More than a century of rainfall data in the Sahel show an unusually wet period from 1950 until 1970 (positive index values), followed by extremely dry years from 1970 to 1990 (negative index values). From 1990 until present rainfall returned to levels slightly below the 1898–1993 average, but year-to-year variability was high.

Recent "Greening" of the Sahel: The results of trend analyses of time series over the Sahel region of seasonally integrated NDVI using NOAA AVHRR NDVI-data from 1982 to 1999. Areas with trends of <95% probability in white.

The Sahel drought was a series of historic droughts, beginning in at least the 17th century affecting the Sahel region, a climate zone sandwiched between the African savanna grasslands to the south and the Sahara desert to the north, across West and Central Africa. While the frequency of drought in the region is thought to have increased from the end of the 19th century, three long droughts have had dramatic environmental and societal effects upon the Sahel nations. Famine followed severe droughts in the 1910s, the 1940s, and the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, although a partial recovery occurred from 1975-80. While at least one particularly severe drought has been confirmed each century since the 17th century, the frequency and severity of recent Sahelian droughts stands out. Famine and dislocation on a massive scale—from 1968 to 1974 and again in the early and mid 1980s—was blamed on two spikes in the severity of the 1960-1980s drought period.^[1] From the late 1960s to early 1980s famine killed a 100,000 people, left 750,000 dependent on food aid, and affected most of the Sahel's 50 million people.^[2] The economies, agriculture, livestock and human populations of much of Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso (known as Upper Volta during the time of the drought) were severely impacted. As disruptive as the droughts of the late 20th century were, evidence of past droughts recorded in Ghanaian lake sediments suggest that multi-decadal megadroughts were common in West Africa over the past 3,000 years and that several droughts lasted far longer and were far more severe.^[3][4]

Previous Sahel droughts[link]

Because the Sahel's rainfall is heavily concentrated in a very small period of the year, the region has been prone to dislocation when droughts have occurred ever since agriculture developed around 5,000 years ago. The Sahel is marked by rainfalls of less than 100 mm a year, all of which occurs in a season which can run from several weeks to two months.

Despite this vulnerability, the history of drought and famine in the Sahel do not perfectly correlate. While modern scientific climate and rainfall studies have been able to identify trends and even specific periods of drought in the region, oral and written records over the last millennium do not record famine in all places at all times of drought. One 1997 study, in attempting to map long scale rainfall records to historical accounts of famine in Northern Nigeria, concluded that "the most disruptive historical famines occurred when the cumulative deficit of rainfall fell below 1.3 times the standard deviation of long-term mean annual rainfall for a particular place."^[5] The 1982-84 period, for instance, was particularly destructive to the pastoral Fula people of Senegal, Mali and Niger, and the Tuareg of northern Mali and Niger. The populations had not only suffered in the 1968-74 period, but the inability of many to rebuild herds destroyed a decade earlier, along with factors as various as the shift of political power to settled populations with independence in the 1960s, Senegalese-Mauritanian border relations, and Niger's dependence upon falling world uranium prices coinciding in a destructive famine.^[6][7][8]

600–700 CE[link]

Surviving contemporary records of climate in the Sahel begin with early Muslim travellers in the early Medieval Warm Period. These suggest that Sahel rainfall was relatively low in the 7th and 8th centuries and then increased substantially from about 800 AD.^[9] There was a decline in rainfall from about 1300 AD, but an increase again around 200 years later.

