"‘Lifesaving’ Climate Programs Are On Hold As Musk Targets USAID"

"As the Trump administration moves to shutter international humanitarian aid efforts, a host of environmental and climate programs have also been impacted."

"In 2023, a Category 4 cyclone barreled down on the coast near Myanmar and Bangladesh.

But before it made landfall, a warning system — built in part with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development — sent out alerts and information about shelters. Thousands of people, including those at the world’s largest refugee camp, scrambled to safety. The ultimate death toll — 145 — was much smaller than those from previous cyclones. USAID officials had been planning to replicate the warning system in numerous other countries in the crosshairs of intensifying storms and floods.

But that was before a USAID funding freeze that brought much of the United States’ global climate efforts to a halt.

“We were literally providing lifesaving support,” said Gillian Caldwell, who served under President Joe Biden as USAID’s chief climate officer."

Chico Harlan reports for the Washington Post February 4, 2025.

 

Source: Washington Post, 02/07/2025