The Boston Globe - 08.08.2019

A6 TheWorld The Boston Globe THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019

By Christopher Flavelle
NEW YORK TIMES
The world’s land and water
resources are being exploited at
“unprecedented rates,” a new
United Nations report warns,
which combined with climate
change is putting dire pressure
on the ability of humanity to
feed itself.
The report, prepared by more
than 100 experts from 52 coun-

tries and released in summary

form in Geneva Thursday, found

that the window to address the

threat is closing rapidly. A half-

billion people already live in

places turning into desert, and

soil is being lost between 10 and

100 times faster than it is form-

ing, the report said.

Climate change will make

those threats even worse, as

floods, drought, storms, and

other types of extreme weather

threaten to disrupt, and over

time shrink, the global food

supply. More than 10 percent of

the world’s population remains

undernourished, and some au-

thors of the report warned in

interviews that food shortages

could lead to an increase in

cross-border migration.

A particular danger is that

food crises could develop on

several continents at once, said

Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior

research scientist at the NASA

Goddard Institute for Space

Studies and one of the lead au-

thors of the report. “The poten-

tial risk of multi-breadbasket

failure is increasing,” she said.

“All of these things are happen-

ing at the same time.”

The report also offered a

measure of hope, laying out

pathways to addressing the

looming food crisis, though

they would require a major re-

evaluation of land use and agri-

culture worldwide as well as

consumer behavior. Proposals

include increasing the produc-

tivity of land, wasting less food,

and persuading more people to

shift their diets away from cat-

tle and other types of meat.

“One of the important find-

ings of our work is that there

are a lot of actions that we can

take now. They’re available to

us,” Rosenzweig said. “But what

some of these solutions do re-

quire is attention, financial sup-

port, enabling environments.”

The summary was released

by the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change, a group of

scientists convened by the Unit-

ed Nations that pulls together a

wide range of existing research

to help governments under-

stand climate change and make

policy decisions.

Some authors also suggested

food shortages are likely to af-

fect poorer parts of the world

far more than richer ones. That

could increase a flow of immi-

gration that is already redefin-

ing politics in North America

and Europe.

“People’s lives will be affect-

ed by a massive pressure for mi-

gration,” said Pete Smith, a pro-

fessor of plant and soil science

at the University of Aberdeen

and one of the report’s lead au-

thors. “People don’t stay and

die where they are. People mi-

grate.”

Between 2010 and 2015 the

number of migrants from El

Salvador, Guatemala, and Hon-

duras showing up at the United

States’ border with Mexico in-

creased fivefold, coinciding

with a dry period that left many

with not enough food and was

so unusual that scientists sug-

gested it bears the signal of cli-

mate change.

Barring action on a sweep-

ing scale, the report said, cli-

mate change will accelerate the

danger of severe food shortag-

es. As a warming atmosphere

intensifies the world’s

droughts, flooding, heat waves,

wildfires, and other weather

patterns, it is speeding up the

rate of soil loss and land degra-

dation, the report concludes.

By Austin Ramzy

and Tiffany May

NEW YORK TIMES

HONG KONG — A top Chi-

nese official overseeing Hong

Kong affairs said Wednesday

that the city was experiencing

its worst crisis since the former

British colony returned to Chi-

na in 1997, as near-daily anti-

government protests continued

with little sign of easing.

The “turmoil” in Hong Kong

“has been going on for 60 days

straight, getting bigger and big-

ger,” said the official, Zhang Xi-

aoming, director of the Hong

Kong and Macao Affairs Office.

“The violence is getting more

and more intense, impacting an

increasingly wide part of the so-

ciety. It can be said that Hong

Kong is facing the most serious

situation since its return.”

Zhang spoke at the opening

of a forum in Shenzhen, a main-

land city next to Hong Kong, to

an audience of about 500 mem-

bers of the Hong Kong estab-

lishment, including representa-

tives to China’s congress and a

national consultative body.

Weeks of demonstrations

reached a high point with a

general strike Monday, when

protesters blocked trains and

roadways. Union officials esti-

mate 350,000 people stayed

home, including aviation work-

ers, leading to more than 200

canceled flights at the airport.

The day ended with mass

protests across the city. Police

fired 800 canisters of tear gas,

approaching the total of 1,

canisters fired over the previ-

ous eight weeks.

