Temperature effects on rural household outmigration: Evidence from China
This study examines the effect of rising temperatures on rural outmigration in Jiangxi Province, China, a cold region where agricultural livelihoods predominate. The study contributes novel results by using large-scale household smart meter data to identify rural household outmigration. These data are combined with temperature data from meteorological stations to reveal a nonlinear effect of temperature on rural outmigration through an agricultural livelihood mechanism. The study projects the influence of rising temperatures on rural outmigration based on two representative concentration pathways (RCPs): RCP4.5 and RCP8.5....
Source: Population and Environment - October 23, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
An estimate of age structure transition on carbon dioxide emission: panel analysis on Indian states
AbstractThis paper investigates the relationship between per capita CO2 emission and the population age distribution in 17 Indian states from 1980 to 2008. Using STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology) framework, this paper examines the impact of the age distribution of population, per capita gross domestic product, and the share of the manufacturing sector on per capita CO2 emissions by assembling a panel dataset from published data for this time period. Each state ’s population is categorized into five age intervals to estimate the effect of the share of population falling ...
Source: Population and Environment - October 16, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Investigating the impacts of rainfall, armed conflict, and COVID-19 shocks on women ’s household decision-making among partnered women in Burkina Faso
In this study, we examined the distinct and overlapping associations between extreme events—growing season rainfall anomalies, armed conflict during the growing season, and COVID-19—and women’s daily decision-making power in Burkina Faso. We employed longitudinal survey data from I PUMS Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA), a complex and spatially referenced dataset. These data were collected from a population-representative sample of women of reproductive age (15–49 years) in Burkina Faso across two timepoints: 2019/2020 (December 2019–February 2020) and 2020/2021 (De cember 2020–March 2021). PMA data from...
Source: Population and Environment - September 19, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
The effect of the local environment on child nutritional outcomes: how does seasonality relate to wasting amongst children under 5 in south-west coastal Bangladesh?
This study will explore spatial and temporal variation and determinants for acute malnutrition in a coastal river delta in south-west Bangladesh over the period of a year. Using a rural longitudinal survey, conducted in 2014 –15 with 3 survey waves, wasting amongst children under 5 was studied. Spatial variation was analysed through ‘socio-ecological systems’, which capture interactions between ecosystems, livelihoods and populations. Wasting prevalence varied from 18.2% in the monsoon season to 8.7% post-major ri ce harvest (Aman). Seasons did not relate to wasting consistently over socio-ecological systems, with so...
Source: Population and Environment - September 16, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Population and food systems: what does the future hold?
AbstractThe ability of food systems to feed the world ’s population will continue to be constrained in the face of global warming and other global challenges. Often missing from the literature on future food security are different scenarios of population growth. Also, most climate models use given population projections and consider neither major inc reases in mortality nor rapid declines in fertility. In this paper, we present the current global food system challenge and consider both relatively high and relatively low fertility trajectories and their impacts for food policy and systems. Two futures are proposed. The fi...
Source: Population and Environment - September 11, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Examining the effects of cumulative environmental stressors on Gulf Coast child and adolescent health
This study examines how community-level cumulative environmental stress affects child and adolescent emotional distress and chronic health conditions both directly and indirectly through stressors at the household, family, and individual levels. Data comes from the Women and their Children ’s Health (WaTCH) Study, which sought to understand the health implications of exposure to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) among a cohort of 596 mothers with children ages 10 to 17 in southeastern Louisiana. Community-level environmental stress was measured using a newly developed geos patial index. Household-level stressor...
Source: Population and Environment - September 11, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
The effects of environmental stress on global agricultural landownership
AbstractThe adverse effects of climate change are likely to harm agricultural livelihoods and food supplies worldwide. Faced with challenges resulting from increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, some farmers might abandon their occupations. Existing research has found that drier than usual weather reduces landownership rates through these pathways. Such trends could be disruptive at a population level, threatening a country ’s economic and political stability. We analyze subnational agricultural landownership data that cover 50 countries on four continents between 2004 and 2017. Our Demographic and Health Surveys (...
