A combination of drought, poor harvests, and soaring food prices had combined to create "the perfect storm," as Sachs referred to it.
In Malawi, vulnerable to a noxious combination of drought and flooding, there is little time to waste.
Parts of the south-east of the US have faced a combination of drought and strong gusts of up to 80mph, culminating in intense wildfires.
In Northern Colorado, a combination of drought and wildfire is shutting off the spigot for scores of farmers.
The combination of drought and land reform has left about 6 million people -- roughly half the population -- in need of emergency food aid.
"A combination of drought, war, restrictions on aid groups and years of chaos have pushed four million Somalis — more than half the population — into 'crisis,' according to the United Nations".
A recent headline in one of Kenya's leading newspapers blared, "25,000 villagers risk starving," referring to a combination of drought, higher fertilizer and fuel costs and postelection violence that displaced thousands of farmers.
Spokesmen for the organization said the shortages could soon extend to five other southern African countries, where a combination of drought and insufficient donations threatens to worsen hunger problems when the harvest season begins early next year.
A number of small communities in Texas oil and gas country have already run out of water or are in danger of running out of water in days, pushed to the brink by a combination of drought and high demand for water for fracking.
As aid agencies poured supplies into Mogadishu, Somalia, the country most severely affected through a combination of drought and conflict, officials at the Food and Agriculture Organisation held a second emergency meeting in less than a month to take stock of the humanitarian disaster.
