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Bank calls for water to be treated as valuable resource as study into impact details lack of water’s devastating lifelong scars on children

The food produce destroyed by droughts would be enough to feed a country with a population the size of Germany’s every day for a year, the World Bank has reported.

In a new study, it said, the “shockingly large and often hidden” consequences of prolonged periods without rain threatened to stunt the growth of children and condemn them to a lifetime of poverty.

Vice-president Rosario Murillo calls global pact ‘the only instrument we have’ to address climate change as number of outsiders shrinks to two

Nicaragua is set to join the Paris climate agreement, according to an official statement and comments from the vice-president, Rosario Murillo, on Monday, in a move that leaves the United States and Syria as the only countries outside the global pact.

Nicaragua has already presented the relevant documents at the United Nations, Murillo, who is also first lady, said on local radio on Monday.

Related: It's a fact: climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly | Michael E Mann

Texas construction workers already endure dire conditions. We must fight to ensure that those rebuilding post-Harvey are properly protected and paid

On a damp, early Monday morning last month, five community organizers crammed into a car heading to downtown Houston.

They didn’t have a particular destination, other than street corners and parking lots. They were looking for day laborers and construction workers, a workforce often seen in Houston but rarely felt. They were driving to places where these workers gathered each morning in search of work to rebuild the city after Hurricane Harvey.

Related: Post-hurricane cleanup work could kill more workers than storms themselves

Even pre-Harvey, it was tough in the Houston construction industry – a worker dies on the job in Texas every three days

Related: Immigration crackdown enables worker exploitation, labor department staff say

A new study finds that Americans are willing to pay an extra $15 per month on energy bills to tackle climate change.

According to a new study published by Yale scientists in Environmental Research Letters, Americans are willing to pay a carbon tax that would increase their household energy bills by $15 per month, or about 15%, on average. This result is consistent with a survey from last year that also found Americans are willing to pay an average of $15 to $20 per month to combat climate change. Another recent Yale survey found that overall, 78% of registered American voters support taxing and/or regulating carbon pollution, including 67% of Republicans and 60% of conservative Republicans.

Policy elites sometimes have ideological stances quite different than their constituents, even of their own party (e.g., background checks on gun purchases in the US which is overwhelmingly favored by Democrats and Republicans).