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E-book The Impact of Climate Change on Vulnerable Populations : Social Responses to a Changing Environment

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Penilaian

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Climate change threatens the physical and mental health of vulnerablecommunities and can have a significant impact on their livelihoods. Climate changecan also deepen existing social and economic inequities and contribute to the erosionof coping skills and resilience. Transformative social and economic responses basedon inclusion and dialogue with members of the community are needed in such anever-changing global environment, including investment in innovative measures tostrengthen community-based assets, and the fostering of collective agreements andpartnerships between communities and governments.The unpredictable nature of climate change events often presents vulnerablecommunities such as farmers, fisherfolk, and indigenous groups, amongst others,with challenges that threaten the economic stability of their households, communities,and even their domestic economies. This can be especially true if the countryin question relies on tourism or agriculture as a primary source of revenue. Forexample, Akanbi et al. (2021), found that for Nigerian farmers engaged inlow-technology-based food production such as rice farming, climate change posesa significant threat as it increases their vulnerability to food poverty. For thisreason, Bedeke (2022) argues that farmers need to change their style of croppingto accommodate exposure to extreme conditions such as erratic rainfall, recurrentfloods and droughts, elevated temperatures, and solar radiation. In such instances,Bedeke (2022) suggests that programs that facilitate such behavior changes can leadto the propagation of drought-tolerant plants and high-yield varieties of rice andother crops (Bedeke 2022). It is important to recognize that climate change, manifestas it is in multiple ways, impacts communities differently depending upon a rangeof multi-layered factors.For example, along the coastal regions of Spain and the Mediterranean, climatechange has played a significant role in the regional disparities in the vulnerabilityof fisheries and coastal tourism, leading various communities to become moreexposed than others. Aragão et al. (2021) found that based on the sensitivity offisheries to climate change and the ability to adapt to such changes, fisherfolk inthe Mediterranean were more vulnerable than those in the Atlantic. While touristresorts on the north-western Mediterranean coast of Egypt are particularly prone toshoreline and beach erosion, the degradation of infrastructure, and the devaluationof properties, reducing the revenues earned by the tourist industry (El-Masry et al.2022).Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are heavily dependent on agriculture andfishing and women play an integral role in the processing and selling of thecommodities produced. However, women have little access to land, to agriculturalsupport services or to financial resources and consequently are more vulnerableto climate change impacts on food security. Anugwa et al. (2022) find that such nequalities arise because of traditional socio-cultural roles, inequities in access toeducation, and the deprivations faced geographic locations such as coastal or ruralcommunities. Apart from the gender dynamic of climate change, Awolala et al. (2021)find that even though depressed areas may have access to basic amenities, women(and their children) and elderly populations are often income-poor, lack the necessaryservices to ensure their wellbeing and have insufficient support from governmentinstitutions.Extreme weather conditions, such as elevated temperatures and prolongeddroughts in the case of Africa, impacts persons’ capacity for food security ina negative manner while simultaneously exacerbating social inequality. Theseconditions impact the health of vulnerable communities as these extreme climatechange events may lead to malnutrition, cholera, and the displacement of entirecommunities such as nomadic tribes who may lack access to water and consequentlyhave poor levels of sanitation and hygiene (Charnley et al. 2022). Indeed, climatechange is increasingly responsible for population displacement and the creation ofrefugee communities.Tribal communities in Africa and India often earn their income from engaging inagricultural practices such as cropping and working on tea plantations, making themvulnerable to high rainfall, flooding, and landslides (Deb and Mukherjee 2022; Kauret al. 2022). For this reason, these groups are slow to adapt and are more susceptibleto the effects of climate change events. Even in economically advanced countrieslike Australia, human-induced climate change events such as bushfires are knownto harm the health of remote communities that, because of their isolated location,have limited access to transport, health care services, infrastructure, and economicresources (Hall and Crosby 2020).International organizations such as the United Nations Framework Conventionon Climate Change (UNFCCC) are tasked with designing and implementing climatechange policies to address the impact that climate change has on vulnerable groupsin society. However, Biesbroek et al. (2021) explain that the policy literature tendsto focus more on the impact of climate change more widely, rather than on theneeds of especially vulnerable groups, adaptation, or governance. In addition tofocusing on the last three areas, there is a need to review how vulnerability impactassessments are undertaken by institutions around the world because vulnerabilityranking determines climate change responses (Birkmann et al. 2022).

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

333.7 MOH t

Penerbit

Switzerland : MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute., 2023

Deskripsi Fisik

234 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9783036555034

Klasifikasi

333.7

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Natural Resources and Energy, Environment

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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