• Climate Change

Climate Change A Major Factor for Central American Migrants Fleeing to US

• #COVID19
• climate change
• Drought
• Hurricanes
• migrants
• migration
• poverty
• refugees

The mainstream media often cites Hurricanes Eta (a devastating Category 4 hurricane that caused heavy damage in early November 2020) and Iota (it underwent explosive intensification and became a rare Category 5 hurricane in mid-November) as a major factor driving the migration to the U.S. Southwestern border. 

Why This Matters:  Hurricanes like Eta and Iota will only become more commonplace as the globe continues to warm.  But the migration driving climate stressors go beyond severe coastal storms to drought, desertification, sea-level rise and heavy flooding.

• People

Women Are Powering the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Movement

• #ChoosetoChallenge
• climate change
• COP 26
• International Women's Day
• natural disasters
• poverty
• United Nations
• women

Today we celebrate International Women’s Day by profiling six women who are leading the global and U.S. movement to advance climate change solutions, protect nature and lift global ambition to achieve the sustainable future we need for today and the future.  These women are breaking barriers, moving governments, and holding the private sector accountable to take more aggressive actions.

Why Women Matter:  While women are advancing the dialogue, there should be many more women at the table. 

• Climate Change

U.N. Security Council Focuses Climate Risks

• climate change
• COP26
• food security
• migration
• nature
• poverty
• security
• United Nations

Climate change is the biggest threat facing the world, and yesterday’s United Nations Security Council meeting was focused on the topic. United States climate envoy John Kerry, who participated in the virtual meeting, warned that ignoring the crisis and its threats to global security would mean “marching forward to what is almost tantamount to a mutual suicide pact.” 

Why this Matters: Global food security, poverty rates, and public health are all negatively impacted by climate change. These destabilizing forces are already driving people to migrate and shifting power balances on the international stage.

• Forests

Fighting Deforestation and Poverty Go Hand In Hand In Indonesia

• conservation
• deforestation
• environment
• Indonesia
• poverty
• rain forest
• science

A new study published yesterday in the journal Science Advances found that in Indonesia, a country with bountiful but highly exploited natural resources, a national anti-poverty program also reduced deforestation as a side benefit.

Why This Matters: Indonesia is one of the poorest nations in the world, and has the third-largest amount of tropical rain forest.  It also, according to Global Forest Watch, is the country with the third-highest rate of rainforest loss in the world in 2019.

• Land

Tornados are survivable yet Americans are still dying

• Alabama
• natural disasters
• poverty
• tornadoes

Tornado warning technology has improved significantly in the past decades yet in states like Alabama, tornadoes still routinely claim human lives when they don’t have to. Just last week more than three dozen tornadoes wrought havoc in the Deep South, killing 23 and razing the ground bare in many areas and just yesterday two tornadoes […]

• People

Interview with Ertharin Cousin On Climate and Food Insecurity

• climate change
• Drought
• food
• hunger
• poverty
• SNAP
• World Food Organization
• World Food Programme

Ertharin Cousin is the Distinguised Fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.  She previously served as executive director of the World Food Programme from 2012 until 2017.