Understanding Vulnerability to Climatic Changes and its Impact on Communities

1
Name:
Course
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date of submission

2
Introduction
The current climatic conditions stresses and shocks already vulnerable communities
around the world. The impact of their stresses is devastating and dangerous to the poor and
most vulnerable communities. Increase in intensity and frequency of weather related
extremes and gradual temperature will cause great impacts. This impacts has great
implications on the vulnerability of the poor to their shocks of every kind. Change in climate
adds to the urgency of understanding and addressing the vulnerable communities to the future
and current policies and reevaluating the role of programs and policies of reducing the
vulnerability. Climatic change only challenges and deepens poverty while reducing the
impact of poverty reduction strategies (Asante, and Amuakwa-Mensah, 2015). While
defining vulnerability, many researchers term it as the indication of exposure to external
risks, shocks and stresses and their ability to recover from the resulting impact. Vulnerability
also differs from different groups and across different communities. Vulnerability of the poor
mostly increases due to increased pressures and conflicts associated with globalization,
increase in diseases and other trends such as climatic changes. In times of stresses and
shocks, people draw on a range of coping strategies. The ones available to the poor are less
resilient and are likely to be more restricted.
Identification and discussion of determinants of Health
Changing vulnerabilities globally often explains how communities or people move
out or in to poverty. This maybe suddenly, gradually or seasonally over time. People may use
different strategies to move out of poverty however, without their vulnerability reduction,
they slip back into it albeit on a later date (Bindo, et al, 2018). Within the context of

3
vulnerability, climatic effects describes inter-annual variability, seasonal changes and a likely
changes in weather related conditions to their extremes. The variability is an ongoing stress
on people’s lives and livelihoods. Therefore, people take the effects of climatic conditions
within the livelihoods of their activities and other risks they will face. An example is the
effect of climatic change on pastoralist’s communities within East Africa. The pastoralists
usually make decisions of movement based on a range of different risks such as climate,
livestock diseases, land access and conflicts (Brzoska, and Fröhlich, 2016). The poor
communities are the most affected by changes in climatic conditions. This is because of their
activities that secure their livelihoods or where they live. For example, the urban landless
communities are very vulnerable to extremes caused by the climate as is the case in Honduras
where people who live in hillside shanty towns were the most affected by landslides and
intense rainfall caused by Hurricane Mitch.
Pastoralists in Africa are affected by drought due to their over dependence on marginal areas.
The cyclone in Bangladesh in 1991 showed that women and children are the most vulnerable
to any risks and shocks of weather change. Up to 90% of the victims in the deadly 1991
cyclone were women and children. The rate was related to factors including capabilities to
survive such as ability to swim. Also, there were socio-cultural issues in Bangladesh that
prevented the women and children from taking cover in the cyclone shelters provided to the
public. Due to this impact, the political social restrictions may force the most vulnerable to
remain in areas exposed to these stresses and shocks. The torrential rain in Venezuela in
1999 forced the marginalized communities which were the poorest to rebuild their homes in
the same areas that were risk prone due to lack of affordable alternatives. Increase in stress
intensity on climatic changes or any unseasonal changes cause severe shocks that set back the
households (Dai, Fyfe, Xie,and Dai, 2015). Coping with increased intensity in climatic

4
changes results into negative impacts on health, loss of assets and can lead to extreme costs in
relation to rebuilding. Most of the diseases are caused by floods, droughts and any other
changes in weather conditions. The rural and urban poor are the most vulnerable to increase
in diseases due to change in climatic conditions. In an assessment done to over 24 countries,
the poor identified natural hazards, changes in climatic conditions and seasonal
unpredictability as most factors contributing to their vulnerable livelihoods. The model in
intervention provides people with learning skills and educating them on the effects of
climatic changes on the society and specifically the vulnerable.
Assessing Health Promotion (HP) intervention framework
Climatic conditions have a strong effect on waterborne diseases and diseases
transmitted by insects, molluscs and other cold-blooded animals. Climate change is likely to
lengthen the seasons of the transmission of vector-borne diseases and change their
geographical zones. For example, according to forecasts, due to climate change in China, the
area where cases of schistosomiasis occur, a disease transmitted by mollusks, will
significantly expand. The climate has a strong effect on malaria. Anopheles mosquito-borne
malaria kills almost 600,000 people a year each year, mostly African children under the age
of 5 years. Aides mosquitoes, which are carriers of dengue, are also highly sensitive to
climatic conditions. Studies suggest that the risk of dengue infection will also increase due to
climate change.
Score last climate change for health can only be very approximate. Nevertheless,
according to WHO's estimate, which takes into account only a number of possible health
effects, and on the assumption of continued economic growth and progress in health. The