Climate Change and Environmental Justice
The increased global surface temperatures are a threat to people’s health and wellness. Natural disasters like drought and intense storms may occur, making it challenging for populations to access food and safe shelters, respectively. These issues happen due to greenhouse gas emissions, which are changing the climate. The grand challenge of climate change is its adverse impact on environmental justice; hence social workers should strengthen their social responses when addressing the climate change impact on populations.
The Role of Climate Change on Natural Disasters
According to Kemp et al. (2015), the United States and other countries globally face environmental challenges contributed by the climate change issue. With the escalating urbanization, people are engaging in threatening environmental activities at the cost of improving their livelihoods. Generally, societies today are in hardships with significant problems like high rates of unemployment. Governments and business people have taken all possible measures to address this problem by putting up structures such as manufacturing plants to create employment (Kemp et al., 2015). However, the alarming increase in greenhouse emissions from human activities escalates the global climate change problem. For instance, the accumulation of water vapor in the atmosphere is a concern because it heightens the risks of powerful storms (Levy & Patz, 2015). Still, increased heat in the atmosphere and prevalence of warmer ocean surface temperatures results in intense wind speeds, which cause tropical storms. Another concern is the rising sea levels which expose people living in low lands to erosive floods that destroy houses, cause soil erosion, and bring about diseases. Levy and Patz (2015) give an example of the El Niño disaster that led to the cholera outbreak. The most affected populations were the low-income families. Additional environmental issues causing climate change are the dwindling of land-based glaciers, chemical pollutants, and aeroallergens which destroy the air’s purity. Still, the reduction of biodiversity due to changes in ecosystems causes climate change risks. Generally, these environmental aspects contributed by human activities are likely to cause natural disasters contributed by heavy precipitation, high sea levels, intense and prolonged drought, and severe tropical cyclone activity.
The Concept of Environmental Justice in Disasters Caused by Climate Changes
Based on the increased concerns of natural disasters caused by climate change, these events adversely impact environmental justice. Levy and Patz (2015) address these environmental injustices by conveying how they alter human rights, primarily in low-income communities. Vulnerable groups include women, who face extreme threats from harsh weather events. The right to live and freely engage in socioeconomic activities lowers when disasters like hurricanes and drought strike (Levy & Patz, 2015). Women play a significant role in taking care of their families. However, in a disaster, this group, particularly in low-income communities, finds it challenging to gather water, food, and fuel to use in their households. Compared to men, the death rates of women are also high, including increased risks of rape and severe injuries. Similarly, in children, the World Health Organization (WHO) presented that 88% of this population below five years has the burden of disease due to the climate change effects (Levy & Patz, 2015). The lack of water and food leads to childhood malnutrition. They are also at risk of waterborne disease and vector-borne diseases like malaria. Hence, climate change disasters eradicate the right to healthy living and education that these children deserve. Worth noting, such issues affect the environmental justices that make life less hectic for the mentioned populations among other groups.
The Role of Social Workers to Mitigate and Ameliorate the Climate Change Effects
As Dombo and Ahearn (2017) illustrate, social workers should help mitigate the adverse effects of climate change that the affected victims may experience. Natural calamities affect communities, families, and individuals, requiring social work interventions. The traumatic experience makes these victims encounter challenges when trying to stabilize. A significant issue that contributes to traumatic stress is human displacement in humanitarian settings. Therefore, social workers can mitigate these psychological and emotional effects and the victims’ lives better is by providing social support. According to Dombo and Ahearn (2017), social support enables the victims to develop positive coping mechanisms, reducing psychological harm. On this note, the social support, including the delivery of stress management programs and services and provision of platforms for social interactions, enhance the victims’ resilience. This is a strategic intervention that the crisis responders should implement in the primary phase to improve the survivors’ wellbeing (James & Gilliland, 2017). Another strategic approach is the advocacy for relief support, including shelter, food, and clothing. Generally, the displaced families require resources to get back to their normal livelihoods. Hence, as a secondary intervention, the social workers should plan social and economic programs that facilitate the relief support distribution within the months that victims are recuperating. Most importantly, these professionals should assess the victims’ progress to ensure that they are recovering positively. However, survivors portraying negative progress deserve long-term psychological interventions or rehabilitation to minimize the traumatic effect. Generally, these support measures can improve the survivors’ wellbeing.
Conclusion
In sum, the climate change problem, if not addressed drastically, will lead to adverse effects on people’s health, social, and economic welfare. The natural disasters induced by climate change causes natural disasters which affect people’s livelihood. As discussed, droughts, floods, tropical storms cause human displacement. These effects contribute to psychological harm due to the trauma that the victims experience. However, social workers have a role in helping the victims mitigate the traumatic impact by providing relevant social support.
References
Dombo, E. A., & Ahearn, F. L. (2017). The aftermath of humanitarian crises: A model for addressing social work interventions with individuals, groups, and communities. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 25(2), 107-126.
James, R. K., & Gilliland, B. E. (2017). Crisis intervention strategies (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Levy, B. S., & Patz, J. A. (2015). Climate change, human rights, and social justice. Annals of global health, 81(3), 310-322.
