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How Demographic Change and Migration Influence Community-Level Adaptation to Climate Change: Examples from Rural Eastern Ontario and Nunavut, Canada

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Disentangling Migration and Climate Change

Abstract

Vulnerability and the capacity to adapt to climatic variability and change are shaped by dynamic interactions between social, economic, cultural, political and institutional processes operating at a variety of scales. Demographic processes and trends are also closely linked to adaptive capacity, as both an influence on vulnerability and as an outcome of adaptation. This chapter outlines the linkages between climate, vulnerability, adaptation and demographic processes, with particular attention to how these play out at the community level. Using case studies from communities in rural eastern Ontario and Nunavut, Canada, this chapter illustrates how various demographic trends affect local level adaptive capacity. Residents of these communities are already engaged in adaptation to changing climatic conditions, but are experiencing very different trends in fertility and migration. Understanding the connections between demographic processes and adaptation facilitates greater understanding of climate change vulnerability more generally, and provides important considerations for policies and programs targeted at building adaptive communities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Maple syrup is produced commercially across the region from naturally occurring sources by collecting the sap from sugar maples, Acer saccharum. The sap is collected during spring conditions when overnight low temperatures are below 0 °C and daytime temperatures are above zero. The timing of the sap collection period in eastern Ontario now occurs approximately 10–14 days earlier than it did 50 years ago (McLeman 2008).

  2. 2.

    The ground must be frozen solid to support the weight of the heavy equipment that is used.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5, Canada

    Robert McLeman

  2. Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, H3A 0B9, Canada

    James Ford

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  1. Robert McLeman
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  2. James Ford
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Correspondence to Robert McLeman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD), Bielefeld University, Universitätsstrasse 25, Bielefeld, 33615, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Thomas Faist

  2. , Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstrasse 25, Bielefeld, 33615, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Jeanette Schade

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McLeman, R., Ford, J. (2013). How Demographic Change and Migration Influence Community-Level Adaptation to Climate Change: Examples from Rural Eastern Ontario and Nunavut, Canada. In: Faist, T., Schade, J. (eds) Disentangling Migration and Climate Change. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6208-4_3

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