“Poorer people are more susceptible to the destruction caused by hurricanes and flooding for a variety of reasons. The poor typically live in substandard housing that is more susceptible to damage from winds, heavy rain and floodwaters. Substandard or non-existent sewage facilities and lack of potable water in poor neighborhoods can result in greater exposure to water-borne diseases after flooding. Areas that are historically prone to flooding or mudslides are often inhabited by the poor.”

Warming in high mountain regions melts glaciers, snow and ice. This affects farming and the availability of water to coastal cities and tourist activities. Lima in Peru, for example, relies on glacial melt for its water supply. Glacial lake outbursts also pose a threat to lives and livelihoods. Glaciers are currently disappearing fastest in the Venezuelan, Colombian and Peruvian Andes.

Water: Around 35 per cent of the world’s freshwater is found in Latin America. Regardless of climate change, stress on water resources is set to increase because of rising human demand from growing populations and economic activity. Estimates of freshwater availability and the impacts of climate change in Mexico and South America over the next quarter of a century indicate that by 2025 about 70 per cent of the population will live in regions with low water supply.

Poverty: Projected changes in climate could increase the impacts of already serious chronic malnutrition and diseases affecting a large sector of the Latin American population. Climate change will also have major economic impacts on agriculture, fisheries, coral reefs, tourism, and water availability.

Health: Vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue and Chagas’ disease, as well as infectious diseases like cholera, are set to spread. Higher surface temperatures will worsen the effects of pollution and high concentrations of ground-level ozone, especially in urban areas. Wider impacts on access to food and to safe drinking water will interact with direct health impacts in a potentially lethal cocktail.

Churches point to a spiritual crisis regarding climate change

Andres Tamayo, a Catholic priest from Honduras and Director of the Environmental Movement of Olancho, was one of eight speakers from around the world to address the Global Warming 8. This was a counter-summit to the G8 meeting of world leaders in Edinburgh in July 2005, organised by the UK Working Group on Climate Change and Development.

When he spoke, he talked of the impact of deforestation and global warming on his region. “Our forests could play a part in climate change mitigation” he said, “but sadly, 64 per cent of them have been cleared in the last 30 years”. He said that areas with mild climates had become deserts. Springs had dried up, forcing entire communities to migrate. He said tropical storms are more frequent and more intense. “The temperature has risen 1.8–2°C in the last 50 years and there have been more forest fires as a result, which produce 25 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions from