Charlottesville hotheads are a reminder that global warming threatens us all with summers of discontent

Andrew Sheng says extreme weather, migration and violence triggered by climate change are threatening governments and beginning to lay waste to the Earth, and cool heads must prevail to prevent further disaster

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Hotter climates will need cooler heads than Donald Trump’s to think through what we should be doing to deal with climate change. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Published: 12:21pm, 18 Aug 2017Updated: 7:09pm, 18 Aug 2017

What happened in Charlottesville, US, showed that temperatures and tempers are flaring in this long, hot summer. Is the Arab spring spreading worldwide due to global warming?

The Arab spring broke out in 2011 with a wave of demonstrations and protests in countries including Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Morocco. This was hailed as the outbreak of democracy against authoritarian regimes, but what went unnoticed were the underlying causes of three interconnected factors – growing youth unemployment from rapid population growth, the inability of existing governance structures to deal with growing social stresses, and the catalyst for social breakdown – climate change.

From February to August 2010, a large-scale drought and famine occurred in Africa’s Sahel region, the belt south of the Sahara Desert stretching from Senegal, Northern Nigeria and Mali to Sudan. The drought killed an estimated 260,000 people and caused migration northwards to North Africa.

Indeed, before the fall of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in late 2011, the EU paid Libya €50 million (HK$459 million) in October 2010 to stop African migrants passing into Europe. From 2006 to 2011, Syria suffered drought and famine over 60 per cent of its land area, causing massive crop failure and loss of herds.

In February this year, the UN declared another famine in South Sudan, with famine risks in Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen. The famine in Yemen is already threatening 7 million people.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi (centre), visits a refugee camp in the Sudanese state of East Darfur on August 15. More than 5,000 South Sudanese fleeing war and famine have taken shelter in the camp. Photo: AFP