9. Doing something about it

2021 ◽  
pp. 112-126
Author(s):  
Charles Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Good Condition ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Window Of Opportunity

Several political instruments are in place to tackle effects of climate change and help arrest the global decline of coral reefs. Unfortunately, most are inadequate and anyway are being ignored by many important nations. Rising ocean temperatures are not linear, but act in pulses, so that reefs degrade in steps rather than smoothly. Terminally degraded reefs are now common, and those in very good condition are rare. Several potential solutions have been proposed, none being adequate alone but all being needed to arrest the decline. Arresting the rise in CO2 is a key, long-term requirement, yet levels of this gas are still increasing, as are local requirements such as effective pollution and overfishing controls. Also important is limiting resource extraction, which essentially means limiting human populations. Most scientists consider saving coral reefs now to be a political and sociological problem, not a scientific one. We have lost nearly half the world’s coral reefs and if societies cannot act in what is becoming a diminishing window of opportunity, we will lose most of the rest within another human lifetime.

Sustaining Natural Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-36
Author(s):  
F Stuart Chapin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Disturbance Regime ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Future ◽  
Natural Change

This chapter describes foundations for ecosystem sustainability and ways that society can foster these conditions. The road to “human progress” is littered with environmental mishaps and disasters—largely the result of excessive resource extraction. Over the long term, however, ecosystems can be sustained by maintaining the factors that shape their properties. These include soils that supply plants with nutrients, climate, regional flora and fauna, disturbance regime, and time. This formula provides a framework for understanding why every ecosystem occurs where it does and why and how it might change in the future. When society fails to sustain these foundations, new ecological forces, such as climate change, begin to dominate ecological and societal outcomes. Alternatively, society can shape pathways that maintain these foundations through landscape stewardship. People then interact with nature in ways that protect the foundations of ecosystems and provide society with livelihoods.

scholarly journals Religion and Climate Change: Rain Rituals in Israel, China, and Haiti

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 554
Author(s):  
Gerald Murray ◽  
Haiyan Xing
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Climate Fluctuations ◽  
African Rainfall ◽  
Urban Minorities ◽  
Anthropological Fieldwork ◽  
Religious Systems ◽  
Climate Crisis

Human populations confront three distinct climate challenges: (1) seasonal climate fluctuations, (2) sporadic climate crises, and (3) long term climate change. Religious systems often attribute climate crises to the behavior of invisible spirits. They devise rituals to influence the spirits, and do so under the guidance of religious specialists. They devise two types of problem-solving rituals: anticipatory climate maintenance rituals, to request adequate rainfall in the forthcoming planting season, and climate crisis rituals for drought or inundations. The paper compares rainfall rituals in three different settings: Israel (Judaism), Northwest China (ethnic village religion), and Haiti (Vodou). Each author has done anthropological fieldwork in one or more of these settings. In terms of the guiding conceptual paradigm, the analysis applies three sequentially organized analytic operations common in anthropology: (1) detailed description of individual ethnographic systems; (2) comparison and contrast of specific elements in different systems; and (3) attempts at explanation of causal forces shaping similarities and differences. Judaism has paradoxically maintained obligatory daily prayers for rain in Israel during centuries when most Jews lived as urban minorities in the diaspora, before the founding of Israel in 1948. The Tu of Northwest China maintain separate ethnic temples for rainfall rituals not available in the Buddhist temples that all attend. The slave ancestors of Haiti, who incorporated West African rituals into Vodou, nonetheless excluded African rainfall rituals. We attribute this exclusion to slavery itself; slaves have little interest in performing rituals for the fertility of the fields of their masters. At the end of the paper, we identify the causal factors that propelled each systems into a climate-management trajectory different from that of the others. We conclude by identifying a common causal factor that exerts a power over religion in general and that has specifically influenced the climate responses of all three religious systems.

scholarly journals Climate change and species distribution: possible scenarios for thermophilic ticks in Romania

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Domșa ◽  
Attila D. Sándor ◽  
Andrei D. Mihalca
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tick Species ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Potential Range ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Social Habits ◽  
Species Ecology

