Water Crisis in Kenya

An excellent series of reports on the water crisis in Kenya reminds me how valuable the BBC is as a media institution in the UK. Environmental stories, especially involving Africa, are too frequently ignored in the media but James Morgan has earned every penny of his BBC salary in bringing us an in depth report of a truly frightening situation which could, if handled badly, turn into a serious conflict. Alex Bell [broken link – Nov 2023] has just published a book on the topic which I look forward to reading.

On the day of Gordon Brown’s speech at the Labour Party Conference it is also worth noting how little attention he paid to the environment or to the poor of the world. Electoral politics in the UK is about turning inward and contemplating  really rather unimportant matters in the great scheme of things. How to govern and manage the planet in such circumstances?