ALBUQUERQUE — Will Cole steered an old Dodge van along a highway access road one recent Tuesday, searching for panhandlers willing to work. Four men waved him away dismissively at his first attempt, turning their backs on the van as it rolled past. By the third stop, though, nine men and one woman had hopped inside.
Year: 2015
In Nigeria, Chinese investment comes with a downside
Emeka Ezelugha was excited to open a computer training center. He could teach his countrymen some skills and earn a living.But soon after the center opened in a rough, two-story concrete building in Lagos, a blaze broke out in the main classroom. The flames incinerated 30 desktop computers, as well as televisions and air-conditioners.
Bye, bye bananas
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USDA report warns climate change likely to impede progress on global food security
PARIS, Dec. 2, 2015 — Climate change is likely to impede progress on reducing undernourishment around the world in the decades ahead, according to a major scientific assessment released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on global food security and its implications for the United States. The report, entitled Climate Change, Global Food Security and the U.S. Food System, identifies the risks that climate change poses to global food security and the challenges facing farmers and consumers in adapting to changing climate conditions. Secretary Vilsack released the report during the COP-21 Paris Climate Conference.
Earth has lost a third of arable land in past 40 years, scientists say. Experts point to damage caused by erosion and pollution, raising major concerns about degraded soil amid surging global demand for food.
The world has lost a third of its arable land due to erosion or pollution in the past 40 years, with potentially disastrous consequences as global demand for food soars, scientists have warned.
In the Amazon, the ‘world’s most endangered tribe’ has few options
The Awa tribe is caught between a diminishing forest and the dangers posed by the contemporary world. Photo: Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post
A grim bargain: Once a weakness, low-skilled workers who get paid little have become the Deep South’s strength
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Senate confirms Gayle E. Smith as head of USAID
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday voted to confirm Gayle E. Smith, a former national security aide to President Obama, to lead the United States Agency for International Development, the federal agency responsible for overseas humanitarian issues like feeding refugees, building clinics and distributing foreign aid.
Ready or not―drought tests Ethiopia
Herding weary sheep up a dusty path, Hussein Boru knows he won’t find green pastures. He’s just looking for the minimum to keep his flock fed in drought-hit eastern Ethiopia.
South Sudan food team finds risk of ‘widespread catastrophe’
South Sudan was plunged into a civil war in December 2013 when a political crisis triggered fighting between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels allied with his former deputy Riek Machar. The conflict has reopened ethnic faultlines that pit Kiir’s Dinka people against Machar’s ethnic Nuer people.
