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140 Comments
- fegul, on 11/04/2009, -3/+25Africa is a CONTINENT, not a country. Specify which country and government you're talking about first
- Yond, on 11/04/2009, -7/+29I feel bad for Africa, most of the continent is turning into a desert.
- Kungfumantis239, on 11/04/2009, -7/+26Wait...wait wait wait
Africa is gonna be the one to play hardball when it comes to environmental protection?!
I'll take it! - MadLeper, on 11/04/2009, -10/+29I'm sure that Africans have and will suffer more from their own intolerances, tribal hatreds, corruption and ignorance than they ever would from Global Climate Change.
Hey Africa, how about we stop sending you Aid money and put it towards developing new Green technologies instead ? Would be a much better value for the money. - MWeather, on 11/04/2009, -1/+18They didn't sell us their relatives, they sold us their enemies. And that was merciful compared with what they'd do to them if there was no profit motive for keeping them alive.
- Heidenreich12, on 11/04/2009, -13/+25You don't learn in the history books that other African people sold us their relatives to bring to the states for slavery. Nope, they don't ever tell you about that. Just bringing that up would make you a racist.
- DrVic, on 11/04/2009, -5/+15I didn't rape Africa, Africa was drunk and doesn't remember consenting!
- kurtergad87, on 11/04/2009, -1/+10It really shouldn't be considered a controversial statement that there is an increasing rate of desertification around the globe, but in case you want to read about it there is always Google:
http://scholar.google.dk/scholar?q=desertification ...
Although Wikipedia is a better option in my opinion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification
"In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent will be able to feed only 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa"
"The primary reasons for desertification are overgrazing, over-cultivation, increased fire frequency, water impoundment, deforestation, overdrafting of groundwater, increased soil salinity, and global climate change." - billricardi, on 11/04/2009, -4/+13The problem here is, some of these countries are coming of age and they know that means burning a lot of cheap fossil fuels like coal and oil. They're in quite a tough situation. They understand that the fossil fuel leap will damage their environment, but without it they're going to have to rely on aide from developed nations so that they can leapfrog their 'coal age' and jump right into high tech solutions like tidal power, hydroelectric, solar, etc. Neither choice is something that they can really afford. It's a grim Catch 22.
So the developed nations have to provide aide to these countries AND keep their own environmental promises if they want to make a significant impact. Its a tough pill to swallow for them. - MonkeyOverlord, on 11/04/2009, -4/+12Almost all of the aid money that is sent to them ends up in the hands of the ruling class and their cronies. It does no good. What Africa needs is to wallow in poverty until it develops the kind of basic civil culture that Europe, the US, Canada and the richer Asian countries have which makes serious, open corruption socially unacceptable.
- directedition, on 11/04/2009, -0/+8It's funny, because most of the dried up lake beds have been the result of excessive damning and booming populations requiring more water in places were water was already in limited supply.
- inactive, on 11/04/2009, -3/+10"Africa is a CONTINENT, not a country."
If only it were a country, talks about an African Union always break down because every tinpot dictator from Khadaffi to Mugabe want to be declared the undisputed leader of Africa.
The point is African needs to worry about it's own problems before they start blaming the west. - Frostek, on 11/04/2009, -2/+9You start thinking about things first.
- MonkeyOverlord, on 11/04/2009, -4/+11Considering what AIDS and malaria are doing to the population of most of Africa, it won't matter in a generation for Africa whether global warming is happening or not.
- Hetman, on 11/04/2009, -0/+7Common knowledge is common knowledge. I am sure you do feel bad about genocide and slavery however why pass the buck? It is wrong regardless if a white man and or black man did it.
- bluto36, on 11/04/2009, -1/+7when your sewer is the street and river, your main concern is not the environment.
- atroxodisse, on 11/04/2009, -4/+9The primary reasons for desertification are overgrazing, over-cultivation, increased fire frequency, water impoundment, deforestation, overdrafting of groundwater, increased soil salinity, and global climate change.
Nothing in there about CO2. The driving factor of climate change may be CO2 or it may be methane, or it may be increased water vapor or a combination of them, but it is not the primary cause of desertification. What we need to do is teach these people how to farm and how to maintain their soil, not send them money. - Idiggapony, on 11/04/2009, -0/+5Thought about it. Still don't know what you're talking about.
