Effects of climate change and their indelible impact on social work profession in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Climate change is one of the biggest threats facing global development with the developing countries being more vulnerable due to their low adaptive capacities. Some of the effects of global climate change are evident with increased incidences of droughts, floods, hailstorms, more hot days and heat waves affecting mostly rural inhabitants. These effects have impoverished millions of people around the globe. Environmental degradation has presented a myriad of challenges to the human race and the most heinous one has been climate change. Climate change has of late presented insurmountable challenges such as poverty and food insecurity to the lives of many people in Zimbabwe particularly the rural folks. Though a lot has been written about climate change globally and in the Zimbabwean context, the objective of this paper is to reveal how it has directly and indirectly impacted on the social work profession. It has presented overwhelming pressure on the social work profession and the limited resources in most third world countries. Social workers are found engaging in developmental, relief and disaster management work in response to the effects of climate change. As a result social workers in Zimbabwe should be sensitized on the devastating impact of climate change and the stress it imposes on their profession and clients so that they are able to develop adaptive measures and promote resilience among communities. Green social work should be adopted by social work training institutions so that students are well prepared to deal with the effects of global warming.

Keywords: climate change, global warming, social work, environmental degradation, green social work