Hunger, poverty, and climate change

But first, a bit of levity:



With more than 1/4 of the population of Mongolia living in poverty, food insecurity and hunger are huge threats, affecting rural areas more than urban areas--though there are more people in urban areas living in poverty than rural areas, thanks to the migration of the nomads to the urban areas. And while the poverty rate is dropping, it isn't dropping in line with the economic growth in the country.

A lot of food insecurity has to do with the climate. Harsher winter weather is herders to lose many animals, sometimes even entire herds. The herders who give up and move to the city are causing so much urban growth that it is creating a burden on social services. There are too many people in the cities to provide for, and the reduction of the population in the rural areas means that there are fewer services available to those populations as well. There is a lot of instability in the population (both human and animal), and that means that people are hungry.

For more information about hunger in Mongolia, the U.N. Development Project is doing a lot of great work in the country, and their website has been a great resource to me, including this report on the goal of eradicating extreme hunger and poverty.

Also, here is a blog post that brings up a very good point about fighting poverty and hunger: instead of (or in addition to) general hunger programs, we need to look at fighting the cause of poverty, and in the case of Mongolia, this means better preparing the country for the extreme winter weather and improving the emergency infrastructure.

I've been busy with work and other issues in my life, so now I'm a bit behind again on blog posting. Expect to see blog posts on Industry and Settlements/Services this weekend.