Annotated Sources

Cutter, Susan L., et al. “Social vulnerability to climate variability hazards: A review of the literature.” Final Report to Oxfam America 5 (2009): 1-44.

With an emphasis on social vulnerability and climate change, this paper offers an overview of the many conceptual models, theoretical frameworks, and measurements associated with vulnerability research. The authors talk on how vulnerability research has changed since 1996, emphasizing improvements in the understanding of vulnerability. They discuss the difficulties in assessing susceptibility across disciplines and provide various indices, including the Livelihood Vulnerability Index and the Environmental Vulnerability Index, which were created to measure vulnerability to climate change. They also look at social vulnerability measures and mapping methods, highlighting how crucial it is to understand how social factors affect a community’s ability to withstand risks. This resource enhances our thesis work by providing a foundational understanding of vulnerability assessment methodologies and highlighting the importance of considering social factors in assessing a community’s resilience to global change.

DeSalvo, Karen B. “The Health Consequences of Natural Disasters in the United States: Progress, Perils, and Opportunity.” ACP Journals, 20 Feb. 2018, www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M17-3240.

Hurricane Katrina illuminated and magnified tremendous health infrastructure issues in the United States. This article examines the structural alterations the country has made to prepare its health systems for future natural disasters. The paper exemplifies the specific and actual impacts of natural disasters on health and the vitality of an adequate healthcare infrastructure when considering a response to these catastrophes. The source identifies ill-suited regions and compares them with improved infrastructure, thus allowing us to grasp the importance of proper preparation and funding. Additionally, it offers a perspective considering the evolution of technology and growth, thus allowing us to create a timeline of specific events and catalysts for change. 

Frontera-Escudero, Irene, et al. “Sociodemographic and Health Risk Factors Associated with Health-Related Quality of Life among Adults Living in Puerto Rico in 2019: A Cross-Sectional Study.” BMC Public Health, vol. 23, no. 1, Nov. 2023, pp. 1–11. 

This study investigates the sociodemographic and health-related factors influencing the health-related quality of life among adults residing in Puerto Rico. It explores health risk factors including chronic health conditions, disability status, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity level, and (BMI) to determine their impact on health-related quality of life among adults in Puerto Rico. This resource is important because it employs statistical analyses, such as regression models, to identify significant associations between sociodemographic and health-related factors and HRQOL outcomes. The analysis uncovered significant risk factors associated with poor HRQOL among adults living in Puerto Rico, some of which include chronic conditions, age, and income. We can use the results found in this study to possibly find those same factors in other communities to find ways to help members of marginalized communities

Houser, Heather. 2017. “Climate Visualizations: Making Data Experiential.” In The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities. Routledge.

This article brings in an analysis from the environmental humanities, a field concerned with the affective nature of climate change; of bringing stories and humanities-based analysis of them into the often science-centered climate change discourse. Houser argues here about many of the elements of data visualization we discussed in lecture, although with a little more nuance. She is perhaps more focused on the emotional effect within the reader, and how climate data can be conveyed in an accurate but effective and provocative way. Further, Houser talks about how graphics can take on an air of objectivity and sources may seek to unambiguously quantify various phenomena, but in reality there are humanistic components to any creation of a data visualization and nothing is truly objective and disconnected from human influence, as the sciences may claim to be. This is relevant to our project both because we’ll likely be working to visualize some climate data (and the article is specifically about climate visualization) and because the analysis on how data can seem objective but still have bias is relevant towards the climate datasets we’re working with.

Naqvi, A., & Monasterolo, I. (2021). Assessing the cascading impacts of natural disasters in a multi-layer behavioral network framework. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99343-4

Researchers widely acknowledge and understand that natural disasters magnify socioeconomic susceptibility; however, much focus is on the results and conclusions of these events rather than the process. Contrarily, this paper explores how these negative impacts are perpetrated via numerous channels and cascading effects, thus offering insight into the complicated interplay of behavior, consumption, and natural disasters. Merely acknowledging and understanding the consequence of a natural disaster is inadequate in creating a complete picture; this paper provides an evidence-based model that allows readers to grasp how understanding vulnerability is critical to mediating and handling natural disasters. Understanding the reasons and processes contributing to significant impacts from natural disasters is vital for our project, which aims to explore how socioeconomic conditions are linked to recovery. Utilizing this resource will allow us to apply framework and mathematics to cement our claims further. 

Nicholas, Patrice K. “The Economics of Climate Change and the Intersection with Conflict, Violence, and Migration: Implications for the Nursing Profession.” Nursing Economic$, vol. 37, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 23–34.

This resource explores the multifaceted relationship between climate change, conflict, violence, migration, and the role of nurses in addressing these interconnected challenges. The author discusses the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable populations, including low-income communities, indigenous peoples, and marginalized groups, who often bear the brunt of environmental degradation and resource depletion, and how environmental pressures can fuel displacement, exacerbate social tensions, and trigger conflicts over scarce resources. This article also highlights the importance of nursing education and training in preparing healthcare professionals to address the complex health challenges associated with environmental degradation and displacement. Since nurses play a crucial role in addressing the intersecting challenges of climate change and displacement in marginalized communities which can be a point of emphasis in our thesis.

Nixon, Rob. “Introduction.” In Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, 1–44. Harvard University Press, 2011. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt2jbsgw.4.

