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You may or may not be too young to remember, but from 1972-74 Ethiopia suffered an extensive drought period and occasionally still do, due to the lacking of Monsoon rain. This particular drought killed 200,000 and has killed many more since then. The Ethiopian life expectancy from birth is tied with Chad and Afghanistan at 40 years, the lowest in the world. 69% of Ethiopia was once considered tangible “agricultural land” and for quite a long time they have not even been able to produce enough crops to feed itself. Now, scientists are linking a new factor of green house gas emission to this tragedy. Global dimming, the effect of pollution clouds reflecting sunlight and effectively “dimming” the earth, is being attributed to shifting the path of the monsoon rainclouds that have always given life to the soils of Ethiopia. So, If you can remember your parents saying, “Eat your food because there is people starving in Ethiopia,” they were just passing the shame on to you, from their car crazed and chemical cleaning baby boomer youth. After that shocker, think of the lands around the world drying out and killing even more people especially in poor areas where health care is scarce. Once the Arctic ice cap melts, as it is set to in 2040, and the water level of the oceans rises, who will be left behind. All the people who immigrate will have to live in cities, where culture clash will be very probable. This culture clash could escalate to discrimination, to violence and even to civil war. Imagine an Islamic fundamentalist community displaced to Toronto, and seeing the women. In New Orleans countless people have died already, from a hurricane (Katrina) intensified by abnormally warm waters in the gulf surrounding. This isn’t just a failure of the government, it is a failure in our global society, and we need as many activists we can get to call people into the streets and demonstrate. If we don’t work together, we will not survive. Get active. And as always, think globally, act locally.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7866929448192753501
