Adaptation of forests to climate change/ socio-economic considerations

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (38) ◽  
pp. 382013
Author(s):  
Balgis Osman-Elasha
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Considerations

Economic Considerations of Climate Change and Health

Heat Advisory ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan H. Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Full Time ◽  
The Us ◽  
Compensation Claims ◽  
Property Loss ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Economic Considerations ◽  
Climate Change And Health

Economics govern the relationship between what could be done and what is actually done. A fundamental rule of public health posits that it is medically and economically desirable to prevent rather than to treat an illness. Heat leads to more deaths than any weather-related cause. In the July 2006 California heat wave there were over 16,000 excess emergency room visits and 1,100 hospitalizations. In Washington, there were 3.1 heat-related workman’s compensation claims per 100,000 full time employees. In India the economic burden of dengue is over one billion dollars per year. Puerto Rican data suggest it is the most important and costliest vector-borne disease. Property loss and burdens associated with the production of climate change refugees add to the cost of rising sea level. It’s no surprise that careful studies in the US show that those with the highest social vulnerability will be the most seriously affected. Agriculture will suffer: the 2012 megadrought cost around $30 billion. Economists estimate that heat-related increases in crime will cost each US citizens between $20 and $30 per year by the end of the century.

scholarly journals The environmental and economic implications of the climate change and extractive industry nexus in Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ademola Oluborode Jegede
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Carbon Emission ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Extractive Industry ◽  
Extractive Sector ◽  
Economic Considerations

Climate change and extractive industry are two important global streams that are linked to each other in that risks associated with the former can adversely affect different areas of the extractive sector, while the activities of the latter can contribute to climate change. Yet, this nexus is hardly clearly articulated in the context of implications for the environment and economic considerations in Africa. Assessing key literature on the two themes, the paper argues that the link of extractive industry with climate change can have both negative and positive implications for environmental protection and the economy in Africa. The nexus of climate change and the extractive sector can be negative in that unsustainable extractive processes in terms of their outcome of deforestation and energy use are an important source of carbon emission contributing to global warming. The nexus can be positive in that it involves initiatives that can contribute to sustainable extractive sector and thereby reduce carbon emissions underlying climate change. Keywords: Africa, climate change, extractive sector, environmental protection, economic implications. JEL Classification: Q51, Q58, N5

scholarly journals Quality versus Economy, or How to Squeeze Junk into a Shape and Make it Look Good

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-25
Author(s):  
Wilfried Wang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
False Consciousness ◽  
Material Base ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Economic Considerations ◽  
Design And Construction

The steady erosion of the material base of architectural design and construction has been principally caused by economic considerations. As a result, the very moral, intellectual and substantive foundations of architecture have been eroded. This demise parallels developments in other fields of human culture. The cumulative effect of this erosion is the “construction” of thin layers of fiction that consolidate states of false consciousness. Over centuries, architecture has both been coopted and allowed itself to become the servant of collective fictions. With climate change, the next layer of fiction to be superimposed on this cultural veneer is that of “nature”.

scholarly journals From call to action: a roadmap to sustainable conferences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laure Cugniere ◽  
Diogo Veríssimo ◽  
Angeles Branas ◽  
Guy Bigwood
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Planning Cycle ◽  
Event Planning ◽  
Environmental Goals ◽  
Economic Considerations ◽  
The Way

There have been numerous calls across the scientific community, in recent years, for research conferences to embrace sustainability. With growing public consciousness and the challenging context posed by climate change both economically, socially and for biodiversity, researchers should be leading the path towards sustainable event planning. In this article, we propose key performances indicators that not only prioritize environmental goals, but also integrate socio-economic considerations at the roots of the planning cycle. We further discuss the added risks and remaining barriers, at the host organisation and destination levels, to plan a sustainable event. By changing the way that research conferences are organized, the scientific community can incorporate their values, knowledge and passion to strengthen existing standards and frameworks. We hope that, as event sustainability becomes more salient and institutions more prone to sharing lessons learned, sustainable events become the norm for all research conferences and meetings.

