Climate Change and African Americans in the USA

Abstract BACKGROUND While there are reports of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, the overall incidence of AIS and clinical characteristics of large vessel occlusion (LVO) remain unclear. OBJECTIVE To attempt to establish incidence of AIS in COVID-19 patients in an international cohort. METHODS A cross-sectional retrospective, multicenter study of consecutive patients admitted with AIS and COVID-19 was undertaken from March 1 to May 1, 2020 at 12 stroke centers from 4 countries. Out of those 12 centers, 9 centers admitted all types of strokes and data from those were used to calculate the incidence rate of AIS. Three centers exclusively transferred LVO stroke (LVOs) patients and were excluded only for the purposes of calculating the incidence of AIS. Detailed data were collected on consecutive LVOs in hospitalized patients who underwent mechanical thrombectomy (MT) across all 12 centers. RESULTS Out of 6698 COVID-19 patients admitted to 9 stroke centers, the incidence of stroke was found to be 1.3% (interquartile range [IQR] 0.75%-1.7%). The median age of LVOs patients was 51 yr (IQR 50-75 yr), and in the US centers, African Americans comprised 28% of patients. Out of 66 LVOs, 10 patients (16%) were less than 50 yr of age. Among the LVOs eligible for MT, the average time from symptom onset to presentation was 558 min (IQR 82-695 min). A total of 21 (50%) patients were either discharged to home or discharged to acute rehabilitation facilities. CONCLUSION LVO was predominant in patients with AIS and COVID-19 across 2 continents, occurring at a significantly younger age and affecting African Americans disproportionately in the USA.

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Epic Cruelty: On Post-Pandemic Performance

New Theatre Quarterly ◽

10.1017/s0266464x21000026 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 119-136

Author(s):

Rick Mitchell

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

United States ◽

African Americans ◽

The United States ◽

California State University ◽

The State ◽

State University ◽

White Supremacist ◽

Systemic Racism ◽

Disaster Capitalism

As today’s catastrophic Covid-19 pandemic exacerbates ongoing crises, including systemic racism, rising ethno-nationalism, and fossil-fuelled climate change, the neoliberal world that we inhabit is becoming increasingly hostile, particularly for the most vulnerable. Even in the United States, as armed white-supremacist, pro-Trump forces face off against protesters seeking justice for African Americans, the hostility is increasingly palpable, and often frightening. Yet as millions of Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrated after the brutal police killing of George Floyd, the current, intersecting crises – worsened by Trump’s criminalization of anti-racism protesters and his dismissal of science – demand a serious, engaged, response from activists as well as artists. The title of this article is meant to evoke not only the state of the unusually cruel moment through which we are living, but also the very different approaches to performance of both Brecht and Artaud, whose ideas, along with those of others – including Benjamin, Butler, Latour, Mbembe, and Césaire – inform the radical, open-ended, post-pandemic theatre practice proposed in this essay. A critically acclaimed dramatist as well as Professor of English and Playwriting at California State University, Northridge, Mitchell’s published volumes of plays include Disaster Capitalism; or Money Can’t Buy You Love: Three Plays; Brecht in L.A.; and Ventriloquist: Two Plays and Ventriloquial Miscellany. He is the editor of Experimental O’Neill, and is currently at work on a series of post-pandemic plays.

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Strategic retreat for resilient and equitable climate adaptation: the roles for conservation organizations

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences ◽

10.1007/s13412-021-00692-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mali‘o Kodis ◽

Marci Bortman ◽

Sarah Newkirk

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Natural Disasters ◽

Private Property ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Flood Damage ◽

Policy Paper ◽

The World ◽

The Usa ◽

The Government ◽

Conservation Organizations

AbstractAs climate change accelerates the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, damage to public and private property is also increasing, putting exorbitant strain on governments and communities. Societies across the world are working to adapt to climate change, but climate adaptation is currently inadequate to meet the needs of the people left increasingly vulnerable and the places that risk being irreversibly changed or destroyed. One tactic of climate adaptation is strategic retreat, sometimes referred to as managed retreat. Strategic retreat is the process by which the government or another entity purchases (buys out) developed properties that are at risk of destruction or have been destroyed by natural disasters. The structure is most often demolished, and the land is placed under a permanent easement to prevent future development. What happens next is dependent on the entities involved in the buyouts, and can range from derelict, vacant lots to full restoration of ecosystems and their abilities to mitigate flood damage. Sometimes recreational amenities, such as trails or park infrastructure, are prioritized and funded as well. Conservation organizations can leverage their expertise in conservation planning, land acquisition and restoration, policy advocacy, and partnership development to improve the implementation of strategic retreat so that nature and people can thrive in the long term. In this policy paper, we review ways that conservation organizations have and can continue to engage in buyout processes to ensure positive outcomes for communities and nature. Conservation organizations must also evolve their approaches to climate adaptation to integrate equity and redress historical injustices in land use, and contribute towards improving strategic retreat for a more just and resilient future across disaster-prone communities. This work focuses on the context of disasters and climate adaptation in the USA, though many of the principles presented are applicable around the world.