1400–1750[link]

According to a study of West African drought based on Ghanaian lake sediments (not eyewitness historical accounts) published in the journal Science in April 2009:

"The most recent of these [multicentury droughts] occurred between 1400 and 1750 CE (550 to 200 yr B.P.), similar in timing to the Little Ice Age (LIA, 1400 to 1850 CE), a well-known interval when Northern Hemisphere temperatures were cooler than at present. In contrast with earlier studies, which reconstructed wetter conditions in East Africa during this period, evidence from Lake Bosumtwi supports more recent studies suggesting that this interval was dry. Evidence for LIA drought is not restricted to Africa, however. Records from throughout the tropics, including the western Pacific warm pool, the Arabian Sea, continental Asia, and tropical South America all show evidence for dry conditions during this time period.".^[3]

1640[link]

The first major historically recorded drought in the Sahel occurred around 1640, and a major drought after generally wet conditions occurred, based on the reports of European travellers,^[10] during the 1680s.

1740s and 1750s[link]

This cycle of several wet decades followed by a drought was repeated during the 18th century. These droughts killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 1740s to 1750s.^[11] The 1740s and 1750s was recorded in chronicles of what is today Northern Nigeria, Niger and Mali as the "Great Famine", the worst for at least 200 years prior. It caused massive dislocation of the Sahelian states of the time, but also disrupted the Trans Saharan trade routes to North Africa and Europe.^[12]

1830s[link]

Around 1790 dry conditions similar to those of the late 20th century set in^[9] and continued until around 1870. After that, a very wet period set in for around 25 years, followed by a return to drier conditions. While the drying begun around 1895 and caused its first large famine only in the early 20th century, the 1820s and 1830s saw a 12 to 15 year drought and regional instances of major famine from Senegal to Chad. Historical records suggest this drought caused a large-scale emigration from the Bornu Empire, contributing to its rapid decline in the 19th century.^[12] In what is now northern Senegal, the Kingdom of Fouta Tooro was struck by a famine caused by the failure of 1833's rainy season, leading to waves of famine until 1837.^[13]

Early 20th century droughts[link]

The first rain gauges in the Sahel date from 1898 and they reveal that a major drought, accompanied by large-scale famine, in the 1910s, followed by wet conditions during the 1920s and 1930s reaching a peak with the very wet year of 1936. The 1940s saw several minor droughts — notably in 1949 — but the 1950s were consistently wet and expansion of agriculture to feed growing populations characterised this decade and many have thought it contributed to the severity of the subsequent Sahel droughts

Late 20th century droughts[link]

Both Burkina Faso, northern Nigeria, southern Niger, far northern Camaroon (near Lake Chad), central Chad, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia had struggled with dwindling rain fall since the 1960s. Famines like the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia was caused by this from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s, when the rain fall began to return to normal in Ethiopia and the Sudan.

On May 12 and 26, both Mauritania, the Sénégal River Area and neighbouring parts of both Senegal and Mali faced both a drought and famine.^[14][15]

21st century droughts[link]

2010 Sahel drought[link]

In June to August 2010, famine struck the Sahel.^[16] Niger's crops failed to mature in the heat which resulted in famine. 350,000 faced starvation and 1,200,000 were at risk of famine.^[17] In Chad, the temperature reached 47.6°C (117.7°F) on June 22 in Faya-Largeau, breaking a record set in 1961 at the same location. Niger tied its highest temperature record set in 1998, on also June 22, at 47.1°C in Bilma. That record was broken the next day, on June 23 when Bilma hit 48.2°C (118.8°F). The hottest temperature recorded in Sudan was reached on June 25, at 49.6°C (121.3°F) in Dongola, breaking a record set in 1987.^[18] Niger reported diarrhoea, starvation, gastroenteritis, malnutrition and respiratory diseases kill and sicken may children July 14. The new military junta appealed for international food aid and has taken serious steps to calling overseas help since coming to office in February 2010.^[19] On July 26 the heat reached near record levels over Chad and Niger.^[20]

Next predicted event[link]

Another drought in the western Sahel was predicted by several organisations for 2011-12 by mid 2010.^[21][22][23]

Potential factors contributing to Sahel drought[link]

Originally it was believed that the drought in the Sahel primarily was caused by humans over-using natural resources in the region through overgrazing, deforestation^[24] and poor land management.^[25][26] In the late 1990s,^{[citation needed]} climate model studies suggested that large scale climate changes were also triggers for the drought.

