Gracefully rising above a din of croaking frogs as the sun sets, a pelican flies over Lake Karla, one the largest inland expanses of water in Greece.
Drained in 1962 to combat malaria and restored again from valley to wetlands in 2018 to remedy drought, the lake is now triple its normal size after deadly floods last year.
How to deal with the aftermath of the disaster has morphed into a debate about the future of farming in the Thessaly region as a whole.
The farmers around Karla, many the descendants of lake people who had transitioned to land only two generations earlier, saw their holdings and flocks decimated by last year’s floods.
In September, Storm Daniel, a Mediterranean cyclone of unprecedented intensity, unleashed months’ worth of rain in just hours on Thessaly, Greece’s most fertile plain.
The deluge, which killed 17 people, destroyed roads and bridges and drowned tens of thousands of farm animals.
Daniel, which arrived on the heels of a major wildfire wave, was followed just weeks later by Storm Elias. Combined, they triggered what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis later called “the worst floods” in Greek history.
The lakeside village of Sotirio, once bordered by fields of corn and cotton, now lies at the edge of a swamp. Dark green water buzzing with insects covers the fields. Even where the flood has receded, only silt and withered stems remain.
Angelos Yamalis, a third-generation farmer, said his family lost 50 hectares (120 acres) of cotton, 30 hectares of wheat and 15 hectares of pistachio trees.
“It was a complete disaster … Even after the water recedes, we don’t know if the fields will be productive,” said the 25-year-old.
“We based our entire future on this area, on these crops,” Yamalis said, adding that new trees would need at least seven years to bear fruit.
Officials have not provided a timeframe for recovery and there are conflicting views on how to move forward. The authorities in Thessaly favour digging a large canal that would let the water drain into the Aegean Sea.
But a Dutch water management company advising the Greek government advocates a different approach, aimed not just at stemming floods but also at preventing future drought.
The firm, HVA International, suggests building dozens of small dams that would contain rainwater in the mountains.
Thessaly also needs to rethink its reliance on cotton, said Miltiadis Gkouzouris, CEO of the Amsterdam-based firm. The region needs to move away from cotton production while there is still time to conserve what remains of its underground water reserves, he said.
Greece is the European Union’s main cotton grower, with 80 percent of production. Although cotton represents less than 0.2 percent of the value of European agricultural production, it has “strong regional importance”, the EU says.
Gkouzouris countered that cotton cultivation “on its own is not profitable and everybody knows that”.
“We calculate that if that continues with the rhythm that we have today, within 15 years we’re going to have a non-reversible situation,” he said.
Thessaly’s Governor Dimitris Kouretas is against ditching cotton, still a lucrative industry for residents.
Kouretas, a Harvard University-educated biochemistry professor who was elected governor in October, has argued that cotton brings 210 million euros ($227m) in revenue to 15,000 families in Thessaly and is a key export for Greece. An additional 65 million euros comes in EU subsidies.
European climate agency says ocean surface temperature also reached new record raising risk of extreme weather.
The world just experienced its warmest March on record, the 10th straight month of historic heat, as sea surface temperatures also hit a new high, according to Europe’s climate monitoring agency.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Tuesday that March averaged 14.14 degrees Celsius (57.9 degrees Fahrenheit), exceeding the previous record from 2016 by a 10th of a degree. The month was also 1.68C (35F) hotter than an average March between the years 1850-1900, the reference period for the pre-industrial era.
Vast tracts of the planet from parts of Africa to Greenland and South America to Antarctica endured above-average temperatures during the month.
It was not only the 10th consecutive month to break its own heat record but also marked the hottest 12-month period ever recorded – 1.58C (34.8F) above pre-industrial averages.
The primary cause of the heat was greenhouse gas emissions fuelled by human activity, C3S said.
“It’s the long-term trend with exceptional records that has us very concerned,” C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said.
“Seeing records like this – month in, month out – really shows us that our climate is changing, is changing rapidly,” she added.
While the temperatures do not mean the 1.5C (2.7 Fahrenheit) limit agreed on by world leaders in Paris in 2015 has been breached, “the reality is that we’re extraordinarily close, and already on borrowed time”, Burgess said.
Already, 2023 was the planet’s hottest year in global records going back to 1850.
The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that the world will probably breach 1.5C in the early 2030s. The target is measured in decades rather than individual years.
