A new report by the World Bank shows that the effects of climate change could force 140 million people to move within their countries by 2050.

The report looked at three developing regions of the world — sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America — and found that unless urgent action is taken, the regions will likely have to deal with tens of millions of so-called climate migrants.

Climate migrants are people who are forced to move within their country because of water scarcity, crop failure, rising sea levels and storm surges due to climate change. 

The report shows that with strong global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and good development planning in each country, the number of climate migrants could be reduced dramatically — from a projected 140 million people to 40 million people by 2050.

“We have a small window now, before the effects of climate change deepen, to prepare the ground for this new reality,” World Bank chief executive officer Kristalina Georgieva said about the new research.

She said it is “important to help people make good decisions about whether to stay where they are or move to new locations where they are less vulnerable.”

The report noted that the effects of climate change will often force people to move from rural areas suffering from droughts or crop failures to cities where there are different opportunities. However, it noted that cities must take the time to plan for the possibility for greater influxes of people.

“Without the right planning and support, people migrating from rural areas into cities could be facing new and even more dangerous risks,” said Kanta Kumari Rigaud, the report’s team lead. 

“We could see increased tensions and conflict as a result of pressure on scarce resources,” Rigaud added.

The report recommends key actions to help prevent wide-scale climate migration: cutting global greenhouse gas emissions; improving development planning at the local level for climate migration; and investing in data to better understand climate migration trends in each country.

The report notes that any upsurge in climate migration will be in addition to millions of other migrants within countries, moving for economic, social, political or other reasons. 
…

India is the most vulnerable country to climate change, followed by Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh, a ranking by HSBC showed on Monday.

The bank assessed 67 developed, emerging and frontier markets on vulnerability to the physical impacts of climate change, sensitivity to extreme weather events, exposure to energy transition risks and ability to respond to climate change.

The 67 nations represent almost a third of the world’s nation states, 80 percent of the global population and 94 percent of global gross domestic product.

HSBC averaged the scores in each area for the countries in order to reach the overall ranking. Some countries were highly vulnerable in some areas but less so in others.

Of the four nations assessed by HSBC to be most vulnerable, India has said climate change could cut agricultural incomes, particularly unirrigated areas that would be hit hardest by rising temperatures and declines in rainfall.

Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines are susceptible to extreme weather events, such as storms and flooding.

Pakistan was ranked by HSBC among nations least well-equipped to respond to climate risks.

South and southeast Asian countries accounted for half of the 10 most vulnerable countries. Oman, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Mexico, Kenya and South Africa are also in this group.

The five countries least vulnerable to climate change risk are Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and New Zealand.

In its last ranking in 2016, HSBC only assessed G20 countries for vulnerability to climate risk.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his long-awaited plan to combat the nation’s opioid addiction crisis on Monday.

 

In a speech at an event in Manchester, N.H., Trump vowed to help create “a generation of drug-free children” saying, “together, we will end the scourge of drug addiction in America once and for all.”  

 

Trump said in order to win, it is important to “get tough” with drug dealers.

“If we don’t get tough on the drug dealers, we are wasting our time. And that toughness includes the death penalty,” he said, to which the audience responded with applause.

Trump lamented that under the current law, a dealer could sell a drug that could kill thousands during their lifetime but only receive a short prison sentence.

“This is about winning a very, very tough problem. If we don’t get very tough on these dealers, it’s not going happen,” Trump warned.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned that the president’s proposals need funding or they will end up being “more broken promises from the Trump administration.”

“President Trump’s budget called for staggering cuts to Medicaid, CDC, and mental health and substance abuse funding that is essential to helping families afford treatment and overcome the tragedy of opioid addiction,” she said.  “He has worked to destroy the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and allow the sale of junk health insurance plans that do not cover substance abuse treatment.  And now, President Trump darkly flirts with imposing the death penalty for drug crimes.”

Andrew Bremberg, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters on Sunday that capital punishment would be sought against drug traffickers when appropriate under current law.

 

When asked to give examples, Bremberg told reporters to refer to the Justice Department for “specific legal analysis,” but added, “Obviously there are instances where that would be appropriate.”

 

It remains unclear how prosecutors could seek the death penalty for traffickers without changing U.S. law. Some legal scholars have said the issue may need to be decided by the Supreme Court.