- slvrbullet87, on 11/04/2009, -0/+5"overgrazing, over-cultivation, increased fire frequency, water impoundment, deforestation, overdrafting of groundwater, increased soil salinity"
So none of those really have an effect?
Sounds to be that Africa is ***** up their own land and then blaming other countries for the problem. - thanakar, on 11/04/2009, -3/+8It wasn't the industrialized nations that turned most of northern Africa into a desert, it was the grazing of grasslands by nomadic herders with their goats.
- MadLeper, on 11/04/2009, -11/+16The Africans have done a wonderful job of raping their own country without our help, thank you very much. And hows that slavery business working out ? Still going strong I hear.
Africa would be a paradise if it weren't for all the Africans... - norwegianlegion, on 11/04/2009, -5/+10Well, they're right :\ . Just as we won't go green until we feel the effects of climate change (and thus it's too late) or it becomes economically viable, they won't stop killing endangered species and cutting down forests so long as there is poverty. You try telling poor people to starve to save some Gorillas or trees.
- URnotheonly1, on 11/04/2009, -8/+13I am not willing to sacrifice my life so they can get in the game. I am more then willing to help them get into the game, but i'm not going to give it to them via ***** global warming treaties....
- kingmanic, on 11/04/2009, -0/+5You can blame the US indirectly; The US is the largest food aid donor int he world. The food aid has allowed populations in Africa to rise beyond their natural carrying-capacities of the land. Thus they HAVE to adapt to higher yield farming techniques to keep everyone from starving. The spread of Western medicine has also made the problem worse.
There are few real solution that does not involve the mass removal of human beings from Africa. Any thing we do that reduces the food yield per area or increases their net population growth is adding to the problem. - Zap2, on 11/04/2009, -1/+6Well I learned that in history...and no, it doesn't make you a racist, if it fit into the conversation, just you just screaming "African's are evilllzzz"
- jbmcb, on 11/04/2009, -1/+6Darfur conflict in Sudan
Rampant economic turmoil in Zimbabwe, courtesy of Mugabe
More or less complete lawlessness in Somalia
Witch burnings in Kenya
Women in South Africa are more likely to be raped than learn to read
Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world
Guinea is run by a military junta who regularly massacres any political opposition
Nigeria's human rights abuses has it's own article in Wikipedia
Republic of Congo still practices slavery
Madagascar is yet another African country with a self-appointed leader
Burundi is home to the FLN, one of the more notorious terrorist/freedom fighter factions, though things have been getting better recently
DR Congo - well, it's the DR Congo - the average mortality rate is somewhere around 45,000/month, due to pretty much everything you can possibly die of
I think that covers a good chunk of the African Union. There are standouts - Ghana is rather nice, I hear and Mauritius is doing very well. But the bulk of the countries over there are going to hell in a hand basket. - deweyhewson, on 11/04/2009, -0/+5So if someone sells their child to sex slavery it excuses the slave trader?
Evil is evil. - DankBuddz, on 11/04/2009, -1/+6Considering Africa has the highest population growth rate out of any other continent by FAR, I don't think AIDS and malaria are doing exactly what you think they are.
- areyouserial, on 11/04/2009, -0/+5The core problem everywhere is energy. I wish there were sufficient political will in industrialized countries to organize a country-wide effort to research and develop a fossil fuel replacement.
- TheDougem, on 11/04/2009, -0/+5Coastal tribes went and kicked the tar out of inland tribes, and brought them back to the Europeans to sell as slaves. Plenty of willfull enabling taking place there.
I'm not justifying it in any way - but we do ourselves a favor by knowing the history and understanding that shades of gray dominate. - jp2535, on 11/04/2009, -5/+10I think he means pretty much all of them
- dsmx, on 11/04/2009, -4/+9Overpopulation is the main problem affecting Africa.
- inactive, on 11/04/2009, -3/+7Wow, dankers.Seriously, ***** you.
- fegul, on 11/04/2009, -2/+6The UN (among others) CHOOSES to give some African countries handouts (which I don't necessarily agree with in the long-run) but African nations do not choose to feel the side-effects of the gluttony of many developed nations.
- prakash1234, on 11/04/2009, -0/+4Historic emissions - western countries have polluted their way to economic prosperity.
