Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to Photo journalist Gethin Chamberlain, crop failures force third world farmers to sell off their kids.
Why climate change is creating a new generation of child brides
As global warming exacerbates drought and floods, farmers’ incomes plunge – and girls as young as 13 are given away to stave off poverty
by Gethin Chamberlain (words and photographs)
It was the flood that ensured that Ntonya Sande’s first year as a teenager would also be the first year of her married life. Up to the moment the water swept away her parents’ field in Kachaso in the Nsanje district of Malawi, they had been scraping a living. Afterwards they were reduced to scavenging for bits of firewood to sell.
So when a young man came to their door and asked for the 13-year old’s hand in marriage, the couple didn’t think about it for too long, lest he look elsewhere. Ntonya begged them to change their minds. She was too young, she pleaded. She didn’t want to leave. But it was to no avail. Her parents sat her down and spelled it out for her: the weather had changed and taken everything from them. There was not enough food to go around. They couldn’t afford another mouth at the table.
That night she lay down in bed for the first time with the man she had never seen before and followed the instructions of her aunt, who had coached her on the important matter of sex. Ten months later, she gave birth to their first daughter.
Everyone has their own idea of what climate change looks like. For some, it’s the walrus struggling to find space on melting ice floes on Blue Planet II. For others, it’s an apocalyptic vision of cities disappearing beneath the waves. But for more and more girls across Africa, the most palpable manifestation of climate change is the baby in their arms as they sit watching their friends walk to school. The Brides of the Sun reporting project, funded by the European Journalism Centre, set out to try to assess the scale of what many experts are warning is a real and growing crisis: the emergence of a generation of child brides as a direct result of a changing climate.
…
Leaving aside the rather tenuous link between climate and weather, can anyone imagine selling your kid rather than selling the farm if the money runs out?
There is no circumstance under which I could imagine selling a family member to pay the bills. You sell stuff, not people, if you are short of cash.
Farmers in Malawi might have had a hard time lately – the nature of primitive subsistence farming with minimal help from fossil fuel powered farm equipment is regular periods of extreme hardship. But my sympathy is tempered with utter disgust at the Guardian’s efforts to rationalise a backward misogynist culture which considers daughters to be just another chattel to sell to the highest bidder if the money runs out.
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“As global warming exacerbates drought and floods, farmers’ incomes plunge…”
The author starts out with this supposition so the objections should be he assumes facts not in evidence.
Judges?
Throughout human history is has been common to marry kids off shortly after puberty, and the smarter moms and dads in town would often arrange amongst themselves which sons or daughters went to which families, with little concern about how the kids felt about things. The article betrayed as deep a lack of perspective on human history as it does on basic climate science.
The article doesn’t mention the religion (if any) of the couple. I wonder how child marriage is looked at among Malawi Christians? It seems to be normative among Muslims (30-35% demographic).
The Guardian is conflating two issues. 13 is young to be a bride nowadays although the age of consent is as low as 12 for females in some countries (including perhaps surprisingly Canada). The second element is the custom of lobola / lobolo or bride price. Dowry (money paid to the groom by the bride’s family intended for her upkeep) was a common practice in Europe until recently and still is in some parts. (Wiki, sorry, seem OK)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobolo#Lobola_and_the_Law
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry
Of course it goes without saying that there is likely to be no connection at all between any climate change and the reported devastating flood.
Perhaps someone ought to send this article to the sites that do ‘fact-checking’?
I guess that they have no evidence of increased ‘child-brides’, and there is an official that there is no increase in ‘extreme weather’. So it ought to be a fairly simple job to get it officially debunked by a left-wing ‘official’ debunking site….
And, of course, if they refuse to consider it, that tells us something as well….
It’s British news. Move along.
Malawi has lots of problems …
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), and Group of Eight (G8) were all actively interested and involved with the Malawi case. To create a stable economy and a government which the first world can work with the IMF employed SAPs (Structural Adjustment Polices) to restructure the country. This interjection by so many global organizations show how the period from 1990 – 2012 was one of neo-colonialism. These global institutions primarily follow the guidance and objectives of the first world. Malawi demonstrates the “economic imperialism” which these institutions created.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Malawi
This story encompasses all of the modern leftist thinking. It is anti-white and anti-male. It is anti-white because they tell us that the rich white people in Europe and America are causing troubles in Africa. The implication being that if we didn’t use fossil fuels then the climate would always be perfect and thus no droughts or floods or famines would ever occur. It is anti-male in that it is men who are buying child brides. Notice they aren’t buying child husbands. In other words, men are treating women like property.