Source: Population and Environment - September 6, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Rainfall shocks, soil health, and child health outcomes
AbstractThis paper estimates the moderating effect of soil organic carbon content (a measure of soil health) on child health in response to rainfall shocks in a low-income country setting. Focusing on rural India, I leverage the Demographic and Health Survey data set and high-resolution spatial data on soil organic carbon content and meteorological variables. The results show that a high level of soil organic carbon significantly reduces the negative impact of rainfall shock on children ’s weight-for-height z-scores, but not on height-for-age z-scores. (Source: Population and Environment)
Source: Population and Environment - August 23, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Rainfall, mothers ’ time use, and child nutrition: evidence from rural Uganda
AbstractCare provision is a key component of women ’s time use with implications for the health and wellbeing of children. Shifting labor demands resulting from weather shocks may imply that women in developing countries have less time for care provision, potentially affecting their children’s nutrition. Nonetheless, a broad literature focusing on the indirect impacts of climate change on child nutrition has yet to explore the mechanisms whereby this occurs, and whether mothers’ time use is one of these mechanisms. Using the Uganda National Panel Survey, a unique data set that gathers data on farming activities, time...
Source: Population and Environment - August 19, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Demographic and socioeconomic effects of environmental policies: the 1927 special goat tax and mountain depopulation in Italy
AbstractThe research aims to assess the demographic impact related with the implementation of an environmental policy, which affects food availability in economically and environmentally fragile settings, dependent on few, unstable resources. The paper addresses this topic from a particular perspective, namely the special goat tax issued in Italy in 1927. I focus on the goat breeding because of its ecological footprint and the key role on population ’s livelihood in marginal lands. Methodologically, the paper combines quantitative and qualitative sources. The analysis of demographic dynamics in a broad set of Italian mou...
Source: Population and Environment - August 14, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Considering soil moisture in models of climate impacts on child health in farming-centric countries
AbstractSoil moisture reflects the amount of water available to crops in the top layer of soil. As such, considering soil moisture provides important insight into water availability and ultimately crop yields in agricultural settings. In studies of climate change, food security, and health, however, soil moisture is rarely empirically considered despite its connection to crop health and yields. In this project, we aim to advance understanding of climate impacts on food security by incorporating soil moisture into quantitative models of child health. Combining spatially referenced health survey data from the Demographic and...
Source: Population and Environment - July 31, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
A people-centred framework for exploring water, energy and food security in a small developing island
This study uses a people-centred framework to investigate social-ecological interactions for water, energy and food security. Ten semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted in Pemba and Unguja islands with village elders and leaders. Results demonstrate that shocks and stresses affecting resource security are attributed to land use and resource competition, deforestation, climate change and insufficient resource infrastructure. The scale and strength of such pressures are heightened in dry seasons and also correspond with spatial characteristics such as remoteness, intensity of land use and amount of natural re...
Source: Population and Environment - July 20, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
The influence of population aging on global climate policy
AbstractWe study the connection between the demographic transition to an aging population and global climate policy ambition in the outcomes from recent international agreements on climate change: We test whether the share of the elderly in a population is a significant determinant of the quantity and ambition of a country ’s policy actions against climate change. We use different indicators of climate policy ambition as measured by the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of the Paris Agreement as updated in the Glasgow Climate Pact. We also use the number of climate change laws passed in a country to further test ...
Source: Population and Environment - July 6, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Impacts of rainfall shocks on out-migration are moderated more by per capita income than by agricultural output in T ürkiye
AbstractRural populations are particularly exposed to increasing weather variability, notably through agriculture. In this paper, we exploit longitudinal data for Turkish provinces from 2008 to 2018 together with precipitation records over more than 30 years to quantify how variability in a standardized precipitation index (SPI) affects out-migration as an adaptation mechanism. Doing so, we document the role of three potential causal channels: per capita income, agricultural output, and local conflicts. Our results show that negative SPI shocks (droughts) are associated with higher out-migration in rural provinces. A media...
Source: Population and Environment - June 20, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Population and environment: the evolution of the debate between optimists and pessimists
AbstractThe potential adverse effects of rapid population growth on human welfare and our natural environment have been the subject of lively debate since the time of Thomas Malthus. This debate has often been contentious with pessimists arguing that population growth has extensive harmful impacts and optimists claiming that advances in technology and smoothly operating markets can take care of society ’s needs without irreversible damage to the environment. This essay summarizes the evolution of the positions of pessimists and optimists after the middle of the 20th century. From the 1950s to the late 1970s the internati...
Source: Population and Environment - June 12, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
