Special Issue: On Conflict and Climate Change in Afghanistan — A Short Conversation with Nasratullah Elham
Earlier this year, for a story about climate migration across Asia, I spoke with Nasratullah Elham, a climate activist from Afghanistan’s eastern Laghman Province and a current student in the United States. Our brief conversation came prior to the United States’ impending withdrawal from Afghanistan and touched upon a few important climate topics: scarcity, poverty, and conflict. Climate change, of course, is not to blame for war — least of all the one in Afghanistan. But in a country where some regions have warmed twice as much as the global average and both water scarcity and abundance threaten the livelihoods of its most vulnerable, conflict has only exacerbated the impact of climate change.
For a special edition of Defender, I wanted to send out a shortened and edited version of my conversation with Elham. While I’m somewhat behind the news cycle, the reality Afghans face is not over simply because we’ve stopped sharing their stories on social media. This chapter of the story has only just begun.
Can you tell me about your experience with the impacts of climate change on your home in eastern Afghanistan?
I grew up in a village that was very close to a river because that helped sustain agriculture. For centuries, spring was the most prosperous season which is why our new year begins in the spring. But early snowfall and early snowmelt has begun intensifying the cyclical spring floods to the point where every year, they just wipe out homes and wheat fields. Because of this, agricultural yields are very different to what they used to be and they’re still decreasing causing disagreements between landlords and the farmworkers because the latter cannot deliver on their promises. This was really, like, a dark reality for me, personally.
How is climate change further entrenching or exacerbating poverty in Afghanistan?
About 80 percent of Afghanistan’s population is involved in agriculture so when the agricultural sector fails to sustain people's livelihoods, you begin to have problems with food security. Drought wasn't a problem in my province, because we had an overabundance of water, but when you go to the north and southwest provinces of Afghanistan there are problems with drought and mass animal starvation especially among nomadic communities who rely on pastoralism. These are very, very poor communities. And when they lose their livestock, they’ve pretty much lost everything.
How does climate change and poverty tie into extremism and conflict?
These climatic factors in Afghanistan go way, way beyond ecological problems. When the agricultural sector is failing, you have a problem of increased unemployment, which kind of drives people toward the Taliban. They usually target those who have been financially disadvantaged, and who have pretty much nothing left in life. Climatic factors also drive insurgency and fuel some of the worst human rights violations in the country including child marriage.
How does migration also tie into climate change in Afghanistan?
Insurgency and conflict are the first reasons that people migrate, but poverty is an issue, too. If you’re a farmer and that’s no longer something that can sustain your family, then emigrating to Europe or any other first world country is usually an option but a very, very risky one. There’s a high chance of dying, there are problems with police and border forces, and there’s a chance you’ll just end up floating around the Mediterranean Sea. People acknowledge this back home and I’ve heard them talking about the risks and evaluating the dangers of emigrating because they see no hope for financial security in their own country.
Internal displacement, and sometimes migration, is part of the same issue. When the spring floods happen in the country’s eastern provinces, a large number of people are displaced from their homes and often move to the city for a few weeks to receive aid assistance. For those who return home, they have to build a new house and replant their fields because everything was destroyed, and often they don’t have enough money to do so. For the most part, when people move into cities they usually don’t go back. While most people try to find a job, they can’t afford the cities and fall into poverty again. It can be very, very tough.
Even though Afghanistan might not be the main driver of climate change, we are kind of the most affected. We’re in an emergency state.
Read Elham’s essay, “Tomorrow is too Late” excerpted from a soon-to-be-published collection of essays, “Tomorrow Is Too Late: An International Youth Manifesto For Climate Justice.”
Help support female journalists in Afghanistan via a print sale coordinated by Journalists for Afghanistan.
Attend a free, online panel about the challenges and evolving situation in Afghanistan organized by UCLA’s Promise Institute for Human Rights. Sign up here.
Follow Fridays for Future Afghanistan on Instagram or Twitter.
If you’re a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident, consider volunteering to be a humanitarian parole sponsor for Afghan refugees. Humanitarian parole allows a person to enter the United States without a visa due to urgent humanitarian need, and in late August the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced they would expedite these applications from Afghans. The Afghan Resources Project is currently looking for sponsors and you can find the application form here. If you’re interested in being a sponsor, I’d also recommend reading Jill Goldenziel’s guide to humanitarian parole which breaks down the complicated process of applying. One caveat of applying for humanitarian parole is the $575 per person filing fee and The Afghan Resources Project is currently fundraising to cover the cost of people’s applications.
If you’re based in Australia, Action for Afghanistan has information about how to contact your MP, where you can donate, and other resources.
Thank you for once again reading Defender.
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