Crisis in the Tar Sands: Fossil Capitalism and the Future of the Alberta Hydrocarbon Economy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Tyler McCreary
Keyword(s):  
Capital Investments ◽  
Resource Value ◽  
Tar Sands ◽  
The Future ◽  
Territorial Claims ◽  
Political Responses ◽  
Development Trajectories ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Radical Transformation

Abstract Using a case study of Alberta, Canada, this paper demonstrates how a geographic critique of fossil capitalism helps elucidate the tensions shaping tar sands development. Conflicts over pipelines and Indigenous territorial claims are challenging development trajectories, as tar sands companies need to expand access to markets in order to expand production. While these conflicts are now well recognised, there are also broader dynamics shaping development. States face a rentier’s dilemma, relying on capital investments to realise resource value. Political responses to the emerging climate crisis undercut the profitability of hydrocarbon extraction. The automation of production undermines the industrial compromise between hydrocarbon labour and capital. Ultimately, the crises of fossil capitalism require a radical transformation within or beyond capital relations. To mobilise against the tar sands, organisers must recognise the tensions underpinning it, developing strategies that address ecological concerns and the economic plight of those dispossessed and abandoned by carbon extraction.

scholarly journals Apocalypse now: Australian bushfires and the future of urban settlements

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Norman ◽  
Peter Newman ◽  
Will Steffen
Keyword(s):  
Rural Settlements ◽  
New Model ◽  
The Future ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
Global Nature ◽  
Big Cities ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe apocalyptic Australian bushfires have challenged the way we plan settlements. What is the future for small urban settlements within fire-vulnerable forests and bushland? Could they create a new model for rural settlements with wider lessons for development in big cities? This paper draws together observations of the 2019/20 bushfire size, intensity and destructiveness and links the fires to the global nature of the climate crisis and an earlier case study that accurately predicted the fire impacts in southeast coastal Australia. The findings are set out in two scenarios suggesting that the fires can lead to a new model for climate resilient development that can flow into larger centres with multiple benefits.

What we can learn from the parallels between the COVID-19 and the future climate change crises

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén D. Manzanedo ◽  
Peter Manning
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Preventative Measures ◽  
The Future ◽  
Behavioral Norm ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Global Population

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak pandemic is now a global crisis. It has caused 1.6+ million confirmed cases and 100 000+ deaths at the time of writing and triggered unprecedented preventative measures that have put a substantial portion of the global population under confinement, imposed isolation, and established ‘social distancing’ as a new global behavioral norm. The COVID-19 crisis has affected all aspects of everyday life and work, while also threatening the health of the global economy. This crisis offers also an unprecedented view of what the global climate crisis may look like. In fact, some of the parallels between the COVID-19 crisis and what we expect from the looming global climate emergency are remarkable. Reflecting upon the most challenging aspects of today’s crisis and how they compare with those expected from the climate change emergency may help us better prepare for the future.

Gendered differences in emigration and mobility perspectives among European researchers working abroad

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Scheibelhofer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
The Future ◽  
Highly Skilled

This paper focuses on gendered mobilities of highly skilled researchers working abroad. It is based on an empirical qualitative study that explored the mobility aspirations of Austrian scientists who were working in the United States at the time they were interviewed. Supported by a case study, the paper demonstrates how a qualitative research strategy including graphic drawings sketched by the interviewed persons can help us gain a better understanding of the gendered importance of social relations for the future mobility aspirations of scientists working abroad.

Every Olive Tree in the Garden of Gethsemane

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Babcox
Keyword(s):  
Olive Tree ◽  
Photographic Images ◽  
The Future ◽  
Olive Trees ◽  
The Many ◽  
Radical Transformation

Every Olive Tree in the Garden of Gethsemane is a suite of photographic images of each of the twenty-three olive trees in the garden. Situated at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, the Garden of Gethsemane is known to many as the site where Jesus and his disciples prayed the night before his crucifixion. The oldest trees in the garden date to 1092 and are recognized as some of the oldest olive trees in existence. The older trees are a living and symbolic connection to the distant past, while younger trees serve as a link to the future. The gnarled trunks seem written with the many conflicts that have been waged in an effort to control this most-contested city; a city constantly on the threshold of radical transformation.

scholarly journals Scoping Review of Thermal Comfort Research in Colombia

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Medina ◽  
Carolina M. Rodriguez ◽  
Maria Camila Coronado ◽  
Lina Maria Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
The Future ◽  
Art Research ◽  
Occupant Satisfaction

The analysis of thermal comfort in buildings, energy consumption, and occupant satisfaction is crucial to influencing the architectural design methodologies of the future. However, research in these fields in developing countries is sectorised. Most times, the standards to study and assess thermal comfort such as ASHRAE Standard 55, EN 15251, and ISO 7730 are insufficient and not appropriate for the geographical areas of application. This article presents a scoping review of published work in Colombia, as a representative case study, to highlight the state-of-the-art, research trends, gaps, and potential areas for further development. It examines the amount, origin, extent, and content of research and peer-reviewed documentation over the last decades. The findings allow new insights regarding the preferred models and the evaluation tools that have been used to date and that are recommended to use in the future. It also includes additional information regarding the most and least studied regions, cities, and climates in the country. This work could be of interest for the academic community and policymakers in the areas related to indoor and urban climate management and energy efficiency.

