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Abstract Smoke particulate matter emitted by fires in the Amazon Basin poses a threat to human health. Past research on this threat has mainly focused on the health impacts on countries as a whole or has relied on hospital admission data to quantify the health response. Such analyses do not capture the impact on people living in Indigenous territories close to the fires and who often lack access to medical care and may not show up at hospitals. Here we quantify the premature mortality due to smoke exposure of people living in Indigenous territories across the Amazon Basin. We use the atmospheric chemistry transport model GEOS-Chem to simulate PM2.5from fires and other sources, and we apply a recently updated concentration dose-response function. We estimate that smoke from fires in South America accounted for ∼12 000 premature deaths each year from 2014–2019 across the continent, with about ∼230 of these deaths occurring in Indigenous lands. Put another way, smoke exposure accounts for 2 premature deaths per 100 000 people per year across South America, but 4 premature deaths per 100 000 people in the Indigenous territories. Bolivia and Brazil represent hotspots of smoke exposure and deaths in Indigenous territories in these countries are 9 and 12 per 100 000 people, respectively. Our analysis shows that smoke PM2.5from fires has a detrimental effect on human health across South America, with a disproportionate impact on people living in Indigenous territories.
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Social-ecological change in the Omo-Turkana basin: A synthesis of current developments
This paper synthesizes current knowledge on the impacts of the Gibe III dam and associated large-scale commercial farming in the Omo-Turkana Basin, based on an expert elicitation coupled with a scoping review and the collective knowledge of an multidisciplinary network of researchers with active data-collection programs in the Basin. We use social-ecological systems and political ecology frameworks to assess the impacts of these interventions on hydrology and ecosystem services in the Basin, and cascading effects on livelihoods, patterns of migration, and conflict dynamics for the people of the region. A landscape-scale transformation is occurring in which commodities, rather than staple foods for local consumption, are becoming the main output of the region. Mitigation measures initiated by the Ethiopian government—notably resettlement schemes—are not adequately buffering affected communities from food insecurity following disruption to indigenous livelihood systems. Therefore, while benefits are accruing to labor migrants, the costs of development are currently borne primarily by the agro–pastoralist indigenous people of the region. We consider measures that might maximize benefits from the changes underway and mitigate their negative outcomes, such as controlled floods, irrigating fodder crops, food aid, and benefit sharing.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1744094
- PAR ID:
- 10085662
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Ambio
- ISSN:
- 0044-7447
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1139-3
