Jacob Kushner
In Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the lakes are flooding farmland, swallowing communities and leading to deforestation, baffling climate scientists.
Jacob Kushner
Story and photos by Jacob Kushner for National Geographic
Story and photos by Jacob Kushner
The campaign to expel the children of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic is impractical. Their labor—and that of their parents—helped propel the Dominican economy last year to grow faster than all but one other country’s in Latin America, firmly establishing it as a middle-class nation. They are a significant part of the workforce in the booming construction and tourism industries that have helped transform the Dominican Republic into the most popular travel destination in the Caribbean.
But in a chaotic democracy that has adopted 38 different constitutions over a century and a half, anti-Haitianismo is the one enduring notion that mainstream parties across the political spectrum can invoke with impunity. It is driven by the fervor of Dominican nationalists, and, in particular, by one powerful, ultra-conservative family and its allies. Together, they are waging a political, legal and media war to defend the Dominican Republic against what they believe is the nation’s gravest threat: Haitian immigrants and their children.
Read: Moment Magazine
Photos and Story by Jacob Kushner for NACLA.
Story and Photography by Jacob Kushner for the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and Type Investigations.
In northern Kenya, researchers are working to prevent a dangerous coronavirus – MERS – from jumping from camels to humans. But climate change is complicating their task.
Part of our BBC Future series, Stopping The Next One, with Harriet Constable and The Pulitzer Center.
READ: BBC
Photography for BBC, The Coronavirus 10 Times Deadlier than Covid-19. Part of the Pulitzer Center-supported series, Stopping The Next One.
HISPANIOLA – On the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, home to the sovereign nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, two large lakes are rising dramatically.
Lake Azuéi in Haiti submerged an entire community; across the border in the Dominican Republic, Lake Enriquillo has risen nearly 33 feet in just 10 years. As their land flooded, many farmers began cut-ting down trees to make charcoal to earn a living, leading to deforestation.
Scientists from across the globe have tried to solve the mystery behind the rising lakes. Some think climate change is to blame, arguing that warming sea created more evaporation and clouds, which led to more rainfall. But if true, that would be strange, because in most of the world climate change is causing lakes to shrink.
The phenomenon is spur- ring calls for more research to help explain – and mitigate – the situation. Until scientists are able to identify the cause and work toward a solution, thousands of farmers on this Caribbean island will have to adapt.
This reporting was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Filmed and Produced by Jacob Kushner for GroundTruth
Photos and story by Jacob Kushner for The Christian Science Monitor
From the book, China’s Congo Plan
At Lake Naivasha, Kenya, floods and the economic fallout from COVID-19 are pitting hungry fishermen against hungry hippos—with deadly results.
Preliminary photography for National Geographic. Feature story: Human-hippo conflicts are exploding in this pristine patch of Kenya.
The Port-au-Prince International Jazz Festival returned in February 2011 after it was canceled following Haiti’s devastating earthquake. Read the story Jazz Times Magazine.
