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Abstract
Primarily due to a high dependence on agro-ecosystems and their vulnerability to environmental changes, Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change and variability (IPCC, 2007). Poor rural societies that are dependent on climate-sensitive resources will be the most affected, with potential negative impacts including loss of income, displacement, and internal migration.
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... Further, Tschakert and Tutu [13] also argued that solastalgia does not capture other stressors outside of climate change/environmental destruction that contribute to cumulative distress. This is important when considering Pacific contexts as other factors such as socio-economic positioning, remoteness, colonisation, and other sociopolitical stressors may inform the distress caused by climate change. ...
... Relevant to our Climate Change and Mental Wellbeing: The Impact on Pacific Peoples [3] study mentioned earlier, and thoughts on migration, is Tschakert and Tutu's [13] work on the correlation between environmental distress and migration. They posit that the degree of distress an individual or a community experiences is intricately linked to the loss of their deep-rooted connection to a specific place. ...
... In their study on the internal migration of Northern Ghana communities, they utilised the Environmental Distress Scale (EDS) and Likert Scale to assess solastalgia based on participants' perceptions of distress and 'thresholds for pathological homes' in tandem with semi-structured interviews with residents of affected rural villages. Their findings revealed that the motivations behind migration are often multifaceted, making it challenging to determine whether migration as a whole or, more specifically, factors like the pursuit of arable land for farming or addressing social conflicts serve as the primary response to threats to their livelihoods [13]. ...
The critical inquiry is how Pacific communities themselves characterize mental distress as a result of climate change. If not solastalgia, what more suitable terms might they use? This viewpoint article aims to initiate a discourse using solastalgia as the focus for the Pacific by 1. providing a definition of solastalgia; 2. examining its application in Pacific research; 3. presenting limitations of solastalgia; and 4. assessing its appropriateness for Pacific communities. There is a dearth of research using solastalgia, particularly within Pacific communities. The Pacific region’s diverse contexts may already possess terms that effectively convey place-based distress that solastalgia attempts to describe. However, the authors found that solastalgia holds limited utility in the Pacific region, primarily based on a review of the literature, which involved keyword searches in Google Scholar such as solastalgia, mental health, mental distress, wellbeing, climate change, environmental distress, displacement, and Indigenous and Pacific peoples. More importantly, the concept is limited in capturing Pacific experiences of land loss due to climate change events, particularly, as the Pacific imbues land with profound significance, intertwined with culture, identity, and wellbeing. Land loss equates to a loss of culture, identity, wellbeing, and kinship in most Pacific contexts. It is apparent that broader and more holistic approaches are required.
... Amidst these dynamics, the estimates of safe levels for potential land pollution, water and air quality from mining activities through the EIA process becomes inadequate. Local populations become distressed and powerless in averting perceived adverse impact of mining on health and livelihoods (Albrecht 2005;Tschakert and Tutu 2010;Elliott et al. 1999). This may be the case of emerging mining activities in north-western Ghana where multinationals are licensed to mine despite community concerns about health (Antabe et al. 2017). ...
... This complex resident-environment nexus is psychologically linked by residents' sense of home, place identity, health and wellbeing (Higginbotham et al. 2007;Albrecht 2005). Particularly for residents affected by human-induced environmental change such as surface mining, the rapid disruption of this relationship leads to distress as it negatively affects their health, livelihoods, cultural and physical landscapes, and wellbeing (Tschakert and Tutu 2010). The transformation of local environments without the active involvement of residents also borders on place pathology as this transition which is mostly imposed on residents is perceived to compromise health and wellbeing (Connor et al. 2004). ...
... Feelings of solastalgia which lead to a breakdown of psychic identity for affected residents in the midst of adverse environmental change is conceptualized as the longing for the restoration of the physical and social-cultural environment perceived by residents to ensure health and wellbeing (Albrecht 2011;Tschakert and Tutu 2010). In the context of developing countries, feelings of solastalgia may heighten, as prior studies in this context highlighted how victims of human-induced environmental change such as mining tend to posses limited power by way of political mobilization to resist environmental injustices from their governments and powerful corporations (Wan 2014;Downing 2002;Connor et al. 2004). ...
Despite the impact of mining-induced environmental change on community livability, we know little about how disparities in knowledge of health risks associated with mining influence residents’ response, especially in an already environmentally stressed context. Guided by theoretical insights from solastalgia, we examined residents’ decision to relocate due to increasing gold mining activities in the fragile Northern Savannah Ecological Zone of Ghana. Fitting complementary log-log regression models to cross-sectional data from the Upper West Region (UWR) of Ghana, we found that residents with limited knowledge of potential health impacts of mining and those who believe mining activities were not meeting environmental standards were more likely to consider relocating. Given the centrality of land in community health and wellbeing in the UWR, Ghana’s mining guidelines should promote local participation in the regulation of mining activities and guarantee the rights of indigenes to livable native lands.
... a) Only 4 % of urban households do not participate in the remittance economy. b) In resettlements, remittances and the shift away from production are driving social stratification solastalgia; see Albrecht 2010 andTschakert andTutu 2010). Resilient 'poverty traps' form when households pass a critical threshold below which they lack the necessary resources to sustain minimum standards of human development and well-being (Carter et al. 2007;Tschakert and Tutu 2010). ...
... a) Only 4 % of urban households do not participate in the remittance economy. b) In resettlements, remittances and the shift away from production are driving social stratification solastalgia; see Albrecht 2010 andTschakert andTutu 2010). Resilient 'poverty traps' form when households pass a critical threshold below which they lack the necessary resources to sustain minimum standards of human development and well-being (Carter et al. 2007;Tschakert and Tutu 2010). ...
... b) In resettlements, remittances and the shift away from production are driving social stratification solastalgia; see Albrecht 2010 andTschakert andTutu 2010). Resilient 'poverty traps' form when households pass a critical threshold below which they lack the necessary resources to sustain minimum standards of human development and well-being (Carter et al. 2007;Tschakert and Tutu 2010). The case of Informant 3 is illustrative of the inability to achieve a desirable stability that provisioned well-being. ...
Environmental migration, in its different forms, is an aspiration toward stability domains amidst dynamic system change. This paper assesses critical system relationships that couple human and natural systems and change in due course of a regime shift affecting Garífuna villages in Northern Honduras. The specified resilience of these relationships influences the course that migration takes after a flooding event. In impacted villages, migration is a mechanism for demographic fragmentation, ‘downgrades’ livelihood chains, and reinforces a class divide. Villages systems that experience a shift to uninhabitable and unproductive state spaces become shallow stability domains and consequently, perpetual exporters of migrants over an extended period of time. In the end, migration itself is a cascading aspect of a regime shift that is both ecological and social, forced and chosen.
... Coastal populations reliant on fishing are also migrating to Accra due to changing weather patterns that threaten their livelihoods (Hillmann and Ziegelmayer 2016). This rural-to-urban migration has significantly contributed to the formation of a large Accra informal settlements that receives around 400 migrants daily, mainly from the northern regions and coastal areas (Tschakert and Tutu 2010). The informal settlement, serving as the city's "main drain" into the ocean, poses health risks related to overcrowding, contaminated water supply, and poor sanitation (Tschakert and Tutu 2010; United Nations Development Programme 2012). ...
... This rural-to-urban migration has significantly contributed to the formation of a large Accra informal settlements that receives around 400 migrants daily, mainly from the northern regions and coastal areas (Tschakert and Tutu 2010). The informal settlement, serving as the city's "main drain" into the ocean, poses health risks related to overcrowding, contaminated water supply, and poor sanitation (Tschakert and Tutu 2010; United Nations Development Programme 2012). ...
