What Does the U.S. Owe Climate Refugees?
Central Americans Are Fleeing an Ecological Disaster They Didn't Cause
Last fall, back-to-back major hurricanes, Eta and Iota, slammed into the Caribbean coast of Central America, creating storm surges and flooding from Belize to Panama. In parts of Honduras and Guatemala more rain fell in two weeks than typically falls in four months. Mudslides such as the one that buried the Maya community of Nuevo Quejá in Guatemala killed scores of people and rendered the landscape uninhabitable. The damage was estimated at more than $9 billion. Physical recovery will take decades, if it happens at all.
One survivor of the destruction …
