02 Nov 2009: Opinion
Coping With Climate Change:
Which Societies Will Do Best?
As the world warms, how different societies fare in dealing with rising seas and changing weather patterns will have as much to do with political, social, and economic factors as with a changing climate.
Following the disastrous tsunami of December 2004, the government of Bangladesh embraced upgraded storm-alert systems that warn communities in a coordinated way and improved social support networks, resulting in a drastic reduction in typhoon deaths. In neighboring Myanmar, by contrast, deaths from natural disasters have risen in recent years. Indeed, the deaths that occurred there last year in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis cannot be separated from the fact that Myanmar has an authoritarian regime that prevents international assistance from reaching those in need, rendering its citizens unable to cope with extreme weather disasters – events that are expected to become more frequent with climate change.
The stark contrast between Bangladesh and Myanmar, both likely facing serious threats from rising sea levels and more intense typhoons as the world warms, is a striking example of a key measure of how different parts of the world are going to cope with climate change in the coming century: whether societies are “climate-fit” or “climate-weak.” In fact, how different societies fare as temperatures rise will have as much to do with political, social, technological, and economic factors as with a changing climate.
That global warming will exact a human toll is undisputed, but the extent of its predicted impacts is uncertain. So how can we best identify those most at risk? Applying Darwinian principles, climate change, like any other assault on our species, is about survival of the fittest. We need to recognize what makes a community “climate-fit,” and how to improve fitness in “climate-weak” populations.
Geography is important, of course — climate-fit people live in areas less vulnerable to sea level rise, for example. But it is only one factor, and the
If people feel they have control over their situation, they begin to work out solutions.”strength of a society – its resilience, ingenuity, and flexibility, as well as its governance — will have a great deal to do with how it fares in the face of climate change. People who live in countries that are well-governed, and who belong to communities that are more self-reliant and exist within the sustainable limits of the available resources, are plainly going to be better able to weather the impacts of climate change.
In Gujarat, India, for example, I have visited drought-stricken villages, separated by less than 1 kilometer, whose approach to severe water shortages made the difference between abundance and dependence. In one village, residents have collected and stored monsoon rains for the dry season, built barriers to slow monsoon rains so they penetrate the water table and wells, and created an effective irrigation system. They harvest three bountiful crops per year. The neighboring village has not taken such steps, and it manages just one poor harvest and is reliant on government water tankers to provide drinking water for seven months of the year.
I have seen neighboring islands in the Maldives, where on one, houses have been abandoned and even washed away because of erosion exacerbated by sea-level rise, while on the other, coral and mangrove conservation have kept all the homes secure.
Where people take responsibility for their destiny, they are far more likely to employ sound practices, like traditional water management strategies. “If people feel they have control over their situation, they begin to work out practical solutions to the problem,” says Tom Crompton, of WWF, who studies the psychology of climate change. “But, as studies in Norway during glacier melt have shown, when people feel they are impotent to do anything, they employ emotional management strategies like denial, which help no one.”
Flexibility is also an important measure of climate fitness, whether it is the emotional flexibility that prepares people to make long migrations from their soon-to-be-flooded homes in the Bay of Bengal, or the flexibility that allows a Bangladeshi rice farmer to convert to shrimp farming to deal with increased salinity from rising seas.
Effective governance is obviously crucial to a society’s climate fitness. This
Populations that are ‘climate-fit’ can become ‘climate-weak’ because of poor government.includes removing the barriers that prevent people and communities from improving their lives, as well as inequalities of caste, ethnicity, religion, or tribes. The chaos of war, violence, or the complete breakdown of government — as seen in Nepal, Afghanistan, or the resource-rich Indian state of Bihar — can leave populations climate-weakened.
Populations that also are reasonably climate-fit can become climate-weak because of the poor decisions of their governments. A case in point is Laos. Climate models for the region predict a greater variability in the monsoon patterns over the coming decades in this Southeast Asian nation, which is ranked as one of the world’s least developed countries. In May, the United Nations set up a special task force to look at climate adaptation in Laos, aimed at readying the population for drought and flooding scenarios.
