Connecting the dots between climate change, household water insecurity, and migration

Stoler, Justin; Brewis, Alexandra; Kangmennang, Joseph; Keough, Sara Beth; Pearson, Amber L.; Rosinger, Asher Y.; Stauber, Christine E.; Stevenson, Edward G. J.

doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2021.02.008

Cited by 28 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…theorized to increase migration propensity (Stoler et al, 2021). When households have intermittent-though predictable-water availability, they can adapt by using timers and pumps to fill storage containers when municipal water is flowing, chaining household errands in ways that make water pickups more convenient, or otherwise accommodating water vending or delivery schedules.…”

Section: Governance and State-sponsored Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such experiences may be related to various dimensions of household water insecurity, or may stem from poor governance that fails to buffer households from the effects of climate change, tainted water supplies, exploitative water arrangements, government or industrial infrastructure projects, or other socio‐environmental phenomena. We conceptualize these factors as contributing to the “slow drip” of migration (Stoler et al, 2021), a distinctly different pattern of movement that risks being overlooked when the focus is on dramatic, large‐scale migration, or displacement waves triggered by extreme events.…”

Section: Chronic Triggers Of Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These disruptions often force households to use lower‐quality water and change their plans during the day (Smiley & Stoler, 2020). Both the interruptions to water services, and the constant changing of daily schedules around water availability, are universal experiences of water insecurity (Young et al, 2019), and are social disruptions theorized to increase migration propensity (Stoler et al, 2021). When households have intermittent—though predictable—water availability, they can adapt by using timers and pumps to fill storage containers when municipal water is flowing, chaining household errands in ways that make water pickups more convenient, or otherwise accommodating water vending or delivery schedules.…”

Section: Chronic Triggers Of Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Migration propensity is theorized to increase when privatized water access limits human capabilities, and especially when higher water costs or lower availability limits livelihoods. This is the case in both rural and urban contexts, whether limiting agricultural productivity, or limiting entrepreneurship opportunities through jobs such as food preparation, hairdressing, cleaning services, and other water‐intensive services (Stoler et al, 2021). The extent to which water limits nonagricultural or nonlivestock livelihoods and prompts migration is also an obvious gap in the extant environmental migration literature.…”

Section: Chronic Triggers Of Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most studies of the relationship between water and environmental migration are framed around rapid‐onset extreme weather events and disasters that either limit agricultural or livestock productivity or make a community physically unlivable (Zickgraf, 2021), in either case, theorized to trigger human movement (Stoler et al, 2021). These tend to be large scale, temporally punctuated migrations involving most if not all inhabitants of a place.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of water in environmental migration

et al. 2022

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Water has always been a driver of human mobility, migration, and displacement. But water is increasingly central to explaining environmental migration in the context of climate change. Most studies of the relationship between water and environmental migration are framed around punctuated, extreme weather events and disasters that either limit agricultural or livestock productivity or make a community physically unlivable. The chronic experiences of household water insecurity and poor water governance also shape migration decision‐making through a variety of social, political, and economic factors, but these relationships have received considerably less attention. This article provides an overview of punctuated and chronic water‐related triggers of environmental migration at the household level. We also offer a conceptual framework based on multiphasic response theory that highlights water's multiple roles in migration decision‐making. We close by reflecting on key gaps in the climate‐water‐migration literature, identifying research questions that might help us better understand these relationships, and considering the implications for sustainable development policies that could potentially ease pressures on water‐related displacement.

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Section: Governance and State-sponsored Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chronic Triggers Of Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chronic Triggers Of Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chronic Triggers Of Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of water in environmental migration

et al. 2022

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Extreme climatic events and human biology and health: A primer and opportunities for future research

Rosinger

2022

American J Hum Biol

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Extreme climatic events are increasing in frequency, leading to hotter temperatures, flooding, droughts, severe storms, and rising oceans. This special issue brings together a collection of seven articles that describe the impacts of extreme climatic events on a diverse set of human biology and health outcomes. The first two articles cover extreme temperatures extending from extreme heat to cold and changes in winter weather and the respective implications for adverse health events, human environmental limits, well‐being, and human adaptability. Next, two articles cover the effects of exposures to extreme storms through an examination of hurricanes and cyclones on stress and birth outcomes. The following two articles describe the effects of extreme flooding events on livelihoods, nutrition, water and food insecurity, diarrheal and respiratory health, and stress. The last article examines the effects of drought on diet and food insecurity. Following a brief review of each extreme climatic event and articles covered in this special issue, I discuss future research opportunities–highlighting domains of climate change and specific research questions that are ripe for biological anthropologists to investigate. I close with a description of interdisciplinary methods to assess climate exposures and human biology outcomes to aid the investigation of the defining question of our time – how climate change will affect human biology and health. Ultimately, climate change is a water, food, and health problem. Human biologists offer a unique perspective for a combination of theoretical, methodological, and applied reasons and thus are in a prime position to contribute to this critical research agenda.

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The emergence of prolonged deadly humid heatwaves

Wang

et al. 2022

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Deadly humid heat conditions exceeding human thermoregulatory capacity have been reported; however, whether and where the deadly humid heat events occur consecutively across the land surface are largely unknown. We calculate the maximum consecutive days of deadly humid heat, defined as daily maximum wet-bulb temperature (TWmax) ≥35 C, for observations of 9,278 meteorological stations and for simulations of 14 global climate models. We further define short and long deadly humid heatwaves as a period of 3-4 and ≥5 consecutive days with daily TWmax ≥35 C, respectively. Our analyses show that six stations in some subtropical regions have experienced deadly humid heat with daily TWmax ≥35 C, but only occurs in individual days. Deadly humid heatwaves increase exponentially as the global mean temperature rising. When limiting global warming within 1.5 C, long deadly humid heatwaves will not occur across the land surface, and short deadly humid heatwaves will only emerge in some drylands but not in humid areas. Under 2 C warming, 0.09% of the global land, 0.42% of the human population, and 0.56% of the global centres of crop diversity are projected to be exposed to long deadly humid heatwaves. Meanwhile, 18% of the deadly humid heatwaves lasting ≥3 consecutive days will occur in humid areas; the fractions are projected to rapidly increase in humid areas as temperature rising further. At the end of the century, the percentage of land areas and human population exposed to deadly humid heatwaves lasting ≥3 consecutive days are expected to be 76-times higher than that under 1.5 C warming level.Our finding suggests that keeping global warming within 1.5 C will significantly constrain the emergence of prolonged deadly humid heatwaves and thus reduce the risk of the human population especially outdoor agricultural workers.climate warming, deadly humid heatwaves, exposure, wet bulb temperature | INTRODUCTIONExtreme humid heat is one of the most dangerous natural hazards (Wehner et al., 2016) and is recognized as an immediate threat to humans health and survivability (Meehl and Tebaldi, 2004;Sherwood and Huber, 2010;Mora et al., 2017; Mitchell, 2021). Compared with extreme dry heat, during extreme humid heatwaves, the threshold that temperature becomes deadly decreases with rising environment relative humidity (Pal and Eltahir, 2016;Xiang-Sheng Wang and Lei He are co-first authors.

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Connecting the dots between climate change, household water insecurity, and migration

Cited by 28 publications

References 52 publications

The role of water in environmental migration

The role of water in environmental migration

Extreme climatic events and human biology and health: A primer and opportunities for future research

The emergence of prolonged deadly humid heatwaves

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