Flood Follow Drought

AP

In this image made from video, men walk through floodwaters on a street in the town of Beledweyne, in Somalia, Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023. First, some families fled drought and violence. Now they say they have nowhere to hide from intense flooding as rainfall exacerbated by the weather phenomenon El Nino pummels large parts of Somalia. (AP Photo)

Climate Change, Climate Justice, Africa and the Church

by

Special to United Methodist Insight

A minority of Americans is deeply concerned about climate change and impatient with the slowness of the global efforts to slow it and actively trying to bring about needed changes in society. Many Americans continue to think of climate change as something that might occur in the coming decades and in any case is not due to human activity. Others concede it is probably happening and may be due to human activity and that someone should do something about it.

As a biomedical scientist, I regret having to confess that I fell into the latter camp until a few years ago. What transformed me into a climate activist was my appointment to the Creation Care Advocacy and Action Ministry of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. The members of that body transmitted their fervor to me and motivated me to do in-depth study of the topic. I became appalled at the lack of US media coverage of the catastrophic damage and human suffering being caused by climate change right now in many poor countries around the world, especially those in Africa, and the woefully inadequate response of global donors to UN appeals for aid. The epicenter of this crisis is the Horn of Africa, Somalia and surrounding countries.

The Federal Republic of Somalia has an estimated population of around 17.1 million, up from about 6 million in 1980, of which more than 2 million live Mogadishu, the capital and largest city. In the late 19th century, it was colonized by both the Italian and British Empires. In 1960, the two territories united to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government. After a civil war that began in 1991, Somalia has been politically unstable with the northwestern portion declaring independence as the unrecognized state of Somaliland and the rest of the territory contested among the Mogadishu-based Federal Government of Somalia, the Islamist terrorist organization al-Shabaab, and other jihadist groups. Somalia ranks among the least developed countries on GDP per capita and human development index. Its informal economy is mainly based on livestock. The population is almost all ethnic Somali and Muslim. With the longest coastline in Africa, Somalia is hot, semi-arid and desert land with irregular rainfall.

From 2011 through 2022, Somalia had only one proper rainy season (in 2013) with all other years falling far short of the norm of two adequate rainy seasons per year. A drought from 2015 through 2022, the worst in 60 years, escalated into a crisis across the Horn of Africa, one that left tens of millions facing food insecurity and, in some cases, famine-like conditions. This period also saw a major locust invasion along with grain shortages because of the Ukraine war and the COVID-10 pandemic. Appeals for aid to global donors were severely underfunded and NGOs like UNICEF and Médecins sans Frontières (Doctor Without Borders) could not meet the needs. The lack of media coverage in the US severely hampered them in their fundraising. As thousands of children starved to death, many NGOs barely took note of the crisis, mainly attending to Ukraine.

Floods follow drought

When rains returned in 2023, I hoped for a restart to local agriculture. But, from the first week of November 2023, parts of Somalia in the central and southern states have received more rain than a typical Deyr season (October to December rains). The rains are ongoing with over a million women, men and children estimated to be displaced by flooding, particularly in Puntland, Galmudug, South West, Hirshabelle and Jubaland states. Global climate models have confirmed the presence of El Niño conditions in the Pacific and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole, which along with climate change, are to blame for enhanced rainfall and flooding in most parts of the country. The Somali government has declared a national state of emergency. Yet the US media remains silent on the topic. Appeals from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations body established to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disasters, remain severely underfunded.

Periodic drought has been a fact of life for centuries in the Horn of Africa. However, human-induced climate change has exacerbated the frequency and severity of drought even as vulnerable populations have increased as the global population has grown past eight billion in just a few decades. The population of Somalia nearly tripled since 1980. Since this suffering now has roots in the CO2 we and other rich nations have emitted since the 19th century, with the nations currently suffering most contributing almost nothing to the climate problem, let us resolve in the new year to take steps to reduce the CO2 emissions due to our churches and our households.

Changing our energy habits

 I have found that the single easiest action with significant impact is to switch our electric energy supplier to a company selling only energy from wind and solar farms, for example Clean Choice Energy. The local utility remains the electric power distributor (transmission lines etc.) and billing agent. There was no upfront cost and my switch-over took less than fifteen minutes and was seamless. I can cancel without penalty at any time. For residents of the 22 states and DC which have passed enabling legislation, the Community Solar Program is also a great option.

Changing our energy consumption will be a great start to being part of the solution to the climate crisis. We can also drive and fly less. Next most important is contacting local, state and federal legislators and executives to advocate for programs consistent with attaining the goals of the 2015 Paris Accord. See United Methodist Creation Justice Movement and Interfaith Power and Light for more guidance and resources.

Give for victims in Africa

I urge readers to follow this crisis via the Internet and share the information widely. I have found the UNICEF-USA website and BBC News provide the best information on the crisis. Then please begin to give generously to save children in Somalia, Kenya and South Sudan affected by this tragedy. As United Methodists, we generally give through UMCOR, in this case the International Disaster Response Advance #982450 with a note “Horn of Africa” or “Somalia famine and floods.” https://umcmission.org/story/responding-to-drought-and-famine-in-the-horn-of-africa/

I also suggest supporting the UNICEF-USA appeal for the Horn of Africa. UNICEF-USA is a well-established NGO that received a 4-star rating (the highest) from Charity Navigator. In this season of giving, let us give to save the lives of malnourished and starving children.

As United Methodists we believe the Good News of Jesus Christ is both personal and social. As a saying attributed to John Wesley goes, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” The climate crisis in the Horn of Africa offers an opportunity for us to do good by many means.

Dr. Richard F. Gillum of Silver Spring, Md., is professor of medicine at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Wesley Foundation at Howard. and of the Christian Community Health Fellowship. He serves on the Creation Care Advocacy and Action Ministry of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.