Lloyd Timberlake
Whether it is global climate change due to what civilization is doing or more local disasters brought on by over-farming or over-use of water, the effects are going to be local, hitting individuals, families and villages. All disasters are local. So the solutions must be forms of development that help individuals and families cope: jobs, income, credit, insurance, healthcare, transport.
The Dust Bowl of the US Midwest was a time of misery for small farmers, but many could leave and find jobs, could get credit and could get various forms of help from state or national programmes. The trick with adapting to climate change will be to connect the national and international aid agencies, UN agencies and the World Bank to the local level, with national governments acting as partners to both, intermediaries, and honest brokers.
All the energy and all the knowledge are at that local level – whether in Latin American shantytowns, remote African farms, or Pacific villages on tiny atolls. If that energy and knowledge can be encouraged by outside resources, people will be able to cope, and maybe even to thrive.
Disasters are local
Fleeing a dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936
© Arthur Rothstein/FSA
Dust storm, Borkena valley, Wollo region, Ethiopia © Mark Edwards/Still Pictures
Reading class, Rishi Valley School, Andhra Pradesh © Mark Edwards/Still Pictures
Collecting manure for compost, Rishi Valley School, Andhra Pradesh © Mark Edwards/Still Pictures