Hotter seas, wilder weather
Ocean surface temperatures also set a new global record in March, even as an El Nino, a climatic condition that warms the central Pacific and changes global weather patterns, began to wane.
The global sea surface temperature averaged 21.07C (69.93F) during the month, the highest monthly value on record and slightly higher than what was recorded in February, C3S said.
Oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and help keep the climate liveable by absorbing 90 percent of the excess heat resulting from carbon dioxide and methane emissions produced by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.
“The trajectory will not change until concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop rising,” Woodwell Climate Research Center scientist Jennifer Francis told the Associated Press news agency, “which means we must stop burning fossil fuels, stop deforestation, and grow our food more sustainably as quickly as possible”.
Hotter seas produce more moisture in the atmosphere, leading to increasingly erratic weather, including strong winds and heavy rain.
Russia is currently reeling from some of its worst flooding in decades while parts of Australia, Brazil and France also experienced an exceptionally wet March.
Hotter seas also increase the danger of mass coral bleaching events, with marine scientists warning last month that a mass bleaching was already unfolding in the Southern Hemisphere and could be the worst in the planet’s history.
The demonstration was organised to protest against fossil fuel subsidies in the Netherlands.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg was detained twice by police at a demonstration in the Netherlands, after she and a group of marchers blocked a main road to protest against fossil fuel subsidies.
Thunberg was initially detained by local police and held for a short time on Saturday along with other protesters who tried to block a major highway into The Hague.
After being released, she quickly rejoined a small group of protesters who were blocking a different road leading to the railway station. There, she was detained a second time and driven off in a police van.
Thunberg had joined hundreds of protesters on a march from The Hague’s city centre to the nearby A12 arterial highway that connects the seat of the Dutch government with other cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht.
The march was organised by the Extinction Rebellion (XR) environmental group and was part of a plan to pressure the Dutch government in the run-up to another planned debate about fossil subsidies in June.
Veel van onze rebellen zijn gearresteerd (sommigen meermaals). Een paar rebellen zitten nog vast en we hopen dat ze snel vrij komen. Wij geven ons niet gewonnen.
— Extinction Rebellion Nederland (@NLRebellion) April 6, 2024
Dozens of police officers, including some on horseback, blocked the group from accessing the motorway, warning that “violence could be used” should the marchers try to get onto the road.
Carrying XR flags and placards saying, “Stop fuel subsidies now!” and chanting “The planet is dying!”, protesters were then locked in a tense standoff with police who formed a wall.
‘Planetary emergency’
Before she was arrested and dragged away by police, Thunberg joined in with the chants and slogans.
She told journalists she was protesting because the world is facing an existential crisis.
“We are in a planetary emergency and we are not going to stand by and let people lose their lives and livelihood and be forced to become climate refugees when we can do something,” she said.
In recent months, the A12 road has been blocked for several hours dozens of times by activists demanding an end to all subsidies for the use of fossil fuels.
At previous protests, police drove detained protesters to another part of town, where they were released without further consequences.
De nieuwe blokkade is door arrestaties beëindigd. #GretaThunberg werd er als bijna eerste eruit gehaald en apart vastgezet, terwijl bijna alle anderen in een stadsbus zijn gezet en meteen weer vrijgelaten. https://t.co/Y7UdsBDwPNpic.twitter.com/izizqNpxnh
— Extinction Rebellion Nederland (@NLRebellion) April 6, 2024
After Saturday’s protest, local police would not comment on individual cases but said everyone who tried to block roads was detained.
Police spokesperson Marieke Maas added that they could not say how many people were arrested.
Thunberg told the Netherlands’s ANP national news agency by telephone that her arrest had proceeded “calmly”.
“It’s not about the arrest. I am here for the climate,” she added.
Long the world’s undisputed cocoa powerhouses, accounting for more than 60 percent of global supply, Ghana and its West African neighbour Ivory Coast are both facing catastrophic harvests this season.
Expectations of shortages of cocoa beans – the raw material for chocolate – have seen New York cocoa futures more than double this year alone. They have hit new record highs almost daily in an unprecedented trend that shows little sign of abating.
More than 20 farmers, experts and industry insiders told the Reuters news agency that a perfect storm of rampant illegal gold mining, climate change, sector mismanagement and rapidly spreading disease is to blame.
