Why Central America’s Drought Is Harder On Women
Over the past 18 years, Rosalita García has nursed all 10 of her children back to health after bouts of malnutrition. But her three-year-old son’s recent hospital visit in Chiquimula, Guatemala has the 37-year-old mother more worried than usual. “I was able to feed my kids better before because it rained,” García told AQ. “But … Read more
Paraguay’s Surprisingly Powerful Voice in Climate Negotiations
When Paraguay joined ranks with a group of fellow Latin American countries at the United Nations climate talks this month, the media scarcely noticed. After all, its coverage of the UN’s ongoing negotiations to deal with global warming tend to focus on more “dramatic” developments—spats between major powers and the glacial pace of negotiations. It’s … Read more
Can Latin America Blaze a Trail to Paris?
Next week, the United Nations climate change negotiations will reconvene in Germany, where countries will continue to draft a new global climate agreement to be finalized this December in Paris. This year marks a watershed for Latin America, as the region decides what it will contribute to the agreement. This is not only about what … Read more
AQ Slideshow: The People’s Climate March in New York City
Photos courtesy of David Mark Erickson and Daniel Edelman. Homepage photo by David Mark Erickson. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of New York City on Sunday to demand that world leaders take concrete steps to address climate change and its consequences. Just two days before government, business, and civil society leaders met … Read more
A Brazil Perspective on Rio+20
All eyes are on Brazil this week as more than 130 world leaders and some 50,000 activists, civil society representatives and business leaders are attending the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, in Rio de Janeiro. The conference marks 20 years since the Earth Summit in 1992 concluded, when leaders—optimistic about a post-Cold … Read more
In a Changing Climate, the Red Cross Hopes a New Focus on Training and Preparation Will Save Lives
When not one, but four, hurricanes pummeled poverty-stricken Haiti between September and November of 2008, relief agencies struggled to deliver emergency aid before the next storm rolled in. Four years earlier, the United States received a costly and deadly reminder that natural disasters wreck havoc on wealthy countries, too. Hurricane Katrina left 80 percent of … Read more
Climate Change. Responding to Global Fluctuations
Climate policy debates are usually focused on future actions. But for many of Latin America’s poorest people, the crisis is already underway. Global climate change is currently responsible for 300,000 deaths per year. A May 2009 report by the Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF) estimates that the effects of climate change annually leave 325 million people … Read more
Beat the Heat
Extreme climate events are presenting a new and unexpected challenge to the private sector in Latin America. While attention understandably focuses on the ordinary citizens caught up in catastrophes such as the floods in Tabasco, Mexico and Hurricane Noel in the Dominican Republic, the painful economic effects on the hemisphere’s business community are often lost in the news coverage.
