“Without doubt climate and environmental changes impact food security. “The problem now is that El Niño and La Niña have become both stronger, more intense, but also more erratic.”. To Diego Recalde, director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Guatemala, the current trend of mass migration in response to food insecurity and drought is a clear indication that the country has been barreling towards a climate change-induced crisis for some time. If I don’t make it, we will really be in trouble.”, Changing climate forces desperate Guatemalans to migrate, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/drought-climate-change-force-guatemalans-migrate-to-us.html, displaced by weather events around the world, collapse of the ancient Mayan civilization, Center for the Study of the Environment and Biodiversity at the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala, Association of Progressive Women of Plan de Jocote, Adelante Latin American Reporting Initiative. But if you go out to the field and ask anybody if this is normal, everybody says no.”. Below 3,000 feet (900 metres) in elevation, average monthly temperatures range between 70 and 80 °F (21 and 27 °C) throughout the year; between 3,000 and 5,000 feet (900 and 1,500 … Scientists attribute the unusually severe droughts starting in 2014 that have sped up the exodus of families heading north to effects from El Niño, part of a natural climate cycle known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which causes swings between cooler and wetter, and hotter and drier periods around the globe. He has been told that families have a better chance at the border, so he is considering taking his scrawny nine-year-old son, Wilson, with him. The Trump administration ignored research compiled last year by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) showing that crop shortages — caused, in part, by climate change — are behind record numbers of immigrants coming from Guatemala … A fungus known as coffee leaf rust is rapidly expanding due to climate change throughout the Dry Corridor, a transnational area stretching through Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. “We still have some ways to go before we can conclude scientifically that what we’re seeing now is outside the normal. “These children have so many health problems that are compounded by severe, chronic malnutrition. “We grew up hungry, but the past four years have been very hard,” she said. The region’s main cash crop is coffee, and for decades, many campesinos relied on seasonal work at commercial plantations to supplement their subsistence lifestyle. Guatemala's President Alejandro Giammattei said last month Central America had been the worst affected region in the world by climate change and it would need help from them to stave off … In the neighboring department of El Progreso, Sister Edna Morales spends many days riding a donkey through the parched mountains surrounding the small town of San Agustín Acasaguastlán, looking for malnourished children whose families are too poor and weak to seek help. But amid a deepening global climate crisis, drought, famine and the battle for dwindling natural resources are increasingly being recognized as major factors in the exodus. As a result, entire families have been migrating in record numbers: since October 2018, more than 167,000 Guatemalans travelling in family groups have been apprehended at the US border, compared with 23,000 in 2016. Without a source of income, this additional expense leaves many without the economic resources for other basic necessities such as medications or transportation to doctors. It forms part of Central America’s dry corridor: a belt stretching south through Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, that receives little rain and is particularly susceptible to droughts and extreme weather. With increases in the frequency and severity of droughts, Recalde worries that for the most vulnerable sectors of the population, the worst is yet to come. “There should be red flags going off all over the place.”. But a global price crash and the deadly rust fungus known locally as la rolla – which thrives in hot and humid conditions exacerbated by the climate crisis – have wiped out about 80% of the region’s coffee in the past five years. A lack of historical meteorological data makes demonstrating a clear connection between human-induced climate change and increased climate variability difficult. Without a reliable source of potable water, outbreaks of diarrhea and skin rashes have become increasingly common, especially among children. The family’s chickens died a few months back from a mystery illness, so there are no eggs, and meat and dairy are unaffordable. Experts say that the prolonged drought and erratic weather in Guatemala is a direct result of climate change in the region. Families face an impossible choice: stay and risk starvation, or gamble everything on the perilous migrant trail. The U.S. once offered hope, but only for some. While scientists know that El Niño contributes to increases in global temperatures, it is still unclear whether human-induced climate change is causing El Niño events to intensify and occur more frequently. “Over the past six years, the lack of rainfall has been our biggest problem, causing crops to fail and widespread famine,” said the climate scientist Edwin Castellanos, the dean of the research institute at Guatemala’s Universidad del Valle. Eduardo Méndez López lifts his gaze to the sky, hoping to see clouds laden with rain. In Chiquimula, 71% of people live in poverty, and 40% in extreme poverty. “This is the worst drought we’ve ever had,” says Méndez López, toeing the parched earth with the tip of his boot. Rising poverty rates and plunging social indicators paint a bleak outlook for the country, which has the fourth-highest level of chronic malnutrition in the world, and the highest in Latin America. Dinner is another tortilla or two with salt or herbs – but no beans as the drought destroyed last year’s entire crop. But maybe there’s no other way.”, Public anger targets President Alejandro Giammattei over cuts to education and health, Torrential rains, fatal landslides and floods spread devastation, with most deaths in Guatemala, Ex-prisons chief Alejandro Giammattei says he will seek to modify controversial pact with US, Immigrant rights advocates say the ‘safe third country’ agreement is cruel and unlawful, though it could still be blocked, Available for everyone, funded by readers. Recognizing climate risks has led Guatemala to emphasize climate adaptation, including marine coastal zones, in its National Development Plan, National Climate Change Action Plan, National Adaptation Plan, and its climate … Gutiérrez lives in a half-finished palm-roofed adobe house with his wife Miriam Ávalos, 22, and their five children aged between seven months and nine years. In theory, the rainy season here should last from late April to October, with a drier period in July and August known as the canícula – a regional peculiarity that requires two short harvests. Most houses have no toilets, and low water reserves mean most families drink and cook with contaminated stream water. In these parts, the period between harvests, June to August, has always been hard. “The weather has changed, clearly,” said Flori Micaela Jorge Santizo, a 19-year-old woman whose husband has abandoned the fields to … Guatemala is consistently listed among the world’s 10 most vulnerable nations to the effects of climate change. Guatemala counts with 8 CDM projects, one of which is in the agricultural sector. Its seasons tend to be divided into the … Since 2016, at least 800 children under the age of five in Camotán and the neighbouring municipality Jocotán have been diagnosed with acute malnourishment, according to health centre officials. “Without international aid, even more people would be dying.”. “A lot of people are leaving, many more than ever before,” says Vásquez. Méndez López’s crops shriveled and died before producing a single ear of corn. But as long as climate change continues to make life more difficult in Guatemala’s Dry Corridor, many will continue to leave. But this year, there’s no work to be found. But in every situation, it has something to do with climate change.” Blitzer found that the majority of migrants from Guatemala come from the country’s western highlands region, which … Increasingly erratic climate patterns have produced year after year of … The five-year-old girl is just recovering from sudden weight loss. He has no savings, but, his godfather has offered the coyote the title to 3.5 acres of land as a guarantee. This type of natural climate variability has affected Guatemala and other Central American countries for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, even playing a role in the mega-droughts that accompanied the collapse of the ancient Mayan civilization. Whether attributed to El Niño events or to global warming, what’s happening in Guatemala paints a vivid picture of the vulnerabilities that are exposed when societies don’t have the capacities to cope with and adapt to a changing climate. Based on weather reports collected during 1985–2015. She weighs 90lb and is breastfeeding her seven-month old daughter who weighs just nine pounds. For those who depend on agriculture the situation is very precarious, they are very vulnerable,” said Rapallo. 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