What, no rainmakers in Copenhagen?

The effect of all this is that science is not a powerful argument where the environment is concerned.

Thus in Kenya, where the debate over the eviction of settlers from the environmentally critical Mau Forest has turned nasty, highly educated personages from the Rift Valley have stood up and argued that rain comes from the sky, and forests have absolutely nothing to do with it!

Second, long-term policy that seeks, for example, to restore water levels to a water mass like Lake Victoria, sound laughable in places where people believe a rainmaker can end a drought overnight.

There are exceptions like Rwanda, which has had remarkable success fixing environmental damage and with reforestation.

Perhaps it is because in the 1994 genocide in which nearly one million people were slaughtered, many a Rwandese learnt that there are no gods in the forests, or rivers that will fight your wars for you.

That ultimately, man is both his worst enemy — and only saviour.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is executive editor of the Nation Media Group’s Africa Media Division. E-mail: cobbo@nation.co.ke