Fragmentation of News and Causes: The Urgent Need to Think Globally

  By Gilbert Mercier and Dady Chery Haiti Chery “When the blind men had each felt a part of the elephant, the king went to each of them and said to each: ‘Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? … Continue reading →

Dying by Degrees from Climate Change

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The End Age for humanity is not a date known to man, but a point of no return from climate change. Are we there now, as the Hopi and Mayans have predicted? Is there time left to us and, if so, how long?

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Climate Change: Bopha (Pablo) Hits Philippines’ South as Category 5 Typhoon

By Staff (ELR), GMA News | YouTube. Category 5 Typhoon Bopha made landfall in the southern Philippines’ Mindanao area — a region seldom affected by cyclones — with sustained winds of about 160 mph early on Tuesday December 4. The storm, locally called Pablo, has killed dozens, stranded thousands, and displaced tens of thousands of people.

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Climate Change and Poverty Deadly for Dominicans | Cambio climático y pobreza son nefasto para dominicanos

By Patricia Grogg, IPS. The Dominican Republic (DR) could lose about one fifth of its territory to rising sea levels. In the DR, where over 43 out of every 100 people are poor, and over 16 out of 100 are abjectly poor, 70 percent of the cities are on riverbanks and other waterways that are covered by impoverished urban settlements. (English | Spanish)

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MIT Climate Change Study: Tropical Rains to Become More Extreme

By Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office. According to a study by the Department of Atmospheric Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with every 1 degree Celsius rise in Earth’s surface temperature, tropical regions will see 10 percent heavier rainfall extremes, with possible flooding in populous regions.

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Isaac, Gener and Katrina: Climate Change in Action

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Like a hulking giant, Isaac has stomped across the Caribbean at practically human speed, for days. Ten miles per hour, 14 mph, and Isaac continues its march northwest and west-northwest, for nearly one week, as if for a rendez-vous. Isaac appears set to revisit Katrina’s old haunts. The timing is identical: midweek, near the end of August.

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Isaac Takes Boat from Haiti to Florida GOP Convention

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Haitian government officials finally did something about Tropical Storm Isaac. They gathered 32 boats and 1250 temporary shelters as peace offerings to the storm gods. Then they gave a press conference at which they demanded that all those in charge of safety — whoever they might be — do their jobs, whatever these might be.

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Hurricanes and Climate Change

By Brenda Ekwurzel, Union of Concerned Scientists | NOAA | Haiti Chery. Scientific evidence links the destructive power of hurricanes to higher ocean temperatures driven by global warming.

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Haitian Government Does Nothing About Isaac | Le gouvernement haïtien ne fait rien pour Isaac

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Isaac should hit the island of Hispaniola the night of Thursday August 23-24 with rainfall of 8 to 12 inches, dangerous waves, and storm surges that might raise the coastal waters 3 to 5 feet above normal. With less than 24 hours left for preparations to save lives and property, the Haitian government had done nothing except issue general safety warnings. (English | French)

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Typhoon Gener, Climate Change Wreak Havoc in Philippines

Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | Elena L. Aben and Ellalyn B. De Vera, Manila Bulletin | By Staff, Sun Star. Large farming towns north of the capital Manila, as well as heavily populated coastal areas remain under waist-deep floods. Fierce winds and heavy rains from slow-moving Typhoon Gener (international codename Saola) have battered the country, killing at least 39 people and displacing about 200,000.

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Dominican Republic Builds Cross-Mountain Highways But No City Storm Drains and Bridges

By Staff, Dominican Today | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. As the Dominican Republic’s flooded Santiago province erupted in protest about a poorly-built bridge and a scarcity of functional storm drains during the recent rains, the country’s President, Leonel Fernandez, celebrated the ground breaking for a $293 M inter-mountains road.

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Floods Cause Colombia Landslides, Deadly Pipeline Explosion

By Tim Hinchliffe | Adriaan Alsema, Colombia Reports. Heavy rains have made many roads in Colombia impassable due to landslides, flooding, and embankment collapses. Landslides have also ruptured an oil pipeline causing an explosion that left 13 dead, 17 critically wounded, and 80 injured.

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Climate Change Blamed for Storms, Flooding, Drought

By Cathy Yamsuan and Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Two months before the recent huge loss of lives, Filipinos were warned to guard against climate change by protecting forests and improving drainage, as if a forest could indefinitely hold back the rising sea levels and more violent storms caused by the climatic changes brought on by the carbon emissions from developed countries.

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