Remember when Grandma could tell you that it was going to rain because her knees hurt? We were lucky to have Grandma around.
Cimate change is being blamed for increases in witchcraft executions, according to Nicholas Kristoff at the New York Times:
In rural Tanzania, murders of elderly women accused of witchcraft are a very common form of homicide. And when Tanzania suffers unusual rainfall — either drought or flooding — witch-killings double, according to research by Edward Miguel, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.
“In bad years, the killings explode,” Professor Miguel said. He believes that if climate change causes more drought years in Tanzania, the result will be more elderly women executed there and in other poor countries that still commonly attack supposed witches.
Al Gore needs to be told. This is great fodder for his next movie, which is being produced under the working title "fooled you once." Think of the spectacle - twelve old women tied to stakes with firewood at their feet. With good cinematography and a lot of cameras, he could get the final scream of each woman followed by the flesh melting from her face. There could be another Academy Award followed by another Nobel Peace Prize!
Since this is the blame America first crowd, we get, at the end of more examples of witch executions stretching back to the 1520's (28 years after CC's epic voyage) the following:
The greenhouse gases that imperil Africa’s future are spewing from the United States, China and Europe. The people in Bangladesh and Africa emit almost no carbon, yet they are the ones who will bear the greatest risks of climate change. Some experts believe that the damage that the West does to poor countries from carbon emissions exceeds the benefit from aid programs.
All this makes the United States’ reluctance to confront climate change in a serious way — like a carbon tax to replace the payroll tax, coupled with global leadership on the issue — as unjust as it is unfortunate.
So let’s remember that the stakes with climate change are broader than hotter summers or damaged beach houses. The most dire consequences of our denial and delay may include civil war — and even witch-killings — among the poorest peoples on earth.
As this is being written, we can't stop laughing. We can guess what happened: Some economist wanted research money to study witchcraft. He faced a problem because witchcraft isn't high on the National Science Foundation's list of critical problems to examine. Climate change is. If it gets colder, witches die. If it gets warmer witches die. How convenient. Blame superstition on a change in the weather and get lots of money.
Only the New York Times and Mark Udall could take a connection between carbon dioxide emissions in the US and witchcraft executions seriously. Well, Bill Ritter and Ken Salazar might too. "Extended forecast: Bloodshed"
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