UN Sec'y General: Darfur culprit global warming, not jihad

Sheesh. If this is true, then why did Arab Muslims in the Sudan murder over a million Christians and animists? Because it was getting so hot, they lost their tempers?

"A Climate Culprit In Darfur," by Ban Ki Moon in the Washington Post, with thanks to all who sent this in:

It would be natural to view these as distinct developments. In fact, they are linked. Almost invariably, we discuss Darfur in a convenient military and political shorthand -- an ethnic conflict pitting Arab militias against black rebels and farmers. Look to its roots, though, and you discover a more complex dynamic. Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change.
Two decades ago, the rains in southern Sudan began to fail. According to U.N. statistics, average precipitation has declined some 40 percent since the early 1980s. Scientists at first considered this to be an unfortunate quirk of nature. But subsequent investigation found that it coincided with a rise in temperatures of the Indian Ocean, disrupting seasonal monsoons. This suggests that the drying of sub-Saharan Africa derives, to some degree, from man-made global warming.

It is no accident that the violence in Darfur erupted during the drought. Until then, Arab nomadic herders had lived amicably with settled farmers. A recent Atlantic Monthly article by Stephan Faris describes how black farmers would welcome herders as they crisscrossed the land, grazing their camels and sharing wells. But once the rains stopped, farmers fenced their land for fear it would be ruined by the passing herds. For the first time in memory, there was no longer enough food and water for all. Fighting broke out. By 2003, it evolved into the full-fledged tragedy we witness today.

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27 Comments

PapaBear | June 18, 2007 12:37 PM

The Darfur farmers need some AK's and some old bolt action rifles, ammo, and some marksmanship lessons

11B40 | June 18, 2007 12:46 PM

Greetings:

I guess that the UN intelligentia hasn't been able to figure out how to blame Darfur on Israel so they'll use climate-warming to blame it on the West.

11B40 | June 18, 2007 12:47 PM

Greetings:

I guess that the intelligentsia at the UN hasn't been able to figure out how to blame Darfur on Israel so they'll just use "climate-warming" to blame it on the West.

Adam_Schwartz | June 18, 2007 12:55 PM

Well that does it! I am selling my Civic and riding a bicycle everywhere in an effort to cut down on jihadist activity! Do we know if using too many TP squares is also causing Muslims to kill non-Muslims?

maryrose | June 18, 2007 12:58 PM

Arabs are killing Africans in Darfur. Both groups are Muslims. That killing is taking place because of global warming. Global warming is caused, almost entirely, by the USA. Therefore, the USA must send more troops and aid, not just to Darfur, but also to the Khartoum government, who also suffers the ill effects of global warming by the USA. So, the checks are in the mail, just as soon as the US State Dept. finishes writing checks to Hamas and Fatah (that's definitely a global warming problem!)

Infidel Pride | June 18, 2007 12:59 PM

There was a 1/2 hour news hour episode several weeks ago, where the guest had the job of connecting any problem in the world to global warming in 6 steps or less. Can't find that video, but looks like Ban ki Moon is a good real life substitute for him.

Is there any way I can blame the birth of Mohammed in 570AD on global warming in 6 steps or less? ;-)

Infidel Pride | June 18, 2007 1:05 PM

Is there any way I can blame the birth of Mohammed in 570AD on global warming in 6 steps or less? ;-)

Infidel Pride | June 18, 2007 1:10 PM

Sorry for the double posting

Mike_W | June 19, 2007 5:37 AM

Why, oh why, is any civilized nation still a member of the United Nations?

This is a joke, right?

Do they really expect us to swallow this tripe?

(Cue, United Nations Beef Council offering smorgasbord of tripe for our delectation.)

Shy Guy | June 19, 2007 6:45 AM

Sorry for the double posting
Posted by: Infidel Pride at June 18, 2007 1:10 PM

Please be more careful.

Double posting is the #1 cause of clitorectomies in Egypt.

shokk | June 19, 2007 7:26 AM

You know the old saying...
When in drought, genocide it out.