In its most sobering assessment to date, according to data compiled since 2018 and obtained by Reuters, Ghana’s cocoa marketing board Cocobod estimates that 590,000 hectares (1.45 million acres) of plantations have been infected with swollen shoot, a virus that will ultimately kill them.
Ghana today has some 1.38 million hectares (3.41 million acres) of land under cocoa cultivation, a figure Cocobod said includes infected trees that are still producing cocoa.
“Production is in long-term decline,” said Steve Wateridge, a cocoa expert with Tropical Research Services. “We wouldn’t get the lowest crop for 20 years in Ghana and lowest for eight years in Ivory Coast, if we hadn’t reached a tipping point.”
It is an imbroglio with no easy fixes that has shocked markets and could spell the beginning of the end of West Africa’s cocoa supremacy, the experts told Reuters. That may open the door for ascendant producers, particularly in Latin America.
And while millions of cocoa farmers in West Africa are facing a painful watershed moment, it is a shift that will also be felt in wealthy consumer markets, possibly for years to come.
Shoppers buying Easter confections in the United States are discovering that chocolate on store shelves is more than 10 percent more expensive than a year ago, according to data from research firm NielsenIQ.
Since chocolate-makers tend to hedge cocoa purchases months in advance, analysts have said the disastrous crops in West Africa will only really hit consumers later this year.
“The kind of chocolate bar that we’re used to eating, that’s going to become a luxury,” said Tedd George, an Africa-focused commodities expert with Kleos Advisory. “It will be available, but it’s going to be twice as expensive.”
A heatwave stifling Brazil has set new records with Rio de Janeiro’s heat index hitting 62.3 degrees Celsius (144.1 degrees Fahrenheit), the highest in a decade, weather authorities say.
The heat index measures what a temperature feels like by taking into account humidity. The actual maximum temperature in the city was 42C on Monday, the Rio Alert weather system said.
The 62.3C record was notched in western Rio at 09:55am (12:55 GMT) on Sunday, and was the “highest mark” since Alerta Rio began keeping such records in 2014.
The Ipanema and Copacabana beaches were packed with people as authorities published tips on coping with the heat.
“I am very afraid it will get worse because the population is increasing a lot and deforestation is very high due to the increase in housing,” 49-year-old administrative assistant Raquel Correia lamented in a park in central Rio.
The previous heat index record was set in November when it hit 59.7C (139.5F).
Meanwhile, extreme rains were wreaking havoc in the south of the country and are forecast to continue next week, according to authorities.
“The week will be of very high risk in the centre-south of Brazil due to intense rains and storms. The most worrisome system is a very intense cold front that will arrive with torrential rains and possible gales,” the weather information agency MetSul warned.
People and Power travels to Zambia to investigate one of the world’s worst ‘sacrifice zones’.
Around the world, tens of millions of people live in so-called “sacrifice zones”, areas which have become permanently impaired by environmental degradation, mostly due to pollution from heavy industry. One of the worst such sacrifice zones is in Kabwe, Zambia.
Here, 220,000 residents live close to an old lead and zinc mine which operated for almost a century. Although the mine closed in 1994, many residents say their children are now suffering from the effects of lead poisoning, and are seeking compensation.
One by one, the crate doors swing open and five Arctic foxes bound off into the snowy landscape.
But in the wilds of southern Norway, the newly freed foxes may struggle to find enough to eat, as the effects of climate change make the foxes’ traditional rodent prey more scarce.
In Hardangervidda National Park, where the foxes have been released, there has not been a good lemming year since 2021, conservationists said.
That is why scientists breeding the foxes in captivity have also been maintaining more than 30 feeding stations stocked with dog food kibble across the alpine wilderness – a rare and controversial step in conservation circles.
“If the food is not there for them, what do you do?” asked conservation biologist Craig Jackson of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, which has been managing the fox programme on behalf of the country’s environment agency.
That question will become increasingly urgent as climate change and habitat loss push thousands of the world’s species to the edge of survival, disrupting food chains and leaving some animals to starve.
While some scientists have said it is inevitable that more feeding programmes to prevent extinctions will become necessary, others have questioned whether it makes sense to support animals in landscapes that can no longer sustain them.
As part of the state-sponsored programme to restore Arctic foxes, Norway has been feeding the population for nearly 20 years, at an annual cost of about 3.1 million Norwegian krone ($293,000) and it has no plans to stop anytime soon.
