Chart: Rhodesia to Zimbabwe: Does Black rule damage the climate?
[When I was on Dennis Fetcho’s show I suggested that black rule might actually damage the environment and the climate. The black politicians liked to blame the fall in agricultural output on “droughts” when in fact there were not many droughts. But as a “macro” idea, I have wondered many times whether blacks have actually damaged the climate of entire regions of southern Africa due to their behaviour. I can’t prove this. But its a question I do ask – because to me its as if droughts or lower rainfall seem to be on the increase. Again, I’ve not gone and studied the charts to see if this is so. Its just something I’ve wondered about – whether this sort of thing is measurable in some way.
I say this because when vast amounts of farmland go dry due to agricultural collapse I’m wondering if the fall in crop production on a massive scale has a negative effect on the climate.
I found an interesting chart which comes from the writings of a white man who wrote a book about the damage caused in Zimbabwe when the blacks seized the farmland by force after 2000.
The chart is below. It covers the period 1963-2005. White rule ended in 1980. This chart covers 42 years of which 17 were under white rule. Since this chart has 13 years of the most drought in a 42 year period, it follows that 5.2 of the 13 droughts should be under white rule. But in actual fact only 2 of the 13 droughts occurred during white rule.
Interestingly there is quite a savage drought from 1981-1983. But then also a bunch of droughts in the 1990s. So I’m not sure if this is proof, because there were still many white farmers even under black rule. But even so, statistically, it does seem rather weird. Jan]
