Tomorrow Is Too Late for Adaptation to Climate Change

November 21, 2012 by

Patricia Grogg

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Nov 20 (IPS) – You can still see broken plates, toys, books and some photographs among the rubble that was once the homes of Rey Antonio Acosta’s family and other families in Mar Verde, the beach community where Hurricane Sandy made landfall in this eastern Cuban city."Come here and see what pain is," the 12-year-old boy, who will forever remember the early hours of Oct. 25, when winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour and waves nine metres high wrecked dozens of houses along the coast here, tells Tierramérica*.

He talks about how he saw the eye of the hurricane, "black and with stars in the centre," and the calm as it passed by. "But then the waves rose higher and the wind became stronger. We heard something like the roar of a beast over us. People were crying and I thought my time had come (to die)," he said.

His young age does not prevent him from learning a lesson from Sandy. "Now that I know what a hurricane is, when the next one comes we won’t take our time evacuating," he said. The vast majority of the citizens of Santiago admit that the devastating blow from Sandy took them by surprise, in spite of the meteorological warnings.

"We thought there would just be a bit of wind and rain, and that would be all," says María Caridad, who lives in Santiago de Cuba, the provincial capital. Like many others in this city of half a million people, her house, which was built about a century ago, was not fit to withstand the onslaught.

"None of my neighbours took Sandy seriously," says the 50-year-old Caridad, on whose house an adjacent wall fell, causing the roof to collapse and leaving the family at the mercy of the wind. "We took advantage of a moment’s calm to cross over to the balcony of the next-door apartment and seek shelter.”

Other people complained that in their neighbourhoods there was no electricity from an early hour, so they did not hear the last meteorological warning, announcing that the hurricane’s path would go right through Santiago de Cuba, which is densely populated and has a largely precarious housing stock that is vulnerable to disasters.

"Cyclones usually passed close to Santiago de Cuba and came from the east. Sandy came from the north, and it was the first time the eye of the hurricane passed right over us. If it had come in the daytime, it would have caused more deaths than the 11 that occurred, because people would have been out on the street," Eddy Acosta, of the Mar Verde Civil Defence council, told Tierramérica.

Nearly three weeks after the storm, the streets of Santiago have been cleared of rubble. But the trees, stripped of foliage and with broken limbs outlined against the sky, give it a strange wintry look. Many trees were pulled up by the roots and flung against buildings and houses.

As of Nov. 12 there was still no official account of the economic damage caused by Sandy, although an estimate by the United Nations office in Cuba reckoned 137,000 houses were damaged in Santiago de Cuba, 65,000 in Holguín and 8,750 in Guantánamo, the other two eastern provinces that were most affected.

Serious damage was suffered by industry, telecommunications, electricity and agriculture, and recovery is expected to be extremely difficult in a country trying to bolster its weakened economy, and that in 2008 was ravaged by three hurricanes, which caused 10 billion dollars in losses.

The fury of wind and waves devastated not only Mar Verde, but other coastal communities like Cayo Granma and Siboney, and several tourist facilities along the shore. According to the authorities, Sandy pressed home the need for "realistic" proposals in terms of construction methods and land use planning.

Researchers studying the impact of climate change in Cuba estimate that 577 communities in the country will be exposed to floods, due to a rising sea level and the swell caused by increasingly intense hurricanes.

They recommend working to protect ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs that provide natural barriers against tropical storms, as well as avoiding investment in construction in high-risk seaside areas.

Sandy struck densely populated areas where people were not accustomed to dealing with hurricanes and their enormous capacity for devastation, Ramón Pérez, an expert at the Institute of Meteorology’s Climate Centre, told Tierramérica. In his view, the best form of adaptation is prevention.

"Considering that there may be more intense hurricanes in future, the first thing we need to do is prepare ourselves to deal with the present ones, including of course reduction of vulnerability (to natural disasters) and greater education," said the expert about the lessons learned from the latest hurricane.

Sandy was the 18th tropical storm of the 2012 season, and the 10th to reach hurricane status. The winds and intense rains affected Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the United States and Canada, leaving billions of economic losses and dozens of fatalities in its wake.

* This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.


Filed Under: Environment, Latin America, Report Tagged With: ,

Planet on Path to Four C Warming, World Bank Warns

November 21, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Nov 19 (IPS) – Coal, oil and gas companies and their backers in the financial and investment industry must stop putting billions of dollars into finding and extracting new sources of fossil fuels. If they don’t shift their investments, temperatures will soar four to 10 degrees C higher, devastating many parts of the world, the World Bank said Monday.The world is on track to a "four-degree C world" marked by extreme heat-waves, declining global food stocks, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, and life-threatening sea-level rise, according to an in-depth study by the World Bank released Monday.

"It is my hope that this report shocks us into action," said JimYong Kim, president of the World Bank Group.

"A 4 degree C warmer world can, and must be, avoided – we need to hold warming below 2C," said Kim in a statement.

"This report should awaken world leaders out of their slumber on climate change," said Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, a U.S.-based environmental organisation.

"The alarm bell on global warming is ringing. Let’s hope world leaders are listening," Steer said.

The World Bank report, "Turn Down the Heat", spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by four degrees C (7.2 Fahrenheit). Scientists are nearly unanimously predicting this before the end of the century without serious policy changes, the report said.

"We’re already being impacted by climate change," said Bill Hare, director of Climate Analytics in Berlin, one of two climate science centres that produced the World Bank report.

Global temperatures have only risen 0.8C so far. Worldwide, the cost of climate change is estimated at 1.2 trillion dollars annually, and the greatest impacts are on the poor and on poor countries. However, rich countries like the United States are not immune.

This year’s drought has cost the U.S. economy at least 100 billion dollars, according to Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. In addition, Superstorm Sandy caused 50 to 70 billion dollars in damages.

