Do Natural Disasters Affect Human Capital? An Assessment Based on Existing Empirical Evidence

The last few years have seen a notable increase in the number of studies investigating the causes and effects of natural disasters in many dimensions. This paper seeks to review and assess available empirical evidence on the ex-post microeconomic effects of natural disasters on the accumulation of human capital, focusing on consumption, nutrition, education and health, including mental health. Three major findings come forward from this work. First, disasters appear to bring substantial damages to human capital, including death and destruction, and produce deleterious consequences on nutrition, education, health and many income-generating processes. Furthermore, some of these detrimental effects are both large and long-lasting. Second, there is a large degree of heterogeneity in the size – but not much in the direction – of the impacts on different socioeconomic groups. Yet, an empirical regularity across natural hazards is that the poorest carry the heaviest burden of the effects of disasters across different determinants and outcomes of human capital. Finally, although the occurrence of natural hazards is mostly out of control of authorities, there still is a significant room for policy action to minimize their impacts on the accumulation of human capital. We highlight the importance of flexible safety nets as well as the double critical role of accurate and reliable information to monitor risks and vulnerabilities, and identify the impacts and responses of households once they are hit by a disaster. The paper also lays out existing knowledge gaps, particularly in regard to the need of improving our understanding of the impacts of disasters on health outcomes, the mechanisms of transmission and the persistence of the effects in the long-run.natural disasters, human capital accumulation

Climate change threatens the future of rain forest ringtail possums by 2050

Aim: The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather escalate the pressure of global warming on biodiversity. Globally, synergistic effects of multiple components of climate change have driven local extinctions and community collapses, raising concern about the irreversible deterioration of ecosystems. Here, we disentangle the pressure of increasing warming and frequency of extreme heatwaves on the population dynamics of tropical ringtail possums (family: Pseudocheiridae). Location: The Australian Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. Method: Ringtail possums' population dynamics were estimated between 1992 and 2021 using a hierarchical population model that explicitly described the state process and accounted for imperfect detection. Under our model, we propagated the estimated mechanisms governing the system by forecasting ringtails' population dynamics between 2022 and 2050. Derived from this process, we calculated the probability of absolute and quasi-extinction using different population viability thresholds. Results: We find a strong negative effect of climate change on population dynamics, particularly extreme heatwaves, resulting in a rapid and severe decline in ringtails' population size in the last three decades. Main Conclusions: Forecasted increases in temperature and heatwaves threaten the collapse of rain forest ringtail possums by 2050, with populations falling below viability thresholds within three decades

Long-term changes in populations of rainforest birds in the Australia Wet Tropics bioregion: a climate-driven biodiversity emergency

Many authors have suggested that the vulnerability of montane biodiversity to climate change worldwide is significantly higher than in most other ecosystems. Despite the extensive variety of studies predicting severe impacts of climate change globally, few studies have empirically validated the predicted changes in distribution and population density. Here, we used 17 years (2000–2016) of standardised bird monitoring across latitudinal/elevational gradients in the rainforest of the Australian Wet Tropics World Heritage Area to assess changes in local abundance and elevational distribution. We used relative abundance in 1977 surveys across 114 sites ranging from 0-1500m above sea level and utilised a trend analysis approach (TRIM) to investigate elevational shifts in abundance of 42 species. The local abundance of most mid and high elevation species has declined at the lower edges of their distribution by >40% while lowland species increased by up to 190% into higher elevation areas. Upland-specialised species and regional endemics have undergone dramatic population declines of almost 50%. The “Outstanding Universal Value” of the Australian Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, one of the most irreplaceable biodiversity hotspots on Earth, is rapidly degrading. These observed impacts are likely to be similar in many tropical montane ecosystems globally

Gasto educativo por regiones y niveles en 2005

En esta nota se construyen algunos indicadores de gasto educativo por estudiante para las distintas comunidades autónomas a partir de la información suministrada en diversas publicaciones del Ministerio de Educación y del INE para el año 2005.

A Scientometric Evaluation of the Chagas Disease Implementation Research Programme of the PAHO and TDR