By any measure, villagers I met in my recent journey across Laos were poor and backward. Despite that, however, the Laotian people’s degree of self-sufficiency is so high that — for now — they are among the most climate-fit societies in the world.
Roughly 80 percent of the Laotian people are subsistence farmers and fishermen, supplementing their cultivated harvest from the natural resources that remain extraordinarily abundant in this sliver of land between Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Cambodia. Villagers collect everything from construction materials to food, including insects, herbs, fruit, nuts, and mushrooms from the forests. The Mekong and its many tributaries provide the fish that make up 80 percent of the dietary protein of the 6.3 million Lao, as well as water and a social meeting place for these strong, supportive communities.
If the people were to continue living as they currently do, then Laotians would be in a good position to cope with the impacts of climate change. But the climate fitness of the Laotian people is being threatened by their own government, which is busy selling off the country’s resources, including timber concessions and a planned series of large hydropower dams that threaten fish populations and the ability of Laotians to feed themselves, and thereby raise their vulnerability to climate change.
Good governance is not necessarily a characteristic of a Western model. “Vietnam used to have a very robust method of dealing with typhoons and hurricanes, but this all fell apart when they embraced capitalism,” says Saleem Huq, director of the climate change program at the International Institute for Environment and Development. “Generally, though, democratic countries are more robust because there is a means of challenging the powers and holding them to account. You don’t get famines in a democracy.”
Going hand-in-hand with good leadership is smart development policy. Indian states such as Gujarat, which are starting to wean farmers off unsustainable agriculture and into new industries, are improving the
The global community has a duty to confront the uncomfortable socio-political aspect of climate vulnerability.people’s climate fitness, as are policies in Kothapally in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where scientists are helping villagers to grow semi-arid crops, such as millet, in place of rice. Poor development policy, however well intended, can also weaken climate fitness. This includes government subsidies for unsustainable agriculture that promote thirsty crops, such as rice, or provide unrealistically cheap electricity for groundwater pumps.
Sound environmental guardianship is perhaps one of the most important traits of governments and societies that hope to improve their ability to deal with climate change. Countries such as Costa Rica, where the environment is preserved as an important part of the tourism economy, are more climate-fit than places like Indonesia, China or Madagascar, where the government allows or sponsors environmental degradation, such as widespread deforestation.
Another key component of climate fitness is the equality and empowerment of women and minority groups. Natalie Curtis, a senior press spokesman at Oxfam, said that sea level rise and an increase in extreme weather events in Bangladesh has been a “double-edged sword.” The impacts have been “horrific”, she said, but they have led to the creation of councils of women in every village “who are leading the efforts for community survival.”
Hurricane Katrina’s impact on New Orleans was also a stark example of climate weakness, as social inequality – and poor governance – led to tens of thousands of the city’s poorest residents being stranded for days.
As the atmosphere and oceans warm this century — leading, in all likelihood, to an increase in extreme weather events, sea level rise, drought, and greater political conflict — suffering and climate-related deaths need not be a fait accompli. The global community has a duty to confront the uncomfortable socio-political aspect of climate vulnerability in order to help climate-weak people tool up to climate fitness. And, importantly, to prevent climate-fit people, like the villagers in Laos, from becoming climate-weak. But it will require strong local action, good governance, and well-planned climate adaptation programs in the poor countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where the climate-weak live — and the most deaths are likely to occur.
POSTED ON 02 Nov 2009 IN Climate Climate Energy Policy & Politics Policy & Politics Asia Central & South America North America
ABOUT THE AUTHORGaia Vince, the former news editor of Nature, is a freelance science writer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Times (UK), New Scientist, Seed, Science, and on the BBC. She is currently traveling internationally looking at the social and environmental impacts of climate change.
