Guatemalan Climate Change Refuges - WLRN

“The number of Guatemalan families, new arrivals, is increasing a lot,” says Amanda Escalante, a family aid coordinator at the nonprofit Guatemalan Maya Center in Lake Worth. “I see the unusual level of desperation, extreme poverty.”

Escalante believes the Guatemalans she’s helping now are part of the world’s new and growing cohort of displaced people: climate change refugees.

“This is a reality,” she insists. “If there is no agriculture in Guatemala how can they survive?”

A ONCE PRETTY COUNRY: A Guatemalan farmer walks through a ruined corn crop. Credit Phil Laubner / Catholic Relief Services

For the full story by Tim Padgett, click here