Four ways Mozambique is adapting to the climate crisis

Eight years after a mercaptan spill in Eight Mile, Alabama, its mostly black and working class residents still suffer from respiratory issues, rashes and headaches.

American humanitarian aid and programs by the United Nations have proved beneficial to equip Middle Eastern refugees with resources for self-settlement outside of camps. The self-settlement model has empowered refugees to become more productive members of society when they return home.

After record-breaking rainfall and flooding, the city of York was at a loss for relief and reconstruction ideas. They turned to the Dutch city of Nijmegen, which had experienced similar flooding and found a solution in building a relief channel.

Refugee camps typically look like a prison with squalid conditions and barbed wire tops. By contrast, the Kilis refugee camp in Turkey is orderly, secure, and clean; has schools for children; has grocery stores, and is powered with electricity. The camp is not run by the United Nations, but rather it is Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency that oversees every detail and pours billions of dollars into maintaining it every year.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, necessity has bred an interesting kind of financial invention for the New York MTA: the world’s first “catastrophe” bond - a reinsurance for the insurer - designed to protect public transportation infrastructure, specifically against storm surge. These bonds privatize risk for public gain, creating a kind of tool that may protect economic development against all kinds of natural and man-made disasters around the world.

In a country of limited resources — and perhaps for that very reason — preparing for natural disasters is top of the agenda in Bangladesh. Various grassroots, collaborative programs have been put in place over the years to help address many facets of the calamities caused by cyclones, from improved emergency shelters to long-term support for those who lose their livelihoods in the storms.

Haiti suffered tremendous losses after the 2010 earthquake, exacerbating the devastation in an already impoverished country. In 2015, agriculture in Haiti is a growing business backed by the United States’ Feed the Future Initiative. Nourishment and health of mothers and babies has also improved with the encouragement of breastfeeding and sweet potatoes.

Environmental refugees in Ethiopia flee their country because there are no jobs without healthy land. A group of former refugees have returned to Ethiopia with a business venture in Gergera to improve the land by regreening efforts, foresting, and building water conservation systems. The new businesses demonstrated such positive effects that the region is now on the brink of resettlement due to improved environmental conditions.

Uganda's open policy allows refugees to start a new life – and even a new business. But not all of them thrive due to governmental restrictions and limited cash flow.

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has left the city in dire straits without funds or political will to replace its lead pipes. Less than fifty-miles away, the city of Lansing has managed to replace almost all of its pipes, even during the Great Recession. Between Flint and Lansing, divergent approaches to management of utilities, funds, and citizen health provide extraordinary lessons about what worked and what caused the failures.