"It is really scary to realise there’s a one in 10 chance we will be at 4C by 2070," Hare told IPS in an interview.

While the global average might be four degrees C, the actual temperatures over land would range between four and 10 degrees C higher. The United States is likely to see monthly summer temperatures rise by more than six degrees C. Temperatures in the Mediterranean are expected to be nine degrees C warmer than the warmest July by 2080.

The Sahara and the Middle East will see temperatures as high as 45 degrees C, or six to seven degrees C above the warmest July today, the report warns.

No nation will be immune but it is tropical countries where the impacts will be worst. Sea level rises will be 20 percent higher than elsewhere, and tropical cyclone intensity will increase as will drought.

"I’m very worried about food production. We cannot assume we can grow crops if the world warms four degrees C," said Hare.

At such higher temperatures, droughts will increase. Nearly half of the world’s croplands will be affected by drought by 2100. Worst off will be Southern Africa, the United States, Southern Europe and Southeast Asia, the report says.

Coral reefs will stop growing by 2030 because fossil fuel emissions are turning the oceans increasingly acidic. By mid-century, corals will dissolve without major reductions in fossil fuel use, the report notes.

Corals provide home and habitat to 25 to 33 percent of all ocean life and are considered one of the life-support systems essential for human survival, according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

Given these and other known and unknown impacts from such a major increase in temperatures, the World Bank concludes that human adaptation to such conditions may not be possible. Countries will likely "experience severe disruptions, damage and dislocation".

The report has little to say about solutions to stay below two degrees C. It simply concludes by saying "only early, cooperative, international actions can make that happen".

Bank president Kim says the Bank intends to "redouble our efforts to support fast growing national initiatives to mitigate carbon emissions".

However, the bank still continues to put its money into fossil fuel projects such as a proposed coal-fired power plant in Kosovo.

"Will the Bank seize the Kosovo project as an opportunity to model a new approach to development?" asks Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law.

Up to 2011, the Bank spent 25 percent of its energy lending – 3.4 billion dollars – on coal-fired power plants.

"Or will it sound a clarion call the world should heed, then promptly ignore the call itself?" Muffett asked.

With governments subsidising the fossil fuel industry to the tune of 600 billion dollars per year, according to the Global Subsidies Initiative, and the industry itself investing a similar amount this year in exploration and new production, "We are clearly going in the wrong direction," said Hare.

"We need to switch away from those investments," he said, but it is not happening despite the seriousness of the climate challenge and increasingly dire reports like the World Bank’s.

"There is simply no leadership," Hare told IPS.

There is a major opportunity to change this at the U.N. climate negotiations known as COP 18 that commence Nov. 26 in Doha, Qatar.

However, Hare remains pessimistic. "It is hard to imagine what it will take to get real action at COP 18," he said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Energy, Environment, Featured Tagged With: , ,

India’s Engagement in the Arctic Desired

November 13, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By Shastri Ramachandaran*

IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – The race for a share of the enormous reservoirs of fossil fuel – an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil alone – beneath Greenland’s ice sheet in the Arctic Circle is heating up. While the good news is that climate change, which is making the polar ice cap melt, may not be altogether bad because of the economic prospects it holds out, the bad news is that India appears to be nowhere in this emerging global game.

Some four years after the U.S. Geological Survey came out with its estimates of huge oil and gas reserves in the region, periodically, in ways big and small, the stakes are being raised by the ‘Arctic Five’ – Russia, Norway, Canada, Denmark (including self-governed Greenland and Faroe Islands that comprise the Danish Commonwealth) and the United States – as well as of the Arctic Council which includes three more countries in the Arctic Circle, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

Other countries, including India but especially China, are in no mood to let these eight states get away with the Arctic as their property. A number of powerful nations are pressing the point that in the emerging global order, geography cannot be the sole determinant of rightful access to common resources.

The 90 billion barrels of oil reserves in the Arctic represent 13% of the world’s oil resources. Besides, 30% of the world’s gas resources are also estimated to be in an area around the North Pole, which covers more than a sixth of the planet’s surface. Much of this area, over which Greenland reigns supreme, is also rich in minerals, such as gold, zinc, iron, copper, diamonds, rubies and several rare earth elements.

It is hardly a coincidence then that Greenland is emerging as a highly sought-after political, strategic and military prize. A recent report by a U.S. think tank projects the possibility of Greenland, which gained self-rule in 1979, breaking away from the Kingdom of Denmark.

In 2007, Russia planted its flag on the North Pole’s seabed by using a robot. But, the question of who ‘owns’ the North Pole is unlikely to be resolved by such acts. The suspicion that the U.S. think tank’s study might be aimed at injecting tensions in Greenland-Denmark relations and that the dispute between Canada and Denmark over the Arctic island of Hans is being fanned by third parties underscore how every player with a stake in the region will do everything to keep alive the focus on conflicting claims to parts of the Arctic.

‘Rising India’

In this scenario, it is high time New Delhi woke up to the expectations from a ‘Rising India’. Be it Denmark, Sweden or Norway, in their capitals they want visible Indian engagement. As a country interested in a permanent place in the UN Security Council, it requires to be seen in the intensive behind-the-scenes exercises to shape the future of the Arctic. The issues involved go beyond legal rights and the Law of the Sea; and, may eventually be resolved by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Of the Arctic Five, India’s relations with Denmark are at its worst, and, with friend Russia, disagreements over the aircraft carrier Gorshkov are symptomatic of unresolved issues clouding the atmosphere. India is deeply engaged with the U.S., but that is unlikely to help its interests in the Arctic. Canada has not been cultivated in this context. That leaves Norway as the one state which can aid and advance the Indian cause, but also help rope in Sweden and Finland.

Much as these countries prefer China for doing economic business, when it comes to the political, the strategic and the military, they would want India to take a more active role in international affairs.