Nixon’s introductory chapter to his book offers a great breakdown of how climate violence is perpetrated against poor people and is realized “slowly,” i.e., on timescales that aren’t easy to show on TV. “Climate violence” means those events that are felt through the climate and mean a certain level of violence is felt, and it’s specific to the poor in that these events often aren’t equitably distributed. For example, flooding in Los Angeles in the recent storms has disproportionately affected people in flatter areas — i.e., not all the rich people living in the hills. Nixon provides a commentary on how we can address slow violence, in part by making more visible these violent events that cale largely across time and space and are thus harder to visualize. This is a relevant concept and ideology in particular for our project, because we are analyzing natural disasters along lines of inequality; we must be careful to properly convey the scope of how these events affect disadvantaged groups over large swaths of time. This could take form, for example, by making sure to include a larger picture of many disasters occuring in a particular area, rather than just focusing on a single disaster.

Otto, I.M., Reckien, D., Reyer, C.P.O. et al. Social vulnerability to climate change: a review of concepts and evidence. Reg Environ Change 17, 1651–1662 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1105-9

This research paper highlights the interdisciplinary nature of vulnerability research and underscores the significance of comprehending the social aspects of climate change in addition to its biophysical effects. With an emphasis on low- and middle-income nations, the paper investigates which social and demographic groups are most vulnerable to climate change and why by referencing a broad range of studies conducted across geographic regions. With its insights into aspects like food security, mental health effects, safety concerns, and migration patterns that might not be included in the Social Vulnerability Index dataset, this resource is priceless for our thesis work because it broadens our understanding of the complexities of social vulnerability to climate change. Moreover, it underscores the rarity of evidence on critical thresholds in social vulnerability and the need to consider both physical changes in the climate system and socio-economic drivers in assessing vulnerability.

Pacific Institute. Social Vulnerability to Climate Change in California. 1 July 2012, escholarship.org/uc/item/0696v9nb#main.

To evaluate the social vulnerability of people to climate-related adversity, this paper proposes a new climate vulnerability index. It emphasizes how crucial it is to comprehend susceptibility variables and the populations that display them to develop disaster response and climate change adaptation plans that work. Reviewing a wide range of socioeconomic characteristics linked to heightened susceptibility to different environmental dangers, the study highlights regional differences in response capabilities. The newly developed climate sensitivity index highlights the disproportionate susceptibility of some groups, especially in the San Joaquin Valley and southeast California, by identifying locations with significant social vulnerability to climate impacts. The study finds locations at increased risk of climate impacts due to exposure and social vulnerability by superimposing vulnerability index scores with maps of expected exposure to climate change disturbances, such as severe heat, coastal flooding, wildfire, and poor air quality. This integrated method highlights the importance of integrating social vulnerability evaluations into climate change adaptation planning. Our research goals closely align with this paper, which deepens our understanding of social vulnerability to climate change and offers insightful guidance for developing successful adaptation policies and disaster response plans.

Perry, Imani. “PRODUCING PERSONHOOD: The Rise of Capitalism and the Western Subject.” In Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation, 42–97. Duke University Press, 2018. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv11cw534.6.

An even more theoretical angle, Chapter 2 of Imani Perry’s Vexy Thing provides a framework to discuss how the (very likely) trends we will see in the data correlating lower socioeconomic status with higher natural disaster burden is linked to a lack of personhood within the broader, multi-century Western oppression of people under patriarchy. The chapter itself provides a historical overview of how the broad framework of patriarchy found its origins in slavery and the slave trade, among other similar events at the time, by defining who is allowed personhood. This personhood is intimately connected to individual and group sovereignty, and property ownership. It provides a more fundamental explanation as to why we still see socioeconomic disparities today, and how a phenomena such as that described in Slow Violence above could still be playing out today as a continuation of historical precedent set in place centuries ago. This provides a theoretical anchoring for our project, since we will be discussing how certain groups are fundamentally oppressed, in this case by the results of natural disasters (whose origins often lie more along the lines of the oppressor).

Pleninger, R. (2022). Impact of natural disasters on the income distribution. World Development, 157, 105936-. 

An essential aspect of socioeconomic status- a significant focus of our project- is income; this paper offers a detailed and exhaustive examination of the impact of natural disasters on income distributions in the United States.  Moreover, the research suggests that the middle class is impacted most severely by these disasters regarding incomes, thus perpetuating income inequality levels. Natural disasters are undoubtedly environmentally and physically catastrophic, but this paper accentuates another vital consideration when considering impacted communities and individuals: the financial burden. Furthermore, the article discusses factors that mediate or amplify the effects on income, a critical consideration. Our project is heavily concerned with how natural disasters are linked to the human experience; considering the capitalist nature of the United States, it is imperative to explore monetary impacts. 

Schaefer, Donald D. A. “The Use of the Regular Militaries for Natural Disaster Assistance: Climate Change and the Increasing Need for Changes to the Laws in the United States, China, Japan, the Philippines, and Other Countries.” Sustainable Development Law & Policy, vol. 20, no. 1, Fall 2019, pp. 4–38.

This article emphasizes the need for legal reforms to adapt to the changing landscape of natural disasters and climate-related emergencies. It calls for greater flexibility in legal frameworks to empower regular militaries to act swiftly and decisively in providing assistance during disasters, while also respecting civil liberties and human rights. This resource is important because it can give insight to ways the government can do a better job at protecting its citizens from natural disasters. This enhances our thesis work because this article advocates for proactive measures to streamline disaster response efforts and improve coordination between military and civilian authorities, ultimately aiming to diminish the devastating impacts of natural disasters on vulnerable communities.