Recommend
Tweet
DIGG
Email
Print
Stumble Upon
ShareRELATED ARTICLES
Florida Counties Band Together
To Ready for Warming’s Effects
While U.S. action on climate change remains stalled, four south Florida counties have joined forces to plan for how to deal with the impacts — some of which are already being felt — of rising seas, higher temperatures, and more torrential rains.
What Rising Temperatures May
Mean for World’s Wine Industry
Warming temperatures associated with climate change are already affecting vineyards from France to Chile, often in beneficial ways. But as the world continues to warm, some traditional winemaking regions are scrambling to adapt, while other areas see themselves as new wine frontiers.
Climate Relicts: Seeking Clues
On How Some Species Survive
In pockets ranging from mountain peaks to bogs, scientists are discovering plants and animals that survived previous eras of climate change. Now, conservation biologists say, these climate “relicts” could shed light on how some species may hang on in the coming centuries.
How to Find Common Ground
In the Bitter Climate Debate
Even as the impacts of climate change intensify, many Americans remain confused by the issue. In an interview Yale Environment 360, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe discusses what rising temperatures will mean for the U.S., how to talk with climate skeptics, and what she would say to Texas Gov. Rick Perry to prod him into action on global warming.
The World’s Tropical Forests
Are Already Feeling the Heat
Much attention has been paid to how global warming is affecting the world’s polar regions and glaciers. But a leading authority on tropical forests warns that rising temperatures could have an equally profound impact on rainforests and are already taking a toll on some tropical species.
MORE IN Opinion
Besieged by Climate Deniers,
A Scientist Decides to Fight Back
Climate scientist Michael Mann, who has faced years of attacks from climate-change skeptics, explains why he believes bad-faith assaults on science have no place in a functioning democracy and why the truth about global warming will inevitably gain wide acceptance.
The Folly of Big Agriculture:
Why Nature Always Wins
Large-scale industrial agriculture depends on engineering the land to ensure the absence of natural diversity. But as the recent emergence of herbicide-tolerant weeds on U.S. farms has shown, nature ultimately finds a way to subvert uniformity and assert itself.
Shunning Nuclear Power
Will Lead to a Warmer World
A physicist argues that if we allow our overblown and often irrational fears of nuclear energy to block the building of a significant number of new nuclear plants, we will be choosing a far more perilous option: the intensified burning of planet-warming fossil fuels.
Innovation is Not Enough:
Why Polluters Must Pay
Innovative energy technologies are certainly essential if the world is to curb carbon emissions. But in response to a recent e360 article by the co-founders of the Breakthrough Institute, an economist argues we must also cap emissions or put a price on carbon in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Beyond Cap and Trade,
A New Path to Clean Energy
Putting a price and a binding cap on carbon is not the panacea that many thought it to be. The real road to cutting U.S. emissions, two iconoclastic environmentalists argue, is for the government to help fund the development of cleaner alternatives that are better and cheaper than natural gas.
On the Road Back to Rio,
Green Direction Has Been Lost
Twenty years ago, an historic environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro produced groundbreaking treaties and high hopes that pressing issues would be addressed. But as organizers prepare for the Rio+20 conference in June, there is little on the agenda to suggest any substantive action will be taken.
As Roads Spread in Rainforests,
The Environmental Toll Grows
From Brazil to Borneo, new roads are being built into tropical forests at a dizzying pace, putting previously intact wilderness at risk. If we hope to preserve rainforests, a leading researcher says, new strategies must be adopted to limit the number of roads and reduce their impacts.
Solar Power Off the Grid:
Energy Access for World’s Poor
More than a billion people worldwide lack access to electricity. The best way to bring it to them — while reducing greenhouse gas emissions — is to launch a global initiative to provide solar panels and other forms of distributed renewable power to poor villages and neighborhoods.