The simple fact is if Africa has access to cheap fossil fueled powered electricity and cheap fossil fuel powered farm equipment then they would be more well fed and life would be easier. It isn’t strange how crop yields keep increasing in countries with tractors and fertilizer and GMO crops. The world has produced enough food to feed every person alive with billions be able to get seconds. Imagine how much better it could be if all the world had fossil fuel powered tractors! We don’t have a food problem, we have a political problem.
Crops are failing, leading to record harvests.
how is the national debt not selling your children into indentured servitude?
females in some countries (including perhaps surprisingly Canada).
≠========
the age of consent was lowered in Canada after 3 politicians were caught with underage girls. the law was changed by a show of hands on the last day of Parliament so they could avoid criminal records and so they would not rat out the other members of Parliament that had been making use of the girl’s services.
Fake news ferdberple. The Tackling Violent Crime Act raises the legal age of sexual consent in Canada to 16 from 14, the first time it has been raised since 1892. But the law includes a “close-in-age exception,” meaning 14- and 15-year-olds can have sex with someone who is less than five years older.
May 1, 2008 Canada’s age of consent raised by 2 years – Canada – CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-s-age-of-consent-raised-by-2-years-1.754941
In June 2006, the Canadian government proposed a bill to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, while creating a close-in-age exemption for sex between 14-15 year olds and partners less than 5 years older, and keeping an existing close-in-age clause for sex between 12-13 year olds and partners less than 2 years older. The initiative also maintains a temporary exception for already existing marriages of 14 and 15 year olds, but forbids new marriages like these in the future.
http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/other-autre/clp/faq.html
There is also a “close in age” exception for 12 and 13 year olds. A 12 or 13 year old can consent to sexual activity with a partner as long as the partner is less than two years older and there is no relationship of trust, authority or dependency or any other exploitation of the young person. This means that if the partner is 2 years or older than the 12 or 13 year old, any sexual activity is a criminal offence.
Child marriage has been endemic to Malawi for a long time, but warmer air due to climate change will make them intensify at a faster rate.
This was my first attempt at being a climate scientist by just pulling something out of my b.utt and making it sound authoritative. Since I’m just a climate scientist in training I can admit that I plagiarized it from climate scientists who ignored 12 years of major hurricanes hitting the US (after predicting major hurricanes would increase) and then segued into the claim that due to climate change hurricanes were intensifying at a faster rate after the pause ended (which they just pulled out of their b.utts)..
The Grauniad has no shame (and of course it is the go-to fake-newspaper of the BBC).
I would be willing to bet real money that the plight of small African farmers and ranchers has been reduced by the global greening currently being observed because of human CO2 emissions. Nomadic or quasi nomadic owners of cattle, goats, sheep, small farms, individual families that own a milk cow are all equally receiving the benefits of rich Americans driving, especially those big gas guzzling Ford F150s and Cadillac Escalades. How fracking ironic is that? “Save the children.” Drive a couple of extra miles today.
In any biblical (or other religious document) account of Evil, simply substitute “global warming” for “Satan”, and you are mimicking
climate “science” and modern pseudo-journalism.
Biblical? See Biblical news:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/11/e1700954?utm_campaign=toc_advances_2017-11-24&et_rid=317830289&et_cid=1684726
WAIT, “the most palpable manifestation of climate change is the baby in their arms”
So…sex had nothing to do with it? So young women are having babies because of climate change? Conception because of climate change! QUICK! Go grab the rocket from that Flat Earther and head into space folks! This planet is toast..time to find another one to screw up!
*head meet desk* this is nothing more than bird cage lining.
Soiled at that.
Well, you guys failed to notice the biggest bit of hokum in that news story from the Guardian.
“That night she lay down in bed for the first time with the man she had never seen before and followed the instructions of her aunt, who had coached her on the important matter of sex. Ten months later, she gave birth to their first daughter.”
