Africa in Review 2024 II: Climate Change and Imperialist Militarism

Climate change is by no means an academic issue, it represents the potential for ultimate human disaster 

By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Monday December 30, 2024

Geostrategic Climate Analysis

On the African continent where 1.4 billion people reside, the problems associated with extreme weather events have impacted people across various regions.

These disasters are covered widely through the corporate, governmental and independent media outlets internationally and cannot be hidden from public consciousness.

Concomitantly, there has arisen a global movement which seeks to reverse the process of climate change. During 2019, there were global climate strike manifestations which involved hundreds of millions around the world.  

However, within a matter of six months, the focus of billions around the planet turned towards public health with the rapid advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The masses of people were compelled out of necessity to refrain from public gatherings to social distance and eventually to receive doses of vaccines designed to curb the spread of the highly infectious disease which killed millions across the globe.

Although the United States encompasses the largest economy in the world, it was the most negatively impacted by the pandemic. Over one million people died from COVID while a debate arose over how the public in the U.S. should respond to the pandemic.

The far-right defenders of the administration of President Donald Trump rejected the lockdowns, the wearing of masks and the mandatory regulations related to the labor market and public gatherings. These disagreements clearly illustrated the ideological and class divisions which have become more pronounced in the U.S. over the last few decades.

A collapse in the system of public education and growing paranoia over the role of the federal and local governments fueled the discord and consequently led to more serious illnesses, hospitalization and deaths. Even after the massive cases of transmission and deaths, the Trump administration played to its base largely composed of whites who feel that the settler-colonial and capitalist system is being threatened but not just by its own contradictions. The right and racist constituencies viewed intellectuals, scientists, medical personnel and government officials attempting to preserve public health as the enemy as opposed to the rise of a pandemic whose impact had not been witnessed in more than a century.  

It was the mass demonstrations and rebellions which erupted in the aftermath of the police executions of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the vigilante lynching of Ahmaud Arbery in south Georgia which broke the fear and apprehension which characterized the pandemic. Millions took to the streets in the U.S. and worldwide to denounce the racist state violence in the U.S. and the atmosphere created by the administration of President Donald Trump.

This brief historical connection between the climate strikes of 2019, the coronavirus pandemic and the popular struggles against institutional racism, is important in accessing the events of 2024 and their significance. Irrespective of the levels and dimensions of global crises, the people must devise tactics and strategies to maintain their humanity, well-being and qualitative development. 

The Impact of Floods

One frequent occurrence in Africa is the massive floods which cause serious damage to population centers across various regions. Many people are losing their lives and livelihood due to these flooding events.

According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in a report on flooding during 2024, it says:

“West and Central Africa’s rainy season typically runs from June through September. However, severe flooding persisted into November in central and southern Chad, northern Cameroon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, central and southern Mali, southern Niger, northern Nigeria, Senegal, and northern Sierra Leone. Populations have been further impacted by the associated health risks brought on by the heavy rains and contaminated water supplies (such as a rise in malaria, pneumonia, and cholera). The 2.4 million people displaced due to the floods have compounded the strain felt from Africa’s record 45 million forcibly displaced people—largely as a result of conflict.” (https://africacenter.org/spotlight/record-levels-of-flooding-in-africa-compounds-stress-on-fragile-countries/)

This phenomenon of increased rainfall is not limited to West and Central Africa. There are reports which document the same pattern in the Eastern and Southern regions of the continent. 

These severe flooding events have displaced many people within seven provinces in the Republic of South Africa including KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Eastern Cape, among others. In October the government declared a state of national disaster in order to enable the release of funds to address the situation. (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-13/south-africa-declares-national-disaster-after-floods-storms)

The same statistics and evaluation cited above which was provided by Africa Center for Strategic Studies notes about the East African state of Kenya that:

“Kenya was hit hard by El Niño-induced rainfall and subsequent flooding. More than 400,000 people were affected, including the displacement of 40,000 households living in Nairobi’s informal settlements. Responding to early warning signals sent out by its meteorology department in advance of the rainy season, the Kenyan government took steps to mitigate the impact of the flooding. Kenya’s Ministry of Health deployed an incident management system team for disease surveillance, case management, and risk communication. The ministry also established medical camps to provide care for more than 4,000 people who were affected by the closure of health centers due to the flooding. More than 700 first responders were prepared to deploy to displacement camps to provide health services to refugees.”

Drought and Food Insecurity

Despite the heavy flooding which causes environmental and societal damage, the inconsistent pattern of rainfall has worsened the drought particularly in Southern Africa. The inability to raise crops and bring them to harvest is a serious factor in burgeoning food insecurity in various regions of the continent.

In the Southern Africa region, El Nino weather conditions are said to be responsible for the drought:

“The 2024 El Niño event is the worst to hit Southern Africa in the last 40 years, with severe consequences to the communities already facing difficult situations due to failed crops and other microeconomic conditions. The impact is characterized by drought, severe food shortages, limited access to clean water, disease outbreaks and loss of livestock.  The historic El Niño-induced drought led to well below-average maize harvests across the region compared to their respective five-year averages, according to national government and FEWS NET estimates. Affected communities have depleted their meagre food reserves with months remaining before the next opportunity for harvest in April 2025.” (https://reliefweb.int/report/angola/drought-southern-africa-angola-botswana-lesotho-malawi-mozambique-namibia-zambia-zimbabwe-public-health-situation-analysis-phsa-14-october-2024)

Absent a stable and well-fed population, Africa cannot develop and compete with other geopolitical regions of the world. Therefore, the efforts to mitigate and curb the impact of climate change is a matter of securing a future. 

United Nations Climate Conferences and the Need for Mass Actions

Every year the UN sponsors a climate conference (COP) ostensibly to address the worsening environmental conundrum around the world. These conferences have been plagued by protracted disagreements between the countries and territories of the Global South and the western capitalist states along with their allies.

There are two dominant positions within the U.S. ruling class regarding the environmental situation in the present century. The Democratic Party leadership does pay lip service to the threats surrounding climate change, yet it is not prepared to confront the transnational corporations and financial institutions which control the production and distribution mechanisms responsible for environmental degradation. 

Concurrently, the main view within the Republican Party is to deny that climate change even exists and to question the science behind claims of potential environmental catastrophe. Even though in the U.S. hurricanes, tornados, wildfires and floods are impacting tens of millions every year, the government has failed to act in an urgent manner. 

The Biden administration engaged other states and regions at the UN Climate Conferences only in efforts to control the dialogue and redirect policy away from the demand for monetary damages for environmental damage as well as resources to transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. The COP summits are not the only international forums where the U.S. and its imperialist allies have made pledges to subsidize sustainable and renewable projects while never fulfilling its promises.

Of course, the motivation of Washington and Wall Street is to maintain their status within the unilateral framework of global hegemony. This can only be carried out in the present period through the Pentagon and its bases throughout the world. (https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/ClimateChangeandCostofWar)

In advancing this imperialist agenda, the Pentagon has been cited as the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions internationally. The reality of the central role of imperialist militarism in the climate crises must be challenged by not only the peoples of the socialist camp, the national liberation movements and progressive governments in general, those living inside the imperialist states have a vested interest in transforming the overall power relations which are at the base of the destruction, displacement and deaths in the present epoch.