Climate change is causing Pakistani men to beat their wives – is it shocking?

Article by Eric Worrell

Apparently the problem is not that some Pakistani men are cowardly wife beaters, the problem is climate change.

How climate change affects the mental health of Pakistani teenagers

August 8, 2024
henna hundal
Sikandar Bizanjo
external affairs manager, Ngro

• In 2024, Pakistan faces devastating floods and intense heat, hampering its recovery from existing climate crisis-related disasters.
• While the economic and physical health impacts of climate change are clear, people in Pakistan are also experiencing mental health impacts that are often overlooked.
• How to address the growing climate anxiety or “eco-anxiety” of local people?

Pakistan is facing the brunt of climate disaster. Since record floods in 2022 affected 33 million residents and caused more than $15 billion in damage, the country has been grappling with several new crises that have hampered continued recovery.

In February 2024, flash floods further disrupted lives and livelihoods along the southwestern coast of Gwadar – the heart of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s multi-billion-dollar investment. The sweltering summer of 2024 left thousands of Pakistanis suffering from heat stroke and medical facilities overwhelmed.

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Several women we spoke to said climate events often exacerbate feelings of isolation and anxiety by disrupting community networks that are crucial to social support for women in Pakistan. Not to mention, these disasters may subject them to additional trauma, which is consistent with Early marriage and intimate partner violence surge during times of instability caused by climate change, report says.

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Learn more: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/08/climate-change-pakistan-mental-health-eco-anxiety/

The evidence that climate change plays a role in floods in Pakistan is less than conclusive.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

New study reveals impact of natural climate drivers on extreme monsoons in Pakistan

• A new study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory looks at the impact of natural climate change on extreme flooding in Pakistan.
• The study analyzed more than 40 years of data and found that natural climate variability accounts for more than 70% of monsoon variability and extreme events observed in Pakistan in the 21st century, and that climate change is likely to exacerbate their severity.

A new study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory looks at some of the influences that may be contributing to increasingly severe weather in Pakistan.

Posted in npj climate and atmospheric sciences, The study analyzed more than 40 years of data and found that natural climate variability (including factors such as sea surface temperatures and jet stream anomalies) accounted for more than 70% of monsoon variability and extreme events observed in Pakistan during the 21st century – and climate change may have exacerbated their severity.

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Although natural climate variability can explain more than 70% of Pakistan's precipitation variability, Ashfaq explained that climate change may still play an indirect role. Increased variability in the jet stream and sea surface temperature and the simultaneous occurrence of multiple forcings may be caused by climate change. Additionally, increases in atmospheric humidity due to rising global temperatures may lead to increased rainfall, especially when combined with other dynamic forcings. However, Further research is needed to fully understand the impact of climate change on the Pakistani monsoon.

“The link between climate change and extreme weather should be carefully evaluated,” Ashfaq said. “Climate change may have indirect effects on changes in identified forcing characteristics, but they are all part of naturally occurring variability In the atmosphere and oceans.

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Learn more: https://www.ornl.gov/news/new-study-reveals-influence-natural-climate-drivers-extreme-monsoons-pakistan

Research summary;

Release date: September 21, 2023

Impact of natural variability on Pakistan’s extreme monsoon

• Motasim Ashfaq,
• Nathaniel Johnson,
• Fred Kucharski,
• Noah Diefenbaugh,
• Muhammad Adnan Abid,
• Matthew Holland,
• Deepti Singh,
• Salil Mahajan,
• Poor Ghosh,
• Orup R. Ganguly,
• Katherine Evans &
• shafiqur islam

abstract

Pakistan has experienced unusually strong monsoons in recent decades, leading to unusual droughts and record flooding events. The changing characteristics of extreme events are widely attributed to climate change. However, given the region's long history of floods and droughts, the role of natural climate variability cannot be denied without careful diagnosis. Here we study how oceanic and atmospheric changes lead to unusual precipitation distributions in western and southern Asia. Changes in sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific and North Arabian Sea, as well as internal atmospheric variability associated with circumglobal teleconnection patterns and the subtropical westerly jet, explain more than 70% of the variability in monthly summer precipitation during the 21st century. Some of these forcings coincide with record intensity during extreme monsoons, which exacerbates the overall impact. Climate change may have contributed to increased variability and co-occurrence of identified mechanisms, but further research is needed to confirm any such association.

Learn more: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-023-00462-8

If flooding events are likely to occur naturally, or even if there is the threat of climate change, the real question is, what can be done about flooding?

There is evidence that Pakistan could do more to mitigate the damage caused by flooding.

What does colonialism have to do with climate change?

September 9, 2022

John Letzing
Digital Editor, World Economic Forum Strategic Intelligence

Min Zhicheng
World Economic Forum Strategic Intelligence Data Vision and Content Expert

Floods in Pakistan have sparked renewed interest in the relationship between colonial history and the current climate crisis.

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As floods exacerbated by climate change have recently begun inundating nearly a third of Pakistan, a remnant of the country's colonial past stands between them and hundreds of thousands of people: the Sukkur Barrage.

The 90-year-old diversion dam, once an engineering triumph designed by local British rulers, has since been cited for safety concerns and described as “shabby” and it is uncertain whether it can last — making it a potentially fatal burden and a symbol.

dam holddespite Pakistan’s “Monsoon on steroids“. Other outcomes were not so lucky. The German non-profit group has listed the 10 countries most affected by climate change-related extreme weather events in the first two decades of this century, including eight former colonies (one of which is not technically a country and is still a US territory, sometimes described as a colony).

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British India, including what is now Pakistan, is far from the only example of exploitative colonial presence in history.

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One way to address this gap might be through compensation.

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Learn more: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/09/colonialism-climate-change-pakistan-floods/

Given that it has been largely ignored in the 75 years since the fall of British India, the barrage held back part of the 2022 floods, a testament to the superior craftsmanship of the British Empire era.

Maybe if Pakistani politicians and officials stopped stealing all the infrastructure money and spending tons of cash on flood prevention measures, they wouldn't have to rely on historical monuments to mitigate the damage caused by what could be entirely natural flooding events. Bonus points if Pakistan makes greater efforts to address cultural acceptance of child marriage, abduction, rape and domestic abuse of women rather than blaming the problem on climate change.

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