Kidayr Climate Change?
Climate change is kind of like capitalism: Everyone is equal, but some people are more equal than others. In other words, it’ll affect everyone, but it’ll affect some people a lot more than others. Even now, rich Californians ignore the drought and turn on their sprinklers, the green of their lawns more important than the fact that there isn’t any water to spare. This is a problem even in California, which is a relatively rich part of the world.
But this pretty much means the opposite for poor countries that don’t have the luxury to willingly ignore what is good for the environment. They will have to take their recovery from climate change into their own hands.
Can you see the drought yet? (http://flickrhivemind.net/)
This is especially true for North Africa, which is tucked between some major bodies of saltwater and the hot expanse of the Sahara. That means that Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt face nearly every issue that global climate change makes it possible to face, except for flooding (which is probably the one issue North Africa would actually like to have). According to Lelia Croitoru and Maria Sarraf, they’ll have to deal with land degradation, which means fewer and therefore more expensive crops; losses of forest goods and services like timber and firewood; the loss of valuable coastal zones; and, perhaps most importantly, water degradation. Water degradation includes every bad thing that can happen to water: contamination; increased salinity; waterlogging; dam sedimentation; overexploitation of groundwater.
Such environmental degradation is a danger not only to the North African tourism industries (it may not be as popular to go to Giza now as it once was, but think about all the postcards with the pyramids and the Sphinx you’ve ever seen), but also to the health of the average North African citizen. The population continues to grow, which will increase demand for already-scarce water and crops while exacerbating all the other problems that come along with global climate change. Croitoru’s numbers are most damning of all: North Africa’s already-scarce water supply will decrease 50% by 2050.
When combined with land degradation, overpopulation, an increase in illness in urban areas, and a decrease in mobility throughout the region, these are essentially the makings of a disaster.
It’s not like North Africa hasn’t tried to fix this. Nearly every North African state has cut or is in the process of cutting all oil subsidies, and most states in North Africa actively work to decrease pollution. That means that not only are these states not at fault for environmental degradation, but that they are also actively helping to mitigate degradation. If the world operated on a purely philanthropic basis and were not controlled primarily by political and economic motivations—in other words, if we had some kind of World Karma Distributor—then North Africa would probably be in the clear. Of course, if that were the case, then such environmental degradation would probably never have existed in the first place.
Unfortunately for North Africa, the world is run by real people with conflicting interests, and so it’s up to North Africa to solve its own problems.
Basically, the best way for North Africa to do this is via a series of adaptations to climate change. Some of these will occur naturally, of course: fishmongers will start charging astronomical prices for their food, for instance. But some will have to be forced into place by way of external assistance such as private investment or international aid.
Private investment, especially when it’s from foreign companies, is notoriously dangerous for countries in the Middle East and North Africa (take, for example, rentierism in Iran)—but the only real alternative is a reliance on international aid, which may or may not ever come. In an ideal world, this aid would be provided by the rich states that once colonized North Africa and which, in many cases, continue to exploit its resources—but such aid is unlikely, and so private investment seems the best option.
Solar panels in Morocco (pv-magazine.com)
Some environmental scientists—Nadejda Komendantova, for one—propose investment in solar panels across North Africa that can provide renewable energy to much of Europe via deals between European governments and North African companies. This idea seems much more desirable than direct investment by foreign companies in North Africa’s potential for energy generation, if only because it will benefit North African economies directly. It would be expensive, but in the long term, probably a worthy investment. The biggest issue with this is that it doesn’t guarantee that North African companies or governments will then invest that money in sustainable development or adaptation to post-climate change issues. But since it might do a decent job of lowering emissions in Europe, this option is still an attractive one.
It’s also attractive to think that maybe North Africa can rely on the invisible hand of the market to solve its climate change problems. Capitalism isn’t naturally philanthropic, but sometimes philanthropy is in capitalism’s best interest—take, for example, Coca Cola, whose investment in providing clean water via the “Slingshot” helps inject their brand with goodwill while also ensuring that they still have some customer base (not to mention clean water with which to make their product).
Or consider Dean Kamen, who developed an electricity generator powered by cow dung. Or Chewang Norphel, who created artificial glaciers by trapping clean water that froze in the winter.
These inventors suggest that the most essential part of the solution to any global climate change problems—but especially to those faced by poor countries—is innovation.
Plenty of writers on global climate change have suggested that innovation should address the root causes of climate change, but at this point it seems much more likely that poorer countries will have to resort to a different kind of innovation: they will have to adapt to survive, and in order to adapt, they will have to innovate.
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Nidale is a recent graduate of Columbia University, where she studied Political Science and Middle Eastern, South Asian, & African Studies. She has complicated feelings toward the (former?) imperial powers and spends most of her free time comparing the Odyssey to the Shahnameh. Currently, she lives in Boston, where she eagerly awaits the next season of Million Dollar Listing: New York.