More than one observer emphasised the need for India to raise its profile, and not only with a view to balancing China’s sure-footed moves at becoming an Arctic power.

In the last 10 years, Greenland has granted a score of exploration and development licences to oil and gas biggies. Although feasibility of commercial exploitation of oil, gas in the region is in question, the U.S. and Canada have been exploring and drilling in these parts for over 40 years.

New Delhi may flatter itself that it has a place at the high tables of the world, but the opinion in Scandinavia is that it should venture far and farther afield to the new sites of contest such as the Arctic seabed.

This view was backed by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in a study published in September 2011, calling upon India and other developing countries not to leave "the issue of the Arctic’s future to the developed countries." The first step in this regard, it said, would be for India to become an ad hoc observer to the Arctic Council. At the same time, he advised the "strategic community" in India to take the lead in articulating and debating the idea of including the Arctic in the discourse on global commons.

*The author is an independent political and foreign affairs commentator visiting Denmark at the invitation of the Danish Cultural Institute. A version of this article appeared in Daily News and Analysis (DNA) and this is being published by arrangement with the writer. [IDN-InDepthNews – November 12, 2012]

2012 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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Filed Under: Asia, Diplomacy, Energy, Environment, Report Tagged With: ,

OP-ED: Hurricane Sandy Says, "Welcome to the New Normal"

November 9, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Nov 08 (IPS) – I am aware that my arrival last week helped re-elect U.S. President Barack Obama. Superstorms like me don’t play politics, but it should be clear by now that your refusal to tackle global warming has serious consequences. Higher sea levels and amped-up hurricanes like me are just two of them.There is an awful price to pay for burning coal, oil, and natural gas, I’m sorry to say.

Putting hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere is trapping more of the sun’s heat energy. CO2 is the planet’s natural heating blanket but those extra hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO2 have made that blanket thicker. And it is getting thicker every year.

Nearly 200 people were killed in the 10 days I travelled from Jamaica to Canada. Most of the deaths were in the United States. The U.S. remains by far the largest emitter of CO2. With a fraction of the world’s population, the U.S. is responsible for nearly 30 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions from 1860 to 2009. On a person by person basis, U.S. citizens have one of the biggest CO2 "footprints".

Some of you have known for a long time how dangerous CO2 is. The first international conference to address the climate-disrupting impacts of burning coal, oil, and natural gas was held 24 years ago. At "The Changing Atmosphere: Implications for Global Security", your politicians and scientists concluded:

"Humanity is conducting an unintended, uncontrolled, globally pervasive experiment whose ultimate consequences could be second only to a global nuclear war".

They accurately warned of a dangerous temperature increase without action to reduce emissions. (Conference summary statement)

Knowing all this, your oil, coal and gas corporations were allowed to grow to become the world’s most powerful and profitable industry. You gave, and continue to give, those corporations who are making the planet less habitable billions of tax dollars in subsidies.

Now there is so much CO2 in the atmosphere the entire planet is .8 degrees C (one degree F) hotter and that temperature will at least triple. This additional heat energy being trapped by the extra CO2 amounts to exploding 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs per day 365 days per year. This has spawned more and more destructive extreme weather events. This "new normal" will only worsen as more CO2 is released.

The refusal to tackle global warming has led to nearly 400,000 deaths and more than 1.2 trillion dollars is being lost every year mainly due to damage to food production and from extreme weather linked to climate change. Air pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels is also separately contributing to the deaths of at least 4.5 million people a year. These deaths and costs will only worsen with every additional tonne of CO2.

In human terms CO2 is forever. Your countries’ emissions today will disrupt the climate of your children, grand children and great grandchildren. To minimize the severity and intensity of flooding, droughts, destructive storms and crop failures your CO2 footprint needs to grow smaller and virtually disappear over the next few decades.

The US CO2 footprint has been getting smaller in recent years. The recession, closures of old coal plants and more natural gas has resulted in fewer emissions. Others are doing their part. The British are 18 percent below their emission levels in 1990 and aim to get down to 34 percent by 2020. The US is still well above its 1990s levels. This ongoing failure to act has cost the US its global leadership position.

Studies show the U.S. could become an advanced, 21st century low-carbon society thriving on 100-percent renewable energy sources by 2030. The entire planet could run on 100-percent renewable sources by 2050.

This does not appear to be your future. The fossil fuel industry is too powerful and has instilled a fear of change amongst many of you. What you should be truly fearful of is the worsening of powerful storms that kill, the floods that destroy and droughts that will cause hunger for your children and your children’s children.

As you sow, so shall you reap.

Hurricane Sandy Speaks is written by lead international science and environment correspondent at IPS Stephen Leahy.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Environment, Opinion, United States Tagged With: ,

Farming Among the Waste in Cameroon

August 30, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Monde Kingsley Nfor

YAOUNDÉ, Aug 30 (IPS) – Cameroonian urban famer Juliana Numfor has six plots of land where she grows maize, cassava, sweet potatoes and leafy vegetables, including cabbages, wild okra and greens.The soil in which her crops grow is moist and visibly marshy, and a stream of water runs near it. But if you take a closer look you will notice that the water is dark and smells unpleasant.

In fact it is wastewater, which comes from a student residential quarter in Yaoundé, popularly called “Cradat”, that is less than 400 metres away from her plots of land.

But it is precisely thanks to the wastewater that Numfor is farming on this public land.

She told IPS that she prefers planting her crops on urban wastewater sites because she can easily irrigate them by using the readily available wastewater. She said that this was because rainfall had become increasingly irregular – coming and going when she least expected.

“The kind of crops on this piece of land can grow on any fertile land if it is well watered. But during this period in August, which is supposed to be a very wet time of the year in Yaoundé, very little rainfall has fallen. It makes it impossible for vegetable crops to grow without proper irrigation,” Numfor said.

