Explore Climate Change Research Articles

Exploring climate change perspectives among smallholder farmers in Tonkolili district, Sierra Leone

Exploring climate change perspectives among smallholder farmers in Tonkolili district, Sierra Leone

Exploring climate change perception and heat stress adaptation among Zambian farmers using participatory tools

Exploring climate change perception and heat stress adaptation among Zambian farmers using participatory tools

Exploring Climate Change Adaptation Practices and Agricultural Livelihoods among Rice Farmers of the Brahmaputra Valley in Northeast India.

Global climate change has seriously threatened agriculture and connected sectors, especially in developing countries like India. The Brahmaputra Valley in Assam, Northeast India, is vulnerable to climate change due to its agrarian economy, fragile geo-ecological setting, recurrent floods and droughts, and poor socioeconomic conditions of the farmers. The climate-induced hindrances faced by the rice farming community of this region and the local adaptation practices they employ have not been adequately studied. Therefore, we carried out a survey among 635 rice farmers across four agro-climatic zones of Assam, namely the Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone, North Bank Plain Zone, Central Brahmaputra Valley Zone, and Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone, to understand how they perceive and respond to climatic changes. The survey revealed that all the respondents have perceived an increase in ambient temperature, and 65% of the respondents have perceived a slight change in rainfall characteristics over the years. Most farmers reported adjusting the existing farming practices and livelihood choices to adapt to the changing climate. Farming adjustments were made mainly in terms of field preparation and management of water, rice variety, nutrients, and pests. Environmental variables like rainfall, flood, drought, and pest level, and socioeconomic variables like family size, education, farming experience, training, digital media exposure, and land area were found to influence farmers' adaptation choices. The findings imply that policies to strengthen flood, drought, pest management, education, land-use planning, agricultural training, and digital media applications in agriculture are needed for effective climate change adaptation in this region.

The Intersectionality of Climate Change and Post-Stroke Aphasia.

Persons with communication disabilities including persons with post-stroke aphasia (PWAs) possess a vulnerability to climate change as a result of their communication impairments. The disproportionate effects of climate change are likely to exacerbate preexisting inequities in social determinants of health. Communication disability intersecting with other characteristics subject to discrimination (e.g., race, age, sex, income) may lead to inequities in climate-related adaptive capacity. This article echoes earlier concerns related to climate change and further educates healthcare professionals about the impact of climate change on the global human population, with particular consideration of PWAs. The aims of this article are the following: (1) to broaden the understanding of aphasiologists and clinicians caring for PWAs about climate change and the contributions of human activity (anthropogenic) to this crisis; (2) to describe climate change and its impact on health; (3) to detail the intersectionality of climate and health; (4) to explore climate change and its potential effects on PWAs; and (5) to offer hope through emissions reduction, adaptation, resilience, and immediate change.

A gender perspective of climate change perceptions and the intention to migrate in Copán

AbstractIn this intervention, we present preliminary results from field work conducted in six municipalities of Honduras as part of a research project that explores climate change perceptions and the intention to migrate, with a gender perspective. The main goal of the research is to understand to which extent the ways in which people perceive the effects of climate change upon their daily life may urge some more than others to actively start the process of international migration. The project is a mixed method study combining questionnaires and focus groups. In this briefing, we concentrate on the analysis of the focus groups to explain the descriptive results of some of the variables.

Climate change and adaptation strategies in rural Ghana: a study on smallholder farmers in the Mamprugu-Moaduri district

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the perceptions of smallholder farmers on climate change and events and further explores climate change adaptation strategies and associated challenges. The findings provide useful information for enhancing the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to adjust to climate-related hazards and improve their resilience and disaster preparedness in northern Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a multistage sampling procedure and sample size of 150 farmers, the Binary Probit Model (BPM), to identify and examine the determinants of climate change adaptation strategies adopted by smallholder farmers. Also, the constraints of adaptation were analyzed using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance.FindingsThe results from the BPM and statistics of Kendall’s coefficient revealed that the farm risk level, ability to adapt, farmer’s income, age, farming experience, climate change awareness and extension visits were factors that significantly influenced the adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers (in order of importance). The majority (60%) of the farmers ranked farm risk level as the major constraint to adopting climate change strategies.Originality/valueThe findings of this study enhance understanding on access to relevant and timely climate change adaptation information such as an early warning to farmers during the start of the farming/rainy season to support their adaptive responses to climate change.

