I stepped out the front
door at 6:12 a.m. for my last long run before the WiPro San Francisco Marathon
coming up this weekend. The temperature was already 89 degrees Fahrenheit. When
I arrived back home just before 9:00 a.m., the temperature had already climbed
to 98. I remember several hot summers in the Midwest, including one that nearly
closed a Junior High camp I directed. But this one… well, let’s just say the
lingering impact is going to be with us for a while.
Drought is a natural
disaster that takes a significant toll. It’s effects spread far beyond the
region affected. The economic impact can linger for years. The health impact
can manifest itself for months. Drought, poverty and hunger are all intertwined
in the mosaic of life.
The World
Meteorological Organization indicates that some areas are experiencing the
driest summer season on record.
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| The one meal a day for children in rural China |
The USAID
Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS) reports famine in the East African
countries of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia affecting more than five
million people.
Widespread
livestock deaths, culling of young animals to protect breeding animals, reduction
of egg and poultry production, distressed migration, increased animal and human
disease and high acute malnutrition rates are indicators being applied to what
is happening here and abroad. Conditions are likely to get worse in the coming
months during the peak hunger season.
Drought is already being given as an explanation for why
millions of people across North America, Africa and Asia are hungry and are
going to be hungry through the coming winter. The real reason is poverty,
aggravated by regional shortages and hurricanes, typhoons and earthquakes which
will drive up the price of regional staples… corn, wheat, barley, maze, to what
some are predicting will more than triple last year's prices.
Heat-related deaths are being reported through the Midwest. Growing
malnutrition has led to scattered reports of disease-related deaths among young
children weakened by hunger.
I fully recognize that my feeble attempts to bring attention
to such issues by running a race now and again doesn’t really make much
difference. But if just one of you reading this laughs with me as I write these
posts and waddle across finish lines; if just a few of you choose to support an
organization like Outreach International through your generosity, then,
together, we do make a difference! If my finishing a race allows one child to eat
a meal, sleep in a safe place, get an education… then I will gladly run when it
is hotter n hell and thank God I can!