And Numfor is not the only farmer doing this. Smallholder farmers around the Yaoundé city centre are increasingly farming on urban wastewater sites.

While there are no official figures of how many people are farming in these areas, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) admitted that the practice was overwhelming.

Smallholder farmers in and around Yaoundé can be seen planting their crops on public land, along railways, in conservation areas, and even near roads.

“This is a long-time practice that has only intensified due to a lot of causes, climate change being one. Many farmers have resorted to urban farming with wastewater,” Collette Ekobo, an agricultural inspector at MINADER, told IPS.

One 45-year-old woman told IPS that she knew 11 other women who cultivated crops on land near wastewater.

“All I know is that the ground is very fertile. I think when people empty their sewers and other household waste into this water, it makes the land very fertile for farming. And there is water all season round,” she said.

Rural-urban migration, aggravated by the adverse effects of climate change on rural farming, is thought to be one of the main reasons behind the growing number of urban farmers in the city.

In 2011, MINADER began warning farmers about the climate variability affecting agriculture across the country. Yaoundé, which is located in Cameroon’s Centre Region, experienced reduced rainfall.

“Over the years in Yaoundé, the rainfall pattern has been so variable and not easy to understand. Rainfall has become very irregular, unpredictable and reduced … this leads to prolonged dryness and the drying up of streams, accompanied by exceedingly hot climatic conditions – all of which provoke poor agricultural performance and low output,” the ministry said.

Ekobo said that because of the changing climate, many farmers found it difficult to predict when to start planting.

“The month of March traditionally marks the start of the planting season in the Centre Region of Cameroon, following the start of the rains. But due to changing rainfall patterns, farmers have now readjusted their planting periods, a phenomenon which is rather difficult to grasp a perfect mastery of. It has caused a lot of confusion with the farmers,” she said.

She added that urban farming was integrated into the urban economic and ecological system of Cameroon.

“The land is rich with urban resources like organic waste, which is used as compost, and urban wastewater, which is used for irrigation. There are also direct links to urban consumers,” Eboko said.

But farming on urban wastewater sites is not a safe practice, according to Foongang Mathias, an agriculture expert at the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development.

“Wastewater irrigation provides the necessary plant nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorous that are required by crops for ample growth. But farming in wastewater poses both health and environmental threats, not only to the urban agriculturalists, but also to the consumers of the crops grown on that field,” he said.

He told IPS that toxic waste from homes, hospitals and industries was probably deposited or carried into the wastewater.

“This water contains pathogenic organisms and disease vectors similar to those in human excreta. Pathogens that are brought in with the wastewater can survive in the soil or on the crop and are responsible for human diseases,” he said.

In addition, according to the World Health Organization: “Available evidence indicates that almost all excreted pathogens can survive in soil for a sufficient length of time to pose potential risks to farm workers.”

Despite the risks to her and her customers’ health, Numfor told IPS that the economic gains from farming in urban wastewater areas far outweighed the dangers.

She will continue to sell her produce to customers, who include restaurant owners and retailers. Numfor said that she earned an average of eight dollars a day, but sometimes made more when she sold her crop to women who export Cameroonian vegetables to the United States and Europe.

At a local market in Obili, a neigbourhood in Yaoundé, stallholders displayed large piles of vegetables that range in price from 200 CFA Francs (50 cents) to 300 CFA Francs (75 cents) per bunch. And consumers here did not care where the produce was grown.

“I totally ignore the fact that they are grown in wastewater because even if they contain germs, the organism cannot survive in the pot with very high temperature,” one woman, who bought three bundles of bitter leaf or Vernonia amygdalina, told IPS.

Another said she felt the vegetables were safe if cooked in hygienic conditions and besides, “no one has ever complained after consuming these vegetables.”

Meanwhile, Eboko said that the government did not plan to regulate farming near wastewater areas.

“Urban wastewater farming is not a regulated activity in Cameroon, although it is an important part of the urban food system. It is not yet considered as a potential problem, but is considered as a subsistence way of life for women.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Agriculture, Development, Health, Report Tagged With: , , , ,

Hurricane Isaac Highlights Vulnerabilities in the Caribbean

August 30, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Aug 30 (IPS) – The impact of Hurricane Isaac as it made its way through the Caribbean region highlighted both the fragility of some countries in the face of extreme meteorological events, which are expected to become more and more intense, and the different strategies adopted to mitigate the risk of disasters.Isaac made landfall twice in the southeast U.S. state of Louisiana as a category 1 storm, almost 600 km wide, with top sustained winds up to 130 km an hour. Its slow motion over land – it was travelling at 13 km per hour – raised concerns that it could take a while to blow over.

Authorities in the U.S. reported that the strong winds and torrential rains had overtopped a levee outside New Orleans, and led to power outages affecting some 450,000 homes. But the hurricane was downgraded Wednesday to a tropical storm.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the storm could dump more than 400 mm of rain because of how slow it was moving. "It is quite ironic that we have a hurricane threatening us on the seventh anniversary of Katrina,” he added.

Isaac was the first test of the improved levees, rebuilt since the tragedy caused by Katrina, a category 3 hurricane that left 1,800 people dead and 3,000 missing and caused billions of dollars in damages. Most of the deaths occurred after the dikes around the city failed, flooding the city.

Landrieu said the city’s flood defences, a system of walls, floodgates, levees and pumps upgraded since 2005 at a cost of 14.5 billion dollars, had withstood the onslaught.

In Cuba, Isaac, the ninth named storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season (June to November), provided abundant water for the country’s thirsty reservoirs, did not claim any lives, and cause little material damage.

But in impoverished Haiti, 19 people were killed and six are missing.

Haiti has not yet recovered from the devastating earthquake of 2010, and around 400,000 people are still living in tent cities and camps. The country’s civil protection office reported that 5,000 people were evacuated and taken to shelters.