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When rebuilding no longer means recovery: the stress of staying put after Hurricane Sandy

Climatic Change ◽

10.1007/s10584-021-03069-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 165 (3-4) ◽

Author(s):

Liz Koslov ◽

Alexis Merdjanoff ◽

Elana Sulakshana ◽

Eric Klinenberg

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Mental Health ◽

Health Outcomes ◽

Social Economic ◽

Hurricane Sandy ◽

Flood Insurance ◽

Health Consequences ◽

The Usa ◽

Policy Shifts ◽

Post Disaster

AbstractAfter a disaster, it is common to equate repopulation and rebuilding with recovery. Numerous studies link post-disaster relocation to adverse social, economic, and health outcomes. However, there is a need to reconsider these relationships in light of accelerating climate change and associated social and policy shifts in the USA, including the rising cost of flood insurance, the challenge of obtaining aid to rebuild, and growing interest in “managed retreat” from places at greatest risk. This article presents data from a survey of individuals who opted either to rebuild in place or relocate with the help of a voluntary home buyout after Hurricane Sandy. Findings show those who lived in buyout-eligible areas and relocated were significantly less likely to report worsened stress than those who rebuilt in place. This suggests access to a government-supported voluntary relocation option may, under certain circumstances, lessen the negative mental health consequences associated with disaster-related housing damage.

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Improving the health of African Americans in the USA: an overdue opportunity for social justice

Public Health Reviews ◽

10.1186/s40985-016-0025-4 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 67

Author(s):

Allan S. Noonan ◽

Hector Eduardo Velasco-Mondragon ◽

Fernando A. Wagner

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

African Americans ◽

The Usa

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Tornadoes, poverty and race in the USA: A five-decade analysis

Journal of Economic Studies ◽

10.1108/jes-06-2021-0287 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Russ D. Kashian ◽

Tracy Buchman ◽

Robert Drago

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

African Americans ◽

Study Finding ◽

Median Income ◽

Content Type ◽

Vulnerable Communities ◽

Long Run ◽

Level Data ◽

The Usa

PurposeThe study aims to analyze the roles of poverty and African American status in terms of vulnerability to tornado damages and barriers to recovery afterward.Design/methodology/approachUsing five decades of county-level data on tornadoes, the authors test whether economic damages from tornadoes are correlated with vulnerability (proxied by poverty and African American status) and wealth (proxied by median income and educational attainment), controlling for tornado risk. A multinomial logistic difference-in-difference (DID) estimator is used to analyze long-run effects of tornadoes in terms of displacement (reduced proportions of the poor and African Americans), abandonment (increased proportions of those groups) and neither or both.FindingsControlling for tornado risk, poverty and African American status are linked to greater tornado damages, as is wealth. Absent tornadoes, displacement and abandonment are both more likely to occur in urban settings and communities with high levels of vulnerability, while abandonment is more likely to occur in wealthy communities, consistent with on-going forces of segregation. Tornado damages significantly increase abandonment in vulnerable communities, thereby increasing the prevalence of poor African Americans in those communities. Therefore, the authors conclude that tornadoes contribute to on-going processes generating inequality by poverty/race.Originality/valueThe current paper is the first study connecting tornado damages to race and poverty. It is also the first study finding that tornadoes contribute to long-term processes of segregation and inequality.

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Geohazard and Climate adaption: impacts and interconnectivity

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16297 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Dimitar Ouzounov ◽