Based on Senegal river cycles, precipitation cycles of various El Sahel stations which are related to Solar(89–120 years) Wolf-Gleissberg cycles, and on relations to Nile floods and Equatorial lake levels, Yousef and Ghilly in 2000 anticipated that there is a considerable probability that drought will occur El Sahel Zone in 2005±4 years. This forecast was correct as drought occurred in El Niger in 2005 and again in 2010.^[27]

In 2002, after the phenomenon of global dimming was discovered, a CSIRO study^[28] suggested that the drought was likely caused by air pollution generated in Eurasia and North America, which changed the properties of clouds over the Atlantic ocean, disturbing the monsoons and shifting the tropical rains southwards.

In 2005, a series of climate modeling studies performed at NOAA / Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory indicated that the late 20th century Sahel drought was likely a climatic response to changing sea surface temperature patterns, and that it could be viewed as a combination of natural variability superimposed upon an anthropogenically forced regional drying trend.^[29] Using GFDL CM2.X, these climate model simulations indicated that the general late 20th century Sahel drying trend was attributable to human-induced factors; largely due to an increase in greenhouse gases and partly due to an increase in atmospheric aerosols. In IPCC future scenario A2 (CO₂ value of ≈860 ppm) Sahel rainfall could be reduced by up to 25% by year 2100, according to climate models.

A 2006 study by NOAA scientists Rong Zhang and Thomas L. Delworth suggests that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation plays a leading role. An AMO warm phase strengthens the summer rainfall over Sahel, while a cold phase reduces it.^[30] The AMO entered a warm phase in 1995 and, assuming a 70-year cycle (following peaks in ≈1880 and ≈1950), will peak around 2020.^[31]

A 2009 study by Shanahan et al. found further evidence for a link between the AMO and West African drought.^[32]

United Nations Sahel drought response[link]

In 1973, The United Nations Sahelian Office (UNSO) was created to address the problems of drought in the Sahel region following the West African Sahel drought of 1968-73. In the 1990s, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was adopted and UNSO became the United Nations Development Programme's Office to Combat Desertification and Drought, as its scope broadened to be global rather than only focused on Africa.^[33]

See also[link]

Wikinews has related news: Imminent danger of famine in the Sahel

• 2005–06 Niger food crisis
• Desertification
• Yacouba Sawadogo
• Green Sahara
• 2010 Sahel famine
• 2006 Horn of Africa food crisis
• 2011 East Africa drought

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Dai, A.; Lamb, P.J.; Trenberth, K.E.; Hulme, M.; Jones, P.D.; Xie, P. (2004). "The recent Sahel drought is real". International Journal of Climatology 24 (11): 1323–1331. Bibcode 2004IJCli..24.1323D. DOI:10.1002/joc.1083. http://www.mikehulme.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/2004-dai-et-al-sahel.pdf .
• Folland, C. K.; Palmer, T. N.; Parker, D. E. (1986). "Sahel rainfall and worldwide sea temperatures, 1901−85". Nature 320 (6063): 602–607. Bibcode 1986Natur.320..602F. DOI:10.1038/320602a0 
• Giannini, A.; Saravanan, R.; Chang, P. (2003). "Oceanic Forcing of Sahel Rainfall on Interannual to Interdecadal Time Scales". Science 302 (5647): 1027–1030. Bibcode 2003Sci...302.1027G. DOI:10.1126/science.1089357. PMID 14551320 
• Glantz, Michael H., ed. (1976). The Politics of Natural Disasters: The Case of the Sahel Drought. New York: Praeger 

External links[link]

• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification home page
• Climate research summary -Sahel drought: past problems, an uncertain future Text, graphics and animations from NOAA / Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

Barbara Jean Lee (born July 16, 1946) is the U.S. Representative for California's 9th congressional district, serving since 1998. She is a member of the Democratic Party. She is the first woman to represent that district. Lee was the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and was the Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Lee is notable as the only member of either house of Congress to vote against the authorization of use of force following the September 11, 2001 attacks.^[1] This made her a hero among many in the anti-war movement.^[2] Lee has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and supports legislation creating a Department of Peace.