About 3,000 of those evacuated were in Port-au-Prince. The authorities are particularly concerned that the flooding could cause a resurgence of the cholera epidemic, which since October 2010 has cost the lives of more than 7,500 people in Haiti.

The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, reported that five people had drowned as rivers overflowed their banks, and nearly 26,000 people were evacuated, 5,000 dwellings were damaged, and 116 villages and communities were isolated.

The Ozama River, which tends to flood at times of heavy rainfall, flooded some 2,500 makeshift shacks built along the river.

One of the big challenges faced in the Dominican Republic is the proliferation of slums along rivers, which puts thousands of families at risk during extreme events like torrential rains, tropical storms or hurricanes.

The areas with the largest number of families affected are the slums in Santo Domingo and the border region, says a report sent to IPS by World Vision, a U.S.-based Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation, which has an office in Jimaní, in the southwest of the Dominican Republic.

Cuba prepared for the storm

Isaac, which began forming on Aug. 21 in the Atlantic Ocean, caused heavy rain, winds,

coastal storm surges, flooding and blackouts in the eastern Caribbean. After bashing Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, it touched land in Cuba on Aug. 25 in Maisí, a town in the province of Guantánamo at the eastern tip of Cuba.

Five hours later, Isaac headed back out to sea near Guardalavaca beach in the northern part of the eastern province of Holguín, 743 km from Havana.

The brunt of the storm was felt in Baracoa, a city in Guantánamo province 929 km southeast of Havana, where it affected electricity and phone services, caused flooding, and damaged 89 homes, 19 of which were completely destroyed.

But there was a silver living: official reports indicate that the torrential rains helped fill reservoirs in the eastern part of the country, some of which were far below normal level.

In Santiago de Cuba, 847 km southeast of Havana, the 11 reservoirs now have 71 million cubic metres of water. They are 66 percent full, compared to 57 percent prior to the storm.

Provinces of central and western Cuba also received heavy rainfall, to the point that some reservoirs had to open their gates to release excess water. The reservoirs are indispensable for storing water reserves during periods of drought in this Caribbean island nation, which does not have significant sources of water.

With its internationally renowned disaster management system, which involves the entire population, from the highest levels of government to every rural and urban community, Cuba has managed to reduce the loss of human lives to a minimum, even during storms of the intensity of Hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma, which caused 10 billion dollars in economic losses in a single season, in 2008.

Cuba’s disaster risk prevention system includes an early warning service, evacuation of all at-risk people, the protection of economic resources with an emphasis on food, and the immediate start of the recovery phase in the wake of a disaster.

José Rubiera, head of the Meteorology Institute’s Forecast Centre, said Cuba is the safest country in the region during hurricanes.

“That is the result of years of work focused on adapting disaster prevention, preparedness and response to the new conditions emerging as a result of the increase in hurricane activity in this area, which could be a forerunner of what could happen as a result of climate change, which to a certain extent is already being felt,” Rubiera told IPS.

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This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Americas, Environment, Report Tagged With: , ,

Philippines Floods Prompt Climate Action

August 27, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Kara Santos

MANILA, Aug 27 (IPS) – This year’s floods, one of the worst in Philippine history, destroyed a staggering 57 million dollars worth of crops, pushing this climate vulnerable country to implement disaster risk reduction measures. “We used to schedule our harvest season around the wet and dry months. But now you can never tell,” says Teresita Duque, a rice farmer in the Nueva Ecija province of the Central Luzon region, the ‘rice granary’ of the Philippines.

“The sky suddenly darkens, and the rains just fall,” Duque, who uses native rice varieties and eco-fertiliser on her farm, told IPS in an interview in Manila.

Monsoon rains enhanced by Typhoon Haikui near China had already been drenching Luzon, the Philippines’ main island, for several days when, from Aug. 6-7, nearly two months worth of rain fell on Metro Manila and several provinces in Luzon.

At least 95 people perished in the ensuing floods and landslides, with nearly a million others forced to evacuate their homes.

As the Philippines tries to emerge from years of agricultural backwardness and attain food self-sufficiency, farmers, non-government organisations (NGOs) and government agencies are trying to map out strategies that can mitigate the effects of weather patterns gone wild.

Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a non-profit agricultural research centre based in Los Banos, Laguna, believe that a flood resistant variety of rice, dubbed ‘submarino’ for its ability to withstand two weeks of submergence, could be one answer.

Last year, when typhoons Nessat and Nalgae devastated Central Luzon, farmers who had planted ‘submarino’ were able to harvest their crops even after their paddies had been submerged for nearly a week.

Glenn Gregorio, senior scientist and plant breeder at IRRI, told IPS that several ‘climate-change ready’ rice varieties, including drought-resistant varieties, are being developed at the institute.

“When you talk about floods in the country, you often see images of urban areas with cars floating and people stranded on their rooftops, but the farmers are really the worst affected,” Gregorio told IPS in a telephone interview.

The farmers’ group ‘Sarilaya’ agrees that while agriculture in the Philippines needs to adapt to climate change, it is best to stick to naturally resilient native varieties rather than go in for hybrids developed in laboratories.

Sarilaya workers say that hybrid varieties are dependent on expensive chemical-based fertilisers which, in the long run, ruin the soil and harm the health of farmers and communities.

“Extreme weather patterns are making the agricultural sector more vulnerable than ever before,” said Pangging Santos, advocacy officer at Sarilaya that works to empower farmers like Duque. “What used to be considered normal is no longer normal.”

“There are many different native varieties that still need to be tested, but the experience of our farmers shows that native varieties are more sustainable than hybrid varieties in the long run,” Santos told IPS.

Sarilaya runs a farming school and model eco-farms in Northern Luzon where farmers learn how to make their own organic fertiliser. Farmers are taught to make pesticides from locally available ingredients instead of buying costly chemical-based insecticides and sprays.

