2
UNHDR 2011 reading themes
3
•
Some terminology you should define as you read the report: – coping ability; coping range
– adaptive capacity
– opportunity access; opportunity cost
– slum
– time horizon
Intersections between environmental challenges and equity are a main theme running through the report. For example, deforestation is in many places due to the use of wood as a cooking fuel, which itself is related to indoor air quality, a problem that disproportionately affects poor women because their low social status limits them to the low-opportunity jobs of gathering fuel and domestic labor. As you read the report, highlight the connections you find between environmental degradation, climate change, and inequality. There are many.
Example; Women are more vulnerable to environmental challenges due to limited occupational options and limited mobility. They are often times more reliant on substinance farming and water collection than men are thus facing greater consequences in the face of environmental challenges. Women are also more vulnerable to the affects of lack of electricity which forces them to spend more time collecting fire wood than studying, this is a disadvantage because it further restricts them from engaging in higher return activities, thus perpetuating the cycle.
Indiginous groups which live within or rely on forests and natural resources for survival are also more vulnerable to environmental degredation. They have fewer altenatives which limits their adaptive capacity. (Small islands, high altitude settlements and developing states.)
Health risks and access to clean water and sanitation are linked to poor regions experiencing environmental degredatoin.
Environmental challenges—of all kinds—affect different groups of people differently. For example, the urban and rural poor face different air quality risks and withing either of those groups, men, women, and children are affected differently. As you read the report, highlight different groups and the differing challenges they face.
Children are particularly vulnerable to environmental degredation and the diseases that result form it.
Examples; Rural poor depend on natural resources especially during hardship. These people include subsitance farmers and the 350 million people who live near or in forests who rely on them for sustenance. Women in these groups are particularly susceptible because they rely more on forests than men do as a result of having fewer occupational options (collecting firewood) and limited mobility due in part to childrearing. Limited mobility forces them to continue relying on the tradition method of doing things which will further damage their situation.
45 million people rely on fishing for a living six million of these are