Month: September 2018

The United Nations says the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe is a “very dire situation” because there are now cases outside the country’s capital, where the government has declared a state of emergency.

Zimbabwe’s health minister, Obadiah Moyo, is calling on international aid agencies to chip in, following 20 deaths and more than 2,000 cases related to waterborne diseases such as salmonella, typhoid and cholera.

Sirak Gebrehiwot, United Nations spokesperson in Zimbabwe, says U.N. agencies have since moved in to try and stabilize the situation.

“This cholera situation is very dire situation. The hot spot is Harare but we are getting reports of confirmed and unconfirmed cases in other parts of the country, like Shamva, Masvingo and Buhera,” said Gebrehiwot. “The U.N. family we are providing all the support we could; positioning, repositioning essential drugs, at the same time the issue is on strengthening the surveillance system.”

Health minister Moyo on Tuesday said his government wants to address the issue of poor water supply, blocked sewers, and irregular trash collection, the factors he said were making a cholera outbreak in the capital worse.

Dr. Norman Matara of Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights said his organization has volunteered resources to avoid unnecessary deaths from the cholera outbreak.

But he said the group wants President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to quickly improve the water treatment system.

“Cholera is a disease which is quite ancient, easily preventable. So we just have to provide safe cleaning water, have proper sanitation facilities. You won’t have cholera,” said Matara. “But we have been seeing all year round; broken down sewer [pipes], sewers all over the places, even the piped water, you would see dirt water coming out of the taps. We were breeding cholera all along, we knew we were sitting on a time bomb; soon we were going to have cholera but nothing was done.”

Officials are trying to fix broken sewer pipes in Budiriro, one of the most affected parts of Harare.

A 2008 cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe lasted more than a year and killed about 5,000 people. It only stopped after international groups like United Nations agencies and USAID donated drugs and water treatment chemicals.
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California has experienced record heat waves and catastrophic fires this year and in previous years, leading climate experts to say it is likely to get worse. A recent state report blames global climate change, and California Governor Jerry Brown is preparing to host an international summit later this week (September 12-14) to search for solutions.
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California has experienced record heat waves and catastrophic fires in recent years, and climate experts say it is likely to get worse. 

A report released Aug. 27 by the state of California, the fourth in a series of assessments, puts the blame squarely on climate change.

California Gov. Jerry Brown is hosting an international summit, beginning Wednesday, in San Francisco to search for solutions.

The worst fires in California’s history came this year and last, with the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire scorching 186,000 hectares. Parts of northern California are still burning. The largest of the fires, in Shasta County, has burned more than 20,000 hectares and is only 5 percent contained.

Climate research

The California Climate Change Assessment summarizes current climate research and finds a litany of problems caused by greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, which is emitted by the use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

If nothing or little is done, the reports say to expect temperature rises of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.6 to 8.8 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100; a two-thirds decline in water supplies from the mountain snow pack by 2050; a nearly 80 percent increase in the area scorched by fires by the end of the century; and up to two-thirds of Southern California beaches eroding in the same time frame.

From flooding to a strained electrical grid and premature deaths and illnesses, the list is extensive.

“I think we’ve reached the point where the impacts of climate change are no longer subtle,” said Michael Mann, who directs the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.

Mann was not involved in the study, but said he thinks its finding are, if anything, conservative.

“We are literally seeing them play out in real time in the form of record heat waves, floods, droughts and wildfires,” he said.

The Trump administration, however, has pledged to overturn emissions curbs and has promised to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, an accord of nearly 200 countries that requires national targets for emission cuts but which lacks enforcement powers. 

President Donald Trump said the pact is ineffective and kills jobs. Climate experts say something must be done to slow the climate shifts that are underway. 

“A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, so there’s the potential for greater rainfall events, worse flooding,” Mann said. “A warmer atmosphere also dries out the soils, causing drought.”

He added, “You’re moving the probability curve, and at the tail of the curve are the extreme weather events.”

Health effects of climate change

Epidemiologists are tracking health effects of the changes, from more pollutants emitted by fires to warming in the cities, said epidemiologist Rupa Basu of the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Basu was a contributing author to California’s climate assessment.

“There’s a larger population living in urban areas, and more importantly, a larger vulnerable population living in urban areas,” said Basu, which she said become “urban heat islands” as temperatures rise. The report says that many rural communities, and Native Americans and other minorities, are disproportionately affected.

Researchers are seeing more emergencies and deaths among the very young, elderly and poor. Analysts compare hospital and emergency room visits, infant birth weights, death and illness rates to temperature and relative humidity, researcher Xiangmei Wu said.

On a global level, climate change can increase the ferocity of tropical storms because of changes to the jet stream that determine weather patterns, although hurricanes are not an issue in California. 

Mann, of the Earth System Science Center, said one of most destructive storms in U.S. history, Hurricane Harvey on the Gulf Coast, released huge amounts of rainfall as it stalled in its path over Houston in 2017. He said, “You’re moving that probability curve over” on the graph of weather patterns, “and at the tail of the curve are the extreme warm events.” 

Extreme weather events

Dan Cayan, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a coordinating lead author of the California report, said climate change exaggerates natural cycles such as El Nino, the periodic warming of equatorial oceans that leads to storms in the Pacific. He said more extreme weather events may well be on their way.

“State and local governments and other players are taking this seriously. And I think that trend will grow as climate change symptoms continue to bubble up,” Cayan said, adding that he is cautiously optimistic that the world can mitigate the worst effects of the changes.

Gov. Brown, who is hosting the three-day summit that ends Friday, has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in his state to 40 percent below 1990 levels. 

Monday, Brown signed a bill requiring California to obtain all of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2045.

Brown is a key figure in a coalition of local and regional governments that have committed to achieving the Paris accord’s limiting of global warming in this century to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, whether or not the United States remains in the agreement.

The California summit will look at ways to build consensus and avoid worst-case scenarios.

Protesters who have gathered in San Francisco, however, say it is not enough. 

“There have been many climate summits with a lot of rhetoric but not enough commitment,” activist May Boeve told The Associated Press. She was one of thousands who marched through San Francisco last Saturday, calling for a transition to renewable energy sources and protections for workers and minority groups as the world braces for dramatic changes to its weather.
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World hunger rose in 2017 for a third consecutive year, fueled by conflict and climate change, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, jeopardizing a global goal to end the scourge by 2030.

Hunger appears to be increasing in almost all of Africa and in South America, with 821 million people – one in nine – going hungry in 2017, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018 report.

Meanwhile, 672 million adults — more than one in eight — are now obese, up from 600 million in 2014.

“Without increased efforts, there is a risk of falling far short of achieving the SDG target of hunger eradication by 2030,” the report said, referring to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by member nations in 2015.

It was the third year in a row that global hunger levels have increased, following a decade of declines.

The report’s editor Cindy Holleman said increasing variation in temperature; intense, erratic rainfall and changing seasons were all affecting the availability and quality of food.

“That’s why we are saying we need to act now,” said Holleman, senior economist for food security and nutrition at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Because we’re concerned it’s not going to get better, that it’s only going to get worse,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Last year, almost 124 million people across 51 countries faced crisis levels of hunger, driven by conflicts and climate disasters, the U.N. said.

Many nations struggling with prolonged conflicts, including Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Afghanistan, also suffered from one or more climate shocks, such as drought and floods, the report said.

On Monday, the charity Save the Children warned 600,000 children in war zones could die from extreme hunger by the end of this year as funding shortfalls kick in and warring parties block supplies from getting to the people who need them.

The U.N. said South America’s deteriorating hunger situation might be due to the low prices of the region’s main export commodities – particularly crude oil.

A lack of food had caused an estimated 2.3 million people to flee Venezuela as of June, the U.N. has said.

Uncertain or insufficient access to food also contributes to obesity because those with limited financial resources may opt for cheaper, energy-dense processed foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar, the report added.

Being deprived of food could also lead to psychological and metabolic changes, said Holleman.

“The emotions and anxieties associated with food deprivation could then lead to disorders and bingeing when you do have food,” she said, adding that experiencing this in fetal and early childhood increases the risk of obesity later in life.

Paul Winters, associate vice-president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said reducing hunger required targeted approaches that went to the roots of chronic poverty.

“That requires having data on where they are, what their limitations are… and making sure we actually do investments that are transformative,” he said. “One of the big concerns is some (donor) countries are shifting much more to humanitarian aid which is important but doesn’t build resilience and address the underlying cause.”
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An effort to create a safe haven for whales in the South Atlantic was defeated Tuesday at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Brazil.

The proposal, which was introduced by Brazil in 2001, received support from 39 countries but was opposed by 25, denying it the three-quarters’ majority it needed to pass.

Environmental organizations and conservationists had argued that the sanctuary would not only keep the mammoth mammals safe from hunting, but also protect them from getting entangled in fishing gear or being struck by ships.

But pro-whaling nations, led by Japan, argued there was no need for the sanctuary because no countries were conducting commercial whale hunting in the South Atlantic.

Brazilian Environmental Minister Edson Duarte vowed to push to get the proposal passed at future meetings of the IWC.

“We will work in other meetings of this commission this year to ensure that the sanctuary will finally be created,” Duarte said.

Pro-whaling nations, including Japan, Iceland and Norway, are pushing for resumption of sustainable hunting of whales and are unlikely to allow for the creation of a sanctuary unless their demand is met.

Japan, which has pushed for an amendment to the ban for years, accuses the IWC of siding with anti-whaling nations rather than trying to reach a compromise between conservationists and whalers.

The issue has fractured the IWC for decades and there appears to be no room for compromise on either side.

The conference ends Sept. 14.
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Leading philanthropists pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to rescue shrinking tropical forests that suck heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, on the eve of a global climate change summit in San Francisco.