Menas Kafatos ◽

Patrick Taylor

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Seismic Energy ◽

Small Time ◽

Change Processes ◽

Atmospheric Conditions ◽

New Information ◽

Global Geodynamics ◽

The Usa ◽

Adaptation Processes

<p>The forefront of science now is in bridging fields and making connections across different disciplines, challenging our current understanding of the Earth's changes and overall state. Some of the most challenging science questions now have to do with warnings for significant geohazards and Earth-Space systems' response to climate variability affecting adaptation processes, such as geosphere changes due to climate change and resultant strategies. In recent years, the study of pre-earthquake processes has led for example to developing the lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere-coupling concept. This in turn provides new information about the Earth's energy balance (Pulinets and Ouzounov, 2011). From space-born NASA and NOAA Earth observation of atmospheric conditions, we have shown the consistent occurrence of radiative emission anomalies in the atmosphere near or over regions of earthquakes, volcanoes, and geothermal fluxes. Our assessment shows that the latent heat released before major earthquakes is larger than the seismic energy released during the quake (Ouzounov et al., 2018). We find that the associated pre-earthquake phenomena for large events may create an additional thermodynamic contribution in the atmosphere and impact on climate, caused by sources of Earth de-gassing in the lithosphere and followed by ionization processes. Because of these findings, we start exploring major global geodynamics activities and their impact on atmospheric processes and climate through the geosphere coupling channels as a potential forward process of interaction between geohazards and climate adaptation. The reverse mechanism of climate adaptation's impact on geohazards is based on the initial idea that climate adaptation could force additional geohazards activities (McGuire, 2010). The removal of ice sheets may somehow or likely have permitted the release of stresses that had accumulated on previously confined faults, triggering earthquakes in the US, Canada, and Europe. How realistically is it to expect a change in the existing earthquake patterns in Europe, the USA, and Canada during climate change processes? It is plausible, but we do not yet know the answer. Our goal is to explore the coupling between geohazards processes and climate change processes through the lithosphere-atmosphere framework, focusing on dynamic environments, exhibiting a change in physical and thermodynamics processes over relatively small-time scales.</p>

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Climate Change and Zoonoses: A Review of Concepts, Definitions, and Bibliometrics

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph19020893 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 893

Author(s):

Walter Leal Filho ◽

Linda Ternova ◽

Sanika Arun Parasnis ◽

Marina Kovaleva ◽

Gustavo J. Nagy

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Disease Ecology ◽

One Health ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

Animal Health ◽

Emerging Diseases ◽

Zoonotic Diseases ◽

The Usa ◽

Author Keywords ◽

The Uk

Climate change can have a complex impact that also influences human and animal health. For example, climate change alters the conditions for pathogens and vectors of zoonotic diseases. Signs of this are the increasing spread of the West Nile and Usutu viruses and the establishment of new vector species, such as specific mosquito and tick species, in Europe and other parts of the world. With these changes come new challenges for maintaining human and animal health. This paper reports on an analysis of the literature focused on a bibliometric analysis of the Scopus database and VOSviewer software for creating visualization maps which identifies the zoonotic health risks for humans and animals caused by climate change. The sources retained for the analysis totaled 428 and different thresholds (N) were established for each item varying from N 5 to 10. The main findings are as follows: First, published documents increased in 2009–2015 peaking in 2020. Second, the primary sources have changed since 2018, partly attributable to the increase in human health concerns due to human-to-human transmission. Third, the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, Italy, and Germany perform most zoonosis research. For instance, sixty documents and only 17 countries analyzed for co-authorship analysis met the threshold led by the USA; the top four author keywords were “climate change”, “zoonosis”, “epidemiology”, and “one health;” the USA, the UK, Germany, and Spain led the link strength (inter-collaboration); the author keywords showed that 37 out of the 1023 keywords met the threshold, and the authors’ keyword’s largest node of the bibliometric map contains the following: infectious diseases, emerging diseases, disease ecology, one health, surveillance, transmission, and wildlife. Finally, zoonotic diseases, which were documented in the literature in the past, have evolved, especially during the years 2010–2015, as evidenced by the sharp augmentation of publications addressing ad-hoc events and peaking in 2020 with the COVID-19 outbreak.

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European Union as a Leader in Climate Change Policy: Assessing Europe’s Roles in the World∗

European Scientific Journal ESJ ◽

10.19044/esj.2016.v12n5p285 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 285

Author(s):

Omer Ugur ◽

Kadir Caner Dogan ◽

Metin Aksoy

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

European Union ◽

International Politics ◽

Climate Change Policy ◽

The European Union ◽

Change Policy ◽

The Usa ◽

The Moment ◽

Climate Change Politics ◽

The Eu

The European Union has grown up in terms of influence and size in international politics. The size of its economy and the ever-increasing membership, have seen its ambitions grow meaning that the EU now has an international presence it did not have at its formation. It is easy to say that with the EU being an ambitious actor in international politics, the rise into prominence of climate change naturally came in handy for the EU as it provided an opportunity for the EU to assert itself and prove both its capacity and presence. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the withdrawal of the USA from the obligations of the Kyoto came as a blessing in disguise for the Union as it seized the moment to assert itself. Thus, in trying to understand what role the EU has or is playing in international climate change politics, there is need to assess its leadership claims and what it has done to prove these claims. To get there, the paper will navigate through a part of the discipline of International Relations (IR) to understand how it provides for a basis to explain or understand the EU’s limitations and strengths on actorness.

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