Climate change impacts assessment on railway infrastructure in urban environments

Climate change impacts can escalate the deteriorating rate of infrastructures and impact the infrastructure's functionality, safety, operation and maintenance (O&M). This research explores climate change's influence on urban railway infrastructure. Given the geographical diversity of Sweden, the railway network is divided into different climate zones utilizing the K-means algorithm. Reliability analysis using the Cox Proportional Hazard Model is proposed to integrate meteorological parameters and operational factors to predict the degree of impacts of different climatic parameters on railway infrastructure assets. The proposed methodology is validated by selecting a number of switches and crossings (S&Cs), which are critical components in railways for changing the route, located in different urban railway stations across various climate zones in Sweden. The study explores various databases and proposes a climatic feature to identify climate-related risks of S&C assets. Furthermore, different meteorological covariates are analyzed to understand better the dependency between asset health and meteorological parameters. Infrastructure asset managers can tailor suitable climate adaptation measures based on geographical location, asset age, and other life cycle parameters by identifying vulnerable assets and determining significant covariates. Sensitivity analysis of significant covariates at one of the urban railway stations shows precipitation increment reveal considerable variation in the asset reliability.

Exploring climate change impacts on rural livelihoods and adaptation strategies: Reflections from marginalized communities in India

Climate change and variability affect virtually everyone and every region of the world but the effects are nowhere more prominent than among rural marginalized communities that rely heavily on agriculture and fishing for a living and they face numerous livelihood challenges including risk posed by variability of climate. Using phenomenological research methods, interviews with key-informants, focus group discussions (FGD), household survey with standardised questionnaires and case study approach, the present study analyzes the perceptions of climate change and its impacts on livelihoods and well-being of rural marginalized communities in rural Dakshin Dinajpur district of the state of West Bengal, India and coping mechanisms adopted by these communities were also examined using participatory social research techniques. The research is primarily based on primary data which have been collected at household level using multistage purposive sampling methods and total sample size is 154. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were employed for data analysis. The results were discussed in the context of the sustainable livelihoods approach and findings depicts that there is a decreasing trend in the availability of water for domestic purposes, crop failure and low agricultural production, reduction in human health, poor livestock health and a range of other problems due to climate change which subsequently impacted on their livelihood. Indigenous and local knowledge were widely used in dealing with the effects of climate change, while modern technologies were underutilized among marginalized communities. Farmers and fisherman's used multiple adaptation strategies to combat climate change effects such as modifications in farm management, migration, selling labour to neighbourhoods, measures related to financial resources and risk reduction, borrowing funds from local money lender as well as family and neighbours, credit programmes and assistance from NGOs and reducing household food consumption. Large-scale education, training programmes, development interventions and policies targeted at enhancing resource endowment are needed. The findings from this study can help policymakers and other stack holders about ongoing adaptation measures as well as the needs of households, bring out the gap between farm households and policymakers and also to develop suitable policies and effective adaptation strategies to enhance the livelihoods within this context of local marginalized communities context.

Climate change, mental health, and reproductive decision-making: A systematic review

The impact of climate change on reproductive decision-making is becoming a significant issue, with anecdotal evidence indicating a growing number of people factoring their concerns about climate change into their childbearing plans. Although empirical research has explored climate change and its relationship to mental health, as well as the motivations behind reproductive decision-making independently, a gap in the literature remains that bridges these topics at their nexus. This review endeavours to fill this gap by synthesising the available evidence connecting climate change-related concerns with reproductive decision-making and exploring the reasons and motivations behind this relationship. A systematic review using six databases was conducted to identify relevant literature. Included studies reported quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods data related to: (1) climate change, (2) mental health and wellbeing concerns, and (3) reproductive decision-making. Findings were synthesised narratively using a parallel-results convergent synthesis design and the quality of studies was appraised using three validated assessment tools. Four hundred and forty-six documents were screened using pre-defined inclusion criteria, resulting in the inclusion of thirteen studies. The studies were conducted between 2012 and 2022 primarily in Global North countries (e.g., USA, Canada, New Zealand, and European countries). Climate change concerns were typically associated with less positive attitudes towards reproduction and a desire and/or intent for fewer children or none at all. Four themes explaining this relationship were identified: uncertainty about the future of an unborn child, environmentalist views centred on overpopulation and overconsumption, meeting family subsistence needs, and environmental and political sentiments. The current evidence reveals a complex relationship between climate change concerns and reproductive decision-making, grounded in ethical, environmental, livelihood, and political considerations. Further research is required to better understand and address this issue with an intercultural approach, particularly among many highly affected Global South populations, to ensure comparability and generalisable results.