In Australia’s New Carbon Tax,
A Host of Missed Opportunities
The Australian government will begin imposing a tax on carbon emissions in mid-2012. But large giveaways to industry mean Australia’s scheme doesn’t go nearly far enough in reducing the nation’s CO2 emissions or providing economic stimulus.
Making the Case for the
Value of Environmental Rules
Some U.S. politicians have been attacking environmental regulations, arguing that they hurt the economy and that the costs outweigh the benefits. But four decades of data refute that claim and show we need not choose between a clean environment and economic growth.
RELATED e360 DIGEST ITEMS
17 May 2012: Human-made Pollutants May Be
Expanding Tropical Zone, Study Says
17 May 2012: Retreat of Columbia Glacier
Vividly Captured in NASA Satellite Images
16 May 2012: Wildlife in Tropical Regions
Has Declined 60 Percent Since 1970
14 May 2012: Various Uses of Wood
Determine Emissions from Deforestation
04 May 2012: Greenland Glaciers Moving
More Slowly Than Previous Estimates
03 May 2012: Earth Observation Satellites
Threatened by Budget Shortfalls in U.S.
03 May 2012: Experiments Underestimate
Plant Responses to Global Warming
02 May 2012: Polar Bears Taking Long Swims
In Absence of Summer Sea Ice, Study Says
30 Apr 2012: Australia Lists Koala As
Threatened Species for First Time
27 Apr 2012: Warming Climate Has Caused
Water Cycle to Intensify, Study Says
Yale Environment 360 is
a publication of the
Yale School of Forestry
& Environmental Studies.
SEARCH e360
CONNECT
Twitter: YaleE360e360 on Facebook
Donate to e360
View mobile site
Bookmark
Share e360
Email newsletter
Subscribe to our feed:
ABOUT
About e360Contact
Submission Guidelines
Reprints
e360 VIDEO
The Warriors of Qiugang, a Yale Environment 360 video that chronicles the story of a Chinese village’s fight against a polluting chemical plant, was nominated for a 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Watch the video.
DEPARTMENTS
OpinionReports
Analysis
Interviews
e360 Digest
Video Reports
TOPICS
BiodiversityBusiness & Innovation
Climate
Energy
Forests
Oceans
Policy & Politics
Pollution & Health
Science & Technology
Sustainability
Urbanization
Water
REGIONS
Antarctica and the ArcticAfrica
Asia
Australia
Central & South America
Europe
Middle East
North America
e360 VIDEO REPORT
As temperatures rise and water supplies dry up, tribes in East Africa increasingly are coming into conflict. A Yale Environment 360 video reports on a phenomenon that could become more common: how worsening drought will pit groups — and nations — against one another. Watch the video.
e360 MOBILE
from Yale
Environment 360 is now available for mobile devices at e360.yale.edu/mobile.
Top Image: aerial view of Iceland. © Google & TerraMetrics.
e360 VIDEO REPORT
Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining, an e360 video examining the environmental and human impacts of this mining practice, won the award for best video in the 2010 National Magazine Awards for Digital Media. Watch the video.
OF INTEREST
COMMENTS
Being "climate-fit" or "climate-weak" is another way to call being RESILIENT or not. In other words, being ready to adapt ourselves, our communities, towns and cities, for the imminent climate changes.
There are many groups that have been developing guidelines, indicators and evaluations to check "vulnerability" levels, what actions we can take, what do we need to do to be prepared, etc.
Nowadays, I do believe Resiliency efforts and programs should replace those focusing
on sustainability.
And this is not only for the poor developing countries. I am afraid that many over-developed, rich countries, are more vulnerable, or "climate-weak" as the author says, than other countries.
This article looks at Third World communities with a respect that is rare but welcome. If more of us conserved like the people of Laos, it would be good. Based on her experiences, the author is in a good position to spearhead global strategies for climate-fitness.
