Extreme poverty rendering Madagascar vulnerable to underreported extreme heat would not have occurred without climate change
Madagascar remains highly vulnerable to the types of extreme heat that have been found to be increasing in intensity and frequency in this study. This is particularly true for areas that already suffer from chronic food insecurity, such as the very southern part of Madagascar where drought conditions and extreme poverty combine with high temperatures to create negative impacts to human health and wellbeing.
Researchers Nick Baumgard and Emmanuel Raju from COPE and the School of Global Health join their peers in this new study (featured on the Guardian) titled "Extreme poverty rendering Madagascar highly vulnerable to underreported extreme heat that would not have occurred without human-induced climate change".
From the paper:
Madagascar remains highly vulnerable to the types of extreme heat that have been found to be increasing in intensity and frequency in this study. This is particularly true for areas that already suffer from chronic food insecurity, such as the very southern part of Madagascar where drought conditions and extreme poverty combine with high temperatures to create negative impacts to human health and wellbeing.
Some of the main findings include:
- Heat waves in all regions of sub-saharan Africa are dramatically underreported leading to little awareness about the dangers of extreme heat. Heat-related mortality is estimated to increase by a factor of four by 2080, unless required investments to adaptation are made.
- South Madagascar is particularly vulnerable to impacts of heat waves, as food and agricultural systems are likely to collapse under high temperatures and compounding drought conditions and frequent, highly destructive cyclones. Extremely dry air during heat waves, including the nights, results in difficulty to breathe, and children are reported to be the worst affected with an overall high heat-related mortality.
- Unless the world rapidly stops burning fossil fuels, these events will become more common in the future. In a world 2°C warmer than preindustrial, events like these would no longer be rare but occur up to 3 times per decade.
- In Madagascar, less than half of the population has access to electricity and clean water, making most common coping strategies in extreme heat inaccessible to a large part of the population. Linked to the lack of clean water is one of the lowest child survival rates in the world. With very young children being particularly vulnerable to extreme heat these young lives are even more endangered.
| Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.25561/107732 |