Planetary Disasters: Wildness and the Perennial Struggle for Control

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Paul Wapner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Ongoing Relationship

This Forum article explains how many of today’s calamities—specifically, climate change, biodiversity loss, and COVID-19—are the result of humanity’s ongoing relationship to wildness. For millennia, humans have pushed unpredictability and discomfort out of their immediate surroundings in search of security and convenience. They have been remarkably successful. Today, many people, but especially the affluent, rarely encounter wild animals, suffer exposure to the elements, or even have to tolerate the capriciousness of other people. But wildness is akin to energy: it cannot be created or destroyed. As people craft havens of stability, they do not eradicate wildness but shove it into the lives of the less fortunate and onto the global level. These days, marginalized people face profound vulnerability, and key biophysical and social systems on Earth are spiraling out of control. This article demonstrates the dynamics of global wildness. It shows how trying to banish wildness from one’s surroundings leads directly to climate change, mass extinction, and COVID-19. It ends by advancing a strategy of rewilding as a way to address these challenges. It suggests that opening to greater uncertainty and a modicum of discomfort—both individually and collectively—can relieve some of the pressure generating global wildness and offer an ethically appropriate orientation for this moment of planetary intensification.

scholarly journals Animals in Our Midst: An Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Jozef Keulartz ◽  
Bernice Bovenkerk
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Habitat Loss ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Landscape Degradation ◽  
The World ◽  
Habitat Loss And Fragmentation

AbstractIn this introduction we describe how the world has changed for animals in the Anthropocene—the current age, in which human activities have influenced the planet on a scale never seen before. In this era, we find many different types of animals in our midst: some—in particular livestock—are both victims of and unwittingly complicit in causing the Anthropocene. Others are forced to respond to new environmental conditions. Think of animals that due to climate change can no longer survive in their native habitats or wild animals that in response to habitat loss and fragmentation are forced to live in urban areas. Some animals are being domesticated or in contrast de-domesticated, and yet others are going extinct or in contrast are being resurrected. These changing conditions have led to new tensions between humans and other animals. How can we shape our relationships with all these different animals in a rapidly changing world in such a way that both animal welfare and species diversity are not further affected? We describe how animal ethics is changing in these trying times and illustrate the impacts of Anthropocene conditions on animals by zooming in on one country where many problems, such as biodiversity loss and landscape degradation, converge, the Netherlands. We conclude by giving an overview of the different chapters in this volume, which are organised into five parts: animal agents, domesticated animals, urban animals, wild animals and animal artefacts.

scholarly journals Twenty-Three Years of Land-Use Changes Induced Considerable Threats to the Main Wetlands of Sardinia and Sicily (Italy) along the Mediterranean Bird Flyways

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Alessandro Ferrarini ◽  
Marco Gustin ◽  
Claudio Celada
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Habitat Degradation ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Natura 2000 Network ◽  
Stopover Sites ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Agricultural Areas

Biodiversity loss has multiple causes, but habitat degradation through land-use change is the predominant driver. We investigated the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network in preserving the main wetlands of the two largest islands of the Mediterranean region, whose conservation is critical for many avian species at European and global level, in a 23-year period (1990–2012). In Sardinia, the surroundings of 22 wetlands were affected by an increase in artificial areas (+64 ha/year) and decrease in agricultural (−54 ha/year) and natural (−17 ha/year) ones. In Sicily, the surroundings of 16 wetlands were impacted by an increase in agricultural areas (+50 ha/year) and decrease in natural and semi-natural ones (−62 ha/year). Results show that the Natura 2000 policies were effective in preserving wetlands (no shrinkages detected in both regions), but their surroundings experienced intense processes of degradation and artificialization in all the sub-periods considered (1990–2000, 2000–2006, 2006–2012), whose effects are now threatening waterbirds and wetland integrity. The enlargement of the existing Natura 2000 sites, the creation of new ones and the speedup of the application of the rules of the Habitats and Birds Directives seem necessary to counteract the rapid land-use changes around these important stopover sites.

scholarly journals Situating Indigenous Resilience: Climate Change and Tayal’s “Millet Ark” Action in Taiwan

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10676
Author(s):  
Yih-Ren Lin ◽  
Pagung Tomi ◽  
Hsinya Huang ◽  
Chia-Hua Lin ◽  
Ysanne Chen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Global Environmental

