Sunday, August 1, 2010

Irish singer and activist Bob Geldof returned to Ethiopia this week 25 years after arousing a global response to its 1984 famine and said climate change could undo progress the country had seen since then.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi will represent Africa at next week’s much-hyped UN climate change talks in Copenhagen.

Meles has become the continent’s most outspoken leader on climate and blames European pollution for the 1980s disaster.

“The resilient Ethiopians I have met tell of two types of change over the last 25 years,” Geldof said.

“They tell of famines avoided, diseases fought, roads, dams and mobile phone networks built, children in school and immense economic growth. But then there is the negative, unwelcome change - that of the climate,” Geldof wrote.

Some climate experts have called for rich countries to pay up to $100 billion annually to counter the effects of global warming on Africa.

“It is having a terrible impact on their economy and their communities,” Geldof said.

“What is happening to them now, science says will happen to the rest of us in the near future should we not change as these Africans are being forced to do.”

Geldof’s Band Aid charity in 1984 brought together pop stars of the day and provoked a massive outpouring of charity as govern-ments and individuals contributed a total of $144 million.

More than one  million Ethiopians died in 1984.

A quarter of a century on, foreigners are still feeding them in huge numbers.

Be open about hunger
The Ethiopian government says poor rains mean 6.2 million of its 80 million people need food aid this year and it has asked for international help.

There has been economic progress and a long period of stability.

A scheme that gives seven million Ethiopians food or cash in exchange for work should ensure deaths on a scale similar to 1984 are never repeated, charities say.

Some aid workers, however, complain the government underplays the figures, afraid it will be blamed. Opposition leaders said this month their members were refused food aid to force them to join the ruling party.

The government called the allegation “ridiculous”.

Geldof said he pushed Meles to be more open about hunger figures and to improve his relationship with aid agencies.

The singer visited Korem, the town that grabbed world attention when tens of thousands of starving people descended from surrounding hills in search of food, and saw a new hospital, funded by Band Aid.

Geldof has come under attack from some for his continuing advocacy. Critics on the continent say he deserves praise but should stand aside so Africans can solve problems for themselves.

Others complain the presence in Africa of a man so closely associated with famine reinforces gloomy stereotypes and puts off investors.

Meanwhile Geldof said he doubts rich countries will agree anything concrete at the Copenhagen talks.

“The global leaders have a peculiar responsibility to be politically mature and forward looking at

the forthcoming Copenhagen meeting,” he said.

“They probably won’t be.

But I strongly urge that at least the DNA for further action - that will involve costs - be laid down and acted upon. Anything less is an act of gross political negligence that endangers us all.”

Macca has an edible plan to tackle global warming
Paul McCartney is urging consumers to fight global warming by going vegetarian at least once a week, ahead of an address he will deliver on Thursday to the European Parliament.

“By making a simple change in the way you eat, you are taking part in a world changing campaign where what’s good for you is also good for the planet,” the former Beatle told the Parliament Magazine.

“Having one designated meat-free day a week is a meaningful change that everyone can make,” he said.

“Above all, remember that the future begins with the actions we take now.”

McCartney is fitting his campaign in Brussels for a “Meat-free Monday” into a European concert tour which starts Wednesday in the German city of Hamburg, where the Beatles began building their fame in the early 1960s.

McCartney, a longtime environmental campaigner, told the EU magazine that there is “clear” evidence that meat production is “major contributor” to climate change.

World leaders at the upcoming Copenhagen summit on climate change should regard a sustainable food policy as a key part of the fight to curb CO2 emissions, he said.

“A lower-meat diet could see greenhouse gases reduced by as much as 80 per cent,” he said.

“Western countries currently eat meat at least seven times a week, but using a series of projected world diets, reports recommend reducing that to twice or three times a week.”