Exploring east African climate change risk perceptions to inform effective climate services

A better understanding of the decision context within which climate services are used is likely to be central to designing user-relevant climate services for adaptation action. As climate change presents a risk, one entry point to better understand the decision context is through an exploration of the perceptions of climate change risk. How risky climate change is perceived to be will influence whether action is taken on climate change, what decisions are made and the types of information that are used when taking action, providing valuable insights into the decision-context. This study quantifies and explores climate change risk perceptions, and its determinants, amongst policy decision influencers in east Africa. Climate change risk perceptions are found to be heightened, driven by observance of social norms, perceptions of climate change as a proximal risk, frequent experience of extreme weather events and a predominantly self-transcending (outward looking) value system among policy decision influencers. By drawing on known principles from environmental psychology, the study’s results lead to a set of suggestions about how currently available climate services could be aligned to the east African decision context to better encourage uptake and action.

Exploring climate change perceptions, climate trends and the level of knowledge on the subject in farmers from Guasave, Mexico

Exploring climate change perceptions, climate trends and the level of knowledge on the subject in farmers from Guasave, Mexico

Climate change awareness in ELT: Ethnography in connected learning and ecojustice pedagogy

This research article explores the integration of climate change education in the context of English as a Foreign Language teacher education. As climate–induced disasters are on the rise, the mitigation of climate change necessitates an interdisciplinary approach to climate education. While science education has extensively addressed climate change education, the field of language education and literacy has not taken drastic measures to participate in climate change education. The article heeds the call for more research on climate change education in second/foreign language and literacy programs. Using the connected learning and ecojustice pedagogy, we engaged 20 preservice teachers in exploring climate change issues within a semester-long creative writing course. Analyses of classroom discussions, reflective writing, and picture book projects showed that the preservice teachers’ awareness of climate change issues developed as they delved into the projects that required their understanding of the global climate issues with the local connection. The article concludes by arguing that connected learning and ecojustice pedagogy support the development of climate change awareness while facilitating preservice teachers’ multimodal writing skills. It recommends that language educators engage in interdisciplinary participation to address climate change issues through curricular engagements that support multimodal-based climate literacy learning.

Climate-change worry among two cohorts of late adolescents: Exploring macro and micro worries, coping, and relations to climate engagement, pessimism, and well-being

Few studies have explored climate change worry in an in-depth manner among adolescents. Through survey studies with two cohorts of adolescents (2010, 2019/2020) we investigated relations between different forms of climate change worry, mental well-being, and pro-environmental behavior and what role coping plays in these relationships. Results show that climate change worry was negatively associated with subjective well-being, and positively associated with climate pessimism and pro-environmental behavior. Relations were strongest between macro worry and pro-environmental behavior, and between micro worry and mental well-being. Problem-focused coping was a mediator between worry and pro-environmental behavior and between meaning-focused coping and behavior, while distancing decreased the positive relation between worry and problem-focused coping. Meaning-focused coping and optimism worked as buffers between macro and micro worry and pessimism in some, but not all, cases. Most relationships remained significant when controlling for other variables in path-models. Finally, worry was more prevalent in the 2019/2020 cohort. Our findings highlight the need to consider different forms of worry and coping in studies about climate change worry.

Drivers of food security in West Africa: Insight from heterogeneous panel data analysis on income-level classification.

This paper investigates the factors driving food security in West African countries. Specifically, it examines the impact of natural resource rents, institutional quality, and climate change on food security while controlling for industrialization and economic growth. Our research is motivated by the urgent need for swift policy action to address the escalating food crisis in the region and prevent any potential catastrophic consequences. Second-generation econometric techniques are utilized for accurate and reliable outcomes based on yearly datasets from West African countries from 2000 to 2020, and the countries are sub-grouped into low-income and lower-middle-income. The findings unveil the panel as heterogeneous and cross-sectionally based, and all the study variables are first differenced stationary and co-integrated in the long run. Hence, the Augmented Mean Group and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group estimators are utilized to explore the relationships between the variables, and the findings reveal that natural resource rents, climate change, and industrialization are detrimental to food security across the sub-groups. However, the outcomes affirm institutional quality and economic growth as beneficial drivers of food security across the sub-groups. Therefore, this study recommends that authorities of both low-income and lower-middle-income countries make substantial investments in sustainable natural resource utilization and also work towards enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of their institutions, as well as investing in environmental research to explore climate change mitigation possibilities that could enhance food security in West Africa.