The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) is an independent global programme of scientific collaboration cosponsored by the United Nations Children?s Fund, the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. TDR?s strategy is based on stewardship for research on infectious diseases of poverty, empowerment of endemic countries, research on neglected priority needs, and the promotion of scientific collaboration influencing global efforts to combat major tropical diseases. In 2001, in view of the achievements obtained in the reduction of transmission of Chagas disease through the Southern Cone Initiative and the improvement in Chagas disease control activities in some countries of the Andean and the Central American Initiatives, TDR transferred the Chagas Disease Implementation Research Programme (CIRP) to the Communicable Diseases Unit of the Pan American Health Organization (CD/PAHO). This paper presents a scientometric evaluation of the 73 projects from 18 Latin American and European countries that were granted by CIRP/PAHO/TDR between 1997 and 2007. We analyzed all final reports of the funded projects and scientific publications, technical reports, and human resource training activities derived from them. Results about the number of projects funded, countries and institutions involved, gender analysis, number of published papers in indexed scientific journals, main topics funded, patents inscribed, and triatomine species studied are presented and discussed. The results indicate that CIRP/PAHO/TDR initiative has contributed significantly, over the 1997?2007 period, to Chagas disease knowledge as well as to the individual and institutional-building capacity.Fil: Carbajal de la Fuente, Ana Laura. Leishmaniasis Transmitters Laboratory. Oswaldo Cruz Institute. FIOCRUZ; Brasil; Consejo Nacional de Invest. Científ.y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Bs. As; Argentina;Fil: Yadón, Zaida E.. Communicable Diseases Unit. Health Surveillance. Disease Prevention and Control. Pan American Health Organization; Estados Unidos de América

Influencia de la expropiación forzosa en la disponibilidad de terrenos para la ejecución de obras de modernización de regadíos

La evolución de la economía del país, ha hecho que los tipos de interés hayan disminuido de manera continuada en los últimos años. El hecho de que la determinación del valor de expropiación desde el año 2.007 se lleve a cabo mediante capitalización de rentas y que, por lo tanto, el valor de indemnización dependa del tipo de interés, ha ocasionado un efecto económico difícil para las partes beneficiarias en una expropiación. En este trabajo se estudia la evolución de la normativa, se cuantifican los resultados para el caso de una finca concreta de una explotación de algodón de regadío en el valle del Guadalquivir y se analizan los resultados. En el estudio puede observarse que en los últimos ocho años, el valor de mercado de la tierra ha seguido una tendencia a la baja. Por el contrario, el valor de indemnización por expropiación de la misma se ha disparado, lo que hace inviable a las comunidades de regantes la participación en la modernización de regadíos, así como a la Administración la aplicación del Plan Hidrológico Nacional o Plan Nacional de Regadíos. Estas circunstancias han hecho que, en octubre de 2.015 (Ley de carreteras) y noviembre de 2.015 (Texto refundido de Ley de Suelo), la legislación haya intentado paliar la situación, aunque sigue siendo insuficiente. Por ello se proponen algunas medidas a modo de conclusión al final del trabajo.The evolution of the country's economy has made that interest rates have decreased continuously in recent years. The fact that since the year 2007 the determination of the value of expropriation is being carried out through revenue capitalization, in which the indemnification value depends on the interest rate, has caused a difficult economic impact in the recipient parties of an expropriation. In this paper we study the evolution of the expropriation regulations as well as the assessment of the amount of money corresponding to the expropriation of a farm dedicated the production of cotton in the Guadalquivir valley. In the study it can be seen that over the last eight years the market value of the land has followed a downward trend. On the other hand, the value of compensation for land expropriation has been triggered, making infeasible to the irrigation communities their participation in the modernization of the irrigation systems and hinders the Administration the implementation of the National Hydrological Plan or the National Irrigation Plan. These circumstances have led the Government to try to alleviate the situation with new regulations (road act of October 2015 and revised text of law of soil of November 2015) which remain insufficient. Therefore some legislative proposals are given as conclusions at the end of this work

The climatic drivers of long-term population changes in rainforest montane birds

Climate-driven biodiversity erosion is escalating at an alarming rate. The pressure imposed by climate change is exceptionally high in tropical ecosystems, where species adapted to narrow environmental ranges exhibit strong physiological constraints. Despite the observed detrimental effect of climate change on ecosystems at a global scale, our understanding of the extent to which multiple climatic drivers affect population dynamics is limited. Here, we disentangle the impact of different climatic stressors on 47 rainforest birds inhabiting the mountains of the Australian Wet Tropics using hierarchical population models. We estimate the effect of spatiotemporal changes in temperature, precipitation, heatwaves, droughts and cyclones on the population dynamics of rainforest birds between 2000 and 2016. We find a strong effect of warming and changes in rainfall patterns across the elevational-segregated bird communities, with lowland populations benefiting from increasing temperature and precipitation, while upland species show an inverse strong negative response to the same drivers. Additionally, we find a negative effect of heatwaves on lowland populations, a pattern associated with the observed distribution of these extreme events across elevations. In contrast, cyclones and droughts have a marginal effect on spatiotemporal changes in rainforest bird communities, suggesting a species-specific response unrelated to the elevational gradient. This study demonstrated the importance of unravelling the drivers of climate change impacts on population changes, providing significant insight into the mechanisms accelerating climate-induced biodiversity degradation

Policitemia vera en un perro : su diagnóstico y su tratamiento

En este artículo presentamos un caso clínico de policitemia vera (eritrocitosis) canina con un nivel de eritropoyetina en suero normal. Fue diagnosticado y tratado mediante flebotomías repetidas, en un primer momento y con hidroxyurea posteriormente