Duque said where she used to spend at least 223 dollars on farm inputs for one cropping, she now spends less than 16 dollars, mostly on organic fertiliser and pesticides.

“We need to change our mindsets about climate change strategies and look at long-term sustainability,” said Santos.

Sarilaya’s strategy of promoting organic farming is in line with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s vision of ‘climate-smart agriculture’.

Hideki Kanamaru of the Climate, Energy and Tenure Division of the FAO says climate-smart agriculture is about sustainably increasing productivity. It is also about adaptation and mitigation by reducing greenhouse gases from agricultural production without compromising on food security.

Kanamaru introduced FAO’s vision during a symposium held in February by the Philippines department of agriculture, which was attended by policy makers, scientists and practitioners from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation nations and select organisations.

The essence of FAO’s climate-smart farming is careful use of natural resources such as land, water, soil and genetic material as well as good practices that include conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, agro-forestry and sustainable diets.

While the government is providing free rice seeds and crop insurance to farmers in Luzon – where crops have been severely damaged by floodwaters and heavy rains – the country’s climate change commission admits that it may be too late to meet this year’s rice harvest targets.

In 2010, the Philippines topped the list of rice importers when it bought up 2.5 million tonnes of rice. While determined efforts towards self-sufficiency have brought the figure down to 860,000 tonness in 2011, plans to drop imports further have gone awry.

The national climate change action plan says that sensitivity to weather fluctuations “will greatly affect the country’s production and have a domino effect on our target of self-sufficiency by 2013.”

The plan notes: “The Philippines, being archipelagic and because of its location, is one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change…ranking highest in the world in terms of vulnerability to tropical cyclone occurrence.”

When President Benigno S. Aquino III signed into law the People’s Survival Fund (PSF), on Aug. 17, by amending the Climate Change Act of 2009, it was not a moment too soon.

“As we have seen clearly over the past few weeks, there is a pressing need to financially support disaster prevention efforts of local government units,” said Senator Loren Legarda, the driving force behind the 2009 law, at the launch of the PSF.

Worth 23 million dollars annually, the PSF will finance adaptation programmes and projects based on the National Strategic Framework on Climate Change. The fund may be augmented by donations, endowments, grants and contributions.

“The signing of the law signifies the president’s commitment to better prepare the country for erratic weather patterns and climate change,” said Elpidio Peria, convenor of Aksyon Klima, a coalition of 40 civil society organisations working on climate change.

Aksyon Klima released this month an e-toolkit (www.aksyonklima.com) for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and helping local governments plan for extreme weather.

*With Art Fuentes

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Environment, Report Tagged With: , , ,

Q&A: Smallholder Farmers Driving New Trend Against Climate Change

August 27, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Busani Bafana

BULAWAYO, Aug 27 (IPS) – Small-scale irrigation schemes can provide the biggest opportunity for boosting food security in Africa, according to Meredith Giordano, the research director at the International Water Management Institute.

As World Water Week began in Stockholm on Aug. 26, the institute released an international study that shows how water management innovations could boost crop yields and raise household income on the continent.

According to the report, “Water for wealth and food security: Supporting farmer-driven investments in agricultural water management,” published on Aug. 24, expanding the use of smallholder water management techniques could increase yields by up to 300 percent in some cases, and could add tens of billions of dollars to household revenues across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The report, the result of a three-year AgWater Solutions Research Initiative coordinated by Giordano, shows for the first time how enterprising smallholder farmers are using their resources innovatively to finance and install irrigation technologies.

Giordano said that it is clear that smallholder farmers are driving the new trend that has the potential to cushion them against climate change. Excerpts of the interview follow:

Q: Is irrigation the solution to adapting to climate change?

A: It is one of a range of feasible solutions. With predictions of increased frequency of extreme weather events (flooding and droughts) in Africa, capturing and storing floodwater and using it for irrigation is one option for agricultural adaptation to climate change.

Investing in smallholder agricultural water management (AWM) provides increased options for farmers, increased incomes and food security, which in turn foster greater resilience and capacity to adapt to climate change.

Q: How can science and technology contribute to making irrigation viable for smallholder farmers?

A: Research such as that conducted under this project can provide information for investors on what, where and how to invest to support smallholder AWM for poverty reduction.

Many viable, small scale AWM technologies already exist, but important areas for future technology research and development include improving the efficiency of small pumps and exploring new – or reducing the cost of existing – alternative sources of energy (e.g., solar).

Satellite images and remote sensing can provide data on groundwater resources, water storage and distribution patterns, crop yields, droughts and flooding to facilitate expansion and scaling up of small-scale irrigation. They also allow monitoring of environmental problems in near real time, so that effective solutions can be quickly implemented.

Q: What has been the problem with large irrigation schemes in the developing world, especially Africa?

A: There are a wide range of AWM options for poverty alleviation and economic growth — from improving rain-fed and small-scale irrigation to constructing large-scale irrigation structures.

The continued rise in food prices and the threat this poses to the food security of the vulnerable poor have led to a renewed interest and focus among investors in large-scale irrigation schemes, which, given that very little irrigation infrastructure exists in sub-Saharan Africa, are indeed relevant and warranted.

However, large-scale investments can be expensive and only reach smallholders who farm close to where the systems operate. Moreover, the focus on large scale overlooks significant investment opportunities within the smallholder AWM sector — a growing, farmer-driven trend that is already increasing incomes and food security of the rural poor and has the potential to benefit millions of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

The performance record of large-scale public sector irrigation schemes in Africa has been poor due to high capital and operating costs, poor cost recovery and service delivery that is supply, rather than demand, driven. These problems can be avoided or better handled in small-scale irrigation systems.

Q: Irrigation has its own challenges, for example, with initial infrastructure installation and maintenance. How can farmers address this?

