Bird’s-Eye: A lot of bird’s eye views in the Big Picture links, superb as always for giving a sense of what is happening. And two pieces from Juan Cole, the first on the humanitarian issues,; the second connecting the dots between global warming and al-Qaeda
* Big Picture features on the Pakistan Floods Part One and Part Two
* 6 Million Pakistanis need Immediate Aid as 1/3 of Country is Submerged Juan Cole Informed Comment
A third of Pakistan is now under water, and fresh rainfall threatens two more waves of flooding in the southern Sindh province. The submerged area of the country is as big as the United Kingdom! 14 million Pakistans have been affected. 2 million have been made altogether homeless. 6 million people are in need of immediate help.
* Global Warming and al-Qaeda in the Greater Indian Ocean Juan Cole Informed Comment
Politico says that the fate of the earth, i.e. the climate bill in the senate, is now in the hands of Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. This is because he is seen as someone who could get a bipartisan consensus. But Democrats on the Hill are missing their big opportunity to appeal to Republicans by not foregrounding climate change as a security issue–in fact, an al-Qaeda issue. That’s right, Fox Cable News. You can’t be a ‘war on terror’ hawk if you blow off the dangers of climate change. Those bombings in Kampala you went crazy about? Not completely unrelated to East African drought. And, Bangladesh is not going to be pretty. Read on.