Since 2006, the programme has helped to boost the fox population from as few as 40 in Norway, Finland, and Sweden, to about 550 across the Scandinavian Peninsula today.
In 1950, Roald Dahl wrote a short story titled Poison. The tale, set in colonial India and often found in deckle-edged children’s anthologies, tells a riveting story about racism.
In the story, a striped snake called a common krait slithers on the stomach of one of the main characters. The journey to save the character from the krait’s bite brings the plot to a panicky crescendo, to reveal that the poison was racism all along.
The krait possibly worked as an excellent metaphor because the fear of poisonous snakes is very real and pervasive in India, among other South Asian countries including Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Hence, snakes have slithered their way into folklore, pop culture and media, but incidents of venomous bites may also be rising.
The World Health Organization estimates that 5.4 million people worldwide are bitten by snakes each year – half of those by venomous snakes, causing 100,000 deaths.
Snakebites in South Asia contribute to almost 70 percent of these deaths. Research from India alone indicates that 58,000 deaths result from about one million cases of snakebite envenoming there each year, the WHO said. Worryingly, this is likely to rise. A 2018 study from the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka also concluded that climate change is likely to increase the number of snakebites.
The WHO announced last year that it is stepping up its work to prevent snakebites in South Asia, which it describes as a “biodiversity hotspot for venomous snakes, and is also home to some of the world’s most densely packed agrarian communities”.
Where do snakebites occur most frequently in South Asia?
Data about snakebites in South Asia is patchy, a fact which prompted the WHO to add snakebite poisoning to its list of neglected tropical diseases in June 2017.
No official data has been available from Pakistan since 2007, when 40,000 snakebites occurred, killing 8,200 people, according to the WHO.
Nepal’s official Ministry of Health and Population does not have official data for snakebite deaths, either. However, a study carried out by doctors in Nepal showed that 40,000 people are bitten by snakes every year there, too, of whom about 3,000 die.
The WHO estimated that 33,000 snakebites in Sri Lanka between 2012 and 2013 had resulted in 400 deaths.
It is thought that these numbers are severely underreported, however, due to the lack of research into snakebites in South Asia. “Because they’re underreported, it’s thought to be maybe not as large of an issue,” said Rmaah Memon, a resident physician at Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Furthermore, as the study from the University of Kelaniya suggests, snakebites in Sri Lanka may already be increasing. That study carried out climate change projections and estimated that the annual snakebite burden could increase by 31.3 percent over the next 25 to 50 years.
The common krait, one of the ‘big four’ snakes in India [Shutterstock]
Which snakes are the most common?
Common species of snakes found in Pakistan and India include the big four: the common krait, Russell’s viper, saw-scaled viper and the Indian viper (naja naja).
Other species include the king cobra, which averages 3-3.6 metres in length but can grow as large as 5.4 metres. It is found in northern India and also in Nepal alongside the banded and common kraits, green pit vipers, checkered keelbacks and the Nepal kukri snake.
In Sri Lanka, species of Russell’s viper and the common krait are found, as well as the Indian python.
The king cobra can be found in northern India and Nepal [Shutterstock]
How dangerous are snakebites?
Of the 5.4 million snakebites which occur each year, 1.8 to 2.7 million result in “envenoming”. Envenoming is when the poison from a snakebite results in a possibly life-threatening disease.
“Snake venom can kill the victim from a few minutes up to two to three hours if not treated in time,” said Sadanand Raut, a doctor who, along with his wife Pallavi Raut, has made it his mission to prevent snakebite deaths entirely in the Narayangaon region of India’s Maharashtra state. Raut is also a member of the WHO roster of experts for snakebite envenoming.
Raut explained that the type of snake venom depends on the species of snake. He said that Indian cobras have very quick-acting neurotoxic venom, which means it has a paralysing effect that can cause symptoms minutes after the bite.
While krait bites inject the same type of venom, it may take longer – four to six hours after the bite – for symptoms to show. Krait bites might not hurt initially, but cause issues such as an inability to open the eyes, difficulty in breathing and cardiac problems when left untreated, Raut added.
Other snakes such as Russell’s vipers and saw-scaled vipers release vasculotoxic venom. These snakebites are very painful and result in necrosis, which means death of the body tissue. Raut explained that vasculotoxic venom can result in the thinning of the blood and can even lead to kidney failure. The symptoms can begin to show within minutes of the bite.
