Colombia Will be a Desert by 2070

At the United Nations last Tuesday, his speech followed those of Brazilian President Lula and President Biden.  It was a dark, doomsday speech. In the typical grandiloquent style of Latin American caudillos, he chastised world leaders for making “...enemies with Life” and predicted that unless drastic measures are taken now, life as we know it today will disappear in a few decades.

From the very beginning of his administration,  Petro has been trying to assume the mantle of an international climate change leader.  At the Amazon Summit held in Brazil this July,  he highlighted Colombia’s commitment to stop new oil exploration and asked his neighbors to follow suit.  ( None did, not even Bolivia.) Petro believes climate change will become,  in the future, the most important factor behind immigration flows from  South America to North America.  People will not be emigrating looking for economic opportunity.  Petro believes they will be emigrating in a desperate search for...water.