Recent reports from the World Bank and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast increasing sudden- and slow-onset climate events contributing to population movement on a growing scale across West Africa. This essay explores the potential health implications for migrant populations, considering recent projections of climate-related human mobility provided by these reports. We found that climate-driven migration exacerbates health issues due to loss of livelihoods, overcrowding, and increased exposure to climate hazards. Policy solutions to minimize adverse health outcomes include enhancing healthcare systems, supporting sustainable development, and fostering regional collaboration. By highlighting the relationship between climate change, migration, and health, this essay draws attention to climate migrant health as a critical focus for policy and research.
... Louis and Hess, 2008;Tong and Soskolne, 2007). There is also increasing awareness that people are emotionally impacted by changes in weather, climate, and environment through degradation or disaster, whether slow and gradual or rapid and unexpected (Albrecht, 2010;Albrecht et al., 2007;Higginbotham et al., 2007;Norgaard and Marie, 2006) and, as a result, there is emerging research examining and attending to the relationships among climatic and environmental change, emotional and mental health and well-being, and affective responses and behaviours (Berry et al., 2010;Cook et al., 2008;Doherty and Clayton, 2011;Fritze et al., 2008;Norgaard and Marie, 2006;Norgaard and Marie, 2011;Sartore et al., 2008;Speldewinde et al., 2009;Swim et al., 2010;Swim et al., 2011;Tschakert and Tutu, 2010). ...
... For people within Rigolet who are intimately 'in place' and connected to the local ecology through a sense of home and reliance on the land for livelihood and culture, then any change or variabilitydsubtle or otherwisedwill immediately affect the emotions and felt responses of individuals and communities in the area. These findings resonate with Albrecht et al.'s (2007) concept of 'solastalgia', or a sense of place-based distress that one experiences when one's surrounding and inti- mately familiar landscape has changed too rapidly and too drasti- cally (Albrecht, 2010;Albrecht et al., 2007;Speldewinde et al., 2009;Tschakert and Tutu, 2010). For Albrecht et al., (2007: S96), "solastalgia refers to the pain or distress caused by the loss of, or inability to derive solace connected to the negatively perceived state of one's home environment. ...
... I suggest qualifying these forms of depletion as "furious", to bring their violence to the fore, but also to emphasize, again drawing on feminist work, the significance of emotions and affect in making the politics of depletion visible, intelligible and actionable. A burgeoning research field has started to emphasize the significance of affect in understanding and addressing human-environment dynamics (Tschakert and Tutu, 2010;Nightingale, 2013 connecting land and body through experience (González-Hidalgo and Zografos, 2019; Caretta and Zaragocin, 2020). Nightingale et al. (2022) for example challenge preconceived ideas of effective climate adaptation that limit the field of science and policy to rationalizing risk and uncertainty. ...
A buoyant debate has grown in political ecology and agrarian studies around the concept of extractivism. It shines a light on forms of human and non-human depletion that fuel contemporary capitalism. Within this debate however, artisan mining has been hard to fit in. Artisan mining is a form of small scale mineral extraction that occupies around 45 million people around the world, and sustains the life of many more, especially in the Global South. Much research has looked at this expanding form of livelihood, particularly through the prism of its persistent informality, its labor organization, and its challenges to environmental and labor rights. However, it has not been well-theorized in relations to extractivism, sitting uncomfortably with dominant categories such as “the community”, “the company”, and “social movements” in political ecology analyses. The paper maps out entry points to studying the significance of artisan mining within dynamics of extractive capitalism by bringing in conversation political ecology scholarship on extractivism and research on artisan mining through a feminist lens. It develops the notions of “furious depletion”, attempting to capture the stark socioenvironmental injustice through which artisan mining forms an integral part of extractive capitalism, as both a victim and fuel thereof. The notion also emphasizes the significance of emotions - such as infuriation - in thinking through unjust human-environment relations for transformation. It focuses specifically on the ways relations of gender and race mediate human-environment relations, can help clarify an understanding of artisan mining in the depletion dynamics underlying extractivism. Given the acceleration of mining as part of digital and energy transitions, and the expansion of artisan mining, an engaged conceptualization of artisan mining may support struggles away from extractive capitalism for the decades to come.
... Environmental injustice (or powerlessness) and place pathology, as Casey (1993: 38) identified it, thus result in the feeling of solastalgia: "It is the 'lived experience' of the loss of the present as manifest in a feeling of dislocation; of being undermined by forces that destroy the potential for solace to be derived from the present." (Albrecht 2006: 54) This is of notable importance when considering the experiences of indigenous peoples who are struggling with the legacies of colonialism in its many forms, including displacement from traditional lands, the marginalisation or erasure of their traditional knowledge systems, and the subsequent labelling of calls for radical 16 A number of studies have been done on the experience of solastalgia among peoples and communities in (mostly) rural Australia, from indigenous communities to farmers (see Agho et al. 2007;Albrecht et al. 2004;Albrecht 2011), while less than a handful of similar studies have been published in the context of South Africa (see Tschakert and Tutu 2010;Rusch 2016;Barnwell, Stroud and Watson 2019;Barnwell and Wood 2022). As such, the authors of this article plan to undertake similar research in the context of South Africa. ...
This paper provides an argument for the need to reconceptualise ecocritical concepts that have naively been regarded as central, and thus global, scholarly concepts. Focusing in particular on ecofascism, the paper argues that if forms of ecocriticism are to be explored in a Global South context, certain concepts associated with ecofascism and anti-progress in the Global North, such as nostalgia, need to be revisited. Such an attempt is made in this paper by introducing the concept of solastalgia to explain the intense dis-ease experienced by a loss of place (caused by, for instance, environmental destruction), and the consequent necessity for different kinds of responses and actions. By situating this study within the paradigm of critical ecosemiotics, focus is placed on the significance of locality (rather than globality) in understanding the relationship between nature and culture, and thereby re-addressing Western ecofascist critique.
... Being separated from cultural lands and traditional ways of life by climate-related migration can create strong feelings of dispossession and grief (165,366,371,394,395) . Ecological grief and solastalgia have been reported particularly for rural or Indigenous communities (169,347), including: youth in Indonesia (396); Inuit communities in northern Canada (73,336,347,367); farmers in the Australian wheatbelt (165); residents and tourists of communities around the Great Barrier Reef (397); elders in the Torres Strait (371) between Australia and New Guinea; communities in Ghana (369,398); coastal communities in Ireland (169) and the USA (168); and rural communities in India (60) and South Africa (360) (Figure 7). It may also be particularly common in scientists working in climate and ecological related fields (399). ...
Converging global evidence highlights the dire consequences of climate change for human mental health and wellbeing. This paper summarises literature across relevant disciplines to provide a comprehensive narrative review of the multiple pathways through which climate change interacts with mental health and wellbeing. Climate change acts as a risk amplifier by disrupting the conditions known to support good mental health, including socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions, and living and working conditions. The disruptive influence of rising global temperatures and extreme weather events, such as experiencing a heatwave or water insecurity, compounds existing stressors experienced by individuals and communities. This has deleterious effects on people’s mental health and is particularly acute for those groups already disadvantaged within and across countries. Awareness and experiences of escalating climate threats and climate inaction can generate understandable psychological distress; though strong emotional responses can also motivate climate action. We highlight opportunities to support individuals and communities to cope with and act on climate change. Consideration of the multiple and interconnected pathways of climate impacts and their influence on mental health determinants must inform evidence-based interventions. Appropriate action that centres climate justice can reduce the current and future mental health burden, while simultaneously improving the conditions that nurture wellbeing and equality. The presented evidence adds further weight to the need for decisive climate action by decision makers across all scales.
