Some farmers in Honduras are finding ways to successfully adapt to ... - NPR
Some farmers in Honduras are finding ways to successfully adapt to climate change : NPR
Some farmers in Honduras are finding ways to successfully adapt to climate change
In Central America, climate change is adding to the pressures that have pushed millions of people to migrate to the U.S. But some farmers in Honduras are successfully finding ways to adapt.
Since the start of 2021, U.S. immigration authorities have encountered more migrants from Honduras at the southern U.S. border than any country except Mexico, and climate change is one reason why.
That's apparent in the sudden devastation caused by two hurricanes that struck the country in late 2020, and also in the slow-moving catastrophe of erratic rainfall and drought that are undermining agriculture — a major blow for a country that historically relies on farming for subsistence.
Agriculture experts say farmers in Honduras will need to adapt to erratic rainfall patterns caused by climate change. That means a shift to new crops, new methods to conserve water, and more education about how to make it all work. But all of that requires investment, in a country that's one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.