Farmer in Okavango River Delta, January 2016. USAID Southern Africa Regional Environmental Program.
New Climate Change Guidance for U.S. Agencies; Severe Drought Impacts Southern Africa, Honduras
The Washington Post (8/2) said the White House Council on Environmental Quality released new guidance that will require all federal agencies to consider climate change in their decision making.
Reuters (7/28) said approximately 23 million farmers in Southern Africa need urgent help ahead of the next planting season – or they may end up requiring humanitarian assistance in 2017, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The region is already experiencing drought-related food shortages.
Voice of America (8/1) said Honduras is experiencing severe drought and food shortages linked to El Nino. The U.N. special envoy for climate change, Mary Robinson, has called for a long-term drought and climate change resilience plan focusing on Honduras’s poorest and most vulnerable.
The Washington Post (8/2) outlined the top ten most impressive findings from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) State of the Climate in 2015 report which analyzes last year’s record-breaking global temperatures and other climate indicators.
The New York Times (8/1) reported on the evolution and methodology of attribution studies – scientific analyses that try to prove whether climate change is responsible for individual weather events. Researchers are able to conduct these studies on a shorter timeline and with greater accuracy due to better computer models, more weather data and improved understanding of the science of climate change.
In a photo story, the Guardian (7/26) described a new five-year project in Sri Lanka that offers small loans and training to help women start sustainable businesses as an alternate to cutting mangrove trees.
