Population and Environment最新文献

The foetal origins hypothesis postulates that shocks while in utero can have long-term detrimental effects on the health and human capital formation of children. Using data from the Young Lives project for Vietnam, we examine the effects of exposure to historically abnormal rainfall among children in utero on the cognitive development of the same children from 5 to 15 years of age. Based on data on month and place of birth, we show that positive rainfall shocks are associated with better cognitive development in children up to 8 years of age. The effect is more pronounced when positive shocks occur in the early stage of gestation. However, such positive effects are not sustained: the impacts of positive rainfall shocks on cognition are completely absent at 10 and 15 years of age. We contribute to the literature by examining the importance of the timing and persistence of weather shocks during pregnancy on cognitive development by tracking the same children from in utero to school age.

Climate change has been linked to poor childhood growth and development through maternal stress, nutritional insults related to lean harvests, and exposure to infectious diseases. Vulnerable populations are often most susceptible to these stressors. This study tested whether susceptibility to linear growth faltering is higher among Peruvian children from indigenous, rural, low-education, and low-income households. High-resolution weather and household survey data from Demographic and Health Survey 1996-2012 were used to explore height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) at each year of life from 0 to 5. Rural, indigenous children at age 0-1 experience a HAZ reduction of 0.35 units associated with prenatal excess rainfall which is also observed at age 4-5. Urban, non-indigenous children at age 4-5 experience a HAZ increase of 0.07 units associated with postnatal excess rainfall, but this advantage is not seen among rural, indigenous children. These findings highlight the need to consider developmental stage and social predictors as key components in public health interventions targeting increased climate change resilience.

This paper presents a transdisciplinary study focusing on the socio-ecological mechanisms at play in the alteration of Moorea’s (French Polynesia) coastline. Building on a previous study synthesizing the results from monitoring efforts of the island’s coastline from 1977 to 2018, we offer a joint analysis of scientific and local perceptions of coastal changes and of the impacts of coastal armoring in Moorea. Drawing on ecological and ethnographic data (111 semi-structured interviews of Moorea residents and representatives from local authorities), we analyze the drivers invoked by near-shore residents to modify their coastline as well as the perceived effects of coastal artificialization on the near-shore marine biodiversity and topography. We also address the broader economic and political contexts under which the island’s coastline is being increasingly transformed. Overall, our study highlights how the perceptions of increased erosion coupled to poorly enforced regulations drive the progressive armoring of the coastline through a diversity of private-based developments. We discuss how the latter have, both for scientists and residents, controversial community-wide economic, social, and ecological impacts.

We examine the relationships between climatic conditions, breastfeeding behavior, and maternal time use in Ethiopia. Infant feeding practices are important predictors of child nutrition that may be affected by a number of factors including mother's time engaging in agricultural labor, food security, cultural beliefs, and antenatal care. We use panel data from the Living Standards Measurement Study to investigate linkages between climatic conditions during a child's first year of life and year prior to birth and duration of exclusive breastfeeding. We then explore one potential mechanism: women's agricultural labor. Results indicate that rainfall during the primary agricultural season-kiremt-in a child's first year of life plays an important role in duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Experiencing 25 cm of average monthly kiremt rainfall, versus 5 cm, is associated with a 20-percentage-point decrease in the likelihood of being exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months. More kiremt rainfall is associated with a greater number of days that women spend planting and harvesting, and at high levels of rainfall women with infants do not engage in significantly fewer days of agricultural labor than those without infants. Lastly, we find that during the year before birth, greater rainfall during kiremt as well as the dry season is associated with a lower likelihood of six months of exclusive breastfeeding, potentially due to the early introduction of complementary foods. Our findings indicate that agricultural labor demands may in part drive breastfeeding behaviors, leading to "sub-optimal" feeding practices in the short-term, but resulting in improved household food security in the longer-term.

Over the past two decades, population researchers have engaged in a far-reaching and productive program of research on demographic responses to changes in the natural environment. This essay "looks back" to the origins of these developments, identifying pivotal agenda-setting moments in the 1990s and tracing the impact on contemporary research. The essay also "looks forward" to identify critical gaps and challenges that remain to be addressed and to set an agenda for future research on population responses to environmental change. It recommends that the multidimensionality of environmental contexts and change be fully embraced, long run as well as short term effects be investigated, variability in the effects of environmental change in relation to social institutions, policy implementation, and environmental context be examined, movement between contexts as well as change in situ as sources of environmental change be considered, and interconnections among demographic processes in response to environmental change be explored. Taking these steps will position demographers to contribute significantly to a larger and deeper understanding of environmental change and its consequences, locally, regionally, and globally.