Keep Calm and Carry On: Climate-ready Crops and the Genetic Codification of Climate Myopia

2020 ◽  
pp. 016224392097409
Author(s):  
Diego Silva
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Stress ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Plant Responses ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Natural Reaction ◽  
Climate Events ◽  
Adaptation And Mitigation

The diverse ways that extreme climate events are expressed at the local level have represented a challenge for the development of transgenic “climate-ready” (resilient to environmental stress) seeds. Based on the Argentinean “HB4” technology, this paper analyzes how ignorance and a sunflower gene are mobilized to overcome this difficulty in soy and wheat. HB4 seeds can be understood as myopic: the technology does not obstruct the capacity of soy and wheat plants to sense droughts, but it prevents their natural reaction, which would be to put a halt on crop production and redirect their energy toward survival. Plants thus become “short-sighted” to droughts. Informed by ignorance studies and by the immunological concept of tolerance, this paper analyzes HB4 myopia as a type of nonhuman ignorance: an asset that allows plant breeders to achieve varied plant responses to droughts and to encode their capitalist values (that prioritize production over survival) into plants’ DNA. Moreover, ignorance becomes a molecular commodity that can be selected, transferred between organisms, and traded in markets. HB4’s prioritization of production resonates with other technologies of climate adaptation and mitigation that do not promote structural changes to the capitalist system.

scholarly journals Understanding Private-Sector Engagement in Sustainable Urban Development and Delivering the Climate Agenda in Northwestern Europe—A Case Study of London and Copenhagen

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roudaina Alkhani
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
City Size ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Urban Project ◽  
Adaptation And Mitigation

While greenhouse gas emissions in Europe have reduced in recent years, there is still a considerable gap between the current situation and where we need be to limit global warming and adapt to climate change, particularly in cities. The Sustainable Development Goals and the Climate Agenda have placed great emphasis on collaborative frameworks and the private sector’s crucial contribution to closing the climate gap in terms of investment and leadership in innovation. However, there has not been a concise follow-up and assessment of the private sector’s practical involvement and contribution, whether policy and legislative frameworks and planning approaches are suitable to enable this involvement, and who would lead in delivering the climate agenda locally. The present article addresses this gap reporting on case observations regarding the delivery of climate interest and sustainability through urban development in London and Copenhagen—two European cities of different sizes and varying government approaches. Thereby, the article assesses patterns of private-sector involvement and governance around climate adaptation and mitigation and locates gaps around its involvement in delivering the climate agenda. The analysis clarifies overarching differences in governance and frameworks for the involvement of the private sector between the two cities, attributing this on the local level partly to city size and scale, but to a great extent to ‘city leadership’ in the built environment and sustainable urban innovation in general. A crucial finding highlights the importance that cities further establish platforms for collaborative learning, specifically around pilot urban projects, thereby stimulating voluntary private engagement. Another key finding is in the potential effectiveness of strategies by public agencies such as city governments to incentivise private actors and simultaneously monitor sustainability effects both broadly at the city level, and specifically at urban project level using ecological, circular and life-cycle approaches. Further implications of the analysis point to the importance of developing a more nuanced approach to understanding the different roles fulfilled by the ‘private sector’ in the built environment and the necessity of creating an information base addressing the life cycle of development projects and business processes and comparing their impacts. The situation also necessitates considering efforts, impacts, climate finances and data on the broad city scale. The findings of this article can inspire further research, benefit further action in these cities and inform international efforts about climate gaps related to climate adaptation and mitigation.

scholarly journals Agroforestry to Achieve Global Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Targets: Are South Asian Countries Sufficiently Prepared?

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 303
Author(s):  
Shalini Dhyani ◽  
Indu K Murthy ◽  
Rakesh Kadaverugu ◽  
Rajarshi Dasgupta ◽  
Manoj Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Implementation Phase ◽  
Adaptation And Mitigation

Traditional agroforestry systems across South Asia have historically supported millions of smallholding farmers. Since, 2007 agroforestry has received attention in global climate discussions for its carbon sink potential. Agroforestry plays a defining role in offsetting greenhouse gases, providing sustainable livelihoods, localizing Sustainable Development Goals and achieving biodiversity targets. The review explores evidence of agroforestry systems for human well-being along with its climate adaptation and mitigation potential for South Asia. In particular, we explore key enabling and constraining conditions for mainstreaming agroforestry systems to use them to fulfill global climate mitigation targets. Nationally determined contributions submitted by South Asian countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change acknowledge agroforestry systems. In 2016, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s Resolution on Agroforestry brought consensus on developing national agroforestry policies by all regional countries and became a strong enabling condition to ensure effectiveness of using agroforestry for climate targets. Lack of uniform methodologies for creation of databases to monitor tree and soil carbon stocks was found to be a key limitation for the purpose. Water scarcity, lack of interactive governance, rights of farmers and ownership issues along with insufficient financial support to rural farmers for agroforestry were other constraining conditions that should be appropriately addressed by the regional countries to develop their preparedness for achieving national climate ambitions. Our review indicates the need to shift from planning to the implementation phase following strong examples shared from India and Nepal, including carbon neutrality scenarios, incentives and sustainable local livelihood to enhance preparedness.

