GEOGRAPHY MYP/GCSE/DP
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      • The enhanced greenhouse effect
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      • Disparities in exposure to climate change risk and vulnerability
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​Disparities in exposure to climate change risk and vulnerability

Subject guide

Disparities in exposure to climate change risk and vulnerability, including variations in people’s location, wealth, social differences (age, gender, education), risk perception
  • Detailed examples of two or more societies with contrasting vulnerability
​

1. Vulnerability

Vulnerability refers to the degree to which people or the things they value are susceptible to, or are unable to cope with, the adverse impacts of climate change. Thus, vulnerability determines how severe the impacts of climate change might be.
There are three dimensions of vulnerability to climate change: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.
  1. Exposure is the degree to which people and the things they value could be exposed to climate variation or change;
  2. Sensitivity is the degree to which they could be harmed by that exposure; and
  3. Adaptive capacity is the degree to which they could mitigate the potential for harm by taking action to reduce exposure or sensitivity.
The expression “things they value” not only refers to economic value and wealth, but also to places and to cultural, spiritual, and personal values. In addition, this expression refers to critical physical and social infrastructure, including such physical infrastructure as police, emergency, and health services buildings, communication and transportation networks, public utilities, and schools and daycare centers, and such social infrastructure as extended families, neighborhood watch groups, fraternal organizations, and more. The expression even refers to such factors as economic growth rates and economic vitality. People value some places and things for intrinsic reasons and some because they need them to function successfully in our society.
​
Some groups of people are inherently more vulnerable to climate change than others. The very old or very young, the sick, and the physically or mentally challenged are vulnerable. Disadvantaged groups, such as minorities, those with few educational opportunities, or non-English speakers are more vulnerable than the majority, better-educated, English-speaking population. Women, who typically spend more time and effort on care-giving to parents, children, and the sick than men do, are more vulnerable because that care-giving exposes them more to the impacts of climate change. More vulnerable groups often combine these categories, such as the poor—who can be old, minority, non-English speaking, and female, for example. Another example of a particularly vulnerable group is the single-mother household, which can be headed by a poor woman of color who is responsible not only for caregiving, but also for providing the family income.
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The concept of resilience is important to understanding adaptive capacity to climate change. Resilience refers to the ability of a human system to withstand contemporary shocks and to anticipate and plan for future shocks. Resilient systems have the ability to learn from past experiences and to use that knowledge when confronting problems. Systems with high adaptive capacity are therefore resilient and able to reconfigure themselves to deal with climate change. Systems with low adaptive capacity are much less resilient and much more vulnerable to climate change.
From https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog438w/node/252

2. Reading

  1. How does the CCVI calculate a score from 1 to 10 in order to determine vulnerability to the impact of climate change? Give examples of countries (and their scores) at both ends of the scale. (p189). What are the similarities and differences between the CCVI and the CRI? Which do you think is the better measure of vulnerability? Why?
  2. The UNDP states that “99% of the casualties from climate change will be in developing countries”. Explain how the following demographic groups within those countries will be disproportionately affected by climate change: (p195)
    1. ​Poorer people (3 reason)
    2. Women (8 reasons)
    3. Old people (2 reasons)
    4. Children (1 reason)
  3. What is “risk perception”? (p197)
  4. Explain how the climate change controversy influences risk perception. Describe 4 general factors that affect general risk perception. (p198 - also see the RLS in the Geography and TOK section).

3. Climate change and location

Questions to consider:
  • What is the pattern shown in the CCVI and the CRI? What are the similarities? Why are they different? (refer back to reading).
  • Why are there so many different methodologies for examining the risk to a particular location?
  • What are the factors that are connected to location which affect the extent to which populations are vulnerable to climate change (SEEP)?
  • What do they all have in common in terms of overall conclusions?
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4. Climate change and wealth

  • Why are poorer people more vulnerable to climate change?
  • Why are the poorer people more vulnerable within countries?
  • Why are poorer countries more at risk?
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climate_change_and_inequality_the_economist.pdf
File Size: 282 kb
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5. Climate change and age

Why are older people and children more vulnerable to climate change?
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American Society on Ageing - Climate Change and Age

6. Climate change and gender

  • Why are women more vulnerable than men to the effects of climate change?
  • Do you believe that this is true in High Income Countries as well as Low Income Countries?
Climate change 'impacts women more than men' - BBC March 2018
Guardian article: Margaret Atwood: women will bear brunt of dystopian climate future. May 2018
pb1-ap-overview-gender-and-climate-change.pdf
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undp_linkages_gender_and_cc_policy_brief_1-web.pdf
File Size: 408 kb
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7. Climate change and education

  • What are the roles of both formal and informal education in affecting how prepared an individual or community will be to the effects of climate change?
233083e.pdf
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8. Climate change and risk perception

What is it?
Why is risk perception important?
How do you rate your own perception of the risks from climate change? Can you explain this using the factors which affect risk perception?
​

