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Blog Posts by Alice Thomas

The Global Spin on Earth Day
April 22, 2013 Alice Thomas Burkina Faso, Climate Displacement, Mali, Niger, Pakistan, Somalia

For most Americans, Earth Day symbolizes the need to protect the natural environment – specifically clean air, clean water, and pristine rivers and forests. In the years following the first Earth Day in 1970, some of our nation’s most important environmental laws were adopted, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act. Actors like Meryl Streep also caught the attention of America’s mothers by bringing attention to pesticides in the food that we feed our children every day.

Straight Talk on Climate Change From a GOP Icon
March 12, 2013 Alice Thomas Africa, Burkina Faso, Climate Displacement, Mali, Niger

After a 20 year absence from Capitol Hill, former Secretary of State George Shultz returned last Friday to urge members of Congress to act on climate change.

Many might find this surprising since Shultz served under President Ronald Reagan and few of his fellow Republicans support action to combat climate change. But it is Shultz’s economic and national security expertise that spurred his case for U.S. leadership on this issue.

The Many Faces of Climate Displacement
January 08, 2013 Alice Thomas Africa, Burkina Faso, Climate Displacement, Mali, Niger, Americas, Asia, Middle East

The day Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast, I was in Mali, a country in West Africa’s Sahel region. As a native New Yorker, I was stunned and dismayed to see pictures of the flooded streets and tunnels of Manhattan, of destroyed homes and schools on Staten Island, and of thousands of my fellow New Yorkers displaced and in shelters. But I was even more struck by the indiscriminate nature of what I was witnessing both in Mali (one of the world’s poorest countries) and the United States (one of its richest): massive humanitarian emergencies resulting from more extreme weather.

Hidden Victims: Mali’s Internally Displaced People
November 14, 2012 Alice Thomas Africa, Climate Displacement, Mali, Humanitarian Response, Protection & Security, Women & Children

This post originally appeared at Think Africa Press.

In a darkly-lit house on a dusty, garbage-strewn street on the outskirts of Bamako, an elderly couple and a man in a white robe are seated on the floor. Amadou, the owner of the home, is approximately 70 years old and a retired gardener. He says that since rebels took over northern Mali last April, 16 members of his extended family have come to live with him, having been forced to flee their hometown of Timbuktu.

U.S. Needs Clear Strategy to Solve Crises in Africa’s Sahel Region
September 25, 2012 Alice Thomas Africa, Burkina Faso, Climate Displacement, Mali, Niger, Humanitarian Response, Protection & Security

This post originally appeared at ThinkProgress Security.

Poverty and malnutrition are chronic in the countries of the Sahel, a region in northern Africa stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, and the surrounding area is hardly a paragon of political stability. This year, however, a confluence of man-made and natural disasters has sent the region into a tailspin.