scholarly journals Multi-Risk Climate Mapping for the Adaptation of the Venice Metropolitan Area

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1334
Author(s):  
Denis Maragno ◽  
Carlo Federico dall’Omo ◽  
Gianfranco Pozzer ◽  
Francesco Musco
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Spatial Knowledge ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Adaptation Planning ◽  
Spatial Decision Support System ◽  
Metropolitan City ◽  
Climate Adaptation Planning

Climate change risk reduction requires cities to undertake urgent decisions. One of the principal obstacles that hinders effective decision making is insufficient spatial knowledge frameworks. Cities climate adaptation planning must become strategic to rethink and transform urban fabrics holistically. Contemporary urban planning should merge future threats with older and unsolved criticalities, like social inequities, urban conflicts and “drosscapes”. Retrofitting planning processes and redefining urban objectives requires the development of innovative spatial information frameworks. This paper proposes a combination of approaches to overcome knowledge production limits and to support climate adaptation planning. The research was undertaken in collaboration with the Metropolitan City of Venice and the Municipality of Venice, and required the production of a multi-risk climate atlas to support their future spatial planning efforts. The developed tool is a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), which aids adaptation actions and the coordination of strategies. The model recognises and assesses two climate impacts: Urban Heat Island and Flooding, representing the Metropolitan City of Venice (CMVE) as a case study in complexity. The model is composed from multiple assessment methodologies and maps both vulnerability and risk. The atlas links the morphological and functional conditions of urban fabrics and land use that triggers climate impacts. The atlas takes the exposure assessment of urban assets into account, using this parameter to describe local economies and social services, and map the uneven distribution of impacts. The resulting tool is therefore a replicable and scalable mapping assessment able to mediate between metropolitan and local level planning systems.

scholarly journals Using REDD+ Policy to Facilitate Climate Adaptation at the Local Level: Synergies and Challenges in Vietnam

Forests ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela McElwee ◽  
Van Thi Nguyen ◽  
Dung Nguyen ◽  
Nghi Tran ◽  
Hue Le ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Local Level

scholarly journals Paesaggi d’acqua in territori fragili

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Maria Biddau ◽  
Gianfranco Sanna ◽  
Silvia Serreli
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Landscape Design ◽  
Environmental Disasters ◽  
Weather And Climate ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Climate Events

Environmental disasters and the high degree of exposure of cities to these risks are well known. What is evident is the close relationship between these disasters and urban transformations generated by sectoral approaches to landscape design that have made territories more vulnerable to extreme weather and climate events. With the aim of creating an open and sustainable spatial plan, the case study outlined in this article is intended as an approach to climate adaptation, even though in Sardinia the connection between climate change and flood risk has not been studied in depth and the evidence of this connection has not yet emerged.

scholarly journals Governing Transactions and Interdependences between Linked Value Chains in a Circular Economy: The Case of Wastewater Reuse in Braunschweig (Germany)

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Maaß ◽  
Philipp Grundmann
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Wastewater Reuse ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Governance Structures ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
Agricultural Wastewater

Reusing wastewater in agriculture has attracted increasing attention as a strategy to support the transition towards the circular economy in the water and agriculture sector. As a consequence, there is great interest in solutions for governing the transactions and interdependences between the associated value chains. This paper explores the institutions and governance structures for coordinating transactions and interdependences between actors in linked value chains of wastewater treatment and crop production. It aims to analyze how transactions and interdependences shape the governance structures for reusing wastewater at the local level. A transaction costs analysis based on data from semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire is applied to the agricultural wastewater reuse scheme of the Wastewater Association Braunschweig (Germany). The results show that different governance structures are needed to match with the different properties and requirements of the transactions and activities between linked value chains of wastewater treatment and crop production. Interdependences resulting from transactions between wastewater providers and farmers increase the need for hybrid and hierarchical elements in the governance structures for wastewater reuse. The authors conclude that aligning governance structures with transactions and interdependences is key to efficiently governing transactions and interdependences between linked value chains in a circular economy.

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