Somini Sengupta🥭 Profile picture
Feb 10, 2020 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Climate change is likely to usher in a future of unpredictable rains -- more intense droughts and more intense cloudbursts.

So water needs to be stored and shared. That raises huge challenges between countries. In this case, Egypt & Ethiopia:

nytimes.com/interactive/20…
The Blue Nile begins here on Lake Tana in Ethiopia, its islands dotted with ancient monasteries. Image
It flows through the mountains and then into the lowlands near the Sudan border. Image
The Ethiopians call the river Abay. It is as vital to their identity as the Nile is to Egyptians. Image
For the last 8 years, Ethiopia has been building what will be Africa's largest hydroelectric dam, a megaproject with the potential to light up millions of homes, earn billions from electricity sales to neighboring countries and confirm Ethiopia’s place as a rising African power. Image
On a tour of the project, in 2018, its former chief engineer, Semegnew Bekele, cited the Hoover Dam in the United States as inspiration. Soon after, he was found dead, in his Toyota Landcruiser, a gunshot wound to his head. Image
The dam is projected to start filling in July, during the 2020 rainy season.

How quickly will it be filled? What will happen if there's a bad drought year?

Negotiations continue between Egypt, Ethiopia & Sudan (the country sandwiched between).

(end) Image

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More from @SominiSengupta

Sep 22, 2020
China makes news. And it's important for, well, the survival of the rest of us.

Xi Jinping says at UNGA:

China will "scale up" national climate targets, aim to reach peak emissions "before" 2030 and carbon neutrality "before" 2060.

fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_6…
Xi Jinping: "Humankind can no longer afford to ignore the repeated warnings of Nature and go down the beaten path of extracting resources without investing in conservation."
Next move: the United States, history's largest emitter.

(In other words, the U.S. election has global consequences.)
Read 5 tweets
Aug 26, 2020
Last week, I drove through California's San Joaquin Valley, where hundreds of thousands of workers pick and pack almonds, melons, carrots, grapes and much of the other healthy produce we eat.

The air was smoky. Temperatures soared past 100 by midday.

nytimes.com/2020/08/25/cli…
With so much smoke in the air, the air pollution agency put out a health advisory. Good advice, in theory, said Leonor Hernández, a farmworker and mother of three.

“But we need to work, and if we stay indoors we don’t get paid.” Image
Geography and industry curse the valley with some of the country’s worst air. Rates of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease run high. There’s even a respiratory ailment named for the area: Valley Fever, caused by a fungus in the soil. Image
Read 4 tweets
Aug 25, 2020
In 2016, when she was critical of Trump, Nikki Haley had said: “During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices.”
Her role seems to have been to counter those who point out racism in America, which is all the more striking after Trump repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as the "China virus," a term described as racist.
And it's pretty clear Haley's speech was really about Haley. In 2024.
Read 4 tweets
Aug 20, 2020
That montage of Kamala Harris' female family members was quite something. And notable that she is calling out her political ancestors. And her mother.
"I know a predator when I see one."
Her mother is the throughline of this speech. I too wonder what it must have been like for a 25 y o woman, all of 5 feet tall, to come to this country when there were so few people who looked like us
Read 5 tweets
Aug 7, 2020
Extreme heat is not a future risk. It’s now. And people who are poor and marginalized are most vulnerable.

See what it’s like to live in a warming world.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…
For the last 60 years, every decade has been hotter than the last, and 2020 is poised to be among the hottest years ever. Image
In Nigeria, rising temperatures are supercharged by nonstop gas flares that can singe the skin.

Faith Osi, a mother of 8, says heat rash is a constant worry. Here she covers her youngest child, Miracle, with talcum powder to soothe the baby’s discomfort. Image
Read 9 tweets
Feb 25, 2020
Meanwhile, no word on this in Trump-Modi public comments today
Our story from the Delhi neighborhood, where "mobs of Hindu men, many of their foreheads marked by a saffron stripe, angrily patrolled the streets carrying sticks, iron bars and baseball bats, threatening to beat up journalists or any outsiders." nytimes.com/2020/02/25/wor…
From a journalist in Delhi trying to do her job:
Read 4 tweets

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