 

Trump explained the first part of his plan to combat the opioid crisis aims to reduce drug demand by preventing Americans from becoming addicted in the first place. That includes increasing federal funding for the development of non-addictive painkillers, a commercial campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of opioid misuse, and addressing the problem in overprescribing. The plan hopes to cut nationwide opioid prescriptions by one-third over the next three years.

 

The second part of the initiative targets the supply of illicit drugs across U.S. borders and within American communities. Trump told the audience that the nation needs a stronger southern border and a crackdown on sanctuary cities that he said supply drugs to the nation’s heartland.

  

The third element focuses on helping people in the throes of addiction by expanding evidence-based addiction treatment and recovery services.

In recent speeches, Trump has expressed his preference for the “ultimate penalty” for some traffickers, but this would be the first time the idea became part of an official plan.

“Some countries have a very, very tough penalty. The ultimate penalty. And by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do. So, we’re going to have to be very strong on penalties,” he said earlier this month at a White House opioid summit.

This is Trump’s first visit to New Hampshire as president. The state has been hit hard by the opioid crisis with the nation’s third-highest rate of deaths from overdoses.

Opioids include illegal drugs such as heroin or fentanyl, as well as legal prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine and morphine.

Every day, 116 Americans die from opioid-related overdoses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdoses killed roughly 64,000 Americans in 2016 alone, more than the number of Americans killed during the Vietnam War. About two-thirds of these drug deaths involved an opioid.
…

Two vaccination workers were killed and two were seriously wounded, officials said 

Militants ambushed a polio vaccination team in a remote tribal region in Pakistan, killing two of the medical workers and seriously wounding another two, officials said Sunday.

The gunmen also attacked tribal police and the paramilitary Frontier Corps when they responded to the attack late Saturday, killing one paramilitary and wounding another.

Polio workers have come under attack on several occasions since it was revealed that the CIA used a polio vaccination campaign as a ruse to get information on Osama bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. commandos in Pakistan in 2011.Those revelations fed into claims by Islamic extremists that the vaccinations are part of a Western plot against Muslims.

Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where polio is still endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.

 

An official in Pakistan’s restive Mohmand Agency, Younus Khan, said two workers from the seven-member polio vaccination team went missing after the attack but later returned unharmed. He says security forces are still searching for the attackers.

 

Jamaatul Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed the attack.

 

Khan said the bodies of the polio workers were handed over to relatives and their funeral will take place later in the day.

 

Provincial Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra condemned the attack, calling the polio workers heroes.
…

Visiting the doctor to get your blood pressure checked might be stressful and time consuming, but what if you could get a check-up at your regular barbershop instead? That’s the idea behind a recent study in Los Angeles, where pharmacists are working with 52 barbershops to try to help African-American men, who have higher rates of high blood pressure than other ethnic groups. Faiza Elmasry has the story, narrated by Faith Lapidus.
…

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports a major breakthrough in efforts to contain South Africa’s longest and largest recorded listeria outbreak.

The current outbreak of listeriosis in South Africa began more than one year ago in January 2017. As of March 12, the WHO has recorded 978 lab-confirmed cases of this foodborne disease, including 183 deaths.

WHO food safety expert Peter Ben Embarek says it is very difficult to investigate outbreaks of listeriosis because the disease has a very long incubation period. He says it can take several weeks before people show any symptoms, get sick and are hospitalized.

“Two weeks ago, food was identified as the primary source of this large outbreak. It is a meat, ready-to-eat meat product, a type of sausage very commonly consumed in South Africa and in the region – Polony product. Since then, recall of the incriminated product has been initiated both in South Africa, but also in 15 countries that have imported this product from South Africa,” he said.

Embarek said the WHO is facilitating the exchange of information between South Africa and countries who have imported this contaminated product. He says it is important to recall the sausage and remove it from the shelves to prevent further cases from occurring.  

Now that the source of this foodborne disease has been identified, he told VOA he expects the number of new cases to quickly drop.

“With regard to the case fatality rate in this outbreak, among the cases where they have been able to follow them and see the outcome of their disease, it is about 27 percent. And it is within the norms. Listeriosis outbreak has a case fatality rate of between 20 and 30 percent. It is a very severe foodborne disease” he said.  

Embarek said listeriosis can be effectively treated with antibiotics if caught promptly, particularly in the case of high-risk populations, such as newborn babies, pregnant women and the elderly.  

He says the WHO is not recommending any restrictions on travel or trade.

 
…