Month: August 2022

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Zimbabwe: Climate Change Researcher Nyasha Turuza on Climate Change Realities in her Home Country

02 August 2022 – by Earth Refuge Correspondent Samantha Chinyoka

In this interview, correspondent Samantha Chinyoka was speaking with Nyasha Turuza from Zimbabwe. Nyasha is a Researcher in Climate Change who holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Dynamics and Climate Change and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies.She has contributed to key research whilst working with the Environment Management, Renewable Energy and Climate Change (EMRECC) Research Center at the Harare Institute of Technology, Zimbabwe, and has also collaborated with Africa Rise Foundation on addressing the Sustainable Development Goals. At present she volunteers for Advocates4Earth, an organization that works on environmental and climate justice issues.

During the conversation, Nyasha shares her experiences and real testimonies of women and girls living in Zimbabwe that have been most affected by the impact of the brunt of climate change. She highlights the need to well-educate and conscientize the communities on climate change, especially those whose views on climate change are centered on their traditional beliefs.

“In the child-headed families the elderly girls end up working as sex workers just to provide
for their younger siblings due to food poverty in the drought seasons.”

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Once-in-a-Century Heatwaves are Now Ten Times More Likely in South Asia

Balochistan Road in Pakistan

2 August 2022 – by Subhiksha Manoj

According to a recent study on historical weather data from the World Weather Attribution group, countries in South Asia (especially India and Pakistan) are now 30 times more likely to experience prolonged heatwaves than in previous years.

What’s more, if average global temperatures increase by 2°C (3.6°F) in the following years, South Asian countries are more likely to experience these heatwaves at least once every five years.

Using computer simulations to compare data on average temperatures between March and April over the past several decades, the team of scientists concluded that these increased risks can be attributed to climate change.

“This is a sign of things to come,” said Arpita Mondal, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai who was involved in the study.

The Current Impact of Heatwaves

In recent months, some parts of India and Pakistan have seen temperatures around 45°C (113°F) – the highest levels ever recorded in the region. While governments attempt to grapple with mitigating and adapting to the widespread and unpredictable impact of climate change, the average person struggles to carry out day-to-day activities.

In India, daily wage laborers and agricultural workers bear the brunt of climate change as they, naturally, spend more time outdoors. To prepare for the undoubtable influx of people affected by heat-related illnesses, India’s state governments are advising local hospitals to stock up on ice packs, oral rehydration salts, and cooling appliances – although the availability and accessibility of this equipment is another question.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the recent flooding caused by a glacier burst has reinforced the need to establish an early warning system for natural disasters that can help to minimize infrastructural damage and deaths.

Both Pakistan and India have recorded at least a combined 90 heat-related deaths in recent weeks, however, this number is more than likely to be higher – especially considering the shortcomings of the death registration systems in the two countries.

As of now, climate change experts are continuing to urge countries in South Asia to spread further awareness on heatwaves, while also encouraging governments to work towards establishing sustainable climate mitigation and adaptation mechanisms.

Did you enjoy reading this article? Be sure to take a look at our piece on how the intensification of heatwaves in the Middle East and North Africa.

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Ottoline Mary

Ottoline recently completed her Master’s degree in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge. She believes that sustainable development is indissociable from global justice, and thus aims to take part in ethical initiatives in the fields of the defence of human rights, environmental protection, and the fight against financial crime. Currently interning as a Research Assistant with the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (Dharamsala, India), she joined Earth Refuge to deepen her understanding of climate-induced migration, and (hopefully!) contribute to raising awareness around said topic.

Outside of work, Ottoline spends most of her time watching horror films surrounded by her five cats.

Email: [email protected]

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Yusuf Lahham

Yusuf Lahham, previously a violist at the Royal College of Music, completed an accelerated LLB at SOAS, University of London. He is currently studying on the Bar Course at the Inns of Court College of Advocacy as an Inner Temple scholar, with a view to a career at the Bar of England and Wales. Yusuf’s predominant legal interests lie within English land law and EU environmental law, with a particular focus on the intersection of human rights legislation with the latter. Outside of work, Yusuf continues to play the viola da gamba and enjoys cycling around rural Oxfordshire, where he has lived his whole life.

Email: [email protected]

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Antonia Panayotova

Antonia looks after our digital platforms, ensuring our website and legal database work well and stay secure. She is passionate about technology, data, innovation, and accessible services. In her day-to-day, she works in the UK government testing ideas for how data can be used more effectively, ethically, and securely to create a better user experience for all.

Antonia is fascinated by ideas for how to use data and innovative technologies to create solutions for the most pressing climate problems too as sustainability is a personal passion.

In the time that’s left, she likes to keep busy with various outdoor adventure sports, travel, growing plants, and a bit of first aid volunteering.

Email: [email protected]

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Ilana Cohen

Ilana Cohen is an organizer with the Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard and Fossil
Free Research campaigns, a climate journalist and policy consultant, and a rising senior at Harvard where she studies the ethics of climate change and environmental policymaking.

Email: [email protected]

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Virginia De Biasio

Virginia De Biasio is a PhD candidate in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at the University of York. Her research interests are related to issues of global justice, distributive justice, the capabilities approach, environmental ethics, natural resources justice, territorial rights, and climate migration. Virginia’s PhD dissertation is on “Natural Resources Justice and Capabilities,” and it is supervised by Prof. Martin O’Neill and Dr Gabriele Badano. She has an MSc Politics, Economics, and Philosophy (University of Hamburg – 2017-2019) and a BA in Philosophy (University of Padova – 2014-2017).

Email: [email protected]

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Jake Clarke

Jake Clarke is an MA Migration and Diaspora Studies graduate from SOAS University of London. He’s touched on a range of migration-related concepts and cases, specifically dedicating his time and dissertation research on the intersection between disability studies and climate migration studies, conducting interviews to place the experiences of disabled people at the forefront of his research.

Jake has volunteered in the refugee sector with a range of NGOs in Greece, Calais, and at home in the UK. He lives by Dina Nayeri’s poignant assertation: “It is the obligation of every person born in a safer room to open the door when someone in danger knocks.”

In his free time, Jake has a passion for films and you will regularly see him at the BFI in Southbank, London. He is also a bartender, loves hiking, and is an avid sports enthusiast.

Email: [email protected]

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Ole ter Wey

Ole ter Wey is the Faces Coordinator of Earth Refuge. ‘Faces’ is meant to provide a platform for people directly affected by climate change, to reach a broader public with the important issue of climate migration, and to also inform the legal work of Earth Refuge. Ole is the contact point for people interested to share their experiences of climate change as well as for everyone interested in joining the correspondent team.

Ole recently graduated in International Law and Human Rights from the UN-mandated University for Peace in San José, Costa Rica. He previously lived with a local community in Kiribati for over a year. There, he experienced first-hand the consequences of climate change endangering the existence of an entire state.

When not studying or working, Ole is a passionate musician and crazy about football.

Email: [email protected]

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Robert Los

Robert Los is a law student originally from Hamburg between the state exams with a completed specialization in corporate and capital markets law. He is working as Research Assistant at a law firm and has dealt with the topics of migration and climate mainly in the context of voluntary work.

As part of a Hamburg subgroup of Lawyers Without Borders, he has been involved in a study on the legal protection of unaccompanied minor refugees, and with fellow students he is involved in setting up a Climate Clinic as well as an interpreter and adviser in social law and deportation cases at the local law clinic.

At Earth Refuge he is responsible for coordinating and driving research projects and the resulting development of legal media products such as the database and toolkits.

Robert is also passionate about politics, economics, music, and a little too much about all kinds of sports.

Email: [email protected]