Hurricane Fiona will set back efforts to restore Puerto Rico that date back five years to Hurricane Maria. Two scholars explain how the island’s weak institutions worsen the impacts of disasters.
A Puerto Rican man passes buildings for lease in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on May 16, 2017.
Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images
Puerto Rico has reached an agreement to partially settle its historic bankruptcy crisis. But public cuts to education and health care are unlikely to ease, creating ongoing challenges for Puerto Ricans
Three-year-old Ailianie Hernandez waits with her mother, Julianna Ageljo, to apply for Puerto Rico’s nutritional assistance program.
(AP Photo/Carlos Giusti
Trump has repeatedly misconstrued the territory as not being part of the United States. But it is.
U.S. President Donald Trump is seen visiting the California town of Paradise that was devastated by forest fires. Trump has threatened to use funds allocated for disaster relief to pay for his border wall.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Donald Trump has threatened to use funds allocated for disaster relief to fund his border wall. It’s time to rethink how we frame disasters to stop politicians from using them for political gain.
Some Puerto Ricans had to restore downed power lines themselves after Hurricane Maria.
Alvin Baez/Reuters
It’s been one year since a Category 4 storm turned Puerto Rico into a disaster zone. Today, nearly every pillar of society — including the economy, health care and schools — remains hobbled.
Corruption has made hurricane Caribbean countries’ recovery less efficient and more expensive, new research shows. Misuse of funds may also trigger more disaster-related deaths.
The Caribbean braces for another hurricane season even as many nations remain crippled by the catastrophic damage of 2017. Here, experts assess the region’s difficult and costly storm recovery.
Rising seas, harsher weather, rainier days. The impacts of climate change make it harder for Caribbean countries to plan their transition toward renewable energy sources.
Ricardo Rojas/Reuters
Masaō Ashtine, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus
The 2017 hurricane season showed that Caribbean nations urgently need more resilient power grids. But the effects of climate change – including more severe storms – complicate the shift to renewables.
Farmer-led development projects in places like Tanzania, shown here, can increase access to food and water, and reconnect people to nature.
(Cecilia Schubert/flickr)
Farmer-led development work can improve people’s lives, provide access to food and water - and re-connect them to nature.
Puerto Rico’s power utility, PREPA, has been decimated by years of scarcity and bad management. But will privatizing it really turn the lights back on for Puerto Ricans?
AP Photo/Carlos Giusti
Many Puerto Ricans are happy to see their broke power utility sold off to whoever can get the lights turned back on. But privatizing the island’s energy grid may bring more problems than relief.
Colin Kaepernick, centre, and his San Francisco teammates kneel during the national anthem before an NFL football game in 2016.
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
Much of the discussion about “Take a Knee” has overlooked the issues of justice and social exclusion, and especially environmental matters. That’s something to think about during the Super Bowl.
Though much of Puerto Rico remains devastated by Hurricane Maria, people are preparing to celebrate the holidays.
Lorie Shaull/flickr
It’s said Puerto Rico has the longest Christmas in the world, a noisy two-month celebration that goes through mid-January. Can the holidays still happen in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria?