Kenyans draw weapons over shrinking resources—Have the climate wars of Africa begun?

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-climate-conflict27-2009nov27,0,303698.story

CHANGING CLIMATE, CHANGING LIVES

Kenyans draw weapons over shrinking resources

Experts fear the conflicts involving cattle, water and land may be just the beginning of climate-driven violence in Africa. At least 400 people have died in northern Kenya this year, the U.N. says.

By Edmund Sanders

November 27, 2009

Reporting from Isiolo, Kenya - Have the climate wars of Africa begun?

Tales of conflict emerging from this remote, arid region of Kenya have disturbing echoes of the lethal building blocks that turned Darfur into a killing ground in western Sudan.

Tribes that lived side by side for decades say they've been pushed to warfare by competition for disappearing water and pasture. The government is accused of exacerbating tensions by taking sides and arming combatants who once used spears and arrows.

…

It's a combustible mix of forces that the United Nations estimates has resulted in at least 400 deaths in northern Kenya this year. Moreover, experts worry that it's just the beginning of a new era of climate-driven conflict in Africa.

"There is a lesson in Darfur," said Richard Odingo, vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a global scientific body that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. "Every dry area has the potential to be a flash point if we are not careful."

…

[pscot]

1. Northern Kenya is a desert

infested by bandits. Paul Theroux describes traveling through it by cattle truck, in Dark Star Safari. That's an interesting read, but politicaly incorrect.

[hunter]

2. Welcome to the future.

The "civilized" world probably won't pay much attention until some starving gang of blondie thugs in Australia shoots up a zoo and eats the last koala bear.