Several zoonotic tick-borne diseases are emerging in Europe due to various factors, including changes of the cultural landscape, increasing human populations, variation of social habits and climate change. We have modelled the potential range changes for two thermophilic tick species (Hyalomma marginatum and Rhipicephalus annulatus) by use of MaxEnt® and 15 climatic predictors, taking into account the aptitude for future climatic change in Romania. Current models predict increased temperatures, both in the short term (up to 2050) and in the long term (up to 2070), together with possible changes also of the other climatic factors (e.g. precipitation), and may lead to higher zoonotic risks associated with an expansion of the range of the target species. Three different models were constructed (the present, 2050 and 2070) for four representative concentration pathways (RCPs) of greenhouse gas scenarios: RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6, and RCP8.5. The most dramatic scenario (RCP8.5) produced the highest increase in the probable distribution range for both species. In concordance with similar continental-wide studies, both tick species displayed a shift of distribution towards previously cooler areas of Romania. In most scenarios, this would lead to wider ranges; from 9.7 to 43.1% for H. marginatum, and from 53.4 to 205.2% for R annulatus. Although the developed models demonstrate a good predictive power, the issue of species ecology should also be considered.

scholarly journals Palaeoenvironmental perspectives for sustainable development in East Africa

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 963-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Marchant ◽  
J. Finch ◽  
R. Kinyanjui ◽  
V. Muiruri ◽  
C. Mumbi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Co2 Concentration ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
East African

Abstract. East African ecosystems are shaped by long-term interaction with changing climate, human population, fire and wildlife. There remains today a strong connection between people and ecosystems, a relationship that is being strained by the rapidly developing and growing East African population, and their associated resource needs. Predicted climatic and atmospheric change will further impact on ecosystems culminating in a host of challenges for their management and sustainable development, further compounded by a backdrop of political, land tenure and economic constraints. Given the many direct and indirect benefits that ecosystems provide to surrounding human populations, understanding how they have changed over time and space deserves a special place on the ecosystem management agenda. Such a perspective can only be derived from a palaeoecology, particularly where there is high resolution, both through time and across space. The East African palaeoecological archive is reviewed, in particular to assess how it can meet this need. Although there remain crucial gaps, the number of palaeoecological archives from East Africa growing rapidly, some employing new and novel techniques to trace past ecosystem response to climate change. When compared to the archaeological record it is possible to disentangle human from climate change impacts, and how the former interacts with major environmental changes such as increased use of fire, changing herbivore densities and increased atmospheric CO2 concentration. With this multi-dimensional perspective of environmental change impacts it is imperative that our understanding of past human-ecosystem interactions are considered to impart effective long term management strategies; such an approach will enhance possibilities for a sustainable future for East African ecosystems and maximise the livelihoods of the populations that rely on them.

scholarly journals Tapping the potential of NDCs and LT-LEDS to address fossil fuel production

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Jones ◽  
Miquel Muñoz Cabré ◽  
Georgia Piggot ◽  
Michael Lazarus
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
Fuel Production ◽  
Fuel Supply ◽  
Nationally Determined Contributions ◽  
First Time

The need for a managed transition away from fossil fuel production raises the question of whether and how countries are addressing this need in their national communications to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A previous 2019 analysis of the first round of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and long-term, low-emissions development strategies (LT-LEDS) found that few countries discussed how they would address fossil fuel production as part of their climate mitigation activities. Here, we examine new and updated NDCs and LT-LEDS, finding a growing number of NDCs and LT-LEDS that address fossil fuel production as part of mitigation. For the first time, several countries incorporate policies and/ or pathways for a managed decline of fossil fuel production. In contrast, many others foresee continued or expanded fossil fuel production, with no mention of efforts to prepare for a transition. Opportunities remain for countries to make better use of NDCs and LT-LEDS to align fossil fuel production with the Paris Agreement, including by more comprehensively reflecting on the equity implications of their plans, as well as addressing how countries plan to diversify their economies, ensure a just transition for workers, and cooperate internationally on a managed wind-down of fossil fuel supply. As COP26 approaches, this window of opportunity is still open, but it is rapidly closing.

