A new report found that poor countries are more likely to experience health problems due to climate change than rich countries.

Kevin Watkins, from the UN Development Program and author of this new report, spoke briefly on NPR this morning. His report concentrates on the immediate effects of climate change on poor countries. The report found that developing countries will be hit particularly hard by health problems, since they don’t have the resources to deal with environmental disasters, such as droughts and floods.

For example, people in Northern Ethiopia living in drought zones have no protection should one occur. This study looks at two groups of Ethiopian children, some born in an area experiencing a drought and others that weren’t. Guess what? Five years later, those who were born in the drought-affected area were far more malnourished—by 36% percent.

This drought also led to long-term malnourishment to over 2 million children in the country. This backed their parents into a corner. They had to sell their farming equipment to take care of the immediate needs of their children—but this left them no way to feed their families when the draught was over. Desmond Tutu refers to this as “Adaptation Apartheid,” which means that when something bad happens, rich countries are able to use their resources to withstand it, but poor countries are left high and dry.

Watkins’ solution to this problem is that rich countries should change the way they give aid, for example, giving more money to improve flood control and early warning systems. We should keep in mind the effects of climate change whenever we give aid money.

Want to listen to full story? Check it out on NPR.

Later this week, UN AIDS scientists will adjust their estimates of people infected with AIDS from 44 milion to 30 million. The new calculation is mainly due to improved methods of collecting data.

Some researchers worry that past funding decisions have been based on these faulty numbers. The revisions may have also clouded the lessons we take away on how to slow the disease.

Officials from UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS Agency, don’t believe that the new estimates are a reason to slow support. UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot stated, “Unquestionably, we are beginning to see a return on investment — new HIV infections and mortality are declining and the prevalence of HIV leveling. But with more than 6,800 new infections and over 5,700 deaths each day due to AIDS, we must expand our efforts in order to significantly reduce the impact of AIDS worldwide.”

Decreased numbers of infections may also partially contribute to the new numbers.

The UNAIDS report said, “In both Kenya and Zimbabwe, there is increasing evidence that a proportion of the declines is due to a reduction of the number of new infections which is, in part due to a reduction in risky behaviors.”

Read the Washington Post or Reuters articles to learn more about the reassessment.

According to an article on CNNMoney.com, a survey conducted in 11 countries found that respondents believe that corporations should bear more responsibility when it comes to societal problems—despite the respondents’ high levels of distrust for those same corporations and institutions in general. The people surveyed were “influential citizens,” defined as the 10-15% percent of the population who initiate change, not including elected officials.

Those surveyed from America, the UK, Canada, and Germany believe that corporations should play as much of a role as their governments in preserving the environment and acting to reduce poverty.

Read the article to find out more about the study.

This post in World Bank’s “Private Sector Development Blog” says that the percentage of people in poverty (from 1990-2004) has dropped from 29% of the world’s population to 18%. This sounds like good news–but we should remember to keep in mind that there are many ways of measuring poverty. These poverty maps referenced in the blog post are worth a look, too.