Climate Change Causes Pakistani Men to Beat up Their Wives – Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

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

How climate change affects youth mental health in Pakistan

Aug 8, 2024
Henna Hundal
Sikander Bizenjo
Manager, External Engagements, Engro

• In 2024, Pakistan has faced devastating floods and extreme heat, hindering its recovery from existing climate crisis-related disasters.
• While the economic and physical health impacts of climate change are clear, Pakistan’s population is also experiencing the often overlooked mental health ramifications.
• How can a growing sense of climate anxiety or “eco-anxiety” in locals be addressed?

Pakistan is facing an onslaught of climate disasters. Since record floods in 2022 that affected 33 million residents and caused more than $15 billion in damages, the country has contended with several new crises that have hampered a sustained recovery.

In February 2024, flash floods further upended lives and livelihoods in the southwestern coastal region of Gwadar – the heart of a billion-dollar investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The summer of 2024 has been marked by searing heat with thousands of Pakistanis succumbing to heatstroke and inundating healthcare facilities.

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Several of the women we spoke to suggested that climate events tend to disrupt community networks that are critical for Pakistani women’s social support, in turn heightening feelings of isolation and anxiety. Not to mention, these disasters can potentially expose them to additive traumatic circumstances, consistent with reporting that early marriages and intimate partner violence surge during times of climate change-driven instability.

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

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

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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

• A new study by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory looks at the influence of natural climate variability on extreme flooding in Pakistan.
• The study analyzed over 40 years of data and found that natural climate variability accounts for over 70% of observed monsoon variability and extremes in Pakistan during the 21st century, with climate change potentially adding to their severity.

A new study by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory looks at some of the influences that could be driving the increasingly severe weather over Pakistan. 

Published in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, the study analyzed over 40 years of data and found that natural climate variability, which includes factors such as sea surface temperature and jet stream anomalies, accounts for over 70% of observed monsoon variability and extremes in Pakistan during the 21st century — with climate change potentially adding to their severity.

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Although natural climate variability can explain more than 70% of the precipitation variability over Pakistan, Ashfaq explained that climate change may still play an indirect role. The increased variabilities in jet stream and sea surface temperatures and co-occurrence of multiple forcings may be caused by climate change. Additionally, more atmospheric moisture caused by warmer global temperatures can lead to heavier rainfall, especially when combined with other dynamic forcings. However, further research is necessary to fully understand the impact of climate change on monsoons in Pakistan.

“The link between climate change and extreme weather should be carefully evaluated,” Ashfaq said. “Climate change may have an indirect role in shaping the changes in the characteristics of identified forcings, but they’re all part of naturally occurring variability in the atmosphere and the oceans.”

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

The abstract of the study;

Published: 21 September 2023

The influence of natural variability on extreme monsoons in Pakistan

• Moetasim Ashfaq, 
• Nathaniel Johnson, 
• Fred Kucharski, 
• Noah S. Diffenbaugh, 
• Muhammad Adnan Abid, 
• Matthew F. Horan, 
• Deepti Singh, 
• Salil Mahajan, 
• Subimal Ghosh, 
• Auroop R. Ganguly, 
• Katherine J. Evans & 
• Shafiqul Islam 

Abstract

The monsoons in Pakistan have been exceptionally harsh in recent decades, resulting in extraordinary drought conditions and record flooding events. The changing characteristics of extreme events are widely attributed to climate change. However, given this region’s long history of floods and droughts, the role of natural climate variability cannot be rejected without a careful diagnosis. Here, we examine how oceanic and atmospheric variability has contributed to unusual precipitation distributions in West South Asia. Variations in sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific and northern Arabian Sea, and internal atmospheric variability related to the circumglobal teleconnection pattern and the subtropical westerly jet stream, explain more than 70% of monthly summer precipitation variability in the 21st century. Several of these forcings have co-occurred with record strength during episodes of extreme monsoons, which have exacerbated the overall effect. Climate change may have contributed to increased variability and the in-phase co-occurrences of the identified mechanisms, but further research is required to confirm any such connection.

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

If the flood events are likely natural, or even if there is a threat from climate change, the real question is, what can be done about the floods?

There is evidence that Pakistan could do a lot more to alleviate the damage from floods.

What does colonialism have to do with climate change?

Sep 9, 2022

John Letzing
Digital Editor, Strategic Intelligence, World Economic Forum

Minji Sung
Data Visuals and Content Specialist, Strategic Intelligence, World Economic Forum

Flooding in Pakistan has revived interest in the relationship between the colonial past and the present climate crisis. 

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When flooding amplified by climate change began to submerge nearly a third of Pakistan recently, a remnant of the country’s colonial past stood between the deluge and hundreds of thousands of people: the Sukkur Barrage.

It wasn’t certain that the 90-year-old diversion dam, a onetime engineering triumph designed by local British rulers but since cited for safety issues and described as “decrepit”, would endure – making it a potentially fatal burden and a symbol of the corrosive impact of colonialism on much of the world.

The dam held, despite Pakistan’s “monsoon on steroids”. Other outcomes have been less fortunate. A German non-profit’s list of the 10 countries most affected by climate change-related extreme weather events during the first two decades of this century includes eight former colonies (one isn’t technically a country, and remains a US territory sometimes described as a colony).

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The British Raj, which included present-day Pakistan, is far from the only historical example of an exploitative colonial presence.

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One means of addressing the disparity might be through reparations. 

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

Given the barrage has been largely neglected in the 75 years since the fall of the British Raj, it is a testament to the remarkable workmanship of the British imperial age that the barrage held back part of the 2022 floods.

Perhaps if Pakistani politicians and officials stopped stealing all the infrastructure money, and spent a decent amount of cash on flood control measures, they wouldn’t have to rely on historic monuments to mitigate the devastation caused by likely entirely natural flood events. Bonus points if Pakistan makes a bigger effort to address cultural acceptance of child marriages, kidnapping, rape and domestic abuse of women, instead of blaming the problem on climate change.