... This feature is especially relevant for international migrants who face a host of political and social concerns as a result of their migration, including but not limited to endangered livelihoods and poor physical and mental health outcomes; diminished political efficacy; and reduced access to critical resources (Tschakert and Tutu 2010;McLeman 2017;Schwerdtle et al. 2018). Migrants also risk being labeled a national security concern by increasingly anti-immigrant regimes, leading to an exacerbation of the negative impacts. ...
Since 2010, States party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have recognized planned relocation as a viable adaptation to climate change. Planned relocation has been attempted in many communities globally and has raised serious issues of equity in some cases. Implementation driven by principles of equity is crucial in ensuring successful planned relocations that decrease loss and damage. In this Policy Analysis, we put forth a framework for equitable planned relocation rooted in theories of justice as a basis for implementation. The framework centers around three principles: comprehensive recognition of affected stakeholders in decision-making, consideration of socio-cultural risk factors relevant to relocation, and evaluation of multiple measures of well-being. There are many actors involved in planned relocation. Unique features and abilities of international organizations lend themselves to promoting equitable planned relocation in partnership with other stakeholders. Through the exploration of case studies, we identify best practices that international organizations have available to influence the design, implementation, and evaluation of planned relocation processes. These practices are relevant when striving for equity for all affected individuals and communities. Points of intervention include agenda-setting and advocacy, funding and implementation standards, and facilitation of international cooperation. International organizations also face barriers to supporting equitable planned relocation. Limitations include lack of enforcement mechanisms, limited resources, and fundamental dependence on existing governance structures and global collaboration. As the necessity of planned relocations grows, the need for leadership from international organizations in implementation is magnified, underscoring the importance of developing and evaluating approaches to just implementation.
... Other Native American researchers have identified impacts on spiritual, mental, and physical health when the environment is contaminated and traditional foods or water sources are unsafe for consumption (e.g., Donatuto et al. 2011;Cozetto et al. 2013;Willox et al. 2013). This widespread anguish is akin to what some have called solastalgia, described as "the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment" (Albrecht et al. 2007;Tschakert and Tutu 2010). Other studies are also finding that climatic and environmental change can have profound impacts on human well-being through multiple pathways (e.g., Bourque and Willox 2014;Gifford and Gifford 2016). ...
It is well established that climate change is already causing a wide variety of human health impacts in the United States and globally, and that for many reasons Native Americans are particularly vulnerable. Tribal water security is particularly threatened; the ways in which climate changes are damaging community health and well‐being through impacts on water resources have been addressed more thoroughly for Tribes in coastal, arid, and sub‐arctic/arctic regions of the United States. In this article, Crow Tribal members from the Northern Plains describe the impacts of climate and environmental change on local water resources and ecosystems, and thereby on Tribal community health and well‐being. Formal, qualitative research methodology was employed drawing on interviews with 26 Crow Tribal Elders. Multiple determinants of health are addressed, including cultural, social, economic, and environmental factors. The sense of environmental‐cultural‐health loss and despair at the inability to address the root causes of climate change are widespread. Yet the co‐authors and many other Tribal members are actively prioritizing, addressing, and coping with some of the local impacts of these changes, and are carrying on Apsáalooke [Crow] lifeways and values.
... A new kind of urban renewal is taking place in New York City, for example, where privately owned flood-prone homes are being purchased by the city and state so that the lots can be either "returned to nature" [Koslov 2016] or redeveloped into more floodresilient housing (with no right of return for former residents). Climate variability and environmental change can lead people to abandon places, in some cases forcing displacements that combine with the complex mix of political and economic factors we regularly associate with migration [Black, Kniveton, and Schmidt-Verkerk 2011; Tschakert and Tutu 2010]. ...
Climate change involves human societies in problems of loss: depletion, disappearance, and collapse. The climate changes and changes other things, in specifically destructive ways. What can and should sociology endeavour to know about this particular form of social change? This article outlines the sociology of loss as a project for sociological engagement with climate change, one that breaks out of environmental sociology as the conventional silo of research and bridges to other subfields. I address four interrelated dimensions of loss that climate change presents: the materiality of loss; the politics of loss; knowledge of loss; and practices of loss. Unlike “sustainability”—the more dominant framing in the social sciences of climate change—the sociology of loss examines what does, will, or must disappear rather than what can or should be sustained. Though the sociology of loss requires a confrontation with the melancholia of suffering people and places, it also speaks to new solidarities and positive transformations.
... There is, however, an expanding body of literature that draws on solastalgia to explore a diverse range of global-social circumstances in the experience of climate change and the negative impacts it has, or is likely to have, on mental health. These include: Inuit experiences of instability and recession of arctic ice (Cunsolo Willox et al., 2012;Cunsolo Willox et al., 2013); everyday experiences of climatic and environmental change within poor communities in Ghana (Tschakert et al., 2013;Tschakert, 2010) and the Island communities in the Torres Strait (McNamara and Westoby, 2011); vulnerable populations experience of wildfires (Eisenman et al., 2015); and, Indonesian villagers' experience of volcanic eruptions and exposure to destruction due to natural disasters (Warsini et al., 2014;Warsini et al., 2016). While these applications of solastalgia demonstrate a useful means of explaining health impacts of a variety of environmental issues, there is little work that challenges or extends Albrecht's initial definition of solastalgia or that explores ways in which it can be more effectively adapted for phenomenological research. ...
The concept of solastagia has been developed by environmental philosopher Albrecht to understand the psychological trauma, also referred to as place-based distress, experienced because of environmental change. In this article, we explore ways to further this concept. The article draws on ethnographic fieldwork in a village in the mid-western region of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, which is surrounded by three large open-cut coal mines. Over the past decade, the mines, in particular the Peabody-owned Wilpinjong mine closest to the village, have had a significant impact on biophysical, social and temporal landscapes in the area. We argue that whilst solastalgia may help explore the relationship between the environmental and human distress triggered in these circumstances, the sense of displacement and loss that emerge are entangled with questions of power and dispossession beyond the biophysical realm. Underpinned by a phenomenological framework of analysis, we contend that place-based distress should be understood as an ontological trauma, as the fabrics of place, belonging and the social relations embedded within disrupt the ongoing sense of being associated with home. These include the means to not only link to the past, but also to imagine the future.
... While climate may be a factor in stimulating migration, there are a number of important economic, political, demographic, social and environmental dimensions at play as well. Studies from Ghana indicate that seasonal migration can actually be greater in good years than in drought years (Black, et al., 2011), and that environmental resource scarcity, economic factors and conflict can be a larger push factor than drought per se in influencing migration (Lawson et al. 2012;Tschakert and Tutu, 2010;van der Geest, 2011). The role that climate plays in regional migration dynamics may become more prominent as impacts of climate change intensify in the coming decades (Scheffran et al., 2012). ...
... In response to the loss of climate-sensitive occupations and the non-availability of climatic-insensitive occupations, communities diversify their livelihoods by intensifying agricultural and non-farm activities (McDowell and Haan, 1997). Tschakert and Tutu (2010) further emphasized the importance of migration in coping with climate change; in particular, in South Asia, a large number of landless and marginal farmers have migrated to cope with climate variability (Bhatta and Agarwal, 2016). The impact of climate change on human migration dynamics is particularly IJCCSM notable in rural areas due to a lack of adaptive capacity (Boyd and Ibarrarán, 2009;Kates, 2000). ...