Now they want to tax growing economies like india, middle east, china, india as they cant get their GDP to grow up.
Look at US with per capita emissions 400 times more than china.
You cant expect developing countries to remain in stone age. - Expl0siv0, on 11/04/2009, -4/+8good for them
- TheDougem, on 11/04/2009, -4/+8If African nations are willing to go through the effort to ensure said money and aid wouldn't be hoarded by warlords and used to consolidate power for corrupt regimes - I am fine with helping them. Until then, it just seems we're throwing more and more well intentioned dollars into an abyss.
I still strongly feel that if major industrial nations are going to agree to global warming restrictions, -all- major industrial nations should do so. It shouldn't be some lopsided deal where the US has to cut back so that China and India can continue to grow without much regard for the environment. Such a move can't be 'justified' by past history. We're living in the present, and their pollution matters just as much as ours does, if not more.
And yes, before folks leap on me, I'm well aware of the problems the US has with dealing with things like Electronic Waste, and I favor finding ways to -cleanly- dispose of that stuff instead of simply dumping it on china. - TheDougem, on 11/04/2009, -1/+5AND all the while, via any approach, Africa has to be modernized and willing to accept modernization for the best results.
Until they do that the continent is going to be rife with tribalism, disease, occasional genocide, warlords, and violence. See DankBuddz reply below - education is key. - TheDougem, on 11/04/2009, -3/+7"The primary reasons for desertification are overgrazing, over-cultivation, increased fire frequency, water impoundment, deforestation, overdrafting of groundwater, increased soil salinity, and global climate change."
Notice the first few listed - one could almost consider them an order of importance.
Overgrazing, and over-cultivation.
Somehow, I think more will be accomplished focusing on countering those two primary causes, as opposed to leaping on the climate change bandwagon. That approach reeks of the 'blame someone else and never change my ways' mentality. - DankBuddz, on 11/04/2009, -1/+5Many places in Africa harbor natives that don't even understand the concept of why they get sick by drinking from a water sources they allow their livestock to ***** and piss in. Its not so much telling them to starve to save a tree, its more like making them understand simple concepts they we all take for granted.
- Zap2, on 11/04/2009, -3/+7wow.....is this part of the white mans burden you still believe in?
- DankBuddz, on 11/04/2009, -2/+5"The extent of human cause is theoretical."
Maybe still for 3% of the scientific community it is... oh and 97% of the Digg population as well. - inactive, on 11/04/2009, -25/+28We'll cut our carbon output as soon as they stop poaching for ivory and arming children with AK-47's.
- twinklyJesus, on 11/04/2009, -9/+12*citation please*
Oh, and a major part of North Africa IS a desert and has been for thousands of years. Should be bear responsibility for that too? - swantamer, on 11/04/2009, -2/+5"industrial countries are refusing to commit to the carbon reductions necessary to prevent drought, agricultural damage, rising sea levels threatening coastal areas and the spread of tropical pests and diseases"
Oh well, I guys you should have thought of that before you decided to be a poor, undeveloped, economically challenged African nation. - Hetman, on 11/04/2009, -5/+8Yea they have to take the brunt of the impact of malaria aids starvation also. Yea that is what blows about being in a poor country. I dunno the west screwed up a long time in africa. There does not seem to be a solution any time soon.
- inactive, on 11/04/2009, -13/+16I'd say you got plenty from Africa when you raped it.
- TheDougem, on 11/04/2009, -1/+4Totally agree.
The trick is to do this without enabling warlords and corruption, and the 'blame others' mentality that tends to dominate there. It's very easy for tribe B to say 'Tribe A polluted the water!' when tribe B allowed their livestock to spoil said water.
A little education can go a long way if it's taken seriously. - jp2535, on 11/04/2009, -2/+5your moms ass wasn't good stuff
- Hetman, on 11/04/2009, -1/+4Here is the thing. China has already set themselfs up to exploit africa. Do you think they are going to treat africans better then there own people? If everyone caucasian left tommorrow it would be replaced with an arab or an asian. It is happening right now. Unless there is some great african country that rises up and helps rebuild africa the rest of the world is not going to. You do not state where you are from but unless it is africa you really have nothing you can say about arrogance.
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