Modeling The Effects of Climate Change on Food Production in Ivory Coast: Evidence from ARDL Approach

There is a direct link between global warming and hunger in emerging West African nations like Ivory Coast, where the population is overgrowing, and food insecurity is rising. This work aims to examine and explore climate change's effects on agriculture production in Ivory Coast from 1990 to 2019. Various stationarity tests, including the Phillips-Perron (PP) and the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), are applied to determine the variables' order of integration. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach is employed to model the long- and short-run relationships between temperature, rainfall, carbon dioxide emissions, domestic credit, gross capital formation, and agriculture sector and subsectors. The present study uses the Johansen cointegration test to verify the long-run cointegration of the ARDL estimation. The findings reveal that all the variables are integrated into order zero or one. Cointegration tests demonstrate a valid long-term association between the variables. Agriculture and related subsectors in Ivory Coast were found to benefit from increasing temperature over the long run, except for the fishery subsector, where the impact is negligible. In the short run, temperature’s effect is positive on aggregate agriculture, although it is not statistically significant. Its effect is beneficial to agriculture's subsectors, except for fishery production. In both runs, Ivory Coast’s aggregate agriculture sector and fishery subsector are negatively affected by rainfall. An insignificant favorable effect of rainfall is found on crop production in both runs. The estimated results indicated that the role of CO2 is positive on agriculture and crop production in both run estimations. However, CO2 does not impact livestock production. It has a long-term positive influence on fishery production but no effect in the short run. Domestic credit is found to have a beneficial influence on agriculture and its subsectors in both runs, except for crop and livestock production, where the effect is negative and insignificant in the short run. Gross capital formation negatively impacts agriculture and its subsectors in Ivory Coast, except crop production, where it only has an insignificant beneficial effect in the short run. The same is true for fishery production, which only had a significant favourable impact effect in the short run. For the government and policymakers, the findings guide the formulation of suitable policies to address global warming's effects on agriculture and guarantee sustainable food production for the increasing population.

‘Standing back’ or ‘stepping up’? Exploring climate change education policy influence in England

AbstractThis paper explores the nature of climate change education‐related policy influence in England at a time when public consciousness about the need to accelerate climate change action was heightened, and as the 2018 climate strikes gathered momentum around the world. Informed by Foucault's concept of ‘governmentalities’, and using data generated through 24 exploratory interviews and reflexive thematic analysis, we examine the extent to which influential individuals were advocating for policy change. We discuss the nature of policy influence with particular reference to the ‘stances’ that individuals adopted relative to climate change education policy influence and noting a common tendency exhibited amongst participants which was a tendency towards ‘deference’. Coupling our insights with theorisations of dissent, we consider how ‘infra‐political dissent’ could support key individuals to ‘step up’ and influence for more effective policy relative to climate change education, and to other areas of education or environment policy.

The risks of the wrong climate policy for developing countries: Scenarios for South Africa

In this paper, a demand-driven growth model is used to explore climate change scenarios faced by the South African economy. The focus is on key macroeconomic variables including employment, productivity, income distribution, trade, and fiscal balances. Results show that emission reduction alone will not put South Africa on a sustainable and equitable growth path. Expansionary macroeconomic policies are necessary. We show that, under sufficient global mitigation, expansionary fiscal and monetary policies lead to faster output and productivity growth, higher employment, and lower inequality. By contrast, macroeconomic tightening or “free riding” on global emission reduction lead to inferior outcomes, putting sustainable development out of reach.