Purpose
This study aims to evaluate the link between climate/weather change and farmer migration in Bihar, India. The influence of cognitive conditions and climate-related stress on farmer migration decisions and the socioeconomic characteristics of migrating and non-migrating farm households are analysed. The focus is the role of migration in access to climate and agricultural extension services and the contribution of migration to enhanced farmer coping capacity.
Design/methodology/approach
A primary survey was conducted of farm households in seven districts of Bihar, India. Farmer perceptions of climate change were analysed using the mental map technique. The role of socioeconomic characteristics in farm household migration was evaluated using binary logistic regression, and the influence of migration on access to climate and agricultural extension services and the adaptive capacity of migrating households was investigated using descriptive statistics.
Findings
Climate-induced livelihood risk factors are one of the major drivers of farmer’s migration. The farmers’ perception on climate change influences migration along with the socioeconomic characteristics. There is a significant difference between migrating and non-migrating farm households in the utilization of instructions, knowledge and technology based climate and agriculture extension services. Benefits from receipt of remittance, knowledge and social networks from the host region enhances migrating households’ adaptive capacity.
Originality/value
This study provides micro-evidence of the contribution of migration to farmer adaptive capacity and access to climate and agricultural extension services, which will benefit analyses of climate-induced migration in other developing countries with higher agricultural dependence. In addition, valuable insights are delivered on policy requirements to reduce farmer vulnerability to climate change.
... Case studies from Somalia and Burundi emphasize the interaction of climate change, disaster, conflict, displacement, and migration (Kolmannskog, 2010). In Ghana, for example, an African country with few conflicts caused by political, ethnic, or religious tensions, and thus with migration drivers more likely related to economic and environmental motivators (Tschakert and Tutu, 2010), some different types of migration flows are considered to have different sensitivity to climate change (Black et al., 2011a). The floods of the Zambezi River in Mozambique in 2008 have displaced 90,000 people, and it has been observed that along the Zambezi River Valley, with approximately 1 million people living in the flood-affected areas, temporary mass displacement is taking on permanent characteristics (Jäger et al., 2009;Warner et al., 2010). ...
... In response to the loss of climate-sensitive occupations and the non-availability of climatic-insensitive occupations, communities diversify their livelihoods by intensifying agricultural and non-farm activities (McDowell and Haan, 1997). Tschakert and Tutu (2010) further emphasized the importance of migration in coping with climate change; in particular, in South Asia, a large number of landless and marginal farmers have migrated to cope with climate variability (Bhatta and Agarwal, 2016). The impact of climate change on human migration dynamics is particularly IJCCSM 10,1 notable in rural areas due to a lack of adaptive capacity (Boyd and Ibarrarán, 2009;Kates, 2000). ...
The impacts of climate change are expected to be the most devastating market failure in modern times. India’s vulnerability to climate change is apparent with the frequent occurrence of flood, drought and cyclones in the recent past. Agriculture being one of the primary sources of livelihood of the country and the most climate centric activity, climate change is likely to significantly affect the key outcomes of agriculture systems and economic development. The most practical way to manage the undesirable climatic consequences is adaptation. Therefore, farm-level analysis of adaptive endeavors is prime requisite to understand the dynamics of adaptation to climate change.
This paper, tries to identify the major parameters which determine Indian farmers’ awareness and expectation of climate change and the factors affecting their adaptive choices. The study also attempts to assess the key adaptive strategies which farmers intend to adapt depending upon agro-climatic conditions and constrained by their socio-economic situations. The observations of this paper will help in identification of micro-level barriers to adaptation and will facilitate appropriate policy formulation to ensure maximum returns out of the changing climatic conditions.
... The amplitude of this firestorm strained regional fire defense resources -including personnel and water. The consequence in such scenarios is inevitably displacement and forced migration (Tschakert and Tutu, 2010;Arthur and Arthur, 2011). ...
... For more than half a century, urban centers have been on the receiving end of internal migrants in Ghana with Accra, Kumasi, and Sekondi-Takoradi being the most preferred destinations (Agyei et al. 2016;Tutu 2013). However, more migrants end up in the poor neighborhoods where rent is affordable compared to other residential areas in the cities (Tschakert and Tutu 2010) or they become squatters in wealthy neighborhoods living in small kiosks, shacks, as well as uncompleted buildings (Aikins and Ofori-Atta 2007). For those living in the wealthy neighborhoods, due to lack of public places of convenience, they rely on nearby shrub-land as toilets and they construct makeshift bathhouses (Aikins and Ofori-Atta 2007). ...
This exploratory study examines how migrants’ lifestyles are associated with subjective assessment of their health status in a relatively poor urban neighborhood in Accra. For more than half a century, urban centers have been on the receiving end of internal migrants in Ghana with Accra, Kumasi, and Sekondi-Takoradi receiving the lion’s share. However, a lot of migrants end up in poor neighborhoods due to inability to afford relatively costly rents in the better residential areas in the cities. Migrants who live on the margins of society are adversely impacted by poor environmental conditions that make them susceptible to environmentally-induced diseases such as malaria, cholera, and typhoid. While the poverty, health, and place research in Accra, Ghana, have focused on spatial distribution of inequalities in health, burden of sexual ill health, double burden of diseases, environment, wealth and health relationship, as well as income and health connections, there is paucity of research on association between the daily lifestyles of migrants in poor urban neighborhoods and their health status. Specifically on lifestyle and contextual factors, we examine (1) eating and drinking behavior, (2) perception of environmental factors, (3) attitudes and practices during illnesses, and (4) physical activities. Results from Ordinal Logit Regression models suggest that the key predictors of self-rated health status are: (1) socio-demographic elements like length of stay, job type, and religiosity; and (2) eating and drinking behavior—frequency of buying food from food vendors, and (3) social capital.
... Case studies from Somalia and Burundi emphasize the interaction of climate change, disaster, conflict, displacement, and migration (Kolmannskog, 2010). In Ghana, for example, an African country with few conflicts caused by political, ethnic, or religious tensions, and thus with migration drivers more likely related to economic and environmental motivators (Tschakert and Tutu, 2010), some different types of migration flows are considered to have different sensitivity to climate change (Black et al., 2011a). The floods of the Zambezi River in Mozambique in 2008 have displaced 90,000 people, and it has been observed that along the Zambezi River Valley, with approximately 1 million people living in the flood-affected areas, temporary mass displacement is taking on permanent characteristics (Jäger et al., 2009;Warner et al., 2010). ...
Africa as a whole is one of the most vulnerable continents due to its high exposure and low adaptive capacity. Given that climatic and ecological regions transcend national political boundaries, we have used the divisions of Africa's Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to structure the assessment within this chapter. 22.1.1. Structure of the Regions. The African continent (including Madagascar) is the world's second largest and most populous continent (1,031,084,000 in 2010) behind Asia (UN DESA Population Division, 2013). The continent is organized at the regional level under the African Union (AU). The AU's Assembly of Heads of State and Government has officially recognized eight RECs (Ruppel, 2009). Except for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, all AU member states are affiliated with one or more of these RECs. These RECs include the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), with 5 countries in Northern Africa; the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), grouping 27 countries; the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), grouping 19 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa; the East African Community (EAC), with 5 countries; the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), with 10 countries; the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with 15 countries; the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) with 8 countries; and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with 15 countries. The regional subdivision of African countries into RECs is a structure used by the AU and the New Partnership for Africa (NEPAD). 22.1.2. Major Conclusions from Previous Assessments 22.1.2.1. Regional Special Report and Assessment Reports Major concluions related to Africa from previous assessments are summarized in Table 22-1. 22.1.2.2. Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation The IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX; IPCC, 2012) is of particular relevance to the African continent.
