Global warming crisis - Heeding climate change warning

CONSIDERING the political convulsions wrought by the tens of thousands of migrants arriving on Europe’s shores from war-torn countries, we could be facing an even bigger refugee crisis as a result of climate change.

UN envoy Mary Robinson put it succcinctly yesterday on her return from a fact-finding mission to Ethiopia, a part of east Africa that has suffered its most severe drought in half a century. Its misery is accentuated by the El Nino weather system that disrupts and stops vital rains in the tropics.

According to Unicef, 26m children need help in eastern and southern Africa as a result of El Nino.