Increase of Simultaneous Soybean Failures Due To Climate Change

AbstractWhile soybeans are among the most consumed crops in the world, most of its production lies in the US, Brazil, and Argentina. The concentration of soybean growing regions in the Americas renders the supply chain vulnerable to regional disruptions. In 2012, anomalous hot and dry conditions occurring simultaneously in these regions led to low soybean yields, which drove global soybean prices to all‐time records. In this study, we explore climate change impacts on simultaneous extreme crop failures as the one from 2012. We develop a hybrid model, coupling a process‐based crop model with a machine learning model, to improve the simulation of soybean production. We assess the frequency and magnitude of events with similar or higher impacts than 2012 under different future scenarios, evaluating anomalies both with respect to present day and future conditions to disentangle the impacts of (changing) climate variability from the long‐term mean trends. We find long‐term trends in mean climate increase the frequency of 2012 analogs by 11–16 times and the magnitude by 4–15% compared to changes in climate variability only depending on the global climate scenario. Conversely, anomalies like the 2012 event due to changes in climate variability show an increase in frequency in each country individually, but not simultaneously across the Americas. We deduce that adaptation of the crop production practice to the long‐term mean trends of climate change may considerably reduce the future risk of simultaneous soybean losses across the Americas.

One‐kilometre monthly air temperature and precipitation product over the Mongolian Plateau for 1950–2020

AbstractThe fragile ecological environment of the Mongolian Plateau (MP) is sensitive to climate change. It is necessary to fully understand the temperature and precipitation changes on the MP to ensure regional sustainable development. Most existing studies are conducted based on station observations which suffer from sparse distribution and limited spatial representativeness and cannot perfectly represent the climatic conditions of the whole region. By contrast, the long‐term, spatially continuous reanalysis products offer new opportunities for MP climate change research. However, the coarse spatial resolution and large uncertainties of reanalysis data limit their applicability to provide reliable climate information at finer scales. Within the delta downscaling framework, we downscale and correct the state‐of‐the‐art European Centre for Medium‐range Weather Forecasts ReAnalysis 5 land portion (ERA5‐Land) using a high‐resolution WorldClim reference climatology and generate a long‐term (1950–2020) 1‐km monthly air temperature and precipitation downscaled dataset. During the downscaling process, the results obtained by nearest neighbour, bilinear and bicubic interpolation methods are evaluated and compared. Air temperature result of bilinear method and precipitation result of nearest neighbour method, which have the best accuracy, are taken as the final downscaled data. The evaluation shows that the downscaled data has acceptable accuracy (overall MBE = −0.41°C, Corr = 0.997, RMSE = 1.51°C for air temperature, and MBE = 1.58 mm·month−1, Corr = 0.747, RMSE = 24.24 mm·month−1 for precipitation), and outperforms the original ERA5‐Land and widely used Climatic Research Unit (CRU) data. In addition, the downscaled data can also provide accurate and detailed temperature and precipitation change trends over the MP. With fine spatial resolution, long‐time span and good spatial continuity, the downscaled air temperature and precipitation will be a useful data source to explore climate change over the MP.

Tackling the wicked challenge of climate change risks to property: are Australian valuers prepared?

PurposeThis research investigated Australian property valuers' identification and consideration of physical climate change risks in valuation practice.Design/methodology/approachThirty Australian valuer members of the Australian Property Institute from a variety of specialisations were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews explored climate change risks and the extent of risk investigation and consideration in valuation practice. The analysis utilised the Moser and Luers (2008) climate risk preparedness framework as a lens to evaluate current valuation practice in Australia.FindingsThe analysis reflects that while physical risks are easily identified and engaged with by valuers, correspondingly, there is a lack of understanding of and engagement with, climate change risks. This supports the need for better information sources and guidance to inform valuers of climate change risks and the development of specific mechanisms for the consideration of such risks to be included in valuation processes, practices and reports.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was limited by its sample size and qualitative approach. Therefore, the research is not a representative opinion of the Australian profession; however, the analysis provides the perspective of a range of valuers from across Australia with different valuation specialisations.Practical implicationsThis research has established that valuers have the potential to be prepared to address climate change in their professional capacity, as described by Moser and Luers (2008). However, they are constrained by information communication, access and detail and subsequent market awareness of information on climate change risk exposure on properties. There is a need for further support, guidance, information and tools, as well as awareness-raising, to enable valuers to accurately identify and reflect all risks affecting a property in the process of valuation.Originality/valueThis research provides the first investigation into the consideration of climate change in valuation practice. Property stakeholders—owners, investors, financiers and occupiers—are escalating their climate change risk analysis and reporting for property portfolios and organisations. This research suggests that valuers also need to be aware of the changing dynamics of market reporting and decision-making related to climate change risks to ensure appropriate reflection in valuation practice.