The Russell’s viper releases a vasculotoxic venom which can result in necrosis – the death of body tissue [Shutterstock]
What happens when a snake bites you?
The effects of a poisonous snakebite can be terrifying, according to those who have survived.
Kabiraj Kharel was about 18 years old when a krait bit his right hand. Kharel, now 50, whose family are farmers, had been removing ears from a batch of corn at his home in Sagarnath, Nepal, close to the Indian border, when he noticed the bite.
Kharel recalled feeling terrified. “I thought I was going to die,” he told Al Jazeera. He rushed to get medical help.
The nearest hospital was 25km (15.5 miles) from his house. Kharel said that he was aware of his surroundings for the first 20km, then his eyes and tongue began to tingle and go numb. After that, he lost consciousness.
Venomous snakebites can cause difficulty in breathing, an inability to open the eyes and cardiac problems. Symptoms can be felt quicker with some types of snakes – for example, Indian cobras – than others such as kraits.
If a venomous snakebite is left untreated or is treated too late, it can result in paralysis, breathing difficulties, bleeding disorders and kidney failure. Sometimes, the tissue damage can be bad enough to merit the amputation of a limb, resulting in permanent disability. Snakebites that are left untreated or are treated too late can prove fatal as well.
Kharel regained consciousness after being given doses of antivenom at the hospital. He woke up disoriented. “I thought to myself, ‘Where am I?’”
Jignasu Dolia, a wildlife biologist and conservationist in northern India’s Uttarakhand area, who carries out conservation-based research on king cobras, explained that not all snakebites result in envenoming, in fact about half of king cobra bites are “dry bites”, which means the snake does not inject any venom or may only inject small, non-lethal quantities.
However, all snakebites should be considered venomous until proven otherwise and victims should be taken immediately to a hospital emergency room.
A snake is ‘milked’ for its venom [Shutterstock]
How does antivenom work?
Dolia explained that antivenom is produced by “milking” venom out of snakes, injecting a small amount into an animal, usually horses, and harvesting the antibodies produced to refine them into the antidote.
Pakistan has, in the past imported antivenom from India, said Memon.
Memon said that the antivenom does not work as well on snakebites in Pakistan, even for the same species of snake, due to slight variations in geography and diet.
Can people easily access antivenom?
Awareness is a serious issue. Memon cited a 2000 study which showed that 44.5 percent of people interviewed in rural Sindh were unaware that antivenom even existed.
In rural Pakistan and India, in particular, there is often a significant time delay between snakebites and treatment for victims.
Memon added that people in rural Pakistan and India sometimes delay going to hospital because they prefer to visit local natural healers instead. While natural healers are important figures in local communities, they do not have access to the necessary antivenom.
This also results in the underreporting of snakebite cases. “Because they’re underreported, it’s thought to be maybe not as large of an issue,” said Memon.
She added that antivenom production across South Asia needs to be improved. In Pakistan, only one authorised site of antivenom production exists – Islamabad’s National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Antivenom is very expensive, so making it more affordable would also be a step in the right direction, she said. Most antivenom also needs to be refrigerated, which can be a problem in Pakistan where there are electricity outages, especially during the monsoon season. “Creating a kind of composition of antivenom that does not need refrigeration would be ideal.”
How is climate change affecting snakebites?
Climate change is another major issue. Research by Emory University, published in July 2023, showed a considerable increase in the likelihood of being bitten by a snake for every degree Celsius that daily temperatures increase.
There are many different species of snake and optimal living conditions vary for each, which is why it is hard to predict or even generalise about the effect of global warming on snakes generally.
Rising temperatures, however, are known to make habitats for some species of snake unsuitable for them. Conditions can become too dry for snakes to thrive, explained Michael Starkey, conservation biologist and founder of Save the Snakes, a California-based organisation dedicated to conserving snakes and mitigating human-snake conflict.
This can cause snakes to move to areas where conditions are better – often areas where humans are living, thus increasing the likelihood of humans and snakes interacting.
Human encroachment into the natural habitat of snakes has caused a rising incidence of snakebites [Shutterstock]
Some snakes may adapt to changing weather conditions while others may run out of suitable habitats altogether, eventually going extinct.
A rise in temperature is not the only climate change effect that could be causing an increase in human-snake interactions, resulting in more snakebites.