Early life and education[link]

Early portrait of Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Lee was born in El Paso, Texas. She moved from Texas to California in 1960 with her military family parents, and attended San Fernando High School in San Fernando, California.^[3] She was a young single mother of two receiving public assistance when she began attending college.^[4][5] Lee was educated at Mills College and received an M.S.W. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975.^[6]

Political career[link]

While a student at Mills College, she was a volunteer at the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party's Community Learning Center and worked on Panther co-founder Bobby Seale's 1973 Oakland mayoral campaign.^[7] Lee was a staff member for United States Representative Ron Dellums and a member of the California State Assembly and the California State Senate before entering the House. As a staffer to Representative Delllums, she traveled to Grenada to have the government there vett the report Representative Dellums planned to present to Congress. In the report Representative Dellums planned to state that the airport would not pose a military threat to United States national security. As noted in Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the '60 on page 163, "Another document retrieved after Grenada's liberation provided he postscript. In a diary entry dated March 22, 1980, Grenadian Defense Minister Liam James had written: "The Revo[lution] has been able to crush counter revolution internationally. Airport will be used by Cuban and Soviet military."" She ran for Congress in a special election that created a year-long series of five special elections as various East Bay politicians vied for political office. (For a detailed account of these elections, see Special election musical chairs.)

The vote against AUMF[link]

Barbara Lee

Lee gained national attention in 2001 as the only member of congress to vote "No" on the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), stating that she voted no not because she opposed military action but because she believed the AUMF, as written, granted overly-broad powers to wage war to the president at a time when the facts regarding the situation were not yet clear. She "warned her colleagues to be 'careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target.'"^[8] Lee explained "It was a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the September 11 events—anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation's long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit. In granting these overly broad powers, the Congress failed its responsibility to understand the dimensions of its declaration.... The president has the constitutional authority to protect the nation from further attack and he has mobilized the armed forces to do just that. The Congress should have waited for the facts to be presented and then acted with fuller knowledge of the consequences of our action."

Congresswoman Barbara Lee

This vote made nationwide news reports and brought about a large and extremely polarized response, with the volume of calls gridlocking the switchboard of her Capitol Hill office. Although it appears to have reflected the beliefs of the majority of her constituents, the majority of responses from elsewhere in the nation were angry and hostile, some referring to her as "communist" and "traitor". Many of the responses included death threats against her or her family to the point that the Capitol Police provided round-the-clock plainclothes bodyguards.^[9] She was also criticized by politicians and in editorial pages of conservative-leaning newspapers, e.g. John Fund's column in The Wall Street Journal.^[10]

Other positions[link]

Barbara Lee meets with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and the STS-129 space shuttle crew

Lee's opposition to the death penalty was recognized in 2002 by Death Penalty Focus, when they presented her with the Mario Cuomo Act of Courage Award.^[11] Lee voted against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002.^[12] Lee was one of the 31 who voted in the House to not count the electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.^[13]

Lee is the author of the Shirley A. Chisholm United States-Caribbean Educational Exchange Act, H.R. 176, which would enhance U.S. foreign relations with CARICOM nations. This act directs the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop a comprehensive program that extends and expands existing primary and secondary school initiatives in the Caribbean to provide: (1) teacher training methods; and (2) increased community involvement in school activities.^[14] The bill is named for former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, who helped inspire Lee to become involved in politics when Chisholm ran for the Democratic nomination for President; Lee became the Northern California Chair of the Chisholm campaign.

Barbara Lee meets with Barack Obama

She hinted to the Oakland Tribune that she would run for the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus in September 2008, following the end of her four-year term as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.^[15] On September 29, 2008, Lee was one of 95 Democrats to vote against the defeated Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.^[16] However, she voted for a modified version on October 3.^[17]

Barbara Lee speaks at the Opening Reception of the Quilt Challenge exhibition

On November, 2009 Lee was one of 36 Representatives to vote "nay" on House Resolution 867, which condemned the UN's Goldstone Report.^[18] Lee was strongly critical of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which places restrictions on health insurance plans providing coverage for abortions in the context of the Affordable Health Care for America Act.^[19]

Although Lee is considered a liberal Democrat, she has occasionally split with members of her own party throughout her Congressional career, especially on foreign policy matters. She voted in favor of limiting military operations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, against authorizing air strikes, and in favor of a Republican-backed plan to completely withdraw U.S. troops from the operation, all in 1999.^[20][21][22] Lee was one of only 46 Democrats to vote for the Online Freedom of Speech Act of 2005.^[23] Lee was one of only 13 Democrats to vote against an emergency supplemental appropriations bill in 2007 which, among other things, funded the war in Iraq but required withdrawal of U.S. forces to begin by October 1.^[24] However, Lee voted in favor of overriding President Bush's veto of the measure on May 2.^[25] Lee voted to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011.^[26][27] Lee also voted in favor of similar resolutions involving troop withdrawal from Pakistan and, most recently, Libya.^[28][29] Lee also joined her Republican colleagues, one of 70 Democrats to do so, in voting against a resolution to authorize limited use of force in Libya.^[30] Lee was also one of only 36 Democrats to vote in favor of limiting funds appropriated for military operations in Libya.^[31]

Personal life and public image[link]

Barbara Lee at the Opening Reception

Lee has two grown sons, Tony and Craig, both of whom work in the insurance industry.^{[citation needed]}

Lee endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President in the 2008 primary.^[32]

Lee was ranked as the sixth-most Progressive member of the House by the National Journal, based on roll-call votes on economic, social and foreign policy issues in 2006.^[33] Lee received a 97% progressive rating from "The Progressive Punch,"^[34] and a 4% conservative rating from the American Conservative Union.^[35]

In 2003, she was awarded 'special recognition' as a Woman of Peace at the Global Exchange Human Rights Awards in San Francisco with Bianca Jagger, Arundhati Roy and Kathy Kelly.

In 2010, Lee took the food stamp challenge and also appeared in the documentary film Food Stamped.

Committee assignments[link]

U.S. Representative Barbara Lee

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
  • Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

Caucuses[link]

• Congressional Caucus on HIV/AIDS (Co-Chair)
• Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus(Co-Chair)
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Black Caucus
  • Co-Chair of the CBC Outreach Task Force
• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (Associate Member)
• Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety (Member)
• International Conservation Caucus
• Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus

Electoral history[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Barbara Lee

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barbara Lee

• U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee official U.S. House site
• Re-Elect Barbara Lee official campaign site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances on Charlie Rose
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Barbara Lee in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Articles

• Rep. Barbara Lee: Lone Lawmaker to Vote Against 2001 Authorization - video report by Democracy Now!
• Alone on the Hill Mother Jones, September 20, 2001, interview with Barbara Lee
• Permanent Occupation Rep. Barbara Lee, In These Times, September 29, 2005
• A Progressive State of the Union Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey, In These Times, January 31, 2006
• Text of Barbara Lee's dissent against the war in Afghanistan on the House Floor September 15, 2001
• An Open Letter to Barbara Lee CounterPunch, October 14, 2002

v t e Chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus Diggs • Stokes • Rangel • Burke • Mitchell • Collins • Fauntroy • Dixon • Leland • Dymally • Dellums • Towns • Mfume • Payne • Waters • Clyburn • Johnson • Cummings • Watt • Kilpatrick • Lee • Cleaver