Why famine in Madagascar is an alarm bell for the planet
The UN has called it the world’s first climate-change-induced famine. Madagascar’s government agrees it is a result of the west’s carbon-fuelled lifestyle. A number of scientists and experts disagree, saying it is actually a consequence of poverty and poor governance.
For the people of southern Madagascar, unaware of the international furore, it is known simply as kere — the hunger.
Soanavorie Tognemare, a resourceful 22-year-old who lives with her husband and two toddlers , did everything she could to keep her children alive. “I fed cactus fruit and wild leaves to my children”, she says, holding her two-year-old daughter, Haova, who was at one point diagnosed as being severely malnourished.… Seguir leyendo »