Improving Understanding of Climatic Controls on Ecology in Development Contexts

Abstract

In contexts of development, climate is one of the several inherited background states, a geographic endowment which, along with factors such as soil types, water availability, and geographic location, exerts a strongly coercive influence on ecological system types and character, and consequentially, on human settlement patterns, health characteristics, livelihoods and economies. Climatic determinism has long been offered as an explanation (and with considerable resultant controversy) to explain the impoverishment of tropical regions relative to the economic vibrancy and affluence of societies in the mid-latitudes (Sachs 2000). However, it is indisputable that climate and climatic variability play a highly influential role in human livelihoods, economic development and health outcomes. For the global poor, the role of climate is magnified due to omnipresent vulnerability related to lower levels of the ability to cope with climatic stress. Consequentially, long-term success in poverty alleviation cannot be achieved without comprehension and engagement with issues of climatic variability and climate change.