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Honduran migrants in a caravan heading toward the United States walk from San Pedro Tapanatepec to Santiago Niltepec, Oaxaca State, Mexico, on Tuesday. (AFP/Getty Images)

Climate change is an “unseen driver” behind the thousands of Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran migrants heading toward the U.S. border, one recent article suggested. Food insecurity and poverty in Central America comes not just from violence and corruption, but also from worsening droughts and changing weather patterns.

And Hurricane Michael in early October, perhaps the most powerful storm to hit the United States since 1969, is another stark piece of evidence that our world is fast approaching — or has reached — a “tipping point.” The enduring environmental damage from climate change is likely to have broad social implications. But who is most vulnerable to the effects of climate change?…  Seguir leyendo »

When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in November, killing more than 6,000 people and leaving more than four million homeless, one group was particularly hard hit: the landless poor. More than a thousand of the dead lived in a single squatter camp.

While natural disasters may seem like equal-opportunity destroyers, they are not.

The developing world’s landless poor routinely bear the brunt of these disasters. Families without secure rights to land (and that is a majority of rural residents in many developing countries) often remain in their homes when it is dangerous to do so, fearing they won’t be allowed to return.…  Seguir leyendo »

By E. J. Dionne Jr. (THE WASHINGTON POST, 01/09/06):

After a week of remembering the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, the most depressing realization is how easily our leaders forgot their fervent promises to lift up our nation's poorest citizens.

All manner of politicians and columnists said in Katrina's wake that this was the time to revisit the problems of the destitute. The anguish of the people of New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward would have at least some redemptive power if the country took poverty seriously again.

It didn't happen. The innovative ideas that came from all sides were swept off the table.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Juan Williams, a senior correspondent for NPR and a political analyst for Fox News Channel and the author of Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 01/09/06):

A year ago this week, the entire nation caught a chilling look in the mirror. We watched as the citizens of New Orleans, clutching their essential belongings in plastic trash bags, struggled through fetid flood waters in search of shelter. But even with all that’s been said and written on this painful anniversary, one of the real issues remains unaddressed.…  Seguir leyendo »