We use cookies on this site to enhance your experience.
By selecting “Accept” and continuing to use this website, you consent to the use of cookies.
Climate Change Adaptation
While most of the Community, Environment, and Justice Research Group (CEJRG) work focuses on climate change mitigation and fostering sustainability, it is also important to recognize that climate change is already negatively affecting millions of people, with socially marginalized groups being among the most vulnerable to these impacts. Psychology can make important contributions here by understanding how people assess risks and how they are able to cope. We have investigated the vulnerability to climate change of people experiencing homelessness and older adults in Waterloo region.
Projects
- Principal Investigators: Anne Wilson and Manuel Riemer
As the global climate changes, extreme weather events such as heat waves are on the rise and are having a disproportionate impact on socially vulnerable groups. Seniors are among those with the highest risk of negative effects of heat waves, as evidenced by the number of seniors affected by the 2003 European heat wave that killed tens of thousands and the 1995 Chicago heat wave that killed almost 900 elderly residents. In order to mitigate the threats of extreme weather, it is critical to develop and promote resources for coping during these events. However, mobilizing the Canadian public to respond to our changing climate has proven challenging, since perceptions of both general and personal risk associated with these events remains low, even among those most at risk.
Researchers in disaster mitigation suggest that a better understanding of risk perceptions and the factors that influence them is needed in order to improve public responses to threatening events. However, there has been little exploration of either the perceptions of the risks of extreme heat or of the social context of risk and resilience to climate change among seniors. Our study examined risk perceptions and coping practices in seniors in Waterloo Region using qualitative interviews with fifteen residents aged 65 or older, and a survey of more than 200 seniors across the region.
- Principal Investigators: Johanna Wandel (University of Waterloo) and Manuel Riemer
The goal of this research pilot was to work towards a better understanding of the vulnerability of those experiencing homelessness in the urban centers of Waterloo Region. This case study was achieved using three objectives:
- To assess the current vulnerability of the target group, the urban homeless of Waterloo Region, to climate change.
- To identify future changes in the target group’s vulnerability given what we know from climate and air quality science.
- To reduce the vulnerability of the target group.
The research was conducted by a team of researchers and students in collaboration with Waterloo Region Department of Social Planning. The outcome of the research included not only insights on the pilot case study, but the development of new tools and methodologies to assess and reduce the vulnerability of marginalized populations in developed economies. Forty-eight qualitative interviews with people experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region have been conducted.
Publications
- Wandel, J., Riemer, M., de Gómez, W., Klein, K., de Schutter, J., Randall, L., Morrison, M., Poirier, S., & Singleton, C. (2010). Homelessness and Global Climate Change: Are we ready? A report from the study on the vulnerability to global climate change of people experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region. Waterloo, ON.
Presentations and Talks
- Hey, B., Eady, A., Riemer, M., Wilson, A. (2017) Reducing social vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather events. The role of risk perception in a social environmental context. Paper presented at the 2015 Biennial Conference of the Society for Community, Research, and Action, Ottawa, ON. June 21-24, 2017.
- Eady, A., Wilson, A. E., Riemer, M., Silins, S., Alton, D. (2015, June). Reducing social vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather events: the role of risk perception in a social environmental context. Round table discussion to be presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association, Ottawa, ON
- Riemer, M. & DeGomez (2011). Homelessness and global climate change. Paper presented at the 2011 Community University Expo, Waterloo, ON, May 11-14, 2011.
- Riemer, M., Klein, K., & de Schutter, J, (2010). Reducing the vulnerability of people experiencing homelessness to the human impacts of global climate change. Paper presented at the 2010 National Conference on Community Psychology, University of Ottawa, May 20-22, 2010.
- Wandel, J., Riemer, M., DeGomez, W., Klein, K. (2009). Reducing the vulnerability of the urban homeless to climate change. Paper presented at the 2009 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change “Earth System Governance: People, Places and the Planet”, Amsterdam, Dec 2-4.