-is for the age of the theory. 23 years and waiting.
    L-is forLa Nina, that turned out to be stronger and delayed Gwing.
    W-is for “Weather” as in Climate Change is really just dogma for weather.
    A-"according to, according to...SHOW ME THE CLIMATE CRISIS! Can you climate pu$$ies think for yourselves?
    R-is for Red, the true color of the Greenzis.
    M-is for “Mental”, as in environMENTAL.
    I-is for"IS" as in the science “IS” clear now, so why can’t we question it now?
    N-is for the NOAA showing10 years of cooling.
    G-is for “God” (and or Nature), and is not in charge anymore. Humans are?

    The theory of global warming tells us the science is clear and it’s not what to believe but rather whom to believe. We deniers of the 23 year old theory say if the science is so clear, we all then possess the ability to interpret the facts and theories ourselves.
    Here are the facts:
    -A policy of precaution is not science, its superstition.
    -Just shy of a quarter of a century of failed IPCC predictions certainly disproves the theory.
    -La Nina is stronger than all of Global Warming’s magical powers.
    -Melting ice does not prove CO2 is at fault?
    -Our cooling clear blue sky disproves the theory.
    -10 years of NOAA cooling disproves the theory.
    -Resulting cooling disproves predicted warming.
    Clearly the responsible action is to deny the theory and work on real pollution and energy alternatives to preserve our planet, not save and rescue it from a failed theory. Otherwise history will view global warming being just another WMD scam that everyone believed for a time.
    Evolved humans don’t need to be motivated by fear alone. Reason and logic and common sense are tools for a successful future that we can face with bravery, not needless panic and ignorance.

    For 2,000 years, the scientific debate was settled. The ancient Greeks had studied the skies, and had determined by the 4th century before Christ that the Earth was the center of the universe.
    And now, for 23 years starting in 1986, scientists studied the skies and this time determined that the planet and nature itself are at the mercy of humans and SUV gas and it’s very own building block of life, CO2.
    God help us.
    Y2Kyoto
    The issues in the existence of global warming are not difficult to understand. Is there a climate crisis? Is the crisis unprecedented, and what is the extent to which we are responsible for any such crisis? These are questions that any literate, reasonably educated person can understand.
    Warmies tell us that the important question is not what to believe but whom to believe. That is how shallow and naive these warmies are.

    Globull Warming: Don’t think, just believe.
    It’s not what to believe, it’s who do you believe?

    mememine69
  •  

    They say in Alaska the ground is actually rising. No need for sky to fall eh? Maybe if the ground rises far enough some new gold veins will break open and all will be well with the world once again.

    Perhaps people will believe more when their house is going UP while their neighbor's house beside them is going DOWN. Or people laying out in the sun being hit with hail from a clear blue sky. As the sun expands Earth becomes the new Venus. Maybe we should put in a call to Dan Akroyd.

    We could offer him and his team Alaska.

    Gravity_Man
  •  

    SUNSPOT CYCLE CRANKING UP => http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,530275,00.html

    2012 getting cranked up also then => http://tinyurl.com/SpecialYears2012

    We need a big can of Spot Remover fast.

    Gravity_Man
  •  

    Texas Wind Farm Project called off by Texan T. Boone Pickens => http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Pickens-calls-off-massive-apf-2238040143.html?x=0&...

    Reckon its time to separate the men from the boys soon.

    Maybe we need a lot of SPACE SHIPS.

    Minus 333 degrees in Space.

    Gravity_Man
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