Factors affecting risk perception:
  • Extent of factual knowledge/data
  • Level of personal threat
  • Immediacy of the risk
  • Extent to which the risk can be controlled
  • Extent to which person/community is open to changing ideas.
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CASE STUDY 1 - Kiribati

Use the textbook for this case study.
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CASE STUDY 2 - Niger

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  • Home
    • Contact
  • MYP
    • Development >
      • An unequal world?
      • Billionaires investigation
      • Africa: the danger of a single story
      • Patterns of development
      • Trade and development
      • Fair Trade
      • Sustainable Development Goals
    • Tectonic Hazards >
      • What is risk?
      • Alfred Wegener and Continental Drift
      • Plate tectonics
      • Distribution of tectonic hazards
      • Measuring earthquakes
      • Why do people die in earthquakes?
      • School earthquake plan
      • Earthquake assessment
      • Volcanoes - what are they? Why are they important?
      • Volcano "Science Fair"
      • Causes of tsunami
    • Population >
      • Why study population?
      • Population distribution
      • Population growth
      • Population pyramids
      • Demographic transition model
      • Migration
      • Migration examples - case studies
      • Refugees in Indonesia
      • Population revision activities
    • Weather and Climate >
      • Weather vs Climate and why is it important?
      • Climate graphs
      • Why does it rain?
      • What affects temperature and why is Jakarta so hot and wet?
      • What causes wind and how do we measure it?
      • Microclimates
  • IGCSE
    • Course information
    • Physical: Hazardous environments >
      • Distribution of tectonic hazards
      • Causes of tsunami
      • Measuring earthquakes
      • Earthquake case study 1: Haiti
      • Earthquake case study 2: Christchurch
      • Why do earthquakes do more damage in LICs than in HICs?
      • How are volcanic eruptions measured?
      • Tropical storms - distribution
      • Causes of tropical cyclones
      • Tropical cyclones - case study
      • Why live in hazardous areas?
    • River Environments >
      • Hydrological cycle
      • River basins
      • Factors affecting river regimes
      • Fluvial processes: erosion
      • Fluvial processes: weathering and mass movement
      • Fluvial processes: transportation and depositon
      • River features and their formation
      • How rivers change from source to mouth
      • Uses of water
      • Water pollution
      • Water supply
  • IBDP
    • Changing population >
      • Global patterns of economic development
      • Physical and human factors affecting global population distribution
      • Case study 1: China
      • Case study 2: Niger
      • Demographic transition
      • Megacity growth
      • Forced migration and internal displacement
      • Ageing populations
      • Pro-natalist and anti-natalist policies
      • Gender equality policies
      • Trafficking policies
      • The Demographic Dividend
    • Global climate vulnerability and resilience >
      • Atmospheric system
      • The energy balance
      • Changes in the energy balance
      • The enhanced greenhouse effect
      • Climate Change and the Hydrosphere, Atmosphere and Biosphere
      • Impacts of climate change on people and places
      • Disparities in exposure to climate change risk and vulnerability
      • Government-led adaptation and mitigation strategies
      • Civil society and corporate strategies
    • Global resource consumption and security >
      • Progress towards poverty reduction
      • Measuring trends in global consumption
      • Global patterns and trends in the availability and consumption of water
      • Global patterns and trends in the availability and consumption of land/food
      • Global patterns and trends in the availability and consumption of energy
      • Water food and energy nexus
      • Recycling and waste
      • Malthus vs Boserup
      • Resource Stewardship strategies
      • Sustainable Development Goals
    • Freshwater - drainage basins >
      • The drainage basin as a system
      • How rivers change from source to mouth
      • River discharge
      • River processes
      • River landforms
      • Factors affecting flood risk
      • Attempts at flood prediction
      • Flood mitigation
      • Flood mitigation case studies
      • Water scarcity
      • Agricultural activities and water quality
      • Pressures on lakes and aquifers
      • Internationally shared water and conflict
      • Water management: participation of local communities
      • Dams as multi-purpose schemes
      • Water management: Integrated Drainage Basin Management (IDBM)
      • Managing wetlands
    • Leisure, Sport and Tourism >
      • Growth and purpose of leisure time
      • Categories of tourism and sport
      • Economic development and participation
      • Factors affecting personal participation
      • Factors affecting growth of tourism hotspots
      • Spheres of influencee
      • Factors affecting a national sports league
      • Festivals
      • Niche national tourism strategies
      • Role of TNCs
      • Tourism as a national development strategy
      • International sporting events
      • Consequences of unsustainable growth
      • Sustainable tourism
      • Future international tourism
      • Political and cultural influences on sport
    • Extended Essay in Geography >
      • Supervisor meetings
    • Skills/concepts >
      • Infographics
      • 4 Ps
      • Mock examination revision and preparation
  • Geography and ToK
  • Theory of Knowledge
    • Knowledge and Technology
    • Knowledge and Language
    • Knowledge and Politics
    • Knowledge and Religion
    • Knowledge and Indigenous Societies