The strategic importance of a 'talkfest' on drought

To grasp just how dangerous droughts are, consider that, according to the top UN disaster experts, there's simply nothing bigger "in terms of human mortality." Not even famine or flooding.

When drought combined with famine and social unrest in Ethiopia in 1984-85, a million people died within weeks.

Drought prevention ranks up there with nuclear safety as, well, super important.

Dropping UN drought convention: The death knell of Canada's international reputation?

According to UNICEF's 2009 Human Development Index, the impoverished North African nation of Niger ranks lowest in nutritional and health indicators. In that country, one child in five dies before their fifth birthday.

Bordering Niger to the southwest is Burkina Faso, a similarly destitute, landlocked republic where there are as few as ten physicians per 100,000 people and a child malnutrition rate of 25 per cent.

Desertification is too important for Canada to ignore

The federal government recently pulled out of an important global treaty: the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. It’s aimed at fighting drought, a problem that affects almost 30 per cent of Earth’s land surface and threatens the well-being of more than a billion people worldwide, including in our Prairie provinces.

Every year, the cumulative effects of overgrazing, over-cultivation, deforestation, poor irrigation and increasing extreme weather events – including those that cause drought – permanently degrade close to 10 million hectares of land. This has led to a creeping loss of places where food can easily be grown.