Climate Monitor News & Analysis

Farmers Braced for Water Shortages as Reservoirs Dry Up in Mexico

Dry riverbed in Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park, Texas, United States. Rio Grande facing downstream (Mexico on right, United States on left). Note: The river was flowing adjacent, large enough for people to canoe down it. This photo is a closeup of a sand bar., cc SCEhardt, modified, public domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Big_Bend_National_Park_-_Rio_Grande_riverbed_with_cracked_mud.jpg

Decades of overconsumption has been exacerbated by acute drought, and the result is a brewing water crisis in Mexico.

California “Megadrought”: A Sign of Things to Come?

cc Flickr Robert Couse-Baker, modified, https://flickr.com/photos/29233640@N07/22146730711/in/photolist-zK2MsF-RhTEQr-NWPQiQ-hSD2EX-s4ae2r-6fgMgq-2hukmGz-2hHkLEC-DYLPn5-28H28aC-n5FcSR-2g9Ku5v-vzx4tN-2hLvrL7-uefoTp-27Yx66B-2ieCMcA-2hvkuRb-2kP2ZG9-nUuWh7-2kQwCxG-2kP3uaH-2kP3um9-2iAkN5S-JH4aFk-QZpnAh-2eA9DG7-2gxBcdD-VhzcaF-2g9KAv3-2m56vGZ-np5ZxG-2i8jGRn-28GZkxs-ug9sms-2g9KuiB-28gsNTm-2gxBcrQ-2i97kQz-22TVaDr-2gxAN4G-28GZkZu-dCTxQg-2g9KB1r-26rcLL1-RZsqSG-2g9KxJw-KmN31i-2kNYr2H-RNqgWX

An ongoing “megadrought” portends a grim new normal in terms of agricultural output, wildfires, and electricity generation in the Golden State and beyond.

Water Scarcity Monitor: Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Chile

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Examining three of the most water-stressed countries in the world according to the World Resources Institute (WRI)

Backgrounder: Agriculture 4.0 in Vietnam

cc Vietnam News Agency (VNA), modified, Vụ mùa năm 2018, toàn huyện Ðiện Biên (Điện Biên) gieo cấy gần 6.400ha lúa nước và hơn 2.200ha lúa nương chủ yếu là các giống lúa: Bắc thơm số 7, IR64, Nếp 97, 98... Năng suất lúa trung bình toàn huyện ước đạt gần 60 tạ/ha, sản lượng ước đạt trên 37.800 tấn. Ảnh: Phan Tuấn Anh - TTXVN

In Vietnam we can see many of the challenges, and solutions, to farming in the era of climate change.

The Geopolitical Impact of Climate Change in Vietnam

SubmergedTree in Laos, cc Basile Morin, modified, 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Submerged_tree_under_a_dark_and_cloudy_sky_in_Si_Phan_Don.jpg

As a country that’s particularly susceptible to climate change, Vietnam will face a daunting assortment of security, economic, and political challenges in the decades to come.

Outlook 2019: The Year in Drought

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Tracking some of the most vulnerable and food-insecure regions in what is expected to be the hottest year ever.

Climate Change, Hunger, and Terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin

Nigeria Oil abstract, modified, Generated by Google Gemini on August 5, 2025.

For an example of how climate change can fuel terrorism and regional conflict, look no further than the Lake Chad Basin.

The Hidden Price of Interlinking Rivers in India

Boat ride on the Ganges, cc Flickr rusticus80, modified, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Are the economic benefits of India’s interlinking river project worth the massive and largely unquantified ecological risks?

Outlook 2018: The Year in Drought

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Droughts disrupted food production and spurred migration and conflict worldwide in 2017. Will 2018 be any different?

UN Sounds Alarm over 2017 Somalia Drought

cc Flickr: SomalilandDrought011, modified, Aden Jama takes one of his few remaining goats out to look for pasture. As the drought has worsened he and his family have lost many of their animals and had to move closer to the village and the water trucking site. “Before the drought I had 220 sheep and goats and 12 camels. Now I have 40 sheep and goats and three camels left. The rest have died from the lack of water and pasture. “We used to live 10kms away and come to the village when we needed things. But we’ve had to move closer and closer as the livestock are getting weaker and can’t travel so far. “This is the first time we’ve seen this scale – in the last drought a few animals died but most survived. Now they are so weak that if it rains heavily it might kill them – we will have to shelter them in the house or they would die in the rain. “Our lives depend on our livestock – we have no other skills and there are no other jobs. “In the past the children had milk from the animals. Now they have nothing. They are still ok for now, but you can see them getting weaker. It is almost six months since they ate meat or vegetables. Relatives send us food – we mainly eat rice twice a day, and sometimes maize, tea, flour and bread.” / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oxfam_East_Africa_-_SomalilandDrought011.jpg

Drought and food insecurity have created a humanitarian crisis in Somalia, leading to an uptick in piracy in the Gulf of Aden among other destabilizing developments.

Famine, Al-Shabaab Threaten Progress in Somalia

cc AMISOM, modified, AMISOM Public Information / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AMISOM_%26_Somali_National_Army_operation_to_capture_Afgoye_Corridor_Day_2_22_%287300585116%29.jpg

A famine is threatening a delicate sense of hope in one of Africa’s most dysfunctional states.

Climate Monitor: Drought and the Syrian Civil War

cc James Gordon from Los Angeles, California, USA, modified, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shepherd,_near_Palmyra,_Syria_-_4.jpg

In this new series of articles for 2016, Geopoliticalmonitor.com will explore the links between weather fluctuations and geopolitical conflict.

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