The hunger wars in our future
Combine such conflicts with another likelihood: that persistent drought and hunger will force millions of people to abandon their traditional lands and flee to the squalor of shantytowns and expanding slums surrounding large cities, sparking hostility from those already living there. One such eruption, with grisly results, occurred in Johannesburg's shantytowns in 2008 when desperately poor and hungry migrants from Malawi and Zimbabwe were set upon, beaten, and in some cases burned to death by poor South Africans. One terrified Zimbabwean, cowering in a police station from the raging mobs, said she fled her country because "there is no work and no food." And count on something else: millions more in the coming decades, pressed by disasters ranging from drought and flood to rising sea levels, will try to migrate to other countries, provoking even greater hostility. And that hardly begins to exhaust the possibilities that lie in our hunger-games future.
© 2012 TomDispatch At this point, the focus is understandably on the immediate consequences of the still ongoing Great Drought: dying crops, shrunken harvests, and rising food prices. But keep an eye out for the social and political effects that undoubtedly won't begin to show up here or globally until later this year or 2013. Better than any academic study, these will offer us a hint of what we can expect in the coming decades from a hunger-games world of rising temperatures, persistent droughts, recurring food shortages, and billions of famished, desperate people.
Michael Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, a TomDispatch regular, and the author, most recently, of "The Race for What's Left" (Metropolitan Books). A documentary movie based on his book "Blood and Oil" can be previewed and ordered at www.bloodandoilmovie.com. You can follow Klare on Facebook by clicking here. This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
- prev
- no next page
3/3
Recommended
- Who decides Oscar winners? White men over 60
- Top Twelve Most Patriotic Songs Ever
- Obama only goes after leaks that don't benefit him
- The hunk factor and the 2012 elections
- The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
- Who Lives The American Dream?
- American dystopia more reality than fiction
- Wikipropaganda On Global Warming
Who cares what HOAs and snobby neighbors think about your fenced in back yard? Grow what you need. Hunt more and rely upon grocery stores less. Why is it always someone else's fault when we are all responsible for sustaining ourselves?
The future of food will be determined by those that "own" the water rights not by the farmers or nations they're from.
Wow! Only 13%? At least 25% of our budget goes straight into groceries.