Once, at a public dinner, g. k chesterton stared pointedly at bernard shaw ' s thin figure and remarked, " looking at you, shaw, people would think there was a famine in england."
That's the gloomy consensus: Africa, beset by conflict, hunger and disease, is being hit by a new disaster that combines them all - though Africa produces just 2% of global emissions.
Yet occurrences of food shortages and droughts are causing famine and distress in some areas, and industrial and agricultural by-products are polluting water supplies.
Many of the new arrivals are still suffering from malnutrition and malnourishment after enduring often long and arduous journeys from famine-stricken Somalia.
Warming in other parts of the globe will disrupt the patterns of ocean currents and air flows that govern everything from India's monsoons to rainfall in Australia and Africa.