... While climate may be a factor in stimulating migration, there are a number of important economic, political, demographic, social and environmental dimensions at play as well. Studies from Ghana indicate that seasonal migration can actually be greater in good years than in drought years (Black, et al., 2011), and that environmental resource scarcity, economic factors and conflict can be a larger push factor than drought per se in influencing migration (Lawson et al. 2012;Tschakert and Tutu, 2010;van der Geest, 2011). The role that climate plays in regional migration dynamics may become more prominent as impacts of climate change intensify in the coming decades (Scheffran et al., 2012). ...
... Harris and Todaro 1970). This approach is countered by research that takes into account the non-material aspects of the decision to migrate, such as the sense of loss associated with a change in the environment in which one lives, solastalgia (Albrecht et al. 2007;Tschakert and Tutu 2010), the role of the natural environment in creating place attachment (Adams and Adger 2013b), the vulnerability of the cultural aspects that link people to place (Adger et al. 2011) and the sense of optimism within residents despite negative climate projections (Mortreux and Barnett 2009). ...
Explanations of relationships between migration and environmental change now focus on multiple interactions, risks in destination and immobility. This research applies behavioural migration theory to examine the extent to which immobile populations experiencing environmental degradation exercise agency with respect to location and, in doing so, elucidates what it means to be trapped. This research uses individual survey data from a migrant-sending area in highland Peru where the population experiences negative health and livelihood impacts from climate-related phenomena. Analysis of these data reveals three reasons for non-migration: high levels of satisfaction, resource barriers and low mobility potential. Immobility in dissatisfied people is more likely to be caused by attachment to place than resource constraints. Thus, the results suggest that trapped populations exist along a continuum. This highlights the need for policy responses differentiated by the mobility characteristics and preferences of the individual. Caution, therefore, must be exercised when labelling populations as trapped and promoting relocation.
... Case studies from Somalia and Burundi emphasize the interaction of climate change, disaster, conflict, displacement, and migration (Kolmannskog, 2010). In Ghana, for example, an African country with few conflicts caused by political, ethnic, or religious tensions, and thus with migration drivers more likely related to economic and environmental motivators (Tschakert and Tutu, 2010), some different types of migration flows are considered to have different sensitivity to climate change (Black et al., 2011a). The floods of the Zambezi River in Mozambique in 2008 have displaced 90,000 people, and it has been observed that along the Zambezi River Valley, with approximately 1 million people living in the flood-affected areas, temporary mass displacement is taking on permanent characteristics (Jäger et al., 2009;Warner et al., 2010). ...
... A growing body of analyses demonstrate how the combination of women's socially prescribed roles and social inequalities in terms of women's access to basic social goods can be linked to their increased physical vulnerability to extreme weather events ( In addition to the physical impacts of climate change, researchers have begun to examine the psychological impacts of a changing climate. For example, Margaret Alston's research takes up the psychological effects of climate change on both men and women, revealing how drought conditions in Australia result in increased stress upon female farmers, who are faced with increased responsibilities and higher incidents of domestic violence resulting from economic instability and depression among male farmers following loss of livelihood (Alston 2011; see also Tschakert and Tutu 2010). ...
... A growing body of analyses demonstrate how the combination of women's socially prescribed roles and social inequalities in terms of women's access to basic social goods can be linked to their increased physical vulnerability to extreme weather events ( In addition to the physical impacts of climate change, researchers have begun to examine the psychological impacts of a changing climate. For example, Margaret Alston's research takes up the psychological effects of climate change on both men and women, revealing how drought conditions in Australia result in increased stress upon female farmers, who are faced with increased responsibilities and higher incidents of domestic violence resulting from economic instability and depression among male farmers following loss of livelihood (Alston 2011; see also Tschakert and Tutu 2010). ...
Environmental change is increasingly challenging the habitability of places around the world, particularly with regard to resource-dependent rural areas in the Global South. Apart from objectively measurable, bio-physical indices, it is likewise important to look at individual and group-specific perceptions of habitability, which are embedded in their respective socio-cultural context(s). Migration as a well-established household risk diversification strategy has the potential to increase people’s adaptive capacity, their well-being, and can shape the way people perceive the habitability of places. This study utilizes a human-centered approach in order to unravel the impacts of migration on culturally-embedded and subjective perceptions of habitability in a rural community in Northern Ghana which faces increasing pressure of environmental changes. Based on qualitative empirical research, we utilize place attachment, social status, and community cohesion as exemplary socio-cultural dimensions with particular relevance in this specific local context to showcase 1) the subjectivity and cultural embeddedness of habitability perceptions and 2) the respective potential of migration to influence such perceptions to both positive and negative ends. Positive migration impacts on the underlying socio-cultural context(s) can serve to undergird (collective) responsibility and adaptive action towards improving local habitability in parallel to encouraging efforts that strive to maintain cultural integrity. Integrating this knowledge in future habitability assessments can pave the way for context-sensitive and locally-adjusted resilience-building strategies that take the potential benefits and disadvantages of migration into account.
This paper will discuss the notion of solastalgia or climatic anxiety (Albrecht et al., 2007; Galea et al., 2005) as a form of anxiety connected to traumatic environmental changes that generate an emotional blockage between individuals, their environment (Cloke et al., 2004) and their place (Nancy, 1993). I will use a phenomenological approach to explain the way in which emotions shape our constitution of reality (Husserl, 1970; Sartre, 1983, 1993, 1996; Seamon and Sowers, 2009; Shaw and Ward, 2009). The article's overall goal is to describe the relationship between environment and "climatic" emotions to understand what we can do to improve our well-being. I believe that scientistic and reductionistic ways of looking at climatic anxiety do not consider this complex dynamic and fail to propose actual solutions for the well-being of both the environment and the individuals.
The study analyzes the individuals’ risk management strategies and determinants of preparedness for drought in Madhya Pradesh, India. It employs the descriptive and binary logistic regression on primary data and show that more than one earning member, access to social safety schemes, migration, irrigation facilities and diversified employment are the important risk management strategies. Gender, social group, income, non-migration, employment status and the interaction of ‘access to government schemes and gender’ are the statistically significant determinants in order, increasing the odds of preparedness against droughts. However, in the sub-sample of farmers, the main predictor variables are gender, non-migration, social group, crop losses and income. The study is novel to generate the field evidences with respect to risk management and drought preparedness, making noteworthy contributions to the disaster literature. The results advocate to strengthen the outreach and access of the social safety schemes in the drought-affected areas. Individuals are expected to build self-resilience to cost-effectively supplement the government limited efforts and capacity. These findings are important and equally applicable to the governments, policymakers and individuals residing in the other drought-affected regions with similar socio-economic characteristics of respondents.
