Hundreds of millions of urban dwellers in low- and middle-income nations are at risk as 4-5 of the global weather-driven disasters experienced are consequent of a changing climate. Studies have shown that residents in least developed countries have ten times more chances of being affected by these climate disasters than those in wealthy countries. Further, critical views have it, that it would take over 100years for lower income countries to attain the resiliency of developed countries. Unfortunately, global South is surrounded by a myriad of socio-economic and environmental factors limiting their fight against climate crisis. It is this germane reality that provoked the cause of this review. Hence, this paper reviewed the developing world’s contribution to global warming and the resulting consequences of climate change with focus on Nigeria. This purposive approach adopted an analysis of secondary data related to climate information. The findings from the paper affirmed that impacts of climate change in developing countries include loss in agriculture/forestry resources, water shortage, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, health risks among others. Finally, it identified the major factors that exacerbate climate crisis, the human actions that trigger global warming and adaptive and mitigation approaches to minimize climate change related disasters.
Part of the book: Global Warming and Climate Change
With increasing periods of extreme wet seasons, low lying geographic position, with socioeconomic, and political factors; some communities in Anambra State, Nigeria experience heightened floods annually resulting in loss of shelter, displacement of people with breakdown of livelihoods, particularly in rural communities worsening their risks and vulnerabilities. In 2012, a major flood event in the state temporarily displaced about 2 million people. In this chapter, we used a community-based adaptation approach to investigate the causes and consequences of climate-related temporary displacement on community members in Ogbaru LGA, Anambra State following flood events. We used global positioning system to obtain the community’s ground control points and gathered our data via field observation, transects walks, focus group discussions, photography, and in-depth interviews. Our findings reveal a heightened magnitude of flood related disasters with decreased socio-economic activities, affecting their health and well-being. Also, the community members have a practice of returning to their land, after flood events, as a local mitigating risk management strategy. For multilevel humanitarian responses at the temporary shelter camps, it becomes imperative to meaningfully engage the community members on the challenging risks and vulnerabilities they experience following climate-driven temporary displacement to inform adaptation and resilience research, policy change and advocacy.
Part of the book: Climate Change in Asia and Africa