Assortment of Annotated Bibliographies on Climate Change and Public Health Papers
Citation 1:
Eastin, J., 2018. Climate change and gender equality in developing states. World Development, 107, pp.289-305.
Joshua Eastin is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the State University of Portland, focussing his research on environmental politics and the consequences of economic underdevelopment. Eastin’s (2018) article aimed to evaluate the distribution of climate change impacts across genders, and the impacts of climate change on furthering gender disparity. The key message delivered throughout the article is that women experience disproportionate effects of climate change. The conclusion notes that an increase in climate disasters is directly associated with declining economic and social rights for women, particularly in states that are less economically developed and depend more on agriculture sectors.
This study is one of the first systematic cross-country reviews into the negative effects of climate change on women’s economic and social rights. This article was useful in discovering that there is an important and inherent implication to women’s equality in any climate change adaptation policy, and that climate change policies should also include mechanisms to promote women’s rights. However, the key limitation of this study was that it does not explore the precise causal mechanisms between increasing climate disasters and declining women’s rights, as only the high-level relationship was established here. Additionally, Eastin (2018) used the ‘disaster variable’ to determine rates of climate change disasters across regions, and this variable measure is not as robust compared to other measures, limiting the reliability of this study.
It had never occurred to me that climate change would impact on gender equality. I had previous knowledge that LMIC women are the managers of household resources such as food and livestock, however I would have struggled to link changes to these everyday tasks with climate change. Now with knowledge that climate change policy directly impacts on gender equality, I am forced to evaluate that gender equality and climate change cannot be tackled separately. Additionally, this article was extremely beneficial for me in understanding the multifaceted impacts of climate change and the importance of including equality measures in policies.
Citation 2:
Cutts, E., 2022. Why Are Heat Waves Becoming So Common in Europe?. [online] VOA. Available at: <https://www.voanews.com/a/why-are-heat-waves-becoming-so-common-in-europe/6673184.html> [Accessed 1 September 2022].
Elise Cutts is a science journalist for Voice of America. She has a background in geomicrobiology, planetary science, and geology, and has also previously written articles for Scientific America, Science news, and more. This article outlines that heat waves are generally becoming more intense, frequent, and lasting longer as a result of climate change, but Europe’s heatwaves are particularly alarming. Europe is warming faster than any other region and scientists are still trying to understand why. The only certainty highlighted is that Europe will continue to get hotter, and thousands will continue to die as a result until appropriate action is taken.
Cutts’ (2022) article is critical in explicating that Europe is warming disproportionate to the rest of the midlatitudes, and clearly acknowledges that recorded levels of heat in Europe have exceeded what climate models predicted. Cutts is an accredited reporter on climate change and has a deep understanding of climate related issues. Additionally, Cutts uses other accredited reporters in her article, creating a reliable and accurate representation of the current climate crisis in Europe. However, this article does not explain what climate models were used to measure predictions or current temperatures, limiting the usefulness of the article.
This article was very helpful in explaining the different possible causes for the extreme heat waves Europe has been experiencing in 2022. I was aware that the industrial revolution and fossil fuel emissions were the main causes of climate change, however this article actually explained what the impacts of fossil fuels actually do to the atmosphere, land, and water. Being able to understand a clear link between human activity, excessive energy and resource consumption, atmospheric or land impacts, and resulting heat waves makes me reconsider my energy use every day, rather than thinking that one person could not make the difference.
Citation 3:
Celik, S., 2020. The effects of climate change on human behaviors. In Environment, climate, plant and vegetation growth (pp. 577-589). Springer, Cham.
Dr Senol Celik is a Turkish researcher and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of History, and Department of Biometrics and Genetics across Balikesir University and Bingol University. The scope of this article is to demonstrate the effects of climate change of people’s lifestyles, their spirituality, their personal possessions, and occupations and goals. The main argument centred on how climate change has forced millions of people to migrate, and how migration alters people’s perception of climate change and their purpose in life. To conclude, Celik (2020) notes that climate change negatively impacts all aspects of life and significantly alters people’s lifestyles and behaviours.
