Benin to GOP deniers: “We are crushed by the impact of climate change”
December 9, 2010
Catastrophic rains this fall put two-thirds of Benin underwater, as “the worst floods in living memory” killed at least 60 people, left 150,000 people homeless, and caused an outbreak of cholera. “Areas previously thought not to be vulnerable to flooding have been devastated and villages wiped out.”
No, that story didn’t get much attention in this country — which isn’t a big shock given that the media largely ignored deluges in countries that are considered far more important to American security (see Juan Cole: The media’s failure to cover “the great Pakistani deluge” is “itself a security threat” to America). Many deniers in this country simple dismiss the threat. At the start of the Cancun climate talks, four Republican senators, led Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OIL), wrote a letter arguing the scientific findings about “eventual impacts of climate change in developing countries were found to be exaggerated or simply not true.”
Unsurprisingly, many in Benin feel quite differently, as Brad Johnson reports in an exclusive interview with Mawusé Hountondji, the executive director of Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement in Benin:
This year, for example, we are crushed by the impact of climate change. The people who are crushed are those who are very poor, do not have the money to adapt. The politicians who say climate change is not important, I think it is killing people. There are many many people dying because of climate change effects. If I have a message, it is that they must try to do their best. Because this is a problem of future generations.
In French we talk about generation de deux mille cinquante [Generation 2050]. In fifty years — President Obama, President Sarkozy, if you take their age plus fifty, I’m not sure that in fifty years they will be around. But the children will be there. And what kind of world do we want to give them? So that is my message. They must try today through Friday to give us a good document, a better negotiation, and we will be free and ready to help them to do their job.
Johnson notes:
“Even before the floods, an estimated 1 million people in Benin suffered food shortages and more than one-third of children under five were chronically malnourished,” according to a U.N. report.Hountondji leads the efforts in Benin of Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement (Young Volunteers for the Environment), an international youth organization working in 17 countries in Africa from Togo to Cote d’Ivoire to fight environmental degradation and poverty.
It is beyond immoral for the richest country in the world, the one responsible for more of the cumulative greenhouse gas emissions than any other country, to ignore the multiple catastrophes our inaction will doom the poorest countries to.
climateprogress.org |
