welcome to the next land of biblical plagues, lesotho...

[Guest guest]

Rain. Drought. Hailstorms. Tornadoes. Frost. You'd be

hard-pressed to name a weather phenomenon that hasn't afflicted the

African kingdom of Lesotho in recent times, destroying its crops and

leaving one-third of its 2.1 million people on the brink of

starvation. Now, many scientists are saying that those people, along

with nearly 40 million other Africans facing famine, may be among the

first human victims of climate change. Although experts are

reluctant to blame any particular weather event on climate change,

many concur that the weather patterns plaguing Lesotho and other

African nations are eerily consistent with predictions of how weather

systems will behave in a warmer world. Scientists expect that the

situation in Lesotho and elsewhere will only get worse, and they are

concerned that as crop failure becomes commonplace, food shortages in

the region will become chronic, rather than one-time emergencies.

 

straight to the source: Washington Post, Michael Grunwald, 07 Jan 2003

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