Nine foundations announced the $459 million commitment, to be delivered over the next four years, a day ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit, which is expected to draw about 4,500 delegates from city and regional governments.

“While the world heats up, many of our governments have been slow — slow to act. And so we in philanthropy must step up,” Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, told journalists at an event announcing the pledge.

The commitment roughly doubles the funds the groups currently dedicate to forest protection, said David Kaimowitz, a director at the Ford Foundation, one of the donors.

Charlotte Streck, director of Amsterdam-based think tank Climate Focus, said the size of the commitment makes the groups major players in supporting anti-deforestation programs.

Norway has led donor efforts by pledging up to $500 million a year to help tropical nations protect their forests, Streck said.

But the new money committed by foundations could prove more “flexible and nimble” than money from governments, she said.

“The money that has been pledged by the governments like Norway and Germany, the UK, sits mostly in trust funds with the World Bank and the U.N. and it doesn’t get out so quickly,” she said.

Often “there is $20,000 missing here or $50,000 missing here, just to do one thing or develop one study or work with one person or have one consultation — and that the foundations can do,” Streck said.

Other groups that are part of the new initiative include the MacArthur Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation.

Help for indigenous people

Funds will mostly assist indigenous people who are forest dwellers, including by helping them secure titles to land they live on so it cannot be sold to private companies without their agreement, said Walker.

“Companies come to our village, our forests and say: ‘You have to leave because I have the license from the government,'” said Rukka Sombolinggi, who heads the Indonesia-based Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN).

The world loses the equivalent of 50 soccer fields’ worth of forest every minute, organizers said.

Yet forests absorb a third of the annual planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions produced — and those emissions need to be slashed substantially more to meet the goals set in the Paris agreement.

The Paris climate agreement, adopted by almost 200 nations in 2015, set a goal of limiting warming to “well below” a rise of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times while “pursuing efforts” for the tougher goal of 1.5 degrees C.

The three-day Global Climate Action Summit was organized by Californian authorities and the United Nations to support the leadership of mayors, governors and other sub-national authorities in curbing climate change.
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Local authorities will carve out a larger role in fighting rising temperatures globally, as national governments have been slow to take action, said organizers of a climate change summit beginning on Wednesday in San Francisco.

About 4,500 delegates from city and regional governments, as well as industries and research institutions, will attend the Global Climate Action Summit, which was put together by Californian authorities and the United Nations.

The three-day gathering will deepen the leadership of sub-national authorities in curbing climate change, a battle that almost 200 nations have also joined under the Paris climate accord, according to organizers.

“We’re moving into a new wave, a new phase of stepped up climate action,” said summit spokesman Nick Nuttall, adding that the event is expected to yield joint pledges to limit temperature increases.

The gathering reflects a desire to bypass the slow progress of national governments in implementing Paris agreement goals, said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at New York’s Columbia University.

The Paris pact aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), and ideally to 1.5 degrees Celsius, with a sweeping goal of ending the fossil fuel era this century.

The agreement is due to come into force in 2020. But negotiations over how to roll out the treaty have exposed disagreements about funding for developing countries.

This week’s summit in California is heavy with symbolism, as the United States is the only country to announce its intention to withdraw from the Paris pact, following a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump last year.

“It can be and should be seen as a response to the abdication of leadership by the U.S. federal government, which has really created a vacuum for leadership,” Burger told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The gathering follows a summer marked by mounting signs of a rapidly warming atmosphere. Record heatwaves and wildfires this summer have been linked to above-normal temperatures worldwide.

‘Accelerated efforts’

Local government administrators are expected to announce initiatives about electric vehicles and forest conservation, while companies will likely pledge to roll back greenhouse gas emissions, Nuttall said.

National governments from more than a dozen countries, including China and Britain, are also sending representatives. China’s presence is to be particularly heavy, and it will have its own pavilion on the sidelines of the gathering.

China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, followed by the United States, according to the World Resources Institute, a Washington D.C.-based research organization.

Chinese officials saw the meeting as a way to “make real progress” outside of political circles in Washington, said Daniel Sperling, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of California, Davis.

“They like very much working with us in California because it’s below the radar: it’s not White House politics,” said Sperling, who is also a member of the California Air Resources Board, the state’s clean air regulator.

California’s governor, Jerry Brown, defied the U.S. government’s retreat from the Paris pact by branding it “insane”, and immediately flying to China to foster greater cooperation on clean energy.

The gathering, Brown said in a phone interview, was not designed to sway Trump’s opinion on climate change.

But he said he hoped it would awaken other members of the Republican Party to the “existential threat” of global warming and to its economic potential, ahead of a U.S. mid-term general election to be held in November.

“We are late, and we have to accelerate our efforts to reduce emissions,” he said.

Policies encouraging bus transportation, green buildings and clean energy could generate 14 million jobs in cities globally by 2030, offsetting job losses in the energy industry, according to a report this week by C40, a network of large global cities.
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