Sorry, Guardian, but the human gestation cycle is (9) NINE months, not TEN, and if you’re going to make stuff up, if the 13-year-old girl was fertile enough to produce a child so quickly, she was probably pregnant before the end of that first night.
My sister was born 9 months to the HOUR after my mother and father got together that very first night that they were married. It only takes one time, you know.
Sara: Gestation is 39 – 40 weeks. If you count “months” as 4 weeks, it’s 10 months. If you count “months” as 4.35 weeks, it’s 9.2 months. I guess it depends on the definition of “months”. I’ve seen many articles saying pregnancy is 10 months, so the Guardian is not offbase with the statement.
Sheri, I agree.
I believe the correct gestation is 10 months because…. A woman is actually pregnant when she isn’t. Each month, she is, until the egg drops and dies. If the egg is fertilized the pregnancy continues. If not, it dies.
Okay, Sheri. My father married my mother on March 24th. My mother went into labor at a Christmas Eve party at midnight, December 24th. My sister was born on December 25th, a few hours later. That’s only one of many examples.
So, no, it is not 10 months. In primitive societies, “months” are based on 28-day lunar cycles, not man-made calendars. You do know what a leap year is, right? It’s a bogus excuse for ignoring a natural cycle.
Sorry Sara, it is 10 months. Every egg is in the stage of waiting for the fertilization. Pregnancy starts as soon as the egg is there. If there is no fertilization, the pregnancy stops.
Your parents having a child exactly on that date is mere, coincidence.
In Ethiopia their year is 13 months long, and 6 years behind the rest of the world.
You want real biblical insights? Check this out: Rapture Index
Malawi problems with agriculture relate to low levels of male labour due to the high death toll from aids. Mass deforestation has led to soil erosion and rivers changing flow patterns. Much of the terrain is difficult to cultivate.
It is interesting that a Google search on climate for Malawi reveals lots of information, but I could find no mention of climate change. A search on Malawi agriculture also failed to mention climate change but listed other problems.
But then, it is a Guardian article.
Expensive energy leads to child brides. The climate alarmist are the people most willing to force everyone into costly renewable power. The more slowly we make the world economy grow the harder it will be for poor countries to pull themselves out of poverty and the need for a kokamany custom like child brides and six kids per family. Really cheap nuclear energy that is safe is the only answer. In my opinion thorium liquid salt technology holds the greatest promise of prosperity for everyone on the planet.
WUWT Readers, I need your help. I’m trying to create a list of the most ridiculous slimate clience research. This article made the list, but I’m looking for more. If you have a favorite waste of money research article, please post a link in the comment section. Thanks in advance.
Slimate Clience Nonsense; “The List” Continued
https://co2islife.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/slimate-clience-nonsense-the-list-continued/
I call BS on this fabricated story. You can get lead to whatever answers you want interviewing these poverty stricken people. The BS parts are girls in Africa are commonly child brides younger than this – it’s cultural. When I was in Nigeria in the 1960s, 50% of children didn’t even reach the age of 12! Bride price could be a few or many cattle or goats in an agricultural area. The “tell” is ’13’. A white, middle class lady photo journalist wouldn’t want the child to be ‘indecently’ a sub-teenager.
Second the tropics don’t change particularly, the Arctic warming anomaly is triple and the tropics show little difference. Finally, Malawi’s average rainfall is variable, <1000mm to over 2000mm, 95% of which falls May to November Floods an droughts have always been a problem. I'll bet the photo tourist interviewed some poor fellow in Lower Shire Valley or in Salima where flooding is common. I have a project in southern Katanga Province, DRC not far from Malawi and having the same climate. The compromised photo journalist has been a hyperbolic tool of the left since the he camera was invented.
Dearie, you didn't happen to share the 50k
or so for your exploitation of these poor people for your political masters or perhaps rethink the policies being made to make their lives worse. Parasite Accord, indeed.
Forced marriage by underage girls is a big problem within the moslem minority in subarctic Sweden, so I suppose it must get very cold to stop it.
Q: How cold was it?
A: It was a three wife night.
Story gets re-hashed every year…just like climate change forcing women into prostitution.
Ahhh! Climate Change!
Is there nothing that it cannot do?
Nothing we have found yet.