On Tuesday, a spokesman

from Zhang’s office issued the

central government’s sternest

condemnation to date on Hong

Kong, saying that the protesters

“are extremely rampant and de-

ranged,”andthata“blowfrom

the sword of law is waiting for

them in the future.”

Zhang struck a more mea-

sured tone in his comments

Wednesday, describing the

meetings as an opportunity to

hear from the people of the city

so“thecentralgovernmentcan

make decisions that are closer

to Hong Kong society.” After his

introduction, reporters were

asked to leave and the meetings

continued behind closed doors.

The event was the first such

joint meeting of the Hong Kong

andMacaoAffairsOffice,a

mainland agency, and the Chi-

nese government’s representa-

tive office in Hong Kong since

the 2014 Umbrella Movement,

when prodemocracy protesters

occupied parts of the city for

nearly three months.

Michael Tien, an establish-

ment lawmaker, said he used

the session to propose an inde-

pendent probe into the crisis

and a full withdrawal of the ex-

tradition bill that set off the

protests earlier this year, two

key demands from protesters.

“We need to be concerned

about the future generations if

we do not handle this particu-

lar incident carefully,” he said.

“By that I mean a high-level

committee of inquiry to look at

all the background of this, not

just the police but also the pro-

testers, the allegations about

foreign government involve-

ment, and where the money

comes from. There are many as-

pects to it.”

The legislation, which the

government suspended in June,

would allow the extradition of

suspects to mainland China.

Many people feared it would ex-

pose Hong Kong residents to a

judicial system controlled by

the Communist Party, and was

anotherstepintheerosionof

civil liberties in Hong Kong.

Tien was the first pro-Bei-

jing politician to suggest a sus-

pension of the bill.

By Carlotta Gall

NEW YORK TIMES

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — The

United States and Turkey

agreed on Wednesday to create

a safe zone in northeastern Syr-

ia that would allow Turkey to

protect its borders from Syri-

an-Kurdish forces that it re-

gards as a terrorist threat and

provide Syrian refugees in Tur-

key a safe space to return

home.

Defense officials from both

countries issued separate but

similar statements after three

days of talks in Ankara, the

Turkish capital. The state-

ments gave no details on the

size of the zone or how it will

be policed, which may still be

undecided, but the agreement

was presented by Turkey as a

meeting of its demands.

Turkey’s defense minister,

Hulusi Akar, told Turkish me-

dia outlets on Wednesday

morning that the discussions

were “fairly positive.”

“We gladly observed our in-

terlocutors coming closer to

our views,” the NTV television

channel quoted him as saying.

President Recep Tayyip Er-

dogan of Turkey had threat-

ened a military incursion into

northeastern Syria to secure

the border region from Syrian-

Kurdish forces. Turkey regards

those forces as a threat because

of their links to the PKK, which

is waging an insurgency in Tur-

key. Turkey and the United

States have labeled the PKK a

terrorist organization.

Erdogan had also proposed

a safe zone under Turkish con-

trol to allow many of the Syrian

refugees in Turkey an area

within Syria that would be free

of Syrian government control.

The United States, which

has military forces in the area

and cooperates with the Syri-

an-Kurdish forces, or SDF, in

operations combating the Is-

lamic State, has warned Turkey

against taking any unilateral

action in the region.

Discussions have been fo-

cused on the SDF pulling its

forces and weaponry away

from the border area and on

the size of the safe zone. The

United States has preferred a

zone that is just a few miles

wide, whereas Turkey has

sought a corridor along its bor-

der as deep as 20 miles.

The agreement announced

on Wednesday appeared to be

aimed only at ensuring that

Turkish and American forces,

who are NATO allies, do not

come into conflict.

The delegations agreed on

“the rapid implementation of

initial measures to address

Turkey’s security concerns,”

and to create a joint operations

center in Turkey “to coordinate

and manage the establishment

of the safe zone,” according to a

statement by the US Embassy

in Ankara.

Turkey and US agree on Syria peace corridor

Climatechangethreatens

world’sfoodsupply,UNsays

Degradedsoil,

droughtswould

increasemigrants

BILLY H.C. KWOK/GETTY IMAGES

Protesters in Hong Kong used laser beams for effect during a demonstration Wednesday.

Chinese official calls turmoil

worst since colony’s handover

Littleletupseen

inHongKongas

protestscontinue

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