A: Indeed, even small-scale irrigation requires upfront investments and regular operation and maintenance costs. Supporting rental markets, for example, can be an option to help smallholders who cannot afford to buy AWM technologies, such as motorised pumps, and who lack the technical knowledge to maintain them.

Other solutions include training both farmers and dealers on which technologies best suit different needs and how to operate and maintain equipment. Existing agricultural networks can provide effective outlets to disseminate information about AWM technologies, prices, vendors, and after-service support, while others can provide the necessary training and capacity-building on equipment installation and maintenance.

Q: Can irrigation save scarce water resources, if at all?

A: Investments in AWM technologies can improve water use efficiency. For example, investments to upgrade community-managed river diversion irrigation schemes in Tanzania have resulted in improved water productivity through more efficient water conveyance. Drip and sprinkler irrigation can deliver water to match crop requirements and can save water compared with large-scale canal irrigation systems.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Agriculture, Analysis, Development, Environment Tagged With: ,

“The Truth is That All Problems Have Solutions” – Even Climate Change in Ethiopia

August 25, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Isaiah Esipisu

ADDIS ABABA, Aug 24 (IPS) – Eight years ago Kenbesh Mengesha earned an uncertain income collecting firewood from local government forests and selling them to her fellow slum-dwellers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She would earn on average about 50 cents a day, if she was lucky.But now she is part of a successful women’s farming project that is a model for training other urban farmer groups all over Africa on how to adapt to climate change.

According to the World Bank, Ethiopia is extremely vulnerable to drought and other natural disasters such as floods, heavy rains, frost and heat waves. Global warming has worsened this, as global circulation models predict a 1.7 to 2.1 degree centigrade rise in the country’s mean temperature by 2050.

This is expected to have a significant impact on food security. As recently as 2011 the country and the entire Horn of Africa were hit by the worst drought in 60 years. It resulted in a severe food crisis, with the United Nations declaring famine in the region.

The World Bank estimates that food insecurity will cost Ethiopia 75 to 100 billion dollars each year to adapt to climate change from 2010 until 2050.

So when Mengesha and 29 other women who also used to earn a living collecting firewood formed a local community organisation, it became the start of a safer and more sustainable way of life.

“Collecting firewood was and still is a risky job. I know of several women who have been raped by men who take advantage of them while in the bush collecting the firewood,” she says.

But today life is less uncertain for Mengesha. And she is no longer cutting down the country’s natural resources in order to get by.

Known as the Gurara Women’s Association, which now has a membership of 200, the group farms almost two hectares of free government-leased land near Gurara slum in Addis Ababa by practicing what it calls an integrated bioeconomy system.

Community self-help groups here are allowed to apply for government land through the local government and the sub-city administration – if the project is to be implemented within city environs. The women’s group has a five-year renewable lease.

This group of women has discovered innovative ways of handling the ever-changing climatic conditions and combating food insecurity.

They were trained by the non-governmental organisation Bioeconomy Africa, which runs the Africa Bioeconomy Capacity Development or ABCD Institute. The women underwent two weeks of training on different integrated techniques in small-scale agriculture.

And it has proved successful as it has earned the members of this association enough money to feed their families, pay school fees for their children and even create employment opportunities for others.

This in itself is a significant feat in this East African nation, which has a population of 82 million people and is the second-poorest country in the world. According to the Multidimensional Poverty Index, developed by Oxford University, 90 percent of Ethiopians live in utter poverty, with 39 percent surviving on 1.25 dollars a day.

“We learned how to utilise the least space whether fertile or not, for maximum agricultural production,” said Fantanesh Atnafic, one of the founding members of the organisation.

“In the recent past, we have seen environmental conditions change – drastically. Rainfall is no longer reliable as it was some 20 years ago. Yet when the dry spell comes, it is usually more prolonged than normal, which has a negative effect on agriculture in general,” she said.

But a changing climate does mean defeat for smallholder farmers, according to Dr. Getachew Tikubet, the director of operations at Bioeconomy Africa.

“It is true that the climatic conditions are changing, which is a huge setback for many African farmers. But the truth is that all problems have solutions. And that is what we are trying to address with African smallholder farmers,” he said.

The women’s association uses different methods of intensive farming that create an ideal environment for their crops.

“We usually blend indigenous knowledge of farming, such as use of manure, with scientific techniques learned from different organisations and individuals, which include extraction of biogas and methane gas from the cow dung before using the residue as manure,” said Atnafic, a mother of six whose husband was killed in the military 20 years ago.

The gases are used as fuel to replace the use of firewood.

“We have learned many things. For example, during hotter climatic conditions like what we are experiencing at the moment, we construct structures that are roofed using black nets in order to keep moisture in the soils,” explained Ihite Wolde Mariam, the association’s chairperson.

Black net roofing has been shown to reduce the amount of heat on the ground.

“Naturally, the black colour absorbs heat. And when we make a greenhouse with a black net, or make ordinary farm roofing using the black net above the crops, we actually reduce the heat underneath by 40 percent. This eventually reduces the evaporation rate, hence saving the soil moisture for the crops,” explained Tikubet.

The women’s group has managed to purchase 10 Friesian dairy cows for milk production.

The members currently grow various types of vegetables such as spinach, kale, tomatoes and carrots, as well as crops for commercial purposes. The fresh produce is used in the kitchen of the on-site restaurant they opened to the public.

“We also use cow dung to produce biogas that is used in the restaurant for cooking. After that, the dung is then converted into organic manure to be used for horticulture,” explained Mariam.

For further income generation, the group has started a poultry project, with 500 laying hens. It also has 12 beehives for honey production and four commercial bathrooms where slum-dwellers shower for a fee.

“This is one of the most successful urban farmer projects that has benefited from our training programme. They have become a model for training other farmer groups from all over Africa,” said Tikubet.

“They have clearly demonstrated that small-scale farming is the way to go, in order to achieve the much desired green revolution in Africa,” he said. “Unfortunately, modernisation neglects smallholder farmers.”

