1. National and local vulnerability to climate-related disasters in Latin America: the role of social asset-based adaptation.
- Author
-
Rubin O and Rossing T
- Subjects
- Belize ethnology, Bolivia ethnology, Disaster Planning economics, Disaster Planning history, Disaster Planning legislation & jurisprudence, History, 20th Century, History, 21st Century, Latin America ethnology, Social Class history, Climate Change economics, Climate Change history, Disasters economics, Disasters history, Government history, Poverty economics, Poverty ethnology, Poverty history, Poverty legislation & jurisprudence, Poverty psychology, Socioeconomic Factors history, Vulnerable Populations ethnology, Vulnerable Populations legislation & jurisprudence, Vulnerable Populations psychology
- Abstract
The Latin American region is particularly prone to climate-related natural hazards. However, this article argues that natural hazards are only partly to blame for the region's vulnerability to natural disasters with quantitative evidence suggesting instead that income per capita and inequality are main determinants of natural disaster mortality in Latin America. Locally, the region's poor are particularly susceptible to climate-related natural hazards. As a result of their limited access to capital, adaptation based on social assets constitutes an effective coping strategy. Evidence from Bolivia and Belize illustrates the importance of social assets in protecting the most vulnerable against natural disasters.
- Published
- 2012
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