THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Emerging from research in natural hazards, the concept of vulnerability to environmental risks which entered development debates in the 1990s, have been applied widely in climate related issues with different disciplines and policy communities (Wisner et al. 2004). Vulnerability is defined as a “measure of a person or group’s exposure to the effects of a natural hazard, including the degree to which they can recover from the impact of that event” (Blaikie et al. 1994). This view focuses on factors such as the frequency, intensity and nature of the physical hazard as key components of vulnerability and the exposure of communities to such hazards, paying less attention to the role of socioeconomic conditions. From a socioeconomic point of view, vulnerability focuses on the ability or inability of individuals or social groupings to respond to, in the sense, cope with, recover from or adapt to, any external stress placed on their livelihoods and well-being (Kelly and Adger 2000). This view emphasizes the political and social nature of vulnerability, assessing the coping strategies and socioeconomic structures of people and communities as a measure of their capacity to respond to stress, and which are independent of future threats.
In this paper, the concept of vulnerability is expressed in a functional relationship with the three key dimensions, namely- exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Vulnerability relates to different degrees of exposure and sensitivity of a region or community to stress or stimuli such as climate variability, and also to the particular adaptive capacity of the region or communities to cope with the effects or risks associated with the exposures. Exposure and sensitivity are ...
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...identified a list of commonly used social and biophysical indicators of vulnerability. This list was deliberated upon by participants at a workshop to identify the indicators which were deemed important in defining or predicting vulnerability at the regional level (Table 1). The selection of indicators was informed by a set of four criteria provided by Gbetibouo et al. (2010) namely: (1) relevancy- theoretically well founded within the vulnerability framework; (2) adequacy- really measures what it should and the direction of influence between the indicator and vulnerability is not ambiguous; (3) ease- easy to grasp by policymakers; and (4) data availability- publicly and easily available data at the level of analysis. The determinants and indicators for calculating overall vulnerability are presented in Table I.
Table I: Vulnerability determinants and indicators
They found that various socio-demographic predictors of flood risk impact the difference across flood zone categories. The main residents in inland flood zones are non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic, while coastal flood zones have more higher median income and housing value residents. I considered the study a valuable reference for future flood hazard research and comprehensive public policy making. Social groups with higher vulnerability also tends to stay instead of moving away, for they do not have the affordability for moving to other neighborhood, giving up what they have and almost start from scratch. Thus, they are actually the group of people that suffers the most and paying the most towards natural events. It is also important for the government to create a official help system to improve their resilience.
Resilience gives people living in poor conditions a way to change the way they perceive situations by creative a view of positivity. Relationships between poverty and the environment in rural destitute neighborhoods are not
In order to get a comprehensive picture of these issues, this chapter reviews literature on climate change and vulnerability. It begins by defining climate change and analyzing global climate change in general and its impacts on local smallholder farmer’s livelihoods in a developing country such as Zimbabwe. Lastly the chapter also assesses the measures of adaptation which smallholder farmers can use to increase their coping capacity and resilience to climate change and variability.
The Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment need the whole community to pass on information, account for population-specific factors, and acknowledge the effects of a threat or hazard. Communities have to be educated and updated on threats and hazards that they may specifically face in order to accurately plan and prepare. All situations are usually handled starting at the lowest level, however, they will also have to discuss on how the federal government will assist if needed. “By providing the necessary knowledge and skills, we seek to enable the whole community to contribute to and benefit from national preparedness.” (FEMA, 2015). Local communities recognize their risks and conclude on how they will handle the significant amount of risks. Local governments discover and address their greatest risks by finishing the Threat and Hazard
Wright, C. Y., & Diab, R. (2011). Air pollution and vulnerability: Solving the puzzle of
The two essays by Michael Pollan and Curtis white talk about climate change in regards to the relationship between the environment and human beings. Although the two essays share the same topic, they take the subject and engage the readers in totally different points of views. Pollan’s essay talks about global and ecological responsibility being a personal virtue while Curtis discusses the socio-economic or political issues underlying sustainability (Pollan; White). These two essays are very different in terms of voice; however these pieces of writing are both important for people all over the world to read. Climate change and environmental disasters are a real issue. Just this year, there have been more storms, cyclones, earthquakes and typhoons all over the world. One cannot look at the state of many developing counties where the majority of the population is exposed and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This issue on developing a viable solution for the problem of anthropogenic gases and global warming is long from being found. Not only this, many people do not want to hear about this issue since they do not think it is real. Unless people have tangible proof that their cars, thermostats and aerosol cans are contributing to climate change, they are not going to give up their lifestyles. By synthesizing the two essays, one can see that there is a need for change and that it is not an issue which should be dealt with in terms of ecological factors or even personal virtue. The social, economic and political factors affecting this problem and the move towards real sustainability should also be a topic that will raise awareness.
