This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

by Naomi Klein

Critics of sun shielding also draw on history to bolster their arguments, and when they look back, they see much more than pretty sunsets and “proof of harmlessness.” In fact, a great deal of compelling research shows a connection between large volcanic eruptions and precisely the kinds of droughts some computer models are projecting for SRM. Take the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo itself. When it erupted, large swaths of Africa were already suffering from drought due to natural fluctuations. But after the eruption, the situation grew much worse. In the following year, there was a 20 percent reduction in precipitation in southern Africa and a 10–15 percent reduction in precipitation in South Asia. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) described the drought as “the most severe in the last century”; an estimated 120 million people were affected. The Los Angeles Times reported crop losses of 50–90 percent, and half the population of Zimbabwe required food aid.