Archive for: Journal Article

Global Warming Policy: Is Population Left Out in the Cold?

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Many nongovernmental organizations undertake climate- and population-related activities, and national adaptation plans for most of the least-developed countries recognize population dynamics as an important component of vulnerability to climate impacts. But despite this evidence, much of the climate community, notably the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the primary source of scientific information for the international climate change policy process, is largely silent about the relationship between population dynamics and risks from global warming. Though the latest IPCC report includes an assessment of technical aspects of ways in which population and climate change influence each other, the assessment does not extend to population policy as part of a wide range of potential adaptation and mitigation responses. We suggest that four misperceptions by many in the climate change community play a substantial role in neglect of this topic, and propose remedies for the IPCC as it prepares for the sixth cycle of its multiyear assessment process.

Year: 2018

Source: Science

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    Climate Change

    Population

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    Global Warming and Reproductive Health

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    The largest absolute numbers of maternal deaths occur among the 40–50 million women who deliver annually without a skilled birth attendant. Most of these deaths occur in countries with a total fertility rate greater than 4. The combination of global warming and rapid population growth in the Sahel and parts of the Middle East poses a serious threat to reproductive health and food security. Poverty, lack of resources, and rapid population growth make it unlikely that most women in these countries will have access to skilled birth attendants or emergency obstetric care in the foreseeable future. Three strategies can be implemented to improve women’s health and reproductive rights in high-fertility, low-resource settings: (1) make family planning accessible and remove non-evidence-based barriers to contraception; (2) scale up community distribution of misoprostol for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage and, where it is legal, for medical abortion; and (3) eliminate child marriage and invest in girls and young women, thereby reducing early childbearing.

    Year: 2012

    Source: International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics

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      Climate Change

      Family Planning

      Maternal and Child Health

      Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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      Global Demographic Trends and Future Carbon Emissions

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      Substantial changes in population size, age structure, and urbanization are expected in many parts of the world this century. Although such changes can affect energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, emissions scenario analyses have either left them out or treated them in a fragmentary or overly simplified manner. This report is a comprehensive assessment of the implications of demographic change for global emissions of carbon dioxide. Using an energy–economic growth model that accounts for a range of demographic dynamics, the study shows that slowing population growth could provide 16–29% of the emissions reductions suggested to be necessary by 2050 to avoid dangerous climate change. The report also finds that aging and urbanization can substantially influence emissions in particular world regions.

      Year: 2008

      Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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        Climate Change

        Population

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        From Public to Planetary Health: A Manifesto

        This manifesto for transforming public health calls for a social movement to support collective public health action at all levels of society—personal, community, national, regional, global, and planetary. The aim is to respond to the threats the planet faces: threats to human health and wellbeing, threats to the sustainability of our civilisation, and threats to the natural and human-made systems that support us. The vision is for a planet that nourishes and sustains the diversity of life with which humans coexist and on which people depend.

        Year: 2014

        Source: The Lancet

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          Advocacy

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          Family Planning as a Contributor to Environmental Sustainability: Weighing the Evidence

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          The purpose of this review is to highlight recent evidence that family planning, readily accessible to all who seek it and exercised as a human right, can contribute to environmental sustainability. As global concern increases about the health of our planet, better understanding of the role family planning programs play in maintaining a sustainable environment could bolster public and policymaker support for access to family planning.

          Year: 2018

          Source: Current Opinion in Obstetrics and Gynecology

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            Conservation

            Family Planning

            Population

            Women's Empowerment

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            Family Planning and the Samburu: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Thoughts of Men on a Population Health and Environment Programme in Rural Kenya

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            Population Health and Environment (PHE) strategies are argued to improve ecosystem and human health by addressing family size and its effects on natural resource use, food security, and reproductive health. This study investigates men’s views on a PHE family planning (FP) programme delivered among the pastoral Samburu tribe in rural northern Kenya. Three focus group discussions and nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 Samburu men. These discussions revealed support for environmentally-sensitised family planning promotion. Men highlighted their dependency on natural resources and challenges faced in providing for large families and maintaining livestock during drought. These practices were said to lead to natural resource exhaustion, environmental degradation, and wildlife dispersal, undermining key economic benefits of environmental and wildlife conservation. Relating family size to the environment is a compelling strategy to improve support for FP among Samburu men. Kenyan policy-makers should consider integrating community-based PHE strategies among underserved pastoral groups living in fragile ecosystems.

            Year: 2017

            Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

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              Agribusiness

              Climate Change

              Conservation

              Family Planning

              Maternal and Child Health

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              Evaluating the Impacts of Protected Areas on Human Well-Being Across the Developing World

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              The world has committed, through the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to halt biodiversity loss and increase protected area (PA) coverage and to reduce multidimensional poverty by half by 2030. Recent calls to evaluate interactions between SDGs have highlighted that achieving one goal in isolation may actually have negative consequences for sustainable development foci of other goals. PAs are fundamental for biodiversity conservation, yet their impacts on nearby residents are contested. This study aimed to determine the impact that the expansion of the world’s PA network—a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation strategies—on the prospects of achieving global goals around poverty alleviation and human health.

              Year: 2019

              Source: Science Advances

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                Conservation

                Sustainable Development Goals

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                Emerging Threats to Human Health from Global Environmental Change: Annual Review of Environment and Resources

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                Large-scale anthropogenic changes to the natural environment, including land-use change, climate change, and the deterioration of ecosystem services, are all accelerating. These changes are interacting to generate five major emerging public health threats that endanger the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of people. These threats include increasing exposure to infectious disease, water scarcity, food scarcity, natural disasters, and population displacement. Taken together, they may represent the greatest public health challenge humanity has faced. There is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the dynamics of each of these threats: the complex interplay of factors that generate them, the characteristics of populations that make them particularly vulnerable, and the identification of which populations are at greatest risk from each of these threats. Such improved understanding would be the basis for stepped-up efforts at modeling and mapping global vulnerability to each of these threats. It would also help natural resource managers and policy makers to estimate the health impacts associated with their decisions and would allow aid organizations to target their resources more effectively.

                Year: 2009

                Source: Annual Review of Environment and Resources

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                  Climate Change

                  Community Health

                  Food Security

                  Infectious Diseases

                  Natural Disasters

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                  Climate Change and the Potential Effects on Maternal and Pregnancy Outcomes: An Assessment of the Most Vulnerable the Mother, Fetus, and Newborn Child

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                  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and The Lancet Commission have presented evidence about global warming and the impact of human activities on global climate change, and the impact of climate change on human health. Pregnant women, the developing fetus, and young children are marginalized in many countries, and are among the most vulnerable members of society. This article demonstrates that climate change will increase the risk of infant and maternal mortality, birth complications, and poorer reproductive health, especially in tropical, developing countries, with substantial impacts on the health and survival of the next generation of these populations. Research efforts must identify the most vulnerable populations, fill knowledge gaps, and coordinate efforts to reduce negative health consequences of climate change. Increased focus on antenatal care is recommended to prevent worsening maternal health and perinatal mortality and morbidity. Interventions to reduce the negative health impacts caused by climate change are also crucial.

                  Year: 2013

                  Source: Global Health Action

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                    Climate Change

                    Maternal and Child Health

                    Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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                    Climate Change and Family Planning: Least-Developed Countries Define the Agenda

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                    This paper analyzes the first 40 National Adaptation Programmes of Action reports submitted by governments of least-developed countries to the Global Environment Facility for funding. Of these documents, 93% identified at least one of three ways in which demographic trends interact with the effects of climate change: (i) faster degradation of the sources of natural resources; (ii) increased demand for scarce resources; and (iii) heightened human vulnerability to extreme weather events. These findings suggest that voluntary access to family planning services should be made more available to poor communities in least-developed countries. The article stresses the distinction between this approach, which prioritizes the welfare of poor communities affected by climate change, versus the argument that population growth should be slowed to limit increases in global carbon emissions. The paper concludes by calling for increased support for rights-based family planning services, including those integrated with HIV/AIDS services, as an important complementary measure to climate change adaptation programmes in developing countries.

                    Year: 2009

                    Source: Bulletin of the World Health Organization

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                      Climate Change

                      Family Planning

                      Population

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