Following record-breaking rain in Pakistan in 2022, for example, Save the Children released a report stating that 54 percent of flood-affected families in Pakistan were sleeping outside in tents or makeshift shelters.
The report added that children sleeping without adequate shelter faced an increased risk of dangerous snakebites since stagnant water attracts venomous snakes.
Since climate-induced habitat loss is causing snakes to migrate, “believe it or not, they’re stressed out”, said Starkey. This may possibly explain more erratic behaviour that would lead to a higher number of venomous snakebites.
Starkey added that snakes are also losing their habitats to the construction of urban infrastructure which encroaches on their territory.
All of these things are a threat to snakes’ existence.
Why do we need snakes?
Experts say that it is essential for humans to learn to coexist with wildlife better, including with snakes, for their own benefit.
Snakes can actually be very helpful to humans. They typically eat rats and rodents and also serve as prey for hawks, owls and larger snakes. If snakes die out, the food chain and ecosystem will fall out of balance.
“They’re a pest control service and help with our ecosystems,” explained Starkey.
Globally, rodents destroy 20 to 30 percent of crops each year, according to the International Rice Research Institute, which says it is dedicated to abolishing poverty and hunger among people and populations that depend on rice-based agrifood systems.
A viper common in South Asia eats a white rat [Shutterstock]
Rodents also carry ticks that carry bacteria which causes Lyme disease. The ticks infect people by biting them, causing symptoms such as a fever, rash, joint pains and headaches. Researchers at the University of Maryland in the United States in 2013 found a link between the decline of rattlesnakes and a rise in Lyme disease.
Furthermore, killing snakes puts people at higher risk of being bitten. This is because the closer humans are to snakes, the more likely snakes are to act in defence and bite.
Dolia explained that king cobra bites are rare, at least in India. The few deaths that have been recorded due to envenoming by this snake have “usually occurred as a result of rescuers mishandling the snake”.
Dolia added that king cobras, which are endangered, usually eat other snakes, including venomous ones such as other types of cobra, which are known to cause many human fatalities.
So, how do we prevent snakebites and protect snakes?
Awareness of simple measures that will prevent snakes from entering homes or getting into crops will help, said Starkey. These include keeping grains in airtight containers so they do not attract rodents which in turn, attract snakes. General pest control around properties may also help.
There needs to be more awareness about what treatment to seek, said Memon, whose own grandfather died from a snakebite near the family home in Tharparkar in the southern Sindh province.
Instead of visiting doctors, people in South Asia rush to natural healers to treat snakebites. This leads them to miss the “golden window of time” to treat the bites quickly, explained Raut, adding that awareness should be spread in schools, rural centres, tribal institutes and medical institutions.
Memon said that the production of antivenom needs to be ramped up throughout South Asia, adding that making it more affordable would be a step in the right direction.
Most antivenom also needs to be refrigerated, which can be a problem in Pakistan where there are electricity outages, especially during monsoon season. “Creating a kind of composition of antivenom that does not need refrigeration would be ideal.”
Drought crisis brought on by El Nino and climate change will affect more than a million households, President Hakainde Hichilema says.
Zambia has declared the drought the country is currently going through a national disaster, with President Hakainde Hichilema saying the lack of rain has devastated the agricultural sector, affecting more than one million families.
The southern African country has gone without rain for five weeks at a time when farmers need it the most, Hichilema said in a televised national address from the capital, Lusaka, on Thursday.
This compounded the effects of another dry spell and flooding that hit the nation last year, he added.
“The destruction caused by the prolonged drought spell is immense,” he said. The dry spell has already affected 84 of the country’s 116 districts.
Exacerbated by climate change and the El Nino weather phenomenon, the crisis threatens national food security, as well as water and energy supply, Hichilema said. Zambia is highly reliant on hydroelectric power.
“In view of these challenges … we hereby declare a prolonged drought as a national disaster,” the president said.
The measure allows for more resources to address the crisis, with the drought expected to last well into March.
With heavy hearts, we’ve declared a national disaster & emergency as our country faces severe drought, caused by the el Niño weather phenomenon, influenced by climate change. The prolonged dry spell has impacted both Zambia’s food & energy security that are our key priorities. pic.twitter.com/OKu8Zx62At
Due to influence of El Nino on the 2023-2024 rainy season, Zambia has lost one million hectares (2.5 million acres) from 2.2 million planted crops.
