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Food Violence Shows Need for Both Development and Climate Resilience
›In March, the Trump Administration released a new budget proposal that would cut funding to the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development by 28 percent. The proposal also reduces funding to the United Nations for ongoing climate change efforts. At the same time, the White House is publicly considered withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords, with a final decision anticipated any day. Critics both outside the administration and within have pointed to the drawbacks of these moves, but the sum of the policy changes could have an even greater impact than the individual parts.
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Climate-Induced Migration in the Philippines, and Mercy Corps’ Resilience Work in Ethiopia
›Recent rises in temperature and typhoon frequency and intensity have resulted in more internal migration in the Philippines, according to an article by Pratikshya Bohra-Mishra et al. in Population and Environment. The authors conclude that temperature change and natural disasters, such as typhoons, can have a significant effect on short-distance, sub-national migration because they reduce rice yields, which is used as a proxy for agricultural productivity.
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What’s in a Label? Lessons on Advancing Global Health Goals From Corporate Green Standards
›As you walk through the supermarket, you’ve probably noticed labels like “Rainforest Alliance Certified,” “Fair Trade,” or “Green Seal.” These certifications were created to help consumers use their purchasing power to reward companies that treat workers fairly and limit their harm to the environment. What’s missing is health, particularly women’s health. Too often these standards focus narrowly on occupational safety rather than addressing broader, but relevant, health needs of workers.
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Backdraft #5: Ken Conca on the Good, Bad, and Ugly of Water Conflict and Cooperation
›In international development, conflict is often used as shorthand for violent conflict, and avoiding conflict is considered a priority. But “it’s important to recognize that conflict is not always bad and cooperation is not always good,” says Ken Conca in this week’s episode of “Backdraft.”
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A Chronic Crisis, Now Acute: WWF’s Recommendations for the First U.S. Global Water Strategy
›The intelligence community’s landmark Global Water Security assessment in 2012, warned of major water-driven challenges to U.S. national security. The combined assessment of several intelligence agencies foresaw many challenges to U.S. policy objectives and national security arising from protracted drought, declining water quality, and more natural disasters in countries important to U.S. interests. The intelligence community further warned of rising social instability, cross-border tensions, and a steady drain of resources away from other development objectives. These warnings have proven prescient.
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Backdraft #4: Edward Carr on Climate Response, Motivations, and the Value of Ethnographic Research
›Unintended consequences from climate interventions are often the result of not understanding decision-making at a granular enough level, says Edward Carr in this week’s “Backdraft” episode.
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Ground Truth Briefing: Is Climate-Related Migration a National Security Issue?
›Experts predict that climate change will spur some people to leave their homes and countries. How will national security be affected as a result?
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Richard Choularton on 3 Steps to Avert the Famines We See Coming
›There has been great progress in anticipating famines in recent years, with most predicted six or more months ahead of time, says Richard Choularton, senior associate for food security and climate change at Tetra Tech, in this week’s podcast. But action to address their humanitarian impacts has lagged. Responses need to be more consistent and faster, he says, happening “almost without human intervention.”
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