South America

Hurricane season has made itself known to the Caribbean Basin as multiple tropical storms and two category-five hurricanes have ravaged Central America. This is the first time two storms of this magnitude have hit in the same area in a single month since record keeping for the region began over one hundred years ago. Studies suggest that this trend, represented by an increase in the number and ferocity of the storms, is related to global warming. There have been 31 category-five hurricanes on record, eight of which occurred in the last four years, possibly indicating that the gradual rise in atmospheric temperature has resulted in increased storm intensity and frequency. With these ominous indicators now confronting the hemisphere, the inevitable question arises: what is the U.S. government, as the hemisphere's leading economic powerhouse, doing to increase its ability to deal with such disasters and is it contributing all that it can to help neighboring nations in their moment of need?