scholarly journals Fishing, pollution, climate change, and the long-term decline of coral reefs off Havana, Cuba

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Duran ◽  
A A Shantz ◽  
D E Burkepile ◽  
L Collado-Vides ◽  
V M Ferrer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coral Reefs

scholarly journals Resistance to thermal stress in corals without changes in symbiont composition

2011 ◽  
Vol 279 (1731) ◽  
pp. 1100-1107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Bellantuono ◽  
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg ◽  
Mauricio Rodriguez-Lanetty
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Thermal Stress ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Thermal Sensitivity ◽  
Physiological Plasticity ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Genotypic Analysis

Discovering how corals can adjust their thermal sensitivity in the context of global climate change is important in understanding the long-term persistence of coral reefs. In this study, we showed that short-term preconditioning to higher temperatures, 3°C below the experimentally determined bleaching threshold, for a period of 10 days provides thermal tolerance for the symbiosis stability between the scleractinian coral, Acropora millepora and Symbiodinium . Based on genotypic analysis, our results indicate that the acclimatization of this coral species to thermal stress does not come down to simple changes in Symbiodinium and/or the bacterial communities that associate with reef-building corals. This suggests that the physiological plasticity of the host and/or symbiotic components appears to play an important role in responding to ocean warming. The further study of host and symbiont physiology, both of Symbiodinium and prokaryotes, is of paramount importance in the context of global climate change, as mechanisms for rapid holobiont acclimatization will become increasingly important to the long-standing persistence of coral reefs.

scholarly journals Clarifying the concept of climate change refugia for coral reefs

2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javid Kavousi ◽  
Gunnar Keppel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coral Reef ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Coral Species ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Low Exposure

Abstract Refugia can facilitate the persistence of biodiversity under changing environmental conditions, such as anthropogenic climate change, and therefore constitute the best chance of survival for many coral species in the wild. Despite an increasing amount of literature, the concept of coral reef refugia remains poorly defined; so that climate change refugia have been confused with other phenomena, including temporal refuges, pristine habitats and physiological processes such as adaptation and acclimatization. We propose six criteria that determine the capacity of refugia to facilitate species persistence, including long-term buffering, protection from multiple climatic stressors, accessibility, microclimatic heterogeneity, size, and low exposure to non-climate disturbances. Any effective, high-capacity coral reef refugium should be characterized by long-term buffering of environmental conditions (for several decades) and multi-stressor buffering (provision of suitable environmental conditions with respect to climatic change, particularly ocean warming and acidification). Although not always essential, the remaining criteria are important for quantifying the capacity of potential refugia.

scholarly journals Hydroclimate changes in eastern Africa over the past 200,000 years may have influenced early human dispersal

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Schaebitz ◽  
Asfawossen Asrat ◽  
Henry F. Lamb ◽  
Andrew S. Cohen ◽  
Verena Foerster ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Ethiopian Rift ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Climate Fluctuations ◽  
Human Dispersal ◽  
Early Human

AbstractReconstructions of climatic and environmental conditions can contribute to current debates about the factors that influenced early human dispersal within and beyond Africa. Here we analyse a 200,000-year multi-proxy paleoclimate record from Chew Bahir, a tectonic lake basin in the southern Ethiopian rift. Our record reveals two modes of climate change, both associated temporally and regionally with a specific type of human behavior. The first is a long-term trend towards greater aridity between 200,000 and 60,000 years ago, modulated by precession-driven wet-dry cycles. Here, more favorable wetter environmental conditions may have facilitated long-range human expansion into new territory, while less favorable dry periods may have led to spatial constriction and isolation of local human populations. The second mode of climate change observed since 60,000 years ago mimics millennial to centennial-scale Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles and Heinrich events. We hypothesize that human populations may have responded to these shorter climate fluctuations with local dispersal between montane and lowland habitats.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document