Full Citation
Title: Tropical deforestation accelerates local warming and loss of safe outdoor working hours
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2021
ISBN:
ISSN: 2590-3322
DOI: 10.1016/J.ONEEAR.2021.11.016
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: Climate change has increased heat exposure in many parts of the tropics, negatively impacting outdoor worker productivity and health. Although it is known that tropical deforestation is associated with local warming, the extent to which this additional heat exposure affects people across the tropics is unknown. In this modeling study, we combine worker health guidelines with satellite, reanalysis, and population data to investigate how warming associated with recent deforestation (2003–2018) affects outdoor working conditions across low-latitude countries, and how future global climate change will magnify heat exposure for people in deforested areas. We find that the local warming from 15 years of deforestation was associated with losses in safe thermal working conditions for 2.8 million outdoor workers. We also show recent large-scale forest loss was associated with particularly large impacts on populations in locations such as the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Pará. Future global warming and additional forest loss will magnify these impacts.
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Authors: Parsons, Luke A.; Jung, Jihoon; Masuda, Yuta J.; Vargas Zeppetello, Lucas R.; Wolff, Nicholas H.; Kroeger, Timm; Battisti, David S.; Spector, June T.
Periodical (Full): One Earth
Issue:
Volume: 4
Pages: 1730-1740
Data Collections: IPUMS Terra
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Natural Resource Management
Countries: