Investigating networks of corporate influence on government decision-making: The case of Australia’s climate change and energy policies

Megadrought and Collapse

10.1093/oso/9780199329199.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Decision Making ◽

Case Studies ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

15Th Century ◽

Societal Collapse ◽

The Face ◽

Time Periods ◽

Paleoclimate Proxy ◽

Habitat Tracking

This is the first book to treat the major examples of megadrought and societal collapse, from the late Pleistocene end of hunter–gatherer culture and origins of cultivation to the 15th century AD fall of the Khmer Empire capital at Angkor, and ranging from the Near East to South America. Previous enquiries have stressed the possible multiple and internal causes of collapse, such overpopulation, overexploitation of resources, warfare, and poor leadership and decision-making. In contrast, Megadrought and Collapse presents case studies of nine major episodes of societal collapse in which megadrought was the major and independent cause of societal collapse. In each case the most recent paleoclimatic evidence for megadroughts, multiple decades to multiple centuries in duration, is presented alongside the archaeological records for synchronous societal collapse. The megadrought data are derived from paleoclimate proxy sources (lake, marine, and glacial cores; speleothems, or cave stalagmites; and tree-rings) and are explained by researchers directly engaged in their analysis. Researchers directly responsible for them discuss the relevant current archaeological records. Two arguments are developed through these case studies. The first is that societal collapse in different time periods and regions and at levels of social complexity ranging from simple foragers to complex empires would not have occurred without megadrought. The second is that similar responses to megadrought extend across these historical episodes: societal collapse in the face of insurmountable climate change, abandonment of settlements and regions, and habitat tracking to sustainable agricultural landscapes. As we confront megadrought today, and in the likely future, Megadrought and Collapse brings together the latest contributions to our understanding of past societal responses to the crisis on an equally global and diverse scale.

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Navigating capitalist expansion and climate change in pastoral social-ecological systems: impacts, vulnerability and decision-making

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability ◽

10.1016/j.cosust.2021.07.002 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 52 ◽

pp. 68-74

Author(s):

Julio C Postigo

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Decision Making ◽

Ecological Systems ◽

Social Ecological Systems ◽

Social Ecological

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Cultivating Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in Digital Government

Social Science Computer Review ◽

10.1177/0894439320980122 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 089443932098012

Author(s):

Teresa M. Harrison ◽

Luis Felipe Luna-Reyes

Keyword(s):

Artificial Intelligence ◽

Decision Making ◽

Policy Analysis ◽

Public Trust ◽

Governance Structures ◽

Cognitive Tools ◽

Lens Model ◽

Digital Government ◽

Government Decision ◽

Decision Making Processes

While there is growing consensus that the analytical and cognitive tools of artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to transform government in positive ways, it is also clear that AI challenges traditional government decision-making processes and threatens the democratic values within which they are framed. These conditions argue for conservative approaches to AI that focus on cultivating and sustaining public trust. We use the extended Brunswik lens model as a framework to illustrate the distinctions between policy analysis and decision making as we have traditionally understood and practiced them and how they are evolving in the current AI context along with the challenges this poses for the use of trustworthy AI. We offer a set of recommendations for practices, processes, and governance structures in government to provide for trust in AI and suggest lines of research that support them.

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Wise Ancestors, Good Ancestors: Why Mindfulness Matters in the Promotion of Planetary Health

Challenges ◽

10.3390/challe12020026 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 26

Author(s):

Alan C. Logan ◽

Susan H. Berman ◽

Richard B. Scott ◽

Brian M. Berman ◽

Susan L. Prescott

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Decision Making ◽

Health Inequalities ◽

Environmental Degradation ◽

Practical Wisdom ◽

Resource Depletion ◽

Global Burden ◽

Non Communicable Diseases ◽

Planetary Health ◽

Cultural Aspects

The concept of planetary health blurs the artificial lines between health at scales of person, place, and planet. It emphasizes the interconnected grand challenges of our time, and underscores the need for integration of biological, psychological, social, and cultural aspects of health in the modern environment. Here, in our Viewpoint article, we revisit vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk’s contention that wisdom is central to the concept of planetary health. Our perspective is centered on the idea that practical wisdom is associated with decision-making that leads to flourishing—the vitality and fullest potential of individuals, communities, and life on the planet as a whole. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has illustrated the acute consequences of unwise and mindless leadership; yet, wisdom and mindfulness, or lack thereof, is no less consequential to grotesque biodiversity losses, climate change, environmental degradation, resource depletion, the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), health inequalities, and social injustices. Since mindfulness is a teachable asset linked to both wisdom and flourishing, we argue that mindfulness deserves much greater attention in the context of planetary health.

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