Climate Crisis: Africa, Asia, Latin America

Christian Parenti’s Tropic of Chaos speaks on developing countries and their struggle with climate change; how it can affect their natural and social environment. The book’s chapter on Kyrgyzstan stresses the fact that the country as a whole is “almost totally dependant on hydroelectric power” (83). The droughts coming from the warming of the world have held a significant impact, “crippl[ing] Kyrgyzstan’s power plants, thus its whole economy” (83). I write this blog post to offer new information about Kyrgyzstan and its status concerning hydroelectric power more than ten years after the publishing of Tropic of Chaos. In a much more recent post by “Radio Free Europe,” it is made obvious that the issues thought about years ago still remain prevalent today. The fluctuation between too much water and too little water leaves the country in an almost critical state. Kyrgyzstan’s main hydropower plant, the Toktogul HPP, which took around fifteen years to create and fill with water, has suffe...

       One of the most beautiful cities in the hemisphere, Rio de Janeiro today is most often described as a city under siege. There is no question that violent crime has increased significantly over the past decade. The homicide rate for Rio, for example, has tripled in the last fifteen years, rising from 2,826 murders in 1980 to 8,408 in 1994. In 2003 the police force was responsible for 1,195 civilian deaths. In 2007 police force was responsible for 1,330 deaths. Something crazy to think about is in the U.S. there were 1,134 deaths by the police force and our country is 50% larger than Rio. After  2007 Rio hired new police officers that went through strategic training. A key ingredient of success was the emphasis on rewarding reductions in violent crime. This resulted in the number of deaths dropping by 46%.           The cause of this violence has been narrowed down to relations with criminal gangs and drug trafficking. Unfortun...

(Image from Guardian)  Less than ten years ago in Rio, Brazil, gangs and crime wars were at their height, and the causes for this were not entirely socioeconomic, but climate-related as well. As weather patterns in the Northeast, or Nordeste, of Brazil change and become more extreme, including droughts and flooding which cause immeasurable damages to infrastructure and economy, and driving a majority of the farmers and other population out of the area.  As people are pushed away from their homes due to extreme weather patterns and into the larger cities, they most often must live in the Favelas, underfunded, crime-stricken communities controlled by gangs. As they settle and try to survive, many join the gangs for whichever means they may need. This chain reaction of forced relocation and insufficient living standards that lead to individuals joining gangs fuels the gangs themselves and has negative impacts on the Rio crime wars.  The standards in which people are even giv...

    Most people likely have not heard of cattle raiding before and are initially surprised when they here this phrase. However, cattle raiding is not something new to Eastern Africans and has been going on for generations. It will most likely also continue on for generation unless the climate crisis is dealt with. Now your probably now wondering, "Climate crisis and cattle, how are these too even remotely linked"? Well this problem ultimately stems back to the  Turkana  and Pokot tribes conflict over water in Kenya. Drought in this area has ultimately been caused by drought and has been rapidly increasing as our planet ages. In the 1970s it was a drought every seven years, in the 1980s they came every five years, in the 1990s they were every two years. and now in the 2000s they happen every single year. The Turkana looking for water began migrating south in search where the ran into the lands of the Pokot. The Turkana forced the small nu...

  Day Zero for Humanity March 2018 Day Zero of Cape Town South Arica:     This year we witnessed what may have been one of the best city wide collaborations in conservation that I have witnessed. For those of you who don't know what Cape Town's Day Zero was here's some backstory. Back in 2018 Cape Town, South Africa a semi-arid country had three years of a rain deficit leading to the depletion of reservoirs to 20% capacity, this lead to heavy restrictions within the city on all persons limiting them to 50 liters of water a day.       On average according to the Mayo Clinic men need 3.7 liters a day and women need 2.7 liters a day, the remaining liters are for flushing toilets leading to people leaving urine in the bowl until solids needed to be flushed, showering which there was a hefty fine for anyone who took a shower longer than two minutes, artist even began writing songs exactly two minutes long so you would know when to stop the shower....

  In Christian Parenti’s Tropic of Chaos , there was a chapter on how India and Pakistan have a water treaty and it got me thinking about what that looks like today. Because the book was published in 2011, I thought a lot of things would be different when it comes to the Indus Water Treaty of 1960. A passage on page 129 explains that India believed they were using its rivers in a way that’s fair, but Pakistan thought they’re overusing their share of the rivers and obstructing their water rights. With the tensions between the two countries when the book was written, I assumed that things would have gotten worse. It’s been a long time since the book’s publication and even longer since the treaty was formed so I looked into what that treaty looks like now. Apparently the treaty is still active between the two countries, even though indianexpress.com tells us that the two countries consider the treaty to be unfinished. Pakistan has questions about if India is staying to the correct en...

