Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins. Children wait after filling containers with water in the neighbourhood of Antimano in Caracas, Venezuela, October 26, 2009. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, on October 22, 2009, called for water conservation, saying low rainfall caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon meant water levels were critically low in the El Guri reservoir, one of the world's largest dams.

It looks like difficulties with the U.S. dragging its feet on climate change [...]