By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. While Hurricane Sandy ravaged the Caribbean and the US eastern seaboard, Typhoon Son-Tinh tore through the Philippines, China and Vietnam. The dead from the mudslides, floods and violent waves were caught by surprise or lacked the wherewithal to move to higher ground. They were overwhelmingly poor.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Haitian impression of being in the center of a world vortex could not be truer when it comes to climate change. As a result of carbon (mostly carbon dioxide and methane) emissions due burning of fossil fuels by industrialized countries, global sea levels have risen one inch over the last decade alone.
Continue reading →By Patricia Grogg, IPS. The impact of Hurricane Isaac in the Caribbean region highlighted both the fragility of some countries in the face of extreme meteorological events, which are expected to become more intense, and the different strategies adopted to mitigate the risk of disasters. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →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)
Continue reading →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.
Continue reading →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.
Continue reading →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.
Continue reading →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.
Continue reading →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)
Continue reading →By Rhea Sandique-Carlos, 4-Traders. The Philippines has indefinitely suspended the operations of the country’s largest gold mine, officials said Monday August 6, after a waste spillage near a major river due to heavy rains. Philex Mining Corporation had previously insisted the spillage consisted only of water and sediment, which were “non-toxic and biodegradable.”
Continue reading →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.
Continue reading →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.
Continue reading →By Marwaan Macan-Markar, IPS. Bangkok is paying the price of ignoring warnings over many years concerning its climate vulnerability and the incapacity of its soggy foundations to handle flooding.
Continue reading →Black homeowners and two civil rights organizations announced a settlement in a post-Hurricane Katrina housing discrimination lawsuit brought against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the State of Louisiana regarding the Road Home program.
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