Hugh | June 19, 2007 8:03 AM

"the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change."
-- from the article, shifting blame for Arab mass-murder of black African (i.e., those determined or perceived to be non-Arab) Muslims in Darfur, as of 1.8 million black African Christian and animist blacks in the southern Sudan

And presumably the mass killings of black Christians by Muslims in Nigeria which led to the 1967-69 Biafra War, a war to turn back -- Col. Ojukwu's word -- the "Jihad" against the Christians (a Jihad in which outside Arabs -- Egytpian pilots -- enthusiastically participated, compensating for the humiliation of their recent loss in the Six-Day War by strafing helpless Ibo villagers), were also a result of some changes in weather patterns? And the enslavement of blacks by Arabs, wherever a local black population was present to be enslaved (Mali, Mauritania)? That too must reflect something in the climate -- perhaps a reaction to some volcano's eruption, some Pinatubo, or further back, Mont Pele, or even a long-delayed reaction to the eruption of Krakatoa in 1889.

And the slavery still practiced, far from prying Western eyes, or taking place under those very Western eyes but given a different name, by rich Saudis -- for how else can one characterize the domestic household servants, especially women from southeast Asia, of the Saudis? -- for despite the official ending of slavery, under Western pressure, in 1962, the practice in all but name is still to be recognized in Saudi Arabia, for the institution of slavery is not a peculiar institution to Islam, but rather permanently sanctioned by it, in Qur'an, in Hadith, in the Sira.

Yes, it's the weather, it's the climate. It's the sky, either too full of louring clouds or, per contra, too perfectly inobnubilated, simply too true-blue, that explains Muslim Arab aggression and violence, wherever it can be gotten away with, against non-Muslims and even non-Arab Muslims, as with the blacks in Darfur, the Berbers in Algeria, the Kurds in Iraq.

And if bombs go off in London or New York or Washington, in Madrid or Moscow, or Infidels are killed in Amsterdam or Antwerp, if Danish embassies are attacked in Cairo or Karachi, don't blame Muslims, and certainly don't blame the texts, the teachings, the tenets, the attitudes, the atmospherics, of Islam.

Blame something in the atmosphere. Blame, if you can't find any other root cause connected to the sky, these late eclipses of the sun and moon.

Mike_W | June 19, 2007 8:22 AM

...or the stars.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

--From Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)

screaming_eagle | June 19, 2007 9:10 AM

Is there any way I can blame the birth of Mohammed in 570AD on global warming in 6 steps or less? ;-)

Posted by: Infidel Pride

step 1 569 AD was warmer than 568
step 2 570 AD was even warmer
step 3 God did not like this new trend
step 4 To many people ex-haling CO2
step 5 God sent mohammed to fix this problem.
step 6 (not needed)

DavidE | June 19, 2007 9:10 AM

Ban should read the River War. Tribal wars are nothing new in the Sudan.

A simpler explanation than the nonsense Ban touts. The population in the Sudan has doubled in the past 25 years. In the next 10 years, the population could triple from what it was in 1980. No new land. No industry. Its overpopulation stupid!

never_submit | June 19, 2007 10:33 AM

Yet another conspiracy from the West designed to humiliate and kill Muslims. Now there is blame to pin on the West. And oh, so believable!

freedomschool | June 19, 2007 11:05 AM

The global warming has also caused the Temperate Zone to move farther north, resulting in a shift in arable land, and the fortune that comes with it.

So, if you need any more billions in aid, please call 1-800-O Canada.

US_infidel | June 19, 2007 11:29 AM

Ban Ki Moon---fitting name for an appeasing, spineless, amoral moonbat.

interestinconundrum | June 19, 2007 12:18 PM

And we thought he was going to be better than Kofi.

DavidE | June 19, 2007 1:01 PM

Ban's theory is absolute stupidity.

As Sudan's population increases and increases and increases, more camels are needed to support the population. As the camel herds increase, they do more damage to the land. As they do more damage to the land, the natives want to prevent the camels from grazing!

Look, you have battles over grazing in the U.S. west. They are no longer settled with guns but there are some strong feelings.

never_submit | June 19, 2007 3:38 PM

DavidE,

Perhaps we could send to the Sudan all the liberals screwing up the BLM? There's some range management for ya!

mrsmomomoto | June 19, 2007 3:41 PM

"In the next 10 years, the population could triple from what it was in 1980. No new land. No industry. Its overpopulation stupid!"

