Page - 250 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

250 A.Heslinet al. andman-made processeswhich combined forHurricaneKatrina,meant that some termed thedisaster “deathbypolitical economy” for theAfricanAmerica residents ofLouisiana (Price2008).Childrenarealsomore likely tobeaffectedbyhurricane displacement.ChildrendisplacedbyHurricaneKatrinawerefive timesmore likely to suffer from emotional distress (Abramson et al. 2010) and those in a state of prolonged displacement and unable to return to the cityweremore likely to suffer frompost-traumaticstressdisorderanddepressionthanthosewhomovedwithinthe city (Hansel et al. 2013). Over a third of children displaced byHurricaneKatrina were a year or more behind in school (Abramson et al. 2010). There were also ramifications on school behaviour, attendance, suspension, expulsion anddrop-out rates (Paneet al. 2006;Wardet al. 2008). In theUSA, typically20–30%of theaffectedpopulationsfail to respondtoevac- uation orders and remain in the disaster area during storms (Redlener 2006). This canbeattributed todifferentiated riskperception,others fail toevacuateprior to the landfall of thehurricane toavoidperceived lossesanddamages that leavingentails. Reasonsfornotevacuatingincludethediscomfortforelderlyorinfirm(VanWilligen etal.2002)protectingone’shomefromlooters(Riadetal.1999),previousproblems with evacuation traffic (Morss andHayden2010), anxiety about being arrested for undocumented workers (Tiefenbacher andWilson 2012), reluctance to leave pets (Heath et al. 2001) and the need to be able to clean up after the storm as soon as possible (DashandMorrow2000). 10.4.3 TheDesertificationofWestAfricaandtheAscendance ofBokoHaram Natural disasters—however unnatural—are not the onlymovers of people across nations and regions. The changing terrain that accompanies widespread climate change also shifts geo-political realities, andwith them the landscape of conflict. Here, we consider theways inwhich slowly-worsening environmental conditions changepeople’s locationsand lives, specificallydesertificationanddeforestation. Desertificationhasmadepreviouslyfertileagriculturallandfunctionallyuninhab- itable in regions throughout theworld (Bettini andAndersson 2014;Owusu2013; Vieira et al. 2015).Existing researchhas linked this phenomenon toman-madecli- matechangefornearly25years(HulmeandKelly1993;CalabròandMagazù2016). In the case of the Sahara, it hasmade already tenuous post-colonial regimes even morevulnerable,asfragilestatesstruggletomaintainbasicserviceswhilegrappling with thearrivalofcitizensandmigrants in transit (Ferris2012).Traditionalwaysof life havebeen renderedobsolete as villages are overtakenby the sandof theSahel and, in thecaseofNigeria, the trendhasworked to further impoverish theNorthern provinces of the nation (Mantzikos 2010). In theMaiduguri province ofNorthern Nigeria, school teacherswereunable to cultivate landorfishduring school breaks. Thisnewlyfounddesperationcontributedtotheirorganisingofstudentsintotherad-