Peace Corps and climate change

Dominica Peace Corps sign after hurricane Maria
This will be the first of several posts related to climate change and the impact on Peace Corps and their host countries. Peace Corps and Peace Corps volunteers have chosen to work with developing countries. Many of these counties have recently been harmed by weather events significantly influenced by global warming. Riding out one of the fastest growing Atlantic hurricanes that ran directly over Dominica as a category 5 was a dramatic example. How can Dominica survive as a viable nation if increased storms like Erica and Maria become more common?

Some of the damage to the capital after the hurricane

Cleanup operations included all ages
My house suffered after Maria

But not as much as my school
I also saw changes to the critical rainfall in the Upper West of Ghana that impacted building projects in the dry season and yields of life giving crops in the rainy season. These people are strong, smart, and adaptive but will future disruptions of limited rains force most to face starvation or environmental migration away from their ancestral homeland?

Mud bricks lost due to an unusual heavy rain late in the dry season means everything has to start over
If a building can't get built in the dry season then it will have to wait for the next dry season

But at least the building hadn't started yet - this one required significant removal of damaged bricks

This kid is responsible for cultivating the area so to help feed his family.

Family are forced to farm some distance from their homes and bring back food for storage and use
So, two of the communities that I’ve served clearly have already been negatively impacted by climate change. The survival of the communities might be questionable as climate change progresses past tipping points. All Caribbean nations, all Pacific island nations, along with many African nations and others around the planet currently served by Peace Corps are already suffering from extreme weather events. What is Peace Corps doing about this?

And of course between massive fires, polar vortex storms, record precipitation, tornadoes, and other extreme weather events plague every country, even industrial countries like the US. Every country, every person on the planet will feel the “heat” of global warming more clearly, more directly, more severely and much sooner than many thought possible.

I have children and grandchildren. I want them to have as much a chance as I had for a comfortable life. I also want to see unicorns fly over rainbows.

My grandchildren and the kids around the world have a very serious chance of not having much of a chance at a very comfortable and long life. I want to be able to look them in the face and say that I saw the danger coming and tried to do something.

 
 
Peace Corps

I think as programs come up for review Peace Corps Posts should seriously evaluate the 5 to 10 year risks to our host countries that are increasing with increasing global warming. I think programs have to face reality that some of our countries are running out of time. Peace Corps can’t solve the problem, but we can help out host countries better adapt by adapting our sectors and programs in collaboration with our host counties who definitely see the problem.

I also think Peace Corps volunteers should consider secondary projects related to climate change during their service.

Basic education can be helpful. I believe people deserve to know the truth about the changes to weather events that might happen in the next 5 to 10 years. These are risks that will directly impact their lives, are already impacting their lives. Some regions might have more time to adjust. However, this is no longer business as usual in many of our communities, particularly in countries at the front lines of climate change.

I think it is more appropriate in many of our communities and host countries to consider projects related to how families and communities can thrive (at least be resilient) in the short and long term faced with dramatically changing weather related to global warming. Many of our common projects such as empowering women and girls, food security (permaculture and no-till projects), and others already improve resiliency and reduce the level of atmospheric CO2 as a bonus. (See drawdown.org)

If I was in a high emitting country I might stress ways to address the problem directly and reverse the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Political action, changing consumption patterns, financial decisions and the like are ways to make major change in such places like the US. We might not be doomed if the people if the big emitting countries change business as usual.

In future posts I hope to provide more detail related to resiliency in food, water, energy, and communication for individual households and communities. Disaster planning and disaster response could also be improved in many communities and countries, such as island nations facing increase threats of major hurricanes.

I’m not saying I have the answers. As with anything a Peace Corps volunteer does - the cookie cutter has to be bent, mashed, or thrown away in the face of site specific conditions. I’m saying we Peace Corps volunteers always make a difference and we can make a bigger difference with the biggest issue facing our planet.

There are a great many people working on the problem and a great number of solutions – practical and economical projects that can be implemented in our community will little to no external support.

These solutions, in many cases, will also help pull CO2 from the atmosphere or prevent it from being release. It might not be much at our scale, but still beneficial.  For example something like biochar not only keeps CO2 out of the atmosphere/oceans, but also improves crop yield.

I am encouraging other Peace Corps volunteers to get educated on the subject. And of course, I encourage everyone, even those who might not recognize the threat, to get educated. And after getting educated please figure out what you can do so we can all make the world better than it might be for current and future generations. Our children around the world would like to have a livable world when they are ready to have kids.

My grandkids driving a carbon neutral vehicle.


Love always,
John

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