This article is useful in highlighting the behavioural and psychological impacts on people who directly experience climate disasters, and systematically explains the effects of different aspects of climate change on human health and behaviour. However, the main limitation of this study was that it mainly focussed on the behavioural effects resulting from disproportionate exposure to climate change. The usefulness of this study could be increased by analysing general changes in human behaviour to climate change from people who have not been affected by a climate disaster to make the results more generalisable. Additionally, Dr Celik is not a psychologist or experienced researcher in behaviour or psychology, therefore his reports on human behaviour have limited reliability.
As a student who is particularly interested in the impacts of climate change on health, I only found this article partly useful in expanding my knowledge on the issue. Although I learnt more about the spiritual changes a person goes through after experiencing a climate disaster, this article helped me realise that not everyone’s first purpose in life is to do something for the greater good. Rather, some people start life in less fortunate circumstances and originally focus on surviving, but after being forced to change circumstances, people may be more motivated to help other people avoid the same disaster they went through.
Citation 4:
Baloch, S. and Carrington, D., 2022. Pakistan not to blame for climate crisis-fuelled flooding, says PM Shehbaz Sharif. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/30/pakistan-monsoon-on-steroids-flooding-warning-antonio-guterres> [Accessed 1 September 2022].
Both Mr Baloch and Mr Carrington work with the Guardian, as a freelance journalist and Environment editor respectively. Baloch is known for his journalistic reporting on Pakistani humanitarian issues, politics, human rights, and more. Carrington has more than 20 years’ experience in journalism and has a PhD in geology from the University of Edinburgh. Their article demonstrates the disproportionate and unfair effects of climate change. Pakistan contributes less than 1% to global greenhouse gas emissions yet have over $10bn of flood damage and a 100% increase in diseases as a result of these floods. To conclude the article, a Pakistani politician urges the government to focus on humanitarian relief funds instead of leadership contests and politics.
This article manifests a humanitarian plea to support a country that barely contributes to climate change, yet its’ people have lost thousands of family members, homes, livestock, and infrastructure. Additionally, there is a clear call-out that immediate food, water, medicine, and emergency help is needed to support those still trying to evacuate flooded areas. The main limitation of this article is that it has not outlined what additional support is needed for people who have already evacuated to northern Pakistan and are currently without a home. The use of quotes from Pakistani politicians and other officials helps create more meaning behind the humanitarian pleas but could have been used to also support those still needing to evacuate too.
This article made it very clear to me the impacts of climate change, specifically in the South Asia region. A “monsoon on steroids” (quoted from Antonio Guterres in the article) is explained to impact tens of millions of people. Additionally, South Asia is noted as a climate hotspot and people living in these hotspots are said to be 15 times more likely to die as a result of climate change. These quantified impacts have put into perspective the effects of climate change that we feel in Australia, although I feel very privileged that Australia has the resources to quickly support its people, unlike the current situation in Pakistan.
Citation 5:
UCAR, 2022. Predictions of Future Global Climate. [online] Available at: <https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/climate-change-impacts/predictions-future-global-climate> [Accessed 1 September 2022].
This article was published by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the centre for science education. UCAR is an American based not-for-profit research and training organisation that focusses on earth system sciences and has collaborations with over 100 colleges and universities across America that provide research and training on atmospheric and other related science disciplines. The aim of this publication is to demonstrate that there are already resulting consequences to our world as a result of over 100 years of burning fossil fuels and the 0.6-degree Celsius rise in global temperature this caused. Additionally, this publication explains the predicted impacts of climate change in the near future on different regions, water systems, health, and more. The key takeaway from this publication is that further impacts from climate change are unavoidable and we cannot predict what the worse impact will be.
This website is very useful in providing a basic understanding of the different impacts we could experience because of climate change. Predicted impacts from climate change are all covered in high-level detail. UCAR also provide links to additional resources to support their claims, increasing the usefulness of the content. Whilst UCAR is a known research and training institution in the field of earth system science, their website articles do not reference the source of their information. Therefore, although UCAR itself is a renowned source of information, the reliability of the website is limited as it is not possible to tell whether the information provided is peer-reviewed.
This article was helpful in increasing my understanding of the variety of impacts that will result from climate change in the near future. I was previously unaware that scientists are not able to predict exactly what impact of climate change would be the worst for our world; I had assumed that a specific area of climate change would be of more concern than another, for example melting ice sheets vs absorption of CO2 in the ocean. However, I would have found this publication more useful if a comprehensive summary of how all these impacts from climate change are interlinked.