{"id":6270,"date":"2015-12-15T00:16:39","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T22:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/?page_id=6270"},"modified":"2015-12-26T17:54:10","modified_gmt":"2015-12-26T15:54:10","slug":"see-the-connection-between-climate-change-and-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/press-clips\/various-2015\/see-the-connection-between-climate-change-and-conflicts\/","title":{"rendered":"See the connection between climate change and conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Debate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aftonbladet 151211<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debaters: You can help to stem the drought<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

DEBATE. Nothing has characterized the autumn like the ongoing refugee catastrophe. Images we rather had never wanted to see are forever etched in our memories. What started with open hearts and a Europe without walls has become barb wire, border controls and strong measures.
\nWhat would happen if instead we put our energy into finding solutions to the basic problem? That people are forced to leave their homes?
\nThere is a clear link between climate change, conflict and flight. The civil war in Syria was preceded by several years of drought when large quantities of livestock died and a million peasants were forced to leave the countryside. They sought refuge in the cities, adding to the turmoil in the country and contributing to the refugee catastrophe.<\/strong>
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\nThe past five years over 100 million people have been forced to leave their homes because of climate-related disasters. With a warmer climate this is likely to become more common, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where rapid population growth makes it even harder to survive in rural areas. The British scientist Norman Myers speaks of 200 million climate refugees already in 2050.
\nIn many countries the effects of climate change are already being felt. Some of us who have signed this text have been eyewitnesses to areas in among other places Kenya, where crops were destroyed and houses demolished as a result of the increasingly erratic weather.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to become paralyzed by the vastness of the climate issues, but in fact there are already methods that can reverse the trend in the right direction. \u201dIs it peace that we want? Try trees, not bombs\u201d,\u00a0author Naomi Klein recently wrote in Aftonbladet. She emphasized that the planting of trees in the Middle East and the Mediterranean would bring down the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, make soils wetter and thereby reduce the possibility of a similar extreme drought that has exacerbated the situation in Syria.
\nWe can attest that trees play a vital role. In eastern Africa the aid organization the Vi forest supports poor farmers to plant trees and crops together, known as agroforestry. With relatively simple means a family, often an entire district, can withstand floods, droughts and ultimately won\u2019t have to leave their homes:<\/strong><\/p>\n