Almost half of the nation’s “planted area” has been “destroyed”, Hichilema said.
He said humanitarian aid would be made available to ensure people do not go hungry, and he urged cooperating partners to provide relief beyond grain.
The president said Zambia had also drawn up plans to import and ration electricity to keep the economy and industries running, especially the heavily power-dependent mines.
Zambia is Africa’s second-largest copper producer.
Hichilema said the energy sector this year was expected to have a deficit close to 450 megawatts or even above 500 megawatts.
The 2024 national budget will be re-aligned so that more resources could be channelled towards addressing the impact of the drought, he added.
“The current projections are that over a million farming households will be affected,” he said.
Zambia defaulted three years ago and is trying to rework its debt under the G20 Common Framework, a programme designed to ensure swift and smooth debt overhauls for low-income nations.
Hichilema said Zambia’s situation was dire and called on its official and private creditors to quickly conclude its debt restructuring process.
“If this process does not close, it’s not just an indictment on Zambia but the global system,” he said.
The naturally occurring El Nino climate pattern, which emerged in mid-2023, usually increases global temperatures for one year afterwards. It is currently fuelling fires and record heat across the world.
Viña del Mar, Chile – Felipe Gajardo, a 27-year-old student, sits in a quiet school hallway in the coastal city of Viña del Mar, with an empty cat carrier by his side. Dozens of flyers with pictures of lost animals plaster the walls around him.
The Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins school is usually closed this time of the year for the summer holidays, which run from December to February in Chile.
But this year, the school is not empty. Instead, its classrooms are a blur of activity, as veterinarians use them to house a makeshift clinic for animals hurt in the country’s deadly wildfires.
More than 130 people have died in the blazes, which sparked on February 3. In three short days, the fires spread over 9,215 hectares (22,773 acres) of densely populated land, reducing neighbourhoods in cities like Viña del Mar to ash.
President Gabriel Boric called it the “greatest tragedy” the country has endured since a 2010 earthquake left more than 500 people dead. The United Nations noted it was likely the country’s deadliest forest fire on record.
The neighbourhood of El Olivar in the coastal city of Viña del Mar, Chile, was among those devastated by the wildfires [Charis McGowan/Al Jazeera]
Gajardo’s home was among those consumed by the flames. His parents, brother and sister managed to escape to safety in their car, but their poodle Nala and cat Max fled the house in fear before the family could catch them, running into the chaos of the fiery night.
Four days later, Nala found her way back to the ashen shell that had once been her home. She was weary, dehydrated and dust-covered, but miraculously uninjured.
But Max, a ginger cat with white paws, remains missing.
For Gajardo, finding Max is now of the utmost importance. So much has disappeared in the flames, never to return: family photos, heirlooms, items accumulated over a lifetime.
But the prospect of recovering Max gives Gajardo hope. He has shared photos of the ginger cat with online groups that popped up after the fire to reconnect lost pets with their owners.
“Max is a grumpy guy, you can see by his expression,” Gajardo said lovingly, showing Al Jazeera a snapshot of the rumple-faced cat. “I’ve missed him. I’d put him around my neck. He’d sleep in our rooms.”
A glimmer of possibility has brought Gajardo to the O’Higgins school: Earlier in the morning, the clinic had called to tell him they had recovered a cat matching Max’s description.
Gajardo arrived straightaway, anxious to see if it was indeed Max. “I hope it’s him,” he said, waiting patiently in the empty hall.
Margarita Herrera, left, holds her pitbull Nitro still for an inspection in the hard-hit neighbourhood of El Olivar in Viña del Mar, Chile [Charis McGowan/Al Jazeera]
Addressing the trauma
To the east of the clinic, on the hillsides overlooking the city, sits the neighbourhood of El Olivar, one of the areas hardest hit by the fires.
Residents there have had to sweep away piles of debris — the remains of their former houses — in order to make space for makeshift tents, made of tarpaulin sheets.
Margarita Herrera is among them. In the rubble of her home, she stood next to her pet bulldog, Nitro. In the corner of his eye loomed a pink bulb, swollen and sore: His tear duct had become infected since the fire.
As the swelling grew and grew, Herrera became worried that the toxic ash was making Nitro’s infection worse. Last week, she put out a call for help on the social media platform TikTok.
