Climate change behind Darfur killing: UN's Ban - AFP

Related: A Climate Culprit In Darfur - Ban Ki Moon, Wash. Post Op-Ed

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Source: Agence France-Presse

Climate change behind Darfur killing: UN's Ban

Sat Jun 16, 5:27 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - 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.

-snip-

"For the first time in memory, there was no longer enough food
and water for all. Fighting broke out," he said.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070616/sc_afp/undarfurwarming_070616212708

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Source: Associated Press

U.N. head links climate change, Darfur

Sat Jun 16, 9:37 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Climate change is partly to blame for the conflict
in Sudan's Darfur region, where droughts have provoked fighting
over water sources, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in
an editorial published Saturday.

"Almost invariably, we discuss Darfur in a convenient military and
political shorthand — an ethnic conflict pitting Arab militias
against black rebels and farmers," Ban wrote in The Washington
Post. "Look to its roots, though, and you discover a more complex
dynamic."

Rainfall in Sudan began declining two decades ago, a phenomenon
due "to some degree, from man-made global warming," said Ban,
who has made both Darfur and climate change priorities.

-snip-

Ban said similar ecological problems are behind conflicts in other
countries, including Somalia and Ivory Coast.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070617/ap_on_re_us/un_darfur_climate

...I highly recommend the Jared Diamond book "Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed".

He has an entire chapter on Darfur and climate change.