HUNGER: States of Emergency Declared Across the Sahel

10 million threatened by hunger as Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger declare states of emergency

Niger (pop: ~ 16million) is the worst affected country with almost half of its population left without enough to eat.

Disaster Calendar 2012 – February 20

[February 20, 2012]  Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.  SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,486 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

• The Sahel, Africa. Ten million people are threatened by hunger across the Sahel, as Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger declare states of emergency.
  • “Nearly half of Niger does not have enough to eat.  The 5.4 million people struggling to stay alive are part of a wider crisis affecting at least 10 million people across the swath across Africa that borders the Sahara, known as the Sahel,” said a spokeswoman for Mercy Corps.
  • “This is the third time in the last decade the people of the Sahel have faced severe food shortages.”

Other Disasters

• Global.  Wildfires kill about 339,000 people each year, according to a new study.
  • The fires consume about 450 million hectares, an area half the size of Canada.
  • [Notes:
    •  In China alone indoor air pollution kills 2.2 million youths.
    • Urban air pollution kills about 2.4 million people globally each year, said The World Health Organization (WHO); however, the true figure may be 10 times as many.]
  • About 157,000 of the deaths caused by wildfires occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and 110,000 deaths in southeast Asia.
  • The study suggests a link between climate and wildfire mortality.
  • El Niño years, when the surface ocean temperature rises in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, claim an average of 532,000 lives, twice as many as the cooler La Niña years, averaging 262,000 deaths per year.

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar 

Drought: Recent Links

• Drought tightens grip on S. Mozambique Posted on January 16, 2012
• Niger Faces Food Shortages Posted on December 25, 2011
• Disaster Calendar 2011: Famine Spreads in Somalia Posted on August 4, 2011
• Worst drought in living memory gripping Horn of Africa Posted on June 29, 2011