Whereas indigenous people are on the frontlines of global environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and numerous other forms of critical planetary deterioration, the indigenous experiences, responses, and cultural practices have been underestimated in the mainstream frameworks of environmental studies. This paper aims to articulate a meaningful response to recent calls to indigenous and local knowledge on food as a source of resilience in the face of global climate change. By retrieving the values and practices indigenous people of Taiwan, specifically Tayal women, associate with human and non-human ecologies, our collaborative work with the indigenous community explores indigenous resilience and its relevance to indigenous cultural knowledge and global environmental concerns. Pivoting on the “Millet Ark” action, a Tayal conservation initiative of the bio-cultural diversity of millets, this study revolves around issues of how Tayal communities adapt to the climate change, how to reclaim their voice, heritage, knowledge, place, and land through food, and how to narrate indigenous “counter-stories” of resilience and sustainability. The cultural narrative of “Millet Ark” investigates indigenous way of preserving millet bio-cultural diversity and restoring the land and community heritage, inquiring into how Tayal people are adaptive and resilient to change and therefore sustainable through the cultural and social life of millets.

Climate Change, Public Insecurity and Law: Conflicts Over Water Resources in the Brazilian Context

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Fernanda Dalla Libera Damacena
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Public Security ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Environmental Conflicts ◽  
State Initiative ◽  
Systemic Risks ◽  
Culture Of Peace ◽  
Triggering Factor

The article examines to what extent the adverse effects of climate change can be considered triggering factors of public insecurity. Against this background, it explores the growing environmental conflicts involving water resources in Brazil, including the Amazon region. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the paper is structured around three topics. The first one outlines how the concept of public security has evolved to the present state, in which climate change is taken into account. Next, climate change is discussed as a factor that magnifies vulnerabilities, an argument supported by a discussion of historical events. The third topic highlights the main threats, vulnerabilities and conflicts involving water resources in Brazil, taking a scientific view of systemic risks and precaution. Finally, we propose rethinking the concept of public security in Brazil from a perspective of parameters involving regulations, principles and state initiative. The article suggests that the immediate and future effects of climate change do have a profound impact on social systems and on the environment, and may be a triggering factor of public insecurity. If institutions and governments do not address existing effects, and invest in adaptations to meet future scientific forecasts on climate change, social stability and the development of a culture of peace will be less likely in Brazil. A fundamental step in this process is the reformulation of the conventional concept of public security in the Brazilian legislation, in order to expressly incorporate the variable of climate security among its stated objectives. In addition, we point out a set of actions and principles with the potentital to promote not only adaptation and resilience, but also contribute to building peace. In terms of methodology, the study is descriptive, exploratory, legislative, bibliographical and documentary.

scholarly journals Four Decades of Andean Timberline Migration and Implications for Biodiversity Loss with Climate Change

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. e74496 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Lutz ◽  
Rebecca L. Powell ◽  
Miles R. Silman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Biodiversity Loss

scholarly journals Causes and Reasons of Insect Decline and the Way Forward

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Showket A. Dar ◽  
Mohmmad Javed Ansari ◽  
Yahya Al Naggar ◽  
Shafia Hassan ◽  
Syed Nighat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Mass Trapping ◽  
Native Bees ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Colony Collapse ◽  
Management Techniques ◽  
Insect Decline

There are lot of reasons and causes of insect decline. The main causes of insect decline is attributed to habitat destruction, land use changes, deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanization, pollution, climate change, introduction of invasive insect species, application of pesticides, mass trapping of insects using pheromones and light traps, pathological problems on various insects, and introduction of exotic honey bees in new areas that compete with the native bees for resource portioning and other management techniques for pest management, and even not leaving any pest residue for predators and parasitoids for their survival. The use of chemical insecticides against target or non-target organisms is major cause for insect decline. The diseases and decline of the important pollinators is still a mistry for colony collapse disorder. To overcome the cause of insect decline, various conservation techniques to be adopted and augmentation of artificial nesting and feeding structures, use of green pesticides, maintaining the proper pest defender ratio (P:D), policies and reaching to political audience at global level and other factors already discussed in the chapter may be helpful for mitigating the insect decline and especially for the pollinators, a key insect for life.

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