scholarly journals TO SUPPORT IOT COLLABORATIVE EXPRESSIVENESS ON THE SHOP FLOOR

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 3149-3158
Author(s):  
Álvaro Aranda Muñoz ◽  
Yvonne Eriksson ◽  
Yuji Yamamoto ◽  
Ulrika Florin ◽  
Kristian Sandström
Keyword(s):  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Technical Aspects ◽  
Industrial Landscape ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Research ◽  
Empirical Material

AbstractThe availability of new research for IoT support and the human-centric perspective of industry 4.0 opens a gap to support operators in unleashing their creativity so they can provide improvements opportunities with IoT technology. This paper presents a case-study carried out in four Swedish manufacturing companies, where four different workshops were facilitated to support operators in the conceptualization of manufacturing improvements with IoT technologies. The empirical material gathered during these workshops has been analyzed in five different reflective sessions and discussed in light of previous research from industry 4.0, operators, and IoT support. Results indicate that operators can collaboratively create conceptual IoT solutions and that expressiveness in communicating their ideas and needs using IoT technology is more relevant than technical aspects and details of their proposed IoT solutions. This technological expressiveness is identified as a necessary skill to be cultivated on the shop floor and can potentially contribute to making a more effective and socially sustainable industrial landscape in the future.

scholarly journals A new renaissance for creativity in technology and the arts in the context of virtual worlds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Earnshaw
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Diverse Environment ◽  
Research Environments ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaborations ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Ideas

AbstractWhere do new ideas come from and how are they generated? Which of these ideas will be potentially useful immediately, and which will be more ‘blue sky’? For the latter, their significance may not be known for a number of years, perhaps even generations. The progress of computing and digital media is a relevant and useful case study in this respect. Which visions of the future in the early days of computing have stood the test of time, and which have vanished without trace? Can this be used as guide for current and future areas of research and development? If one Internet year is equivalent to seven calendar years, are virtual worlds being utilized as an effective accelerator for these new ideas and their implementation and evaluation? The nature of digital media and its constituent parts such as electronic devices, sensors, images, audio, games, web pages, social media, e-books, and Internet of Things, provides a diverse environment which can be viewed as a testbed for current and future ideas. Individual disciplines utilise virtual worlds in different ways. As collaboration is often involved in such research environments, does the technology make these collaborations effective? Have the limits of disciplinary approaches been reached? The importance of interdisciplinary collaborations for the future is proposed and evaluated. The current enablers for progressing interdisciplinary collaborations are presented. The possibility for a new Renaissance between technology and the arts is discussed.

scholarly journals Assessing the Capacity of Adaptive Policy Pathways to Adapt on Time by Mapping Trigger Values to Their Outcomes

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciano Raso ◽  
Jan Kwakkel ◽  
Jos Timmermans
Keyword(s):  
Monitoring System ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Level Of Confidence ◽  
Adaptive Policy ◽  
Misclassification Errors ◽  
The Future ◽  
Adaptive Action ◽  
The Face

Climate change raises serious concerns for policymakers that want to ensure the success of long-term policies. To guarantee satisfactory decisions in the face of deep uncertainties, adaptive policy pathways might be used. Adaptive policy pathways are designed to take actions according to how the future will actually unfold. In adaptive pathways, a monitoring system collects the evidence required for activating the next adaptive action. This monitoring system is made of signposts and triggers. Signposts are indicators that track the performance of the pathway. When signposts reach pre-specified trigger values, the next action on the pathway is implemented. The effectiveness of the monitoring system is pivotal to the success of adaptive policy pathways, therefore the decision-makers would like to have sufficient confidence about the future capacity to adapt on time. “On time” means activating the next action on a pathway neither so early that it incurs unnecessary costs, nor so late that it incurs avoidable damages. In this paper, we show how mapping the relations between triggers and the probability of misclassification errors inform the level of confidence that a monitoring system for adaptive policy pathways can provide. Specifically, we present the “trigger-probability” mapping and the “trigger-consequences” mappings. The former mapping displays the interplay between trigger values for a given signpost and the level of confidence regarding whether change occurs and adaptation is needed. The latter mapping displays the interplay between trigger values for a given signpost and the consequences of misclassification errors for both adapting the policy or not. In a case study, we illustrate how these mappings can be used to test the effectiveness of a monitoring system, and how they can be integrated into the process of designing an adaptive policy.

scholarly journals Love in the time of Covid-19: a case-study of the complex laws governing weddings

Legal Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Rebecca Probert ◽  
Stephanie Pywell
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Marriage Law ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
General Law ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact

Abstract During 2020, weddings were profoundly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. During periods of lockdown few weddings could take place, and even afterwards restrictions on how they could be celebrated remained. To investigate the impact of such restrictions, we carried out a survey of those whose plans to marry in England and Wales had been affected by Covid-19. The 1,449 responses we received illustrated that the ease and speed with which couples had been able to marry, and sometimes whether they had been able to marry at all, had depended not merely on the national restrictions in place but on their chosen route into marriage. This highlights the complexity and antiquity of marriage law and reinforces the need for reform. The restrictions on weddings taking place also revealed the extent to which couples valued getting married as opposed to having a wedding. Understanding both the social and the legal dimension of weddings is important in informing recommendations as to how the law should be changed in the future, not merely to deal with similar crises but also to ensure that the general law is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document