olelog

As other bloggers I am, of course, happy when other bloggers link to me, so hereby my excuses for linking too little and too seldom to other blogs. The blogs I read - or skim - are usually within the geoblogosphere and practically nowhere else (with a few exceptions like this one). Writing about earth sciences I do of course regularly mention that geology has political implications (reason enough for politicians to care more about geology).

Well, back to the links. Yesterday I happened to discover that the Arctic Blog had been kind enough to link to my post on the third pole melting. The Arctic Blog focuses on political, military, and environmental current events in the Arctic region. The Himalayan and Tibetan glaciers are of course far the North Pole area, but they do have problems with melting glaciers in common.

The Arctic
On 28 April 2009 Al Gore together with the Norwegian Foreign Minister co-chaired an international conference on global warming called “Melting Ice: Regional Dramas, Global Wake-Up Call”. Several foreign ministers of Arctic nations attended, along with scientists from regions like the Himalayas and the Andes, where the high-altitude ice is also melting. The Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau are often called the “Third Pole” due to the area’s massive ice coverage, which is the third-largest in the world outside the Arctic and Antarctic. Anywhere from 3,000 to 45,000 glaciers glide through the mountains, and two billion people depend on their runoff for water.


The Tibetan Plateau
And this brings me to another “Third Pole” link from the same Arctic Blog post to Chinadialogue, with an extremely interesting article on the uncertain future on the Tibetan Plateau. Katherine Morton explains how glacial melt poses critical risks to biodiversity, people and livelihoods on the Tibetan Plateau, and further explores the possibilities for an effective regional response. On the Tibetan plateau climate impacts pose significant security risks for China and the Asia region. The ability to adapt is of critical importance to the future sustainability of the ecosystems as well as the millions of people they serve.

The Tibetan Plateau is the largest high altitude landmass on earth, covering an area of approximately 1.6 million km2, equal to one-quarter of China’s land mass. As a direct consequence of global warming the glaciers that feed Asia’s great rivers – the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra – have retreated by 196 km² in the last 40 years. Apart from dramatic adverse effects on biodiversity, people and livelihoods with long-term implications for water, food and energy security. glacial melt can also trigger a higher incidence of natural disasters – landslides, flooding and glacial lake outbursts.

Please let me cordially invite you to read these two (more political) articles (on glacial melt on a regional and global scale).

• http://arctic.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/04/29/meetings-on-global-warming-arctic-in-tromso-part-12/
• http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/2961-An-uncertain-future-on-the-Plateau

Climate, Wars, Economics, and Pirates

First let us get things straight. Human beings lived in Africa long before Europe was populated. In other words the history of Africa didn’t start with the European colonisation of Africa. Neither is culture a European monopoly.

From the 25th century BC and onwards the Egyptians sent expeditions to the land of Punt, which is supposed to have been the Horn of Africa. If so a lot of things have changed since then, as the Land of Punt was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, African blackwood, ebony, ivory, slaves and wild animals.

Somalia became independent in 1960. It has been tormented by crude civil war most of the time since 1986. UN humanitarian troops landed in 1993 and started a two-year effort (primarily in the south) to alleviate famine conditions. The period of 1998–2006 saw the declaration of a number of self-declared autonomous states within Somalia. In January 2009, Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia following a two year insurgency. In short their is practical no law and order and the central Somalian government has little to say.

Today 85% of the population are Somalis, a population that CIA estimates at nearly 10 million people (another source says 4 million in 1979). The Somalis began populating the area around 1000 years ago. About 70 percent of all Somalis are nomads who travel with their herds through Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Today more than 3 million Somalis are dependant on food aid and 1.3 million are fugitives.

Only 1.64% of Somalia’s 637 657 km² is arable land with permanent crops on 0.04% of Somalia. Most of the country receives less than 500 millimeters of rain annually, and a large area encompassing the northeast and much of northern Somalia receives as little as 50 to 150 millimeters. One of the country’s biggest problem is the heavy loss of livestock suffered by the pastoralist communities in the worst drought in 30 years.

Somali has a 3,025 km long coastline. In 2005 ca. 700 foreign fishing trawlers were illegally active in Somalian waters. For years other countries have dumped nuclear and toxic waste off the coast of Somalia. After the tsunami in 2005 some of this waste washed ashore with disastrous results for the coastal population like skin diseases and mouth bleedings.

So what can you do in Somalia for a living. Crops gone, livestock gone, fish gone, and no social security. One solution is taking aid helpers as hostages to get ransom money. It has been done lately. There is however bigger money in piracy. And the pirates are local heroes. They are the revengers of those foreigners that destroyed the fishing industry and they provide money.

Eyl in Puntland is the location of most of Somalia's casualties from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. It has about 3 million inhabitants and has become something like the capital of the Somalian pirates. As the so-called pirate capital it is where the high seas hijackers often steer their captured vessels. Special restaurants in the town cater for the captive crews. With their expensive tastes in fancy houses, cars and women, the pirates have brought boom times to the local economy. The Puntland government has acknowledged that they are relatively powerless to stop pirate activities.

To recapitulate: Somalia is one of the poorest, most violent, least stable countries anywhere on Earth. It suffers from severe drought and its people face hunger and violence on a daily basis.

How can you stop the piracy. Much is said these days about warships and other military or paramilitary actions. No doubt such things are necessary. But without improving the humanitarian situation for all Somalis, the problem will not be solved. This is an extremely difficult task for the international community.

I wonder if the international conference held these days in Brussels, and sponsored by the United Nations and the European Union, that aims to raise at least euro128 million ($166 million) in donations for Somalia's nascent security forces and for the African Union peacekeeping contingent there, leads to any decisive results.

• http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892376,00.html
• http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-somalia-pirates15-2009apr15,0,165660.story

See also my post: http://my.opera.com/nielsol/blog/2009/04/20/floods-in-somaliland