CRISIS DE AGUA EN LOS ANDES

Andes Water Crisis Posing Challenge for U.S. Security, Peru

• Jan 21, 2011

As reported by Northwestern University, The Medill School of Journalism graduate student team has released its latest story in its series on the national security implications of climate change. Heather Somerville of Medill National Security Reporting Project reports from the Andes in Peru, where mountain glaciers are rapidly melting. Facing a dramatic shortage in the country’s water supply, Peru has turned to Washington for help.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials worry Peru could quickly become a case study in how climate change could destabilize a strategically important region, and emerge as a national security threat to Americans thousands of miles away.

Among the story’s findings:

• Entire glaciers are expected to disappear in 10 years, quicker than many scientists predicted.

• Glacier melt in Peru has already caused water shortages, leading to conflict, displacing communities and threatening agriculture.

• The U.S. is unprepared to address climate change in South America within five years – the window of opportunity Peru has before glacier melt becomes a security crisis.

• Peru’s water crisis will test how the U.S. will deal with climate change using diplomacy and foreign aid in allied nations.

The story ran yesterday in The Washington Post as the newest installment in "Global Warning," a three-month investigation by a team of Northwestern University student reporters that unveils the inadequacies in the nation’s security establishment in preparing for many of the environmental changes that are coming faster than predicted and that threaten to reshape demands made on the military and intelligence community. This is despite the fact that the Defense Department has called climate change a potential “accelerant of instability.”

The Washington Post will link from the story to the entire project featured on the team’s website, http://global-warning.org , which features stories, videos and sophisticated interactive graphics that have been distributed to more than 600 papers and countless websites across the country and internationally. The project was received with high praise from prominent journalists and national security experts.