Bob Dylan once wrote “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind -blows”. RS Metrics wasn’t around back then. Likewise, Satchel Paige, noted baseball pitcher, said “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” The corollary to that is: if you don’t look forward, something might whack you between the eyes.
That is where RS Metrics comes in on a global scale. In the span of three blogs, all focused on a different global region, I will be sharing my observations and thoughts on current climate struggles around the world and how we can be addressing them better. The second segment is focused on Central America.
The Central American region has been characterized as particularly vulnerable to the impacts of environmental and climate change. In the Dry Corridor, an arid space that occupies large portions of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, subsistence agriculture is regularly affected by drought.
South America faces many climate risks, including:
- Extreme weather: The region experiences more frequent and severe weather events, such as hurricanes, cyclones, floods, and droughts.
- Rising sea levels: The oceans surrounding South America are warming and becoming more acidic, while sea levels rise.
- Melting glaciers: The Andean glaciers are melting.
- Amazon wildfires: The Amazon rainforest is a vital carbon sink, but wildfires can release carbon into the atmosphere and reduce the number of trees that absorb carbon.
- Heatwaves: Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense, and can lead to more deaths, especially for vulnerable populations like newborns and the elderly.
- Infrastructure damage: Climate change can damage infrastructure, including hydropower plants.
- Disrupted food and water supplies: Climate change can disrupt the supply of clean water and food production
- Loss of biodiversity: Climate change can lead to the loss of biodiversity and natural ecosystems.
Although Latin America and the Caribbean only accounts for about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is disproportionately impacted by climate change. Climate risks are largely asymmetrical throughout the world. Wealth metrics seem not to have much of a bearing on climate.
Douglas (Doug) Friedenberg has specialized in global trade finance for many years through his company, Jigsaw Capital. Through client relationships on all continents, he is aware of the issues which data from RS Metrics helps to resolve: the need for global data which can enlighten climate awareness and augment response capabilities. Such data may help to leave a safer world for future generations. He hopes to assist in neutralizing this line from Macbeth: life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
