Disasters, migrations, and the unintended consequences of urbanization: What’s the harm in getting out of harm’s way?
This article integrates research on disasters and climate change-induced migration with emerging perspectives from environmental psychology and the psychology of natural disasters to consider the potential costs of particular migration scenarios. We apply this analysis to the case of Shishmaref, Alaska, a rural Iñupiat community on the northwest coast of Alaska facing habitual flooding disasters linked to climate change. Findings from Shishmaref illustrate the cultural vitality of subsistence landscapes and the potential health risks of compromised human–ecological relationships due to migration and/or displacement. Rec...
Source: Population and Environment - October 5, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Can indigenous transborder migrants affect environmental governance in their communities of origin? Evidence from Mexico
Abstract
Despite high rates of out-migration, Mexican indigenous communities play a crucial role in biodiversity conservation. However, little is known about migrants’ role in environmental management. This research brief explores the case of the Purépecha of San Pedro Ocumicho, Michoacán, and its transborder community in the Coachella Valley of California. We find that migrants maintain strong cultural ties to their community of origin. However, many are undocumented, are unable to access steady and well-paid employment, and would be unable to return to California were they to visit Mexico. Furthermo...
Source: Population and Environment - September 28, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Why populations persist: mobility, place attachment and climate change
Abstract
Explanations of relationships between migration and environmental change now focus on multiple interactions, risks in destination and immobility. This research applies behavioural migration theory to examine the extent to which immobile populations experiencing environmental degradation exercise agency with respect to location and, in doing so, elucidates what it means to be trapped. This research uses individual survey data from a migrant-sending area in highland Peru where the population experiences negative health and livelihood impacts from climate-related phenomena. Analysis of these data re...
Source: Population and Environment - September 16, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Structure and agency in development-induced forced migration: the case of Brazil’s Belo Monte Dam
Abstract
This paper examines how structure and agency interact to shape forced migration outcomes. Specifically, I ask how structural factors such as compensation policies as well as social, financial, and human capital may either foster or constrain migration aspirations and capabilities. I use longitudinal, semi-structured interview data to study forced migration among farmers displaced by the Belo Monte Dam in the Brazilian Amazon. Results from baseline interviews indicate that nearly all community members aspired to purchase rural land in the region and maintain livelihoods as cacao farmers or cattle ...
Source: Population and Environment - September 4, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Acknowledgement to reviewers
(Source: Population and Environment)
Source: Population and Environment - August 25, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
(Un)natural disaster: vulnerability, long-distance displacement, and the extended geography of neighborhood distress and attainment after Katrina
Abstract
After Hurricane Katrina, socioeconomically vulnerable populations were slow to return to their poor and segregated pre-disaster neighborhoods. Yet, very little is known about the quality of their post-disaster neighborhoods. While vulnerable groups rarely escape neighborhood poverty, some Katrina evacuees showed signs of neighborhood improvement. The current study investigates this puzzle and the significance of long-distance moves for neighborhood change among participants in the Resilience in the Survivors of Katrina Project. Seven hundred low-income, mostly minority mothers in community colleg...
Source: Population and Environment - August 13, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
At the margins: agriculture, subsidies and the shifting fate of North America’s native grassland
We examined patterns of shifting cropland cultivation in the US Great Plains from the dust bowl to the beginning of the twenty-first century, by comparing land-cover data from 400 sample sites across the region from the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s, 1990s and 2000s. The small area land-cover data were nested within 50 target counties across the region. To understand the use of marginal land for cultivation since the Great Depression, we argue, requires consideration of the long term dynamics of demography, technology and policy. We draw on these historical dynamics, and their interactions with programs aimed at reducing environment...
Source: Population and Environment - July 30, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Residential exposure to air toxics is linked to lower grade point averages among school children in El Paso, Texas, USA
Abstract
Children in low-income neighborhoods tend to be disproportionately exposed to environmental toxicants. This is cause for concern because exposure to environmental toxicants negatively affects health, which can impair academic success. To date, it is unknown if associations between air toxics and academic performance found in previous school-level studies persist when studying individual children. In pairing the National Air Toxics Assessment risk estimates for respiratory and diesel particulate matter risk disaggregated by source, with individual-level data collected through a mail survey, this p...
Source: Population and Environment - July 17, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Marine protected areas and children’s dietary diversity in the Philippines
Abstract
Fish living around the coral reefs in the Philippines provide livelihoods for more than a million local fishers and are an important source of protein for coastal communities. However, this rich resource is at risk from myriad threats, which consequently threaten human livelihoods, nutrition, and health. In this paper, we examine the degree to which marine protected areas (MPAs), which aim to conserve marine biodiversity, are associated with improved nutritional outcomes in children under age 5. This analysis, which uses data from the 2008 Philippines Demographic and Health Survey and MPA data fr...
Source: Population and Environment - June 4, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Livelihoods, land use and land cover change in the Zambezi Region, Namibia
Abstract
This paper examines the socio-economic drivers of land use and land cover change and assesses the impacts of such changes to rural livelihoods in the Zambezi region of northern Namibia. We carried out a longitudinal analysis of Landsat imagery of land use and land cover. The analysis revealed that the amount of land in the region covered by forest increased significantly in the period from 1991 to 2010 whilst crop/grass land decreased. Focus group meetings, key informant interviews and semi-structured interviews covering 424 households stratified by gender were used. The results show that natural...
Source: Population and Environment - March 29, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Recreational amenities, rural migration patterns, and the Great Recession
This study builds on existing amenity growth literature by providing a more contextual analysis of this demographic trend. (Source: Population and Environment)
Source: Population and Environment - March 26, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Historical case studies of famines and migrations in the West African Sahel and their possible relevance now and in the future
Abstract
Case studies of three famines that occurred in rural northwest Nigeria during the latter half of the twentieth century are presented. Research found that continuum models and entitlement theory did not adequately conceptualize famine-related migration, though they may be more accurate now and in the future. Projects examining the climate-migration nexus should consider the possibility that famines and large-scale migrations from the Sahel will occur as a consequence of both heavy, poorly timed rainfall and intense droughts. The savanna’s historical function as a refuge for stressed Sahelian peo...
Source: Population and Environment - March 4, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Is divorce green? Energy use and marital dissolution
Abstract
Earlier studies argue that a greater prevalence of divorce increases energy use since divorce increases the number of smaller households that tend to be less energy efficient due to economics of scale. However, divorced individuals also have, on net, considerably lower fertility than individuals who are continuously married. In the current study, we employ a dynamic household projection model that incorporates the effects of divorce on fertility, thereby allowing us to consider both short (40-year horizon) and long-term (exceeding 40 years) effects of divorce on energy consumption. We find that,...
Source: Population and Environment - February 24, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
In memory of Professor Graeme Hugo
(Source: Population and Environment)
Source: Population and Environment - February 22, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Analyzing the impact of urban planning on population distribution in the Montreal metropolitan area using a small-area microsimulation projection model
The objective of this paper was to project the population of the Montreal Metropolitan Community’s municipalities over the 2006–2031 period and assess the effects of changes to urban planning on the expected spatial distribution of the population. For this purpose, we develop a microsimulation model that performs small-area population projections at a municipal level. This model, called local demographic simulations, takes into account local contextual variables such as the expected number of new housing units to be built. We then compare the results from three scenarios with different constraints on the planned reside...
Source: Population and Environment - February 13, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
