Madagascar nears a first: Famine caused by climate rather than war

When Madagascan climate activist Christina Kolo got the chance in April to speak to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, she wanted him to know two things.

First, people in Madagascar were already suffering as a result of climate change, which had made their weather more extreme and pushed millions toward hunger.

But if they were among climate change’s first victims, she then told him, they could also be on the frontlines of the fight to help the world adapt to it.