In the usual predictions about Climate Change we hear two scenarios over and over again:
1. … more people will face hunger thanks to lower yields or destroyed crops …
2. … and we will see millions of climate change refuges.
Ugly Fact #1 – Not all Countries can provide equally
In our modern and humanistic view of the World we like to see all people as equals. Everybody should also have the same chances to lead a prosperous and happy live anywhere.
So much about the idealism.
But not all countries are "created" equal and can offer the same resources to their people to "grow and "develop" like in other so called richer countries.
Or to rephrase my argument: It’s all about location, location, location!
Some regions have better soil, more clean water, a more moderate climate and resources (forests, minerals, fossil fuels etc.).
If you compare let’s say North Africa with (Western) Europe you need to take one look at satellite images and you see the profound difference (you can click each for a larger version).
Europe is mostly green and fertile (apart from Spain) and there are many great rivers streaming across Europe (Rhine, Danube, Tiber, Arno, Po, Oder, Don, Volga, Tagus, Thames, Shannon, etc). Not only provide these many rivers fresh water for people, forests and agriculture alike, but also a network for cheap long distance transportation.
In comparison North Africa has only the Nile –and not many green spots on it’s map.
Europe has overall better soil quality and higher ground water levels thanks to more mountains, rivers and lakes.
The only serious advantage North Africa has is it’s oil.
So the conclusion is simple: some places are simply better to built an civilization, feed many people and start an industry than others.
If you don’t have certain resources you have to import them or create better conditions by using technology.
In our crazy (and unsustainable) thinking we want all nations to develop equally and create the same conditions everywhere.
Ah lovely Europe, we have good soul, plenty of water and charming cottages …
North African nations have sucked their grounds dry, by trying to provide enough water for millions of people and farms to grow food all year around. Countries like Saudi Arabia invest Billions to create small island of green in their deserts.
But it is utter nonsense to recreate for example European Conditions in Saudi Arabia. Terra forming is a VERY long process takes many decades if not hundreds or thousands of years to transform a desert into a rain forest. And it was actually climate change that has transformed the former lush jungles of North Africa into Deserts – and the ice covered plains of Europe into pleasant lands.
Creating "good conditions" for about a Billion people that live in North Africa and the Middle East is not a sustainable nor reachable goal for many generations.
Consider this: there are almost seven billion earthlings and already one billion of us don’t have access to fresh and clean water.
For how many decades have you been trying to turn this desert into a farm?
But the developing nations as well as the rich nations have spent many decades wasting foreign aids to make deserts into green meadows. They try to make inhospitable or low quality lands into highly productive agricultural powerhouses.
Comedian Sam Kinison once made a true, but nasty joke: "Why don’t you starving people move to where the food is?"
This perfectly sums up the problem.
We currently see each other only as Nations with fixed borders. Instead of working on a global settlement policy and using resources in a smart way, each nation tries to squeeze as much out of their lands as possible. While Europe pays farmers to put arable land on hold, North Africans try to make a living out of very bad farmland.
Don’t bring the food to the people – bring the people to the places that grow food.
We should stop wasting precious resources and move people to greener pastures, instead of flying and driving food "into the fucking desert were people for obvious reasons starve".
So we really need a new thinking: Don’t try to turn shitty places into paradise. It’s a waste of resources. Don’t wait for hunger marches and millions of climate change refuges.
We need smart resettlement plans and the truly global sharing of the few good spots we have.
But since we still cling too much to our national (and often religious) identity we have a hard time sharing "our land" with "foreigners". But the concept of "residents" vs. "strangers" is a deadly luxury we can no longer afford.
Scene from Fuerteventura: an African refugee crawls to the beach, while tourists picnic in the background. (click for larger version)
It is cheaper to share than to supply starving people and millions living in refuge camps. We also need better planning where people live and were we grow our food.
For example: It makes no sense to grow tomatoes in the desert in special plantations (which need huge amounts of water) and export (transport = fossil fuel) them to rich countries that could grow them as well.
It is utter madness that many developing nations try to squeeze even more food out of bad soil for an ever growing population … which brings us to the second ugly fact …
Ugly Fact #2 – Fuck less, eat more!
I am sick and tired of seeing image of starving children in Western Media to appeal for funds to buy food. We should send them sex educators and condoms instead.
The fight against overpopulation is a harsh and bitter one. Nations like India and China have tried almost all ideas ranging from sterilization to allowing only one child per family to stop from exploding.
The simple truth is that even people hardly able to feed themselves love to fuck and therefore produce babies – which they usually can’t feed either.
Blame the stupidity of the parents and cultural idiosyncrasies for these starving kids.
The consequence is less food for the whole family, which leads either to death or serious male nutrition. And undernourished kids suffer from bad health as well as underperforming brains – because they lacked the proper nutrients to develop their grey cells. Apart from the lack of education many poor people suffer, they also suffer from "stupidity" by male nutrition.
It is utter stupidity to have a bigger population than you can actually feed. The same stupidity applies to parents in developing nations who "breed", but can’t afford their own home or enough food for all. Often these parents are forced to leave their kids with the grandparents and work in far away cities to make a meagre living.
Having fun while wasting a huge amounts of resources, because WE CAN!
You can blame such poor parents equally for their irresponsible behaviour as well as Soccer Moms in the US driving a bad ass SUV.
We humans are genetically wired for breeding – so stopping us from having sex is a "mission impossible".
But we have the technology to "stop having babies". So we need cheap contraception as well as education. Plus if we get women into the "workforce" and give them equal rights in developing nations they also will breed less – like their richer, snottier and more educated sisters in rich nations.
Can you breed responsibly?
Conclusions
I doubt that we currently have the will and openness to resettle people on one side and pursue more aggressive birth control in already overpopulated nations on the other.
Places like Russia or Ukraine have HUGE unused and very fertile areas that are ideal for farming – so has North America. Europe is already pretty crowded, but could certainly use some more immigrants to bolsters it’s greying population.
But once again: I doubt that we as a global society are really ready to share and breed responsibly. Instead we prefer to let others suffer and waste huge amounts of money and resources to "help" them …