No can-do. See, that would imply that some of the hellishness is due to following Muhammad's position on birth control. And we ALL know that the Muslim world's problems stem from filthy, stinking Western Christians and Atheists, and not a bit from anything in their own culture. Especially not anything coming from peacful, Gandhi-like Muhammad.

Heck, the Westerners have (relatively) functional societies; they MUST be doing something evil somewhere. (Right? I mean, if there's one thing I'VE learned as a UN bureaucrat, there's one way to get by comforably in this world, and that's.. well, you know.)

I will admit, though, that it is a bit stunning when the UN, of all organizations, chooses to focus on something other than over-reproduction as a root cause - especially in the rare instance when that over-reproduction is actually involved. It seems Islam is pretty powerful in organizations controlled by third-world dictatoriships and New Ager Theosophist freakballs. Muhammad lives on! Giving Kilroy a run for his money.. er.. spraypaint?

Still. That's nothing compared to the power to cause genocide halfway around the world just by driving to pick up groceries. It must be true - the UN told me!

mrsmomomoto | June 19, 2007 4:08 PM

Seriously, the actual situation is that people in Darfur rebelled against the oppressive autocratic government, and the government decided to arm the Janjaweed to punish the people. They didn't intend the systematic raping (so anaonymous Sudanese officials claim), just some murdering, theft, and roughing up to keep people in line. The Janjaweed seemed to really like using their arms for genocide, so it got a bit out of control, but not to the extent that Sudan or their Chinese backers are really going to lay down limits TOO firmly.

Importantly, in a situation where some relatively minor fluctuation causes some social disturbance which leads people to press against an oppressive government, the LAST thing you blame is the fluctuation - First you blame the oppressive government for being in there preventing people from adjusting to the fluctuation. Because fluctuations happen all the time, and many are natural, and socieities neeed to be able to do that. Oppressive governments are the first thing you blame, unless you are the UN, that is.

Sudan is the world when power takes the place of ethics. It's the same as the state Naseem lives in when he/she/it derives pleasure from that fach that his/her/its ideology has (or at least had) the power to take over Christian and other non-Muslim countries and assimilate them to it, wiping out those other countries' real-ethics based culture. (Real-ethics, like ethics based on what helps socieities and individuals grow and prosper and create (as Christians and Jews relate, Reasonably, to God's will), as opposed to sheer and mere power-striving dressed up as ethics on the shoddy grounds that its God's will).

The fanatic | June 20, 2007 12:12 AM

Quite simply the stupidest thing I've ever heard period.

paradox | June 20, 2007 1:32 AM

DavidE wrote:

Ban's theory is absolute stupidity

Of course it is, everyone knows that the Jooozzz are really behind it all. The Saudi Arabia state-run newspaper told me so.

special_guest | June 20, 2007 2:43 AM

Not sure what is funnier, Ban Ki Moon's theory, or the postings here in response to it. At least the postings here were meant to be funny, while Ki Moon was serious.

Jimmy Bones | June 20, 2007 2:57 AM

Re Infidel Pride's comment above

"Is there any way I can blame the birth of Mohammed in 570AD on global warming in 6 steps or less? ;-)

Not global warming but global cooling! A.D. 440 to A.D. 900 - the Dark Ages, was a time of widespread global cooling (See the book "Unstoppable Global Warming every 1500 years" - Fred Singer & Dennis Avery). 540 AD was the year trees stopped growing. Plague in Europe in AD 542-545.

Towards the end of the D.A., 800-801, the Black Sea was frozen and there was ice on the Nile. This was followed by the Medieval warming of 900-1300.

The Dark Age cooling was Like the Little Ice Age 1300-1850 AD (but not as severe. Bad things seemed to plague the periods of global cooling, like Mohammed (570-632 AD), creation of Islam, wars, pestilence, and disease throughout Europe and Asia.

By contrast, periods of global warming historically were, on the whole, periods of great advancements, at least in Western history.

By the way, and a bit off-topic, there was no CO2 generation by man for either the Roman or the Medieval Warming. I could go on, but this is not the place.

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