Urban Climate-Proof Finance for Disaster-Resilient Infrastructure

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-137
Author(s):  
Salil K. Sen ◽  
Viput Ongsakul
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Viable Systems ◽  
Systems Model ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Resilient Infrastructure ◽  
Economic Considerations

Issues on competitiveness and sustainability frame the configuration of urbanization in Asia Pacific. The unpredictability and intermittency of extreme climate and weather events exacerbate the economic, societal and environmental sustainability of urban habitats. This exigency configures this article on the need to review the climate-proof finance for disaster-resilient infrastructure. Climate-change-triggered migration is rapidly growing, particularly in Asia. This article uses the complexity and sustainability viable systems model (VSM) to gauge the multiplicity of parameters on vulnerability of disaster-prone infrastructure. The assurance on sustainability while maintaining competitiveness is corroborated with the tenets of VSM utilizing the top-down–bottom-up alignment of disaster-proof financing. Outcomes of this article articulate the equilibrium between competitiveness and sustainability, as economic considerations outweigh the need for disaster-proof financing of infrastructure.

Heat Advisory

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan H. Lockwood, M.D.
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Stakeholder Involvement ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Public Health Perspective ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Tackle Climate Change ◽  
Broad Cross Section ◽  
Broad Public Health ◽  
Economic Considerations

In Heat Advisory I examine climate change from a broad public health perspective, where health includes mental and social well-being in addition to climate-related changes in diseases. I begin from baselines defined by worldwide selected causes of death and risk factors for disease as seen partially through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to discuss how climate change will affect health. I draw primarily on a broad cross-section of the peer-reviewed literature and governmental reports. In addition to heat-related illnesses, I discuss infectious diseases including dengue, malaria, and Zika; effects on agriculture and the potential for famine; rising sea level, severe weather, and environmental refugees; anticipated effects of climate change on air quality with a focus on ozone and asthma; the influence of climate on violence, conflict, and societal disruption; and, finally economic considerations related to health. Following fundamental public health and medical practices, I discuss, primary prevention in terms of mitigation of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and secondary prevention, by adapting to climate change. Health professionals have a professional responsibility to affect political will and foster the extensive stakeholder involvement required to tackle climate change, the “greatest public health opportunity” of this century.

Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 723-729
Author(s):  
Roslyn Gleadow ◽  
Jim Hanan ◽  
Alan Dorin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Food Security ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Native Habitat ◽  
Insect Pollinators ◽  
Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

Modelling ecosystem adaptation and dangerous rates of global warming

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Millington ◽  
Peter M. Cox ◽  
Jonathan R. Moore ◽  
Gabriel Yvon-Durocher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Diffusion Rate ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Genetic Evolution ◽  
Rates Of Change ◽  
Rapid Climate Change ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
Intraspecies Competition ◽  
High Trait

Abstract We are in a period of relatively rapid climate change. This poses challenges for individual species and threatens the ecosystem services that humanity relies upon. Temperature is a key stressor. In a warming climate, individual organisms may be able to shift their thermal optima through phenotypic plasticity. However, such plasticity is unlikely to be sufficient over the coming centuries. Resilience to warming will also depend on how fast the distribution of traits that define a species can adapt through other methods, in particular through redistribution of the abundance of variants within the population and through genetic evolution. In this paper, we use a simple theoretical ‘trait diffusion’ model to explore how the resilience of a given species to climate change depends on the initial trait diversity (biodiversity), the trait diffusion rate (mutation rate), and the lifetime of the organism. We estimate theoretical dangerous rates of continuous global warming that would exceed the ability of a species to adapt through trait diffusion, and therefore lead to a collapse in the overall productivity of the species. As the rate of adaptation through intraspecies competition and genetic evolution decreases with species lifetime, we find critical rates of change that also depend fundamentally on lifetime. Dangerous rates of warming vary from 1°C per lifetime (at low trait diffusion rate) to 8°C per lifetime (at high trait diffusion rate). We conclude that rapid climate change is liable to favour short-lived organisms (e.g. microbes) rather than longer-lived organisms (e.g. trees).

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