“He could lose his eye. We can rebuild our house, but we can’t bring back his eye,” said Herrera, with Nitro sitting dutifully at her feet.
Going to a pet clinic was not an option, Herrera explained as she crouched down to pat Nitro’s head. If she leaves the area, looters might rummage through her few remaining belongings: “They’d rob the little we have left.”
Kelly Donithan, the director of global disaster response for the Humane Society International, an animal welfare nonprofit, was among those who arrived to help Nitro and other animals in the neighbourhood.
She acknowledged the high death toll from the wildfire — but she added that helping injured pets is a way of caring for human survivors, too.
“Responding and helping animals is not mutually exclusive of helping people. We are not taking any resources away from the humanitarian response,” explained Donithan.
“While it’s very important to help these animals just for their own sake, it also supports human resiliency and recovery from trauma.”
Donithan ultimately put Nitro on a list for surgery at the school clinic. Hearing the news, Herrera broke into a smile, visibly relieved. “He’s our baby,” she said of Nitro.
Surveys indicate Chile has a relatively high rate of dog ownership compared with other countries worldwide [Charis McGowan/Al Jazeera]
A haven for dog lovers
Chile is known for its love of animals. A 2022 poll found that eight out of every 10 Chileans are pet owners, and the country famously has a high dog-to-human ratio.
In a country of 19.6 million people, there are 8.3 million pet dogs, according to a government “census” of household animals. Another 3.46 million are strays.
According to the Financial Times, the market research company Euromonitor even ranked Chile as having the highest percentage of dog ownership in the world, surpassing larger economies like Brazil and the United States in 2017.
While there are no official statistics on the number of pets injured in this year’s fires, Lukas Garcia, a veterinarian born and raised in Viña del Mar, said he and his colleagues have treated more than 120 animals so far.
Garcia explained he is one of five full-time veterinarians employed by the municipal government to assist with the disaster response. Volunteers from private clinics and veterinary students were also on hand to help.
He added that the number of animals they’ve attended is likely to be far lower than the total number hurt. He credited that to one simple reason: Many didn’t survive.
Deputy Interior Minister Manuel Monsalve put the number of houses damaged or destroyed as high as 14,000.
“Viña has suffered fires before, but never as big as this,” Garcia said.
Alma Ortega has taken residence in an emergency shelter with her pet dog, whose paws were burned in the fire [Charis McGowan/Al Jazeera]
Limited shelter options
As he spoke to Al Jazeera, Garcia tended to pets at the Colombian Republic School in Viña del Mar. There, the government had established an emergency shelter for residents left homeless. It is one of the few shelters that accepts pets.
Dog owner Alma Ortega had temporarily moved into the school with her partner, child and parents-in-law. They shared a classroom to sleep in with another family.
Ortega said her house in the Villa Independencia neighbourhood had completely burned down in the fires.
“It happened in a matter of minutes,” she said. “We saw ash falling from the sky, and then the house was on fire.”
She managed to escape the building with her family and two dogs. But one of the dogs, an Akita named Black, wriggled loose and ran back into the smoke.
“We found him three days later with his paws entirely burned,” Ortega said. “He was in agony. He couldn’t move.”
She watched as Garcia tenderly changed Black’s bandages. It was a trying time for her family: Students will return to classes next week, so the shelters and clinics will have to relocate soon. As of yet, new locations have yet to be confirmed.
Black lifted his bandaged paw towards Ortega, who gently took it in her hand. Despite the uncertainty, she said she felt hopeful.
“What’s important is that we’re all OK,” she said, crouching down to hug her dog.
Workers at a makeshift animal clinic in the city of Viña del Mar towel off a ginger cat recovered after Chile’s wildfires [Charis McGowan/Al Jazeera]
Searching for Max
Back at the O’Higgins school, Gajardo waits for a status update, as municipal vets and volunteers check on the ginger cat in their custody.
A clinic representative finally approaches Gajardo to reveal an unexpected hiccup: The cat is female — and she is pregnant. It isn’t Max after all.
The unknown cat will stay in the clinic until she safely delivers her babies. Hopefully, the clinic representative explains, the team can locate her owner.
Gajardo picks up his empty cat carrier and texts his mother the disappointing news. He isn’t discouraged, though. He will keep searching until Max is back with the family.
“We have to stay hopeful,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait till he shows up.”
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