With accelerating climate change, US coastal communities are experiencing increased flood risk intensity, resulting from accelerated sea level rise and stronger storms. These conditions place pressure on municipalities and local residents to consider a range of new disaster risk reduction programs, climate resilience initiatives, and in some cases transformative adaptation strategies (e.g., managed retreat and relocation from highly vulnerable, low-elevation locations). Researchers have increasingly understood that these climate risks and adaptation actions have significant impacts on the quality of life, well-being, and mental health of urban coastal residents. We explore these relationships and define conditions under which adaptation practices will affect communities and residents. Specifically, we assess climate and environmental stressors, community change, and well-being by utilizing the growing climate change literature and the parallel social science literature on risk and hazards, environmental psychology, and urban geography work, heretofore not widely integrated into work on climate adaptation.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 42 is April 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Kajian ini bertujuan untuk melihat keterkaitan antara mobilitas penduduk dan perubahan iklim dengan berfokus pada pengambilan keputusan untuk melakukan migrasi. Kajian dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif di wilayah perkebunan coklat di Kabupaten Lombok Utara dan wilayah perkebunan tembakau di Kabupaten Lombok Timur, Provinsi Nusa Tenggara Barat.
(From book cover) This ground-breaking book critically extends the psychological project, seeking to investigate the relations between human and more-than-human worlds against the backdrop of the Anthropocene by emphasising the significance of encounter, interaction and relationships.
Interdisciplinary environmental theorist Matthew Adams draws inspiration from a wealth of ideas emerging in human–animal studies, anthrozoology, multi-species ethnography and posthumanism, offering a framing of collective anthropogenic ecological crises to provocatively argue that the Anthropocene is also an invitation – to become conscious of the ways in which human and nonhuman are inextricably connected. Through a series of strange encounters between human and nonhuman worlds, Adams argues for the importance of cultivating attentiveness to the specific and situated ways in which the fates of multiple species are bound together in the Anthropocene. Throughout the book this argument is put into practice, incorporating everything from Pavlov’s dogs, broiler chickens, urban trees, grazing sheep and beached whales, to argue that the Anthropocene can be good to think with, conducive to a seeing ourselves and our place in the world with a renewed sense of connection, responsibility and love.
Building on developments in feminist and social theory, anthropology, ecopsychology, environmental psychology, (post)humanities, psychoanalysis and phenomenology, this is fascinating reading for academics and students in the field of critical psychology, environmental psychology, and human–animal studies.
Dieser Artikel untersucht Determinanten von Emigration in den Ländern Afrikas im Zeitraum von 2000 bis 2015. In den letzten Jahren haben Migrationsbewegungen aus Afrika nach Europa zugenommen, doch exitieren bisher nur wenige empirische Studien, welche diese Emigrationsströme mit aktuellen Daten untersuchen und dabei den Fokus auf Afrika legen. Mithilfe von Paneldaten wird in dieser vergleichenden Analyse untersucht, welche Faktoren zwischen 2000 und 2015 in den Staaten Afrikas Emigration beeinflusst haben. Als zentrale Determinanten haben sich politische und Umwelt-Faktoren erwiesen. Den stärksten Effekt hat die Verfügbarkeit von landwirtschaftlicher Nutzfläche, was auf eine steigende Bedeutung von Umweltfaktoren für Emigration in Afrika hindeutet. Eine größere Verfügbarkeit von landwirtschaftlicher Nutzfläche senkt die Emigrationsrate, ebenso wie eine größere politische Teilhabe und mehr bürgerliche Freiheiten. Ein Zuwachs von Gewalt gegenüber Zivilisten führt dagegen zu mehr Emigration. Weiterhin liefert die Studie Hinweise, dass eine Stärkung des tertiären Wirtschaftssektors Menschen eher dazu veranlasst in der Heimat zu bleiben.
Der Klimawandel hat bereits einen zum Teil erheblichen Einfluss auf das Mensch-Umwelt-System und wirkt sich in direkter und indirekter Form auf die physische und psychische Gesundheit aus. So lösen beispielsweise meteorologische Extremereignisse wie Stürme, Hochwasser, Erdrutsche und Hitzeperioden direkte Folgen wie Unfälle mit Verletzungen, im Extremfall mit Todesfolge, aber auch Krankheiten aus. Indirekt wirkt der Klimawandel über eine veränderte Umwelt u. a. auf das Herz-Kreislauf-System und die Atemwege. Er kann zudem Allergien und Infektionserkrankungen begünstigen. Darüber hinaus kann die zunehmende Konfrontation mit klimawandelbedingten Umweltauswirkungen die Ursache für negative psychische Auswirkungen wie posttraumatische Belastungsstörungen, Ängste, aber auch Aggressionen, Disstress und depressive Symptome sein. Umfang und Ausprägung der Gesundheitsfolgen hängen u. a. von der individuellen (Prä‑)Disposition, Resilienz, dem Verhalten und Anpassungsleistungen ab.
Multi-faceted and complex factors resulting from the continual changes in our societies are, arguably, negatively impacting the people of the Global South, especially the young ones. These changes, which are characteristically multi-scalar, include ethnic conflicts, decentralization of government structures, poor agricultural yields and food insecurities, and unfavorable environmental issues (Blum 2007). Although these factors, which are felt both on the global and local scales, may lead to genius novelty, they usually bring about social disruption typified by population displacements, refugee situation, urbanization, and general population movements.
Natural resource extraction projects such as dams and mines entail alteration to or destruction of natural and cultural landscapes. Heritage mitigation efforts often propose compensating for or salvaging material heritage, largely because this can be inventoried and evaluated alongside economic and environmental resources. Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is often overlooked, despite the fact that tangibles, intangibles, and economic resources together constitute the impacted landscape. Writing from the perspective of western Lesotho’s Metolong Dam, we view landscape as an embodiment of intangible heritage to explore what ‘landscape loss’ consequent on dam-building entails. We contend that this process involves dissociating intangibles from their material correlates, and transforming landscape experiences by dissolving and re-constituting boundaries and ‘resources’ in line with developer perspectives. We suggest that considering interdisciplinary approaches to landscape theorisation and ICH achieves a more nuanced view of how landscape loss and ICH interrelate, and thus improves mitigatory practice.
In May 2010 the proposed Bickham coal mine near the Pages River in the Upper Hunter region of Australia was formally rejected because of its potentially deleterious impacts on hydrology and the likely negative impacts on a valuable thoroughbred breeding region. In this paper we focus on the ‘psychoterratic’ mental states of topophilia and solastalgia and highlight how people’s intimate personal relationships with the river and “the environment” were concealed through the formal assessment process. We argue that these relationships and the emotional states they sustain are critical, are at present little understood by geographers, that geography is well placed to develop and incorporate these understandings, and that the formal impact assessment system could be greatly improved by the incorporation of psychoterratic geographies.
Science and policy attention to global environmental and climatic change has been growing substantially. Yet, the psychological and emotional distress and pain triggered by these transformations have been largely ignored, particularly among poor and marginalized populations whose livelihoods depend on the living land. Building upon key geographical concepts of landscapes and place and embodied engagements within, we focus on environmentally-induced distress and loss of belonging (‘solastalgia’) in the coupled context of environmental and climatic changes and internal migration in Ghana. We assess the differential emotional experiences and memory among those who migrate from deteriorating environments in the North to urban slums in the capital Accra and those who stay behind in these altered homes. We use participatory mapping and 'walking journeys' in northern regions to examine understandings of landscapes of everyday life and identify places that induce solastalgia. Results illustrate that the combination of withered crops, drying up of wells, loss of beauty, and deteriorating social networks trigger strong emotional responses, in particular feelings of sadness. We conclude that these emotional responses are expressions of solastalgia in what we call “hollow homes” where place and self of agrarian livelihoods undergo both figurative and literal desiccation.
The general pattern of internal migration in Ghana has been north to south. While a number of studies have focused on the vulnerabilities and urban problems associated with this pattern, the dynamics of internal migration with emphasis on young people in a slum setting have not been explored. To accomplish the goal of understanding the dynamics of internal migration among young people from the north of Ghana to Old Fadama, an Accra slum in the south, two specific objectives have been pursued. First, I explore the housing and environmental stressors encountered by young migrants at the destination and their proposed strategies to deal with these stressors and second, I explain how government policies are lagging behind to deal with these stressors. I use insights from the concepts of pirate urbanization and landlordism to show that substandard structures and the monetization of equity (property) among the relatively more privileged in the slum exacerbate the predicaments of these migrants. Drawing on the concepts of sovereign power and non-sovereign power, I suggest that lessons from the elements of these concepts (such as ethnic net-like organizations and governmental agencies) provide entry points for programmatic and policy directions aimed toward these young migrants in a high-risk environment. I use a mixed-methods approach to examine the objectives of this work. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with young migrants (aged 10–29) in Old Fadama. I find that the major stressors faced by these young people include poor shelter, lack of sanitation, poor health outcomes, and human right violations, and these are exacerbated by the privatization of squatting.
A number of young people from the north of Ghana migrate to live in the slums of the city of Accra, the administrative capital. These slums, characterized by poor quality housing, and inadequate sanitary facilities, make the young migrants vulnerable to the effects of economic, social, political and environmental insecurities and stressors. One of such slums is Old Fadama, which is located in the heart of the city. The main objective of this paper is to explain how resilient a sample of young migrants are to the stressors encountered at the slum through a self-rated level of resilience. Drawing on resilience thinking, the Youth Resilience Framework and Social Resilience perspectives are discussed and variables for analysis are considered from their synthesis. A survey questionnaire instrument is used to collect data from 104 young migrant residents in the slum. The methods of analysis include: analyses of variance, Chi-square test, and ordinal regression. From the multivariate analyses (that is, the ordinal regression analyses), it is suggested that significant predictors of resilience among the sampled young migrants in Old Fadama include type of employment, social capital, number of stressors experienced, and ability to afford medicine. Specific social capital constructs such as having a boy or girlfriend and strong leadership are predictors of resilience among these young migrants in the slum.
Humans are now by far the most powerful change agent on the planet, and their impacts are fundamentally transforming the face
of the physical landscape of the earth, altering natural patterns and rhythms, and, now, warming its climate. Under the influence
of increasing anthropogenic environmental pressures, I describe earth-related physical and mental health impacts due to environmental
and climate change. In what follows, I shall focus on earth-related mental health issues or what I call ‘psychoterratic’ impacts
that arise from negatively felt and perceived environmental change. A typology of emergent psychoterratic syndromes and conditions
is presented to assist in the understanding of and possible responses to chronic environmental change.
KeywordsPsychoterratic-Solastalgia-Nostalgia-Phenology
The study aimed to validate the Environmental Distress Scale (EDS), a new index of the bio–psycho–social cost of ecosystem
disturbance. Informed by qualitative fieldwork in the open-cut mining area of Australia’s Upper Hunter Valley, the EDS combines
dimensions of hazard perception, threat appraisal, felt impact of changes, “solastalgia” (loss of solace), and environmental
action. EDS discriminant validity was tested by randomly mailing the instrument to Upper Hunter residents living in a high
disturbance open-cut mining area and to a comparable sample in a nearby farming area; 203 respondents returned the survey
(41% response rate). As predicted, the high disturbance group had significantly higher environmental distress scores across
all six EDS subscales, including solastalgia. Psychometric analyses found the EDS subscales were highly intercorrelated (r=0.36–0.83), and they demonstrated both strong internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha=0.79–0.96) and test–retest
reliability (ICC=0.67–0.73). Descriptively, the high disturbance group experienced greater exposure to dust, landscape changes,
vibrations, loss of flora and fauna, and building damage, as well as greater fear of asthma and other physical illnesses due
to local pollution. The EDS successfully measured and validated Albrecht’s innovative concept of “solastalgia”—the sense of
distress people experience when valued environments are negatively transformed. While the EDS addresses the power and mining
industries, it can be adapted as a general tool to appraise the distress arising from people’s lived experience of the desolation
of their home and environment. Ideally, it can be used as an aid for those working to ameliorate that distress and restore
ecosystem health.
“While Africans constitute only 12 per cent of the global population, around 28 per cent (i.e. 3.2 million) of the world’s 11.5 million refugees and just under 50 per cent (i.e. 9.5 million) of the world’s internally displaced persons are to be found in Africa. The total number of displaced Africans thus stands in the region of 12.7 million. To this number can be added more than two million returnees, who, according to UNHCR, have not been able to reintegrate in their country of origin and who continue to need some form of international protection and assistance.” (Crisp 2000: 2)
These numbers do not include the so-called “economic refugees” and the “environmental refugees”. Unfortunately, it can be assumed that Africa will also maintain its world records in these categories of refugees, at least concerning the population size (Richter 1998). For decades, Africa has been the “continent of refugees” (Nuscheler 1988). Africa’s refugee drama conceals not only a wide set of conflicts, disasters and human suffering, but also a wider displacement problem: the migration phenomenon. The mostly short-term refugee phenomenon offers spectacular stuff for the media, but the normally mid- and long-term migration problem is much more important for the societies involved. In general, the short-term events constitute only the obvious tip of the iceberg: refugee movements are often an indication of larger population displacements. This is especially valid for the environmentally motivated displacements in West Africa and the Sahel region, to which the following reflections refer.
African identity must be central to research on African health and development. This article focuses on three primary themes for advancing a different vision for understanding health issues in Africa. The first is the need to deconstruct conventional assumptions and theories that have been used to frame public health problems and solutions in Africa. The second is to insist that identity be central to how we frame issues of health and behavior in general and in Africa in particular. The third is the importance of the notion of "social cultural infrastructure" in defining African ways of knowing to guide public health research and intervention in Africa. Finally, the metaphor of the "African gate" is used to illuminate these themes while drawing on examples from an HIV- and AIDS-related stigma research in South Africa and its implications for addressing the critical global public-health issues of today.
Despite considerable debate about whether or not climate change will cause large numbers of people to migrate, there has been little consideration of how such displacement might be caused. Three effects of climate change are identified as possible drivers of migration: loss of or reduction in land security, livelihood security, and habitat security. Where these are destroyed by climate change, migration will be forced and would require the abandonment of some locations. Such community relocation is likely to be a disruptive form of climate-change migration, and past experience indicates that there are numerous social, cultural, emotional, and economic costs associated with such moves, even at relatively small distances. Where the loss of security is partial, voluntary or induced migration may be a practical adaptive response, reducing pressure on declining local life-support systems and providing remittances to supplement declining livelihoods. Most attention has been focused on atoll communities, but most Pacific communities (with the exception of Papua New Guinea) are coastal, and the security of some inland areas may be threatened by increasing magnitude and frequency of droughts. Destinations for climate-change migrants may range from locations within customary lands to foreign countries within and beyond the region. A key issue is the essential link between Pacific Islands people and their land, which poses major problems not only for those forced to leave but also for communities within the region that may be required to give up land for relocatees.
The book represents the results of the cCASHh study that was carried out in Europe (2001-2004), co-ordinated by WHO and supported by EU Programmes.
The flood events in 2002 and the heat wave of August 2003 in Europe had given evidence in a rather drastic way of our vulnerability and our non preparedness. The project has produced very important results that show that the concurrent work of different disciplines in addressing public health issues can produce innovative and useful results, providing an approach that can be followed on other public health issues. The project has shown that information on potential threats can be extremely useful in preparing the public for adverse events as well as facilitating the response when the events occur. This is a new dimension for public health which reverses the traditional thinking: from identifying and reducing specific risk factors, to taking action on the basis of prediction and early warning to prevent health consequences in large populations.
