In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office, I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.
Woody Guthrie, “This Land is Your Land”
No regions are immune to climate change, but it will affect different places in different ways. Or maybe not. The 1930s Dust Bowl of the US western plains looked a lot like what has been happening in Africa over recent decades. And the 2011 drought across the southern US states looked a lot like the Dust Bowl.
In the 1930s, western US farmers were already over-farming their land due to pressure from falling farm prices. When drought struck, wind took their topsoil away; many farmers – one in ten in some regions – had to abandon their farms and take to the road.
In the mid-1980s, farmers in over 20 African nations were over-farming their land due to pressure from falling farm prices. When drought struck, wind took their topsoil away; many farmers, 10 million by most estimates, had to abandon their farms and take to the road.
