FAMINE

Famine. Let me say it again. Famine. It seems like such a foreign concept to me. Something associated with ancient stories in the Bible and far away third world countries. As a U.S. citizen it's really hard for me to grasp the concept of people going hungry - so hungry that they possibly could die. But it's very real and it's happening in the world right now. In Somalia because of a drought that has persisted for awhile there are now thousands of people going hungry tonight and some of them will probably die. One of the most tragic parts about it is how a lot of people in the world don't even know it's happening - or the extremity of it (I didn't - but then again, many times I'm found guilty of being a college student wrapped in my own bubble).There may be a brief clip talking about famine on the nightly news, but I don't think people take it in and really absorb that other human beings are starving. They might look up at the screen for a moment and think "Oh, how sad" but then they go on with their daily lives and don't give it another thought. I'm not saying these are bad or selfish people, because I'm guilty of it too, but I'm saying that I think it's something we should try to be more aware of. According to an article from the BBC published 9 days ago - there are 12 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in Somalia. And there are 750,000 at risk of death in Somalia. And that was 9 days ago - the numbers may have increased by then. The UN also said that it is "East Africa's worst drought for 60 years". Somalia isn't the only country affected - it's just the one able to least efficiently deal with the problem. Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda are also under the same conditions.  And sadly there have been similar famines throughout Africa lasting for different time periods, from the 1970s until now, that were also caused by drought or sometimes political instability and conflict.

On a more sustainable note, a news article from treehugger.com that was published today talked about how the deforestation happening in Somalia contributed to the extremity of the famine. If more trees were present, it could be easier for the people to cope with the drought because the trees serve as shade, as a possible food source, etc. It's sad to think that if people had cut down less trees then perhaps not as many would be dying.

And finally on a happier note - experts say a way to more effectively deal with the drought is to transform dry and barren land into agroforests. To do this farmers will plant trees on their farms along with the crops and livestock their lands already sustain. When they did this in Niger and a drought occurred, agroforest farmers were better able to cope with the famine. Plus planting more trees = less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Win, win, situation.