The impact of climate change on the temporal and spatial distribu- tion of precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration and surface runoff in the Volta Basin (400 000 km2) of West Africa is investigated. Trend analysis shows clear positive trends with high levels of significance for temperature time series. Precipitation time series show both positive and negative trends, although most significant trends are negative. In the case of river discharge, a small number of (mostly positive) significant trends for the wet season are observed. High resolution regional climate simulation using explicit dynamic downscaling of the IS92a ECHAM4 global climate scenario indicates a slight increase in total annual precipitation of 5%, but also a significant decrease (up to 70%) of precipitation in April, which marks the transition from the dry season to the rainy season. The total duration of the rainy season is shortened. The simulated dry season temperature increase is around 1°C, while in the rainy season an increase of up to 2°C is projected. Expected temperature increase is smallest in the coastal areas and increases towards the north of the basin. An increase in mean annual surface runoff by 18% is anticipated. Predicted changes in precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration and surface runoff show strong regional differences. BACKGROUND Sufficient water resources are the life-blood of the economies of West African countries. Over 70% of the inhabitants of West Africa depend primarily on rainfed agriculture for their livelihood. Hydropower is the main source of electric power generation, crucial for socio-economic development, and is strongly dependent on availability of rainfall. Changes in the amount and distribution of rainfall have significant impacts on water availability and thereby directly influence socio-economic activities in the region. Against this background, the interdisciplinary GLOWA-Volta project (http://www.glowa-volta.de), the framework within which this study is performed, focuses on the Volta Basin in West Africa. This international basin is characterized by distinctive interannual and inter-decadal variability in precipitation. The availability of water in the Volta Basin is of major importance for agriculture, as well as for industrial use (e.g. aluminium industry) and power generation at Lake Volta, impounded by one of the world's largest dams. Due to increasing population pressure and corresponding intensification of agriculture, the competition for water resources between these
Ghana has achieved dramatic improvements in national food security in recent years, but concealed in this overall progress
is a considerable measure of regional unevenness, with the population living in the dry savannah regions in the north faring
the worst. The Upper West Region (UWR) is the poorest region of Ghana and has long served as a reservoir of migratory labour
for the southern parts of the country, but in recent years migration patterns have been both escalating and changing. Increasingly,
permanent UWR migration is focusing on the more fertile lands of the Brong-Ahafo Region (BAR), where migrants are able to
access farmland in different leasehold relationships. A rapid research appraisal conducted in Techiman (BAR) suggests that
UWR migrants view their growing settlement in the BAR to be a long-term phenomenon. It also highlighted how land tenancy issues
are central to the challenges migrant farmers face, and are largely perceived as being immutable by the farmers themselves.
Nearly all new UWR migrants must begin working in sharecropping relationships for BA landlords, paying out one-third of their
harvest as rent, and over time they hope to save sufficient market earnings in order to lease the land outright. Despite these
rents and the high cost of transportation, this chapter suggests that evolving migration patterns from the Upper West Region
(UWR) of Ghana are connected to an intensifying system of domestic “food aid” (i.e. non-market transfers) back to the region,
providing a crucial means of coping with its precarious food insecurity. With environmental conditions in dry regions of Sahelian
Africa projected to worsen with climate change, the agricultural capacity of the UWR is likely to deteriorate further in coming
years, with migratory pressures therefore continuing to rise. In light of this, this study points towards both future research
objectives in the UWR and the BAR, as well as to the implications such research could have for policy interventions and locally
grounded regional initiatives.
KeywordsGhana-Upper West Region-Environmental degradation-Migration-Food security
This chapter deals with population movements which are induced by environmental forces – the latter are broadly defined. The passing of the bipolar world gave rise to increasing concern by the international community for non-military sources of instability – environmental degradation, rapid population growth, growing un- and underemployment and poverty, ethnic tensions, human rights violations, transnational terrorism and large-scale international migration. The fear of mass migration of environmental refugees – people driven from their homes as a result of ecological destruction – has become a major issue in the international community. The mutual dependence of the peoples of the world on a single common planetary biosphere means that the environmental decline of one country or region is a problem for the entire community of nations (Swain, 1939). The New World Order encourages an international solution to other existing global problems hitherto swept under the carpet. The reckless abuse of the human environment is one of such problems (Ezeonu and Ezeonu, 2000: 41-48). Though major research attention has been attributed to the South-North migration and East/West migration, most of the movements have been from rural areas to urban areas inside the developing countries or from one developing country to another (Swain, 1993).
Floods, windstorms, drought and wildfires have major implications for human health. To date, conceptual advances in analysis of vulnerability and adaptation to climatic hazards from the environmental and social sciences have not been widely applied in terms of health, though key progress is being made particularly in relation to climate change. This paper seeks to take this conceptual grounding further, examining how key themes relate to health concerns, exploring connections with existing health literatures, and developing an organising framework to aid analysis of how vulnerability to health impacts varies within society and how actors make decisions and take action in relation to climatic hazards and health. Social science research on this theme is challenging in part because of the complex mechanisms that link hazard events to health outcomes, and the many-layered factors that shape differential vulnerability and response within changing societal and environmental contexts (including the dual effect of hazards on human health and health systems, and the combination of ‘external’, ‘personal’ and ‘internal’ elements of vulnerability). Tracing a ‘health impact pathway’ from hazard event through health risk effects to health outcomes can provide a research tool with which to map out where the different factors that contribute to vulnerability/coping capacity come into effect.
In much of sub-Saharan Africa, considerable research exists on the impacts of climate change on social-ecological systems. Recent adaptation studies emphasize sectoral vulnerability and largely physical adaptation strategies that mirror anti-desertification plans. The adaptive role of subsistence farmers, the vulnerable ‘target’ population, is largely overlooked. This article aims to fill this gap by putting the views from the vulnerable in the center of the analysis. Drawing from participatory risk ranking and scoring among smallholders in central Senegal, data on multiple hazards indicate that farmers’ adaptive capacity to climate change is undermined by poor health, rural unemployment, and inadequate village infrastructure. Results from conceptual mapping reveal incomplete understanding of causes and consequences of climate change. Yet, shared knowledge and lessons learned from previous climatic stresses provide vital entry points for social learning and enhanced adaptive capacity to both wetter and drier periods now and in the future.
This article answers a series of questions about the role of environmental degradation in population displacement, refugee movement, and migration. The environment tends not to be included in the reasons for migration. Roger's indicators of migration potential include population growth, economic restructuring, increased economic disparities, and increased refugee flows. Myers (1993) estimated that international displacement and internal displacement may amount to about 25 million and may rise to 150 million by 2050. The role of the environment in displacement must be examined in the broader political and cultural context. Definitions of environmental refugees are ambiguous and inconsistent, and research has not answered why people continue to move to Mexico City and Chongqing, China, which both have very high levels of pollution. El-Hinnawi (1985) defined 3 groups of environmental refugees: those displaced due to natural disasters; those displaced due to permanent habitat changes; and those displaced who migrated from areas that cannot support their basic needs and who desire an improved quality of life. Lonergan (1994) identified environmental stresses as natural disasters, cumulative or slow-onset changes, accidental disruptions or industrial accidents, development projects, and conflict and warfare. These 5 causes must be treated separately and not lumped together as environmental degradation. Shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, and agricultural disruption associated with climate change may increase migration. Global measures must address world poverty and promote sustainable development.
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