As someone who lives in a climate-vulnerable archipelago (the Philippines), I can't help but fear for our people. Filipinos have these traits that you mentioned - "resilience, ingenuity, and flexibility" - in abundance. The recent widespread flood deaths in Manila, however, point to the fact that we might be lacking in the 4th crucial factor - good governance.
I can't help but notice that this article overlooks an element of crucial importance. Enormously powerful forces such as corporations coming from outside the community are often responsible for destroying local 'resilience.' Perhaps this is what was meant by poor governance, but that is not clear from the article. The general tone of the article verges on saying that it is their own fault if locals' lives and homes are lost to global warming.
The societies that seem to be doing it best at the moment are those who are not very technologically developed. It leads me to believe that not even carbon trading can help "developed countries" take all of this seriously enough.
I've been looking for an approach to global environment that is seamless and holistic, and that puts Earth's wholeness before individual geopolitical units such as nations. Gaia Vince's article -- and her name fits with what I'm envisioning -- provides tools for bringing the world together around the issue of "climate fitness."
She has identified "resilience, ingenuity, and flexibility," as well as "good governance," as prerequisites for climate fitness toward adapting to the inexorable challenges wrought by climate change. How can we go further?
We should be able to rate all nations' climate fitness. There are so many academic programs that legions of students could be brought together to work on this rating. If we take a large overview of what's already being done, perhaps with too-narrow purviews, we'd probably be surprised at how many resources are already in place to effect this global rating.
Mapping Nations on Google Earth:
There must already be Google Earth maps that could be assembled in such a way as to allow people everywhere to observe each nation's resources for climate fitness. People everywhere could be able to make choices or take actions that maintain and promote climate fitness at home and abroad.
It's quite possible that Ms. Vince is already working in this vein, and it would be nice to hear what thoughts she might have on the subject.
Trusts:
"The societies that seem to be doing it best at the moment are those who are not very technologically developed. It leads me to believe that not even carbon trading can help "developed countries" take all of this seriously enough."
Yes. The Third World points to the future. Developed nations (the West) are also highly capitalistic, which means that making money tromps any other values. Yet, the material power of the West is overwhelming the Third World. Yet again, this implies that the West must lead. Which means it must somehow transform itself. With its technological might and global reach, imagine what the West could achieve if it adopted lifestyle patterns of Laos. It would be like the Third World on steroids.
Kind of odd to read this and not see a reference to Elinor Ostrom or Jared Diamond. Their work seems almost compulsory to understanding these issues.
John D. Wilson on 12 Nov 2009
"Kind of odd to read this and not see a reference to Elinor Ostrom or Jared Diamond. Their work seems almost compulsory to understanding these issues."
The reference to Elinor Ostrom was helpful. Her work as described on Wikipedia touched on a field know as Collective Action (among several others). A section entitled Collective Action and Climate Change linked to the Stern Report on the economic projections for addressing climate change, which was also useful. But this is academic stuff way out of reach for the masses. I'm not sure how Gaia Vince's straightforward essay would benefit by bringing in this woefully complex academic perspective. Is the academy so caught up in itself that it is incapable of interacting with the real world in a truly change-making fashion? Jared Diamond's presentations on TV seem much simpler, but how can countries meeting in Copenhagen actually apply this?
Average people on the street are smart and good enough to ignite into action upon getting the right inspiration. But where is the spark to ignite them? If we agree that dealing with climate change requires universal paradigm shifting, the mysteries of the academic world don't seem to be the answer.
People all over the world are being deeply affected by somethıng that many of us don't really consider in our day-to-day lives. In Peru, whole families of farmers depend on the water running off glaciers and into rivers. But because of the chanğes in temperature caused by global carbon emissions, the glaciers are retreating and the rivers are running dry. The farmers live on the crops they grow in the möuntains and the yarn they spin from the coats of their alpaca herds. But they can no longer predict the seasons and the alpacas are leaving – it is almost as if they can sense the disaster faster than we can.
Comments have been closed on this feature.