New technologies are helping ethiopians to stave off famine
Desperate for some good news during these dark times? Then look no further than drought stricken Ethiopia, currently in the grip of what looks like devastating climate change. Yes, really.
The Horn of Africa suffers major droughts so often that even aid organisations concede it’s hard not to just tune it all out. The rains have failed repeatedly in recent years, with 2011 being the region’s worst drought in 60 years. And where there is drought, there is always famine – and death on an appalling scale.
At least, that’s the story trotted out ever since the drought in Ethiopia that prompted the famous Band Aid concerts of the early 1980s.
Yet virtually all of it is either simplistic or flat wrong. The idea that the Horn of Africa provides a shocking insight into global warming ignores history. Records show this region experiences at least half a dozen severe droughts each century.
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