And each member of the group earns between 300 and 350 Birr (16 to 19 dollars) in dividends every month, in addition to the three dollars a day that they are paid for working on the farming project.

“The dividend is already good enough. It has enabled me to see my last-born son through secondary school, and it allows me to afford basic necessities and provide for my grandchildren as well,” said Mengesha, a mother of five.

*This article is one of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Environment, Report Tagged With: ,

Climate Change: Brand or Be Branded

June 11, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By Jen Alic of Oilprice.com*

IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

http://www.indepthnews.net/

SERAJEVO (IDN) – It is very difficult to understand the climate change denial platform on a purely philosophical and scientific level. Climate change is a rather obvious aspect of the history of the Earth and clearly man interacts with climate in an increasingly dynamic manner. That this is even debated appears on the surface to be not a little ridiculous – somewhere on the level of discussing whether the Earth is round or flat.

It is the semantics of it all, which, when combined with politics and the necessary religio-political elements, muddies the waters. For partisan policy camps, it is probably beneficial that the average reader doesn’t really have a clue what anyone means when they say "climate change", and throwing "global warming" into the mix only adds to the general confusion.

But here, scientists, climate change activist elite and environmental officials reading this will say that this is simplifying matters and that the real debate is not whether the climate is changing but the scale of that change as a result of our own actions. The debate, on this level, is about numbers, and it is sufficiently vague to render it a convenient instrument of politics. To this climate change elite, both "deniers" and "believers", there is only one thing to say: You have not brought the debate to the masses in a coherent way.

Acceptance camp and deniers

On both sides of the divide, the public relations campaign has been a complete fiasco, and this is clearly illustrated by asking the average person what they think about climate change or global warming – an answer that invariably depends on the weather at the particular moment the question is asked.

From the media-duping "Climategate scandal" in 2009 to the "Unabomber Believes in Global Warming" campaign that bestowed its intelligence on us this year, we are led to understand only that our elite are not up to the challenge of rational arbitration.

Those pushing for recognition that climate change is something that should be a major concern, and even a national security threat, have painfully mismanaged their efforts. Politicians do not understand scientists, and scientists clearly have no acumen for talking to the media, whose pull-quote analysis seeks maximum damage and entertainment.

The way "climate change" has been handled by the "acceptance" camp in terms of public awareness has accomplished nothing other than to brand the idea as something only "hippies" believe in, something "alarmist" and not grounded in reality.

On the other side of the divide, the "deniers" camp has been equally adept at failure, leading to the branding of those who do not "believe" in climate change, or even those who have unanswered questions, as enemies of the Earth, right-wing Conservatives with no respect for the environment and on the payroll of corporations. Both cry conspiracy. Anyone who falls in between these two groups, and invariably this is the larger percentage, is entirely sidelined and branded at will by the other two.

Unfair to the average citizen

These brandings are terribly unfair to the average citizen. To assume that people who fancy themselves Republicans have no respect for environmentally friendly activities is beyond wide of the mark. Likewise, to assume that those who fancy themselves Democrats are concerned with nothing short of destroying big business to further their naturalistic aims is also far from the truth.

The truth is that the average American, across political divides, is genuinely concerned about the environment and would naturally be concerned about the implications of climate change had it not been hijacked by politics.

With this in mind, it will be interesting to watch the drama unfold over the latest campaign fiasco undertaken by the incentivized "deniers". In late May, the Heartland Institute, the driver of climate change denial whose aim is not educating the masses but supporting insurance companies and big business, launched a billboard campaign featuring Unabomber Ted Kacynzki as a true believer in global warming. The bizarre logic underpinning this campaign was apparently that murderers, tyrants, terrorists and the like are the sort of people who believe in things like global warming (no longer, apparently, the sole purview of hippies).

The result of this hard-hitting campaign was not exactly what the Heartland Institute expected. Even its staunchest supporters recognized that it had crossed the line of no return. The institution split, with a sizable chunk of its members forming a new faction in an effort at damage control. Corporations not wishing to be taken to task for their alignment with Heartland withdrew a total of $825,000 in funding. Republican government supporters threatened to sideline the organization entirely if it failed to remove the offensive billboard campaign directly.

It was not a very cleverly calculated move on Heartland’s part, however amusing the campaign may seem to the cynical (and let’s admit it, it was mildly amusing, but in an unconstructive and unintelligent sort of way). The question topmost on everyone’s mind now is whether Heartland’s bad taste and its reputational dive will translate into any sort of victory for the climate change "believers" camp. If it does, it will be a hollow victory at best and as long as the “believers” insist on what can only be described as inaccessible advocacy and a penchant for delegitimizing anyone who asks questions.

Hostage to political and corporate whims

The public’s choice on climate change is based entirely on a lack of information and disinformation. As long as the subject remains hostage to political and corporate whims, we can only expect more along the lines of the Unabomber.

The best thing to happen to climate change recently is the Obama administration’s very public push to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil – an endeavour that can only be achieved through renewable energy efforts. This is effectively reframing the climate change debate in terms that the intellectually vulnerable masses can understand. That said, as far as those masses are concerned, this will only happen if it can be monetized to their satisfaction.

Any climate change debate will necessarily have to be brought to the masses in a way that is translated in the only terms that have any sway: How it will affect their pocketbook in the immediate and near future. Ask anyone on the street. They will tell you they are happy to support any environmental efforts as long as it’s cheaper to do so than not.

*Jen Alic is a geopolitical analyst and the former editor-in-chief of ISN Security Watch in Zurich. This article is being republished by arrangement with OILPRICE.COM which carried it on June 6, 2012. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, IDN or its editorial board. [IDN-InDepthNews – June 11, 2012]

2012 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

This article should not be republished or redistributed without the permission of the original author or copyright holder.


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