scholarly journals Human adaptation to climate change: An introduction to the special issue

Author(s):  
Anne C. Pisor ◽  
James H. Jones
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Pisor ◽  
James Holland Jones

OBJECTIVES. Despite our focus on adaptation and human responses to climate, evolutionary and biological anthropologists (EBAs) are largely absent from conversations about contemporary “climate-change adaptation,” a term popular in other disciplines, the development world, and related policy decisions. EBAs are missing a big opportunity to contribute to impactful, time-sensitive applied work: we have extensive theoretical and empirical knowledge pertinent to conversations about climate-change adaptation and to helping support communities as they cope. This special issue takes a tour of EBA contributions to our understanding of climate-change adaptation, from data on past and contemporary human communities to theoretically informed predictions about how individuals and communities will respond to climate change now and in the future. First, however, we must establish what we mean by “climate change” and “adaptation,” along with other terms commonly used by EBAs; review what EBAs know about adaptation and about human responses to climate change; and identify just a few topics EBAs study that are pertinent to ongoing conversations about climate-change adaptation. In this article, we do just that. CONCLUSION. From our work on energy use to our work on demography, subsistence, social networks, and the salience of climate change to local communities, EBAs have an abundance of data and theoretical insights to help inform responses to contemporary climate change. We need to better reach the climate community and general public with our contributions.


Author(s):  
Mina Nath Paudel

In Nepal, impacts of climate change can be observed in varying levels of climate that are prevalent in diversified topography and vegetation. Broadly speaking, there are impacts of climate change in the Terai lowlands, the mid-hill valleys and mountains, and in the high Himalayas. Nepal is a unique climatic laboratory for studying the impacts of climate change.Sixty-five percent of the Nepalese people engage in agriculture and more than 32% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from it. There are evidences of climate change in frequently changing monsoonal patterns resulting in droughts, floods, landslides, and other unexpected results that impair subsistence agriculture systems in the country. As a result, there is chronic food shortage in remote hills, and in the mountains, and the Terai, the grain bowl of Nepal, has been hit by food shortage. To date, around 3.9 million people have suffered from hunger and poverty. There are reports that major food crops of rice, maize, and wheat production have declined due to changes in monsoon patterns, insurgence of new pests, and decline in soil productivity. Efforts have been initiated to adopt drought and pest tolerant varieties, changes in planting time, and method of plantings as strategies for adaptation to climate change in agriculture. This paper attempts to highlight adaptation as a strategy to address issues of climate changes from the perspective of Nepalese agriculture.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hn.v11i1.7219 Hydro Nepal Special Issue: Conference Proceedings 2012 pp.81-85


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tristan Pearce ◽  
Evelyn Rodríguez ◽  
David Fawcett ◽  
James Ford

We develop and apply a systematic literature review methodology to identify and characterize the ways in which the peer-reviewed literature depicts how climate change adaptation is occurring in Australia. We reviewed the peer-reviewed, English-language literature between January 2005 and January 2018 for examples of documented human adaptation initiatives in Australia. Our results challenge previous assumptions that adaptation actions are not happening in Australia and describes adaptation processes that are underway. For the most part, actions can be described as preliminary or groundwork, with a particular focus on documenting stakeholder perspectives on climate change and attitudes towards adaptation, and modelling or scenario planning in the coastal zone, agriculture, and health sectors. Where concrete adaptations are reported, they are usually in the agricultural sector and are most common in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia’s food basket. The findings of the review advance our understanding of adaptation to climate change as a process and the need to consider different stages in the process when tracking adaptation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lea Berrang-Ford ◽  
A.R. Siders ◽  
Alexandra Lesnikowski ◽  
Alexandra Paige Fischer ◽  
Max Callaghan ◽  
...  

Abstract We present the first systematic, global stocktake of the academic literature on human adaptation. We screen 48,316 documents and identify 1,682 articles that present empirical research documenting human efforts to reduce risk from climate change and associated hazards. Coding and synthesizing this literature highlights that the overall extent of adaptation across global regions and sectors is low. Adaptations are largely local and incremental rather than transformative. Behavioural adjustments by individuals and households are more prevalent than any other type of response, largely motivated by drought and precipitation variability. Local governments and civil society are engaging in risk reduction across all sectors and regions, particularly in response to flooding. Urban technological and infrastructural adaptations to flood risk are prevalent in Europe, while shifts in farming practices dominate reporting from Africa and Asia. Despite increasing evidence of adaptation responses, evidence that these responses are reducing risks (observed and projected) remains limited.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. Åkesson ◽  
Frazer Matthews-Bird ◽  
Madeleine Bitting ◽  
Christie-Jane Fennell ◽  
Warren B. Church ◽  
...  

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. e429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel W. Beebe ◽  
Robert D. Cooper ◽  
Pipi Mottram ◽  
Anthony W. Sweeney

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