       Reading through Parenti's book, all of which was alarming, I found the particulars going on inside India the most glaring considering the scale.  And the reasons for that are simple but disturbing, knowing the percentage of Earth's population that live in that part of the world. As well as the sporadic monsoons, severe pollution, melting glaciers, and the still remaining Naxalite insurgents. These issues combined with a myriad of others will result in millions of farmers lacking the means to grow enough food, and millions more struggling for access to clean water, for farming or otherwise... So to really emphasize the scope of what's concerning me about this, take a look at these two maps here.       One is a map showing the concentration of Naxalite activity (Red being the most concentrated.) and the other is an image detailing the major rivers of the Indian Sub-Continent. The Naxalite affected districts are unsurprisingly in farming ...

              Climate Change has led to a surge of climate refugees. As the Earth continues to warm, the problem is only going to get worse. Our country has been extremely divided on immigration. Some believe that it is our responsibility to help these refugees to the best of our ability, while others dismiss them as “not our problem.” To fully understand the issues that we’re facing today, it’s important to have an understanding of the history of the US-Mexico border and how it has been altered throughout history. "Migrants cross river into Mexico after being refused passage to U.S." (PBS)                It seems that imperial conquest has always been an aspect of the US government. We see that today with the sheer number of US military troops dispersed across the world. In the mid 19th century, under President James Polk, our government fully embraced a concept called Manifest Destiny. ...

  In Christian Parenti’s “Tropic of Chaos”, Multiple chapters talk about Failed states and how they contribute to Climate Change whether we know it or not. The failed state I chose to talk about today is Somalia. Somalia is the “Horn of Africa” extending from Ethiopia out into the Indian Ocean. In Tropics of Chaos, Parenti writes about how Somalia is “the textbook failed state. Somalia was deemed a failed state after a military coup left the country’s newly electoral democracy to fall in 1969 (Parenti 83) . The country would continue to struggle when the ruler of Somalia in the 1960s and 70s, Siad Barre, sought to control a small land mass known as Ogaden (Parenti 83) . This land was primarily poor, dry and rugged with a large population of Somali people. This land mass was occupied and jetted into Ethiopia, making it a desirable piece of land for Ethiopians as well (Parenti 84) . Siad Barre “started” the war for Ogaden by arming Ethiopian-based Somali clans who eventually caused...

  The chaos of catastrophic convergence conveyed by Parenti can be seen currently in Ethiopia’s civil war.   Food insecurity is on the rise.   Undernourishment in Africa was close to 20% in 2019, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World.   The sustenance and safety struggle across the continent is amplified as refugees flee violence, natural disasters, and inhospitable environmental conditions.     The recent struggle in Ethiopia illustrates the degree of pressure conflicts are having. The Ethiopian army has threatened a ‘no mercy’ tank assault on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, warning citizens to leave immediately. The violent conflict within Ethiopia has noncombatant citizens suffering, men, women, and children.   The Ethiopian government has prevented humanitarian aid from the UN to its citizens in need.   Decisions made by the government are imposing famine on its citizens who have not fled or been unable to ...

 Christian Parenti's book on "Tropic of Chaos: Climate change and the New Geography of violence, " from the perspective by far the author has intended to impact through his analysis of history and economics to reveal the climate implications that are being faced by countries he had visited and made a report on critical emphasis. The author's investigate report reveals failed states amid climate disasters. Additionally, this book identifies the presence of military forces and reveals plausible opportunities for a crisis in preparation for open-ended global counter-insurgency. Parenti reports findings from case studies gathered in his book from different countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, and Pakistan. Parenti evaluates desertification and rainstorms and identifies the significant implications climate change has on manifesting itself and its responsibility for internal conflicts, government repression, wars, and the development of ...

In his book titled Tropic of Chaos : Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence , Christian Parenti outlines how Climate Change will affect myriad countries, but Parenti’s description of the desolation of Mexico (especially the Sierra Madre) due to draught (Parenti 187) caught my attention as a particularly insidious and bleak example of how climate change can ruin lives. Parenti adds that “Increasingly, climate change will be the central dynamic in migration [in Mexico]” (Parenti 187). The previous quote requires readers to face the reality that climate change is dangerous, climate change is becoming more threatening, and climate change is causing people to uproot their families from their homes. The empirical evidence of how dire the climate catastrophe is in Mexico is outlined in reports by the World Watch Institute which Parenti highlighted in his piece; “‘Desertification affecting [Mexican] drylands is leading some 600,000 to 700,000 people to migrate annually.’” (Parenti 18...