30835: Leiderman: request: journalist seeking Haiti environment-climate-conflict connection (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leiderman@mindspring.com


dear Readers:

 I'd like to post this writer's request for stories, people and locations
 in Haiti to visit next week, about links among environment, climate
 change and conflict.

thank you,

Stuart Leiderman
leiderman@mindspring.com

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I'm a journalist who usually writes for Fortune Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly, and I'm working on a book on the political, economic and strategic impact of climate change.

I'll be in Haiti from August 4 to 8, and I'm looking for some
good examples of how environmental degradation can not only fuel
conflict, but actually impede some of the solutions to ending
conflict. An example someone gave me - from Haiti - is of
deforestation driving up the price of carbon, and militias cornering
the market. So when NGOs go to plant trees to alleviate the environmental drivers of the conflict, the militias sends out their men to uproot them, and the cycle continues.

A political science professor told me that when he had last been there
years ago the UN had just agreed to start paying for security guards
to protect the last few remaining forests from gangs who take the wood
to make charcoal to sell in PauP.  He also mentioned a dam on Lake Peligre where deforestation was leading to the silting of the river, leading to power problems, leading to rioting during the black outs, and of course the need for more firewood.

Something like that would be great, but I'm also open to other
suggestions. <snip> Have you come across anything like what I've
described? If you're interested you can see my work at www.stephanfaris.com.

Thanks and best,

Stephan Faris
www.stephanfaris.com
Italian mobile: +39 347 279 7688

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http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200704/darfur-climate

The Atlantic Monthly | April 2007

The Real Roots of Darfur

The violence in Darfur is usually attributed to ethnic hatred. But
global warming may be primarily to blame.

by Stephan Faris

<snip>