Image: picryl

By Sarah Pachal

People in the Northern Hemisphere may associate April with spring-like weather, but in Southern Quebec and Ontario, April brought an ice storm that shut cities down for days and resulted in one man dead. As we experience record-breaking heatwaves, terrible wildfires, and catastrophic storms like this, it is obvious that climate change is a contemporary reality rather than a distant threat. The evidence is clear: human activity is causing our planet to warm at an alarming rate, with disastrous consequences.

During the rainstorm that began on April 5, between 20 mm and 25 mm of ice collected on trees and buildings and 1.1 million Quebec residents were without electricity, some for days. 

This article was originally published on opendemocracy.net.

For the U.S., the Latin American agenda is not a priority. Still, Biden’s arrival at the White House signifies a respite for foreign ministries, who are exhausted by the region’s tension created by Trump. What changes can we expect now?

While Donald Trump is disappointed with the results of November 8th, the world remains incredulous about the difficulties of the great American democracy in recognizing as president-elect the one who won the popular vote with 50.9% and more that 5.5 million more votes than his opponent, who obtained 47.3%.

Although Trump has raised an amendment to the entire election result, alleging massive fraud, he has been unable so far to present any evidence. Biden will be the 46th president of the United States after four years of Trumpism, which has generated turbulence worldwide. Latin America and the Caribbean wonder what the arrival of a Democrat like Joe Biden might mean for them.