The thought of social vulnerability arose most recently within the sermon on natural hazards and disasters. To date no one definition has been agreed upon. Similarly, multiple theories of social vulnerability exist (Weichselgartner 2001). Most work conducted so far focuses on empirical observation and conceptual models. Thus current social vulnerability research is a middle range theory and represents an attempt to understand the social conditions that transform a natural hazard (e.g. flood, earthquake, mass movements etc.) into a social disaster. The idea highlights two main themes:
Theorin, B. (1999, January 14). Report on the environment, security and foreign policy (Hughes procedure) - Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy - A4-0005/1999. European Parliament. Retrieved March 28, 2011, from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A4-1999-0005+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
McMean, G. (2007, June). Artic climate impact assessment (C. Symon, Ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge Univercity Press. http://www.acia.uaf.edu/pages/scientific.html
These are conflict, poverty, instability, migration, unrest, collapse, capacity, and dependency. This film serves as a wakeup call to the audience because climate change is a very critical problem that people should address as soon as possible. It also explicitly shows that climate change is in fact in our midst and is not just a myth or a theory as some would say.
Steward T.A. Pickett, Brian McGrath, M.L. Cadenasso & Alexander J. Felson. “Ecological Resilience and Resilient Cities.” Building Research & Information, 42:2 (2014), 143-157
The Earth is currently locked in perpetuating spiral of climate change. While the global climate has unarguably been changing since the dawn of it's manifestation, the once steadied ebb and flow of climate change has become increasingly more unpredictable.The risk of rising sea levels, and drought plaguing the fresh water supply, during the time that flooding and sporadic storm conditions turn once fully inhabited regions into uninhabitable death traps. Climate change catalyzed by human's increased production of carbon dioxide, is more noticeable than ever in our recorded history (United States, 2014 National Climate Assessment). Thankfully however, with the changing weather conditions due to carbon related emissions, the change in public opinion about their personalized influence on climate change is also increasing. Kevin Liptak Jethro Mullen, and Tom Cohen note that In reaction to the most recent governmental report on climate change, even the U.S. government believes that a stronger approach needs to be taken to correct our self-generated cataclysm.
...local agriculture and food security, this paper attempts to give an overview of observed and projected climate change in Sri Lanka, its impact on the agriculture sector and climate change adaptation strategies through reviewing recent literature on climate change. To develop appropriate strategies and institutional responses to climate change targeting smallholder farmers it is necessary to have a good understanding about the local farming environment in terms of farmer perception about climate change, key issues faced by farmers in overcoming climate adversities, local knowledge and strengths on climate change adaptation. There is a dearth of such research studies undertaken in Sri Lanka therefore; this paper presents a case study undertaken on a farming community in the intermediate zone to demonstrate how farmers perceive and respond to climate adversities.
Hardy, J. T. Climate Change: Causes, Effects, and Solutions. New York: J. Wiley, 2003. Print.
While it is agreed, climate change will result in higher temperatures, more frequent drought conditions and more frequent severe weather events; changes in temperature, precipitation and carbon dioxide levels, are not happening uniformly (Schimmelpfenning et al, 1996). Scientist and modules of climate change disagree as to the specific effects within any given area. Even before climate change became an issue, farmers were in the position of making decisions regarding when and wha...