El Salvador Plans to Mitigate Effects of Climate Change

The Central American Country is Preparing for Sea Rise

By Conor Kilbride

Rudy Alvares is an international student at Salem State University. We exchanged emails about the environmental impacts of climate change in his home country of El Salvador, which is prone to many consequences of climate change, such as floods and droughts.

Climate change is one of the biggest topics in today’s world. Does it concern you, or are there bigger issues?

A. Climate change is really important for me. I personally think that climate

change is now affecting a lot of production of food and new diseases. Also, it is

of my concern because 28 percent of coastal territory is going to be affected by sea level rise, and sadly, my country is a coastal zone territory.

How aware are you of what El Salvador is doing to fight climate change? If you

are aware, do you believe it is enough, or should more effort be made?

I am not fully aware of how they are fighting climate change, but in

2012, I know that El Salvador was working with the National Adaptation Plan on a

National Climate Strategy, and in 2015, they were working on a national plan for

environmental adaptation and mitigation to climate change. Even though I

haven’t been following the plans, I do believe they have been slow to fight.

El Salvador has been impacted by a decrease in production and drinking water. I personally feel that there should be more effort to change.

What motivated you to leave El Salvador originally? Was it exclusively education,

or were other factors in play?

There were several factors, but education was not a strong motivation, since I was able to go to school and get a higher education. However, the other factors that really motivated me to leave my home country were:

i. Job Opportunity: If I got a higher education in my home country,

there would be some issues on getting an opportunity to start up my career.

In my home country if you do not have anyone that can help you get into a company without experience, you will spend years without a job and looking for one.

ii. Poverty: Even though my family wasn’t rich, we had a place to live, and we always managed to get food. I remember one day, when my dad went out of country because

of his new job, and my mom, brother, and I were in the house by ourselves

at dinner time. There were only four tortillas, one tomato, and salt. We didn’t

have anything else. I noticed that my mom was worried because she knew

that my brother and I would ask for food. But I told my mom “let’s

pretend to be chefs,” and we made two tortillas with tomato and two with salt, so

we could have some variety. Now we aren’t rich, but we do have a better

economy.

iii. Security: Security did motivate me to move from a different country. El Salvador was once was declared the second most dangerous country in the world because of the MS 13 gang and 18 gang. I remember having some issues with a couple of guys that were gang

members, because I didn’t want to join their crew or hang out with them.

iv. Family: My mom’s side family used to be together all the time, and we were

missing each other once everyone started moving to the United States. I personally did not want to move to the United States, but it was a decision my mom made, since I was too young to make that decision, and my grandfather was paying a lot to get us here.

There are obviously going to be some major differences in the culture and everyday life

of the two countries, but what surprised you the most when you first arrived in

the United States?

i. The first difference that surprised me was the child protection laws, because I was raised, and parents still raise their kids the same manner, that if a kid needs to be punished, he will get punished.There was some rough punishment during my childhood, and it was really

surprising for me to see that here, even if the kid does need to be punished

by their parents for bad behavior, they can’t actually touch them or have some

sign of a belt’s blow.

ii. The second thing was how liberal the country is, because I come from a country where they all believe in God, and most of the society are very reserved, meaning they do not accept gay and lesbian people.

iii. The third thing that surprised me was how people in the United States focus a lot on

emotions of the society. For example, depression is huge in this country. They make everyone aware of depression, it’s consequences, and how to treat it. Another example: you aren’t allowed to call someone black or white because they can take it in the wrong way. In my country, nobody gets offended or takes it in the wrong way if you call them white, black, chino, or any type of nickname.

I’d like to have five questions, so I’ll also ask if you have a favorite sport and team in

that sport.

Soccer is my favorite sport. I did play professionally, from 6 years old to 14 years

old in my country, and I did also play for high school in Chelsea High School. My

favorite team from the Spain league is Real Madrid and from Germany is Bayern

Munich.

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