Climate change will cause the next revolutions in North Africa

http://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-north-africa/a-18620521

Aug. 3, 2015

As Syrians continue to flee the conflict that rages in their home country, many via war-torn Libya, or Tunisia, which is struggling to keep its youth from joining ISIS, it's all too clear that the effects of the uprisings that swept the southern Mediterranean belt in 2011 are ongoing. Yet already there is talk of more on the horizon.

"Another revolution is coming for sure," Hamza Hamouchene, co-founder of Algeria Solidarity Campaign, told DW. "We can't predict when, but there is no doubt that the negative situation in North Africa is going to be exacerbated by the climate crisis."

Hamouchene, who is co-editor of a new collection of essays entitled "The Coming Revolution in North Africa: The Struggle for Climate Justice", says populations in the MENA region are already facing the harsh realities of climate change, with longer periods of drought and extreme flooding forcing them off their land and into uncertain futures.

His big concern is that while leaders, both in North Africa and across the world, understand the gravity and urgency of the problem, their solutions are not "progressive enough" to tackle it from the roots up.

"They see it as environmental, but really it is a social, political and economic issue linked to the structural crisis of the global system," Hamouchene told DW. "If we talk about climate issues and addressing the climate crisis in a sustainable and fair way, we cannot separate it from the question of democracy."

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A few years ago, Algerians might have stayed quiet, but awareness of the climate issue is growing across the region. It might not feature at the top of the agenda, which is not surprising given the problems of conflict and terrorism, but there are signs of progress. Morocco might just be a case in point.

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But Gajo agrees it is vital to look at the bigger picture, to join the dots between climate change, unemployment and migration, for example. "There are connections, but the way they are understood at a political level and the way they are talked about are two different things."

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