15
NEWS
TICKER
Trump okays
drilling in
Arctic wildlife
refuge
On Nov. 16, the
Trump Administration
announced it would
begin the process
of selling leases for
roughly 1.5 million
acres of Alaska’s
Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to oil and gas
companies for drilling,
though it’s unclear if
sales can be completed
before President-elect
Joe Biden takes office.
Ethiopia faces
humanitarian
crisis
At least 27,000 people
have fled Ethiopia
for Sudan, the U.N.
said on Nov. 17, after
the Ethiopian army
attacked the restive
Tigray region. Some
analysts fear the
crisis in Ethiopia, with
112 million people
belonging to many
ethnic groups, could
cause balkanization or
a civil war.
Amazon
launches
pharmacy
E-commerce giant
Amazon debuted its
online pharmacy on
Nov. 17 in what could
be a major disruption
to the pharmaceutical
sales industry. Cus-
tomers can now order
and refill medications
online, although they
still need prescriptions,
and have orders deliv-
ered directly to their
home within days.
For Central ameriCa, this year’s
storm season has been relentless. Already
struggling under the economic toll of
COVID-19, the developing region was bat-
tered by Hurricane Eta in early Novem-
ber and had little time to regroup before
Hurricane Iota—the 30th named storm
in a record- breaking hurricane season
in the Atlantic—made landfall in Nica-
ragua on Nov. 16. “We in Central Amer-
ica aren’t the ones who caused climate
change,” Honduran President Juan Orlando
Hernández said as Iota hit. “But we are
[among] the most affected.
DEVASTATION Eta killed some 150 people
and forced 300,000 to flee their homes as
floods and mudslides swallowed up entire
towns across Guatemala, Honduras and be-
yond. The devastated communities faced
strong winds and up to 30 in. of rain, and
relief agencies say crowding in shelters, and
cuts to water and power supplies, could
trigger spikes in COVID-19 cases.
RECORD STORMS Neither Eta nor Iota has
been as devastating as Central America’s
Hurricane Mitch, which killed 11,000 peo-
ple in 1998. But we may now be entering an
era when very deadly storms are no longer
once-in-a- generation events. Meteorologists
tracked more hurricanes in the Atlantic this
season than ever before, and though no one
storm can be blamed on climate change, sci-
entists agree that a warming planet makes
weather patterns more destructive.
CLIMATE AID The region’s Presidents said
they would work together to pressure richer
countries to quickly release aid via regional
development banks. “Countries that have
recognized they are the main drivers of cli-
mate change have the money available,”
Hernández said, “but it’s extremely difficult
for us to access it.” With the U.N.’s climate
fund for developing countries drastically
underfunded and extreme weather becom-
ing more common, it’s an argument we’ll be
hearing a lot. —Ciara nugent
THE BULLETIN
Hurricane season is the latest
climate threat facing Central America
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER PRESIDENT Peru’s Congress voted on Nov. 9 to impeach President
Martín Vizcarra over corruption allegations. His replacement resigned after five days, following
deaths among demonstrators who accused lawmakers—half of whom are themselves under
investigation for graft—of a “parliamentary coup.” The week’s third President, Francisco Sagasti,
took office on Nov. 17. Elections are slated for spring.