The Politics of Climate Change Is More Than the Politics of Capitalism

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 25-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dipesh Chakrabarty
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Dominant Species ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Common ◽  
Developed World

Discussion of global climate change is shaped by the intellectual categories developed to address capitalism and globalization. Yet climate change is only one manifestation of humanity’s varied and accelerating impact on the Earth System. The common predicament that may be anticipated in the Anthropocene raises difficult questions of distributive justice – between rich and poor, developed and developing countries, the living and the yet unborn, and even the human and the non-human – and may pose a challenge to the categories on which our traditions of political thought are based. Awareness of the Anthropocene encourages us to think of humans on different scales and in different contexts – as parts of a global capitalist system and as members of a now-dominant species – although the debate is, for now, still structured by the experiences and concepts of the developed world.

scholarly journals Politics of Strata

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 211-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Clark
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Earth Science ◽  
Power Source ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
The Third ◽  
Earth System Governance ◽  
The Earth

Modern western political thought revolves around globality, focusing on the partitioning and the connecting up of the earth’s surface. But climate change and the Anthropocene thesis raise pressing questions about human interchange with the geological and temporal depths of the earth. Drawing on contemporary earth science and the geophilosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, this article explores how geological strata are emerging as provocations for political issue formation. The first section reviews the emergence – and eventual turn away from – concern with ‘revolutions of the earth’ during the 18th- and 19th-century discovery of ‘geohistory’. The second section looks at the subterranean world both as an object of ‘downward’ looking territorial imperatives and as the ultimate power source of all socio-political life. The third section weighs up the prospects of ‘earth system governance’. The paper concludes with some general thoughts about the possibilities of ‘negotiating strata’ in more generative and judicious ways.

Will human impacts on Alpine geomorphic processes scale up to the depositional record?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Lane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Sediment Flux ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Human Response ◽  
Sediment Sources ◽  
Geomorphic Processes

<p>The Anthropocene is widely described as producing a rupture in the global stratigraphic signature, attributable to human activities. There is no doubt that human activities have introduced new products into the stratigraphic record; and that humans are modifying the geomorphic processes that produce the sediment which then becomes incorporated into that record. The stratigraphic literature is replete with simplistic generalisations of how sediment flux to the continental shelf is changing, such as increasing due to soil erosion or decreasing due to hydropower related sediment flux disconnection. Here we argue that human impacts on geomorphic processes in the Anthropocene are unlikely to be stationary for long enough for them to be seen consistently across the depositional record of many different environments. Illustrating this for a major inner-Alpine drainage basin, the Swiss Rhône, we show that human-driven global climate-change is indeed dramatically altering the geomorphic process regimes of Alpine environments. However, there are three broad reasons why this is unlikely to be seen in the future geological record. First, the geomorphic response that drives increased sediment delivery is transient because of the significant regime changes associated with global climate change impacts. Second, such increases are countered by other human impacts, notably those on sediment flux, which are tending to reduce the connectivity of sediment sources to downstream sediment sinks. Third, human impacts on both sediment sources and connectivity are nonstationary, driven by both exogenous factors (here illustrated by the worldwide economic shock of 2008) and endogenous ones, notably human response to the perceived problems caused by both sediment starvation and sediment over-supply. In geomorphic terms, then, there is a difference between the pervasive nature of Earth system shifts that we see in the pre-Holocene depositional record and the more ephemeral impacts of the Earth system – human coupling associated with the Anthropocene. The extent to which this is the case is likely to vary geographically and temporally as a function of the degree and nature of human impacts on geomorphic processes. Thus, the primary challenge for future prediction will be as much the prediction of the complex and reflexive nature of human response as it will be geomorphic processes themselves.</p>

Education on Global Climate and Environmental Change in University of China

2013 ◽  
Vol 838-841 ◽  
pp. 3195-3198
Author(s):  
Jian Cheng Kang ◽  
Xiaochen Su
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Ecological Civilization ◽  
Environment Change ◽  
Climate And Environmental Change ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Normal University

Global Climate and Environmental Change is an international hot field. To enhance native awareness on climate change is one mission of "State Policy and Action on Climate Change 2009 in China". As an implement, a course on Global Climate and Environmental Change has been opened in Shanghai Normal University since 2005. The course includes three fields. In the first field, it is introduced on which problems and harms have been caused from Global Climate and Environmental Changes according to UNEP Year Books 2003~2013. In the second field, to introduce the Earth System and Climate-Environment Change. In the third part, the hot climate-environmental issues are analyzed and discussed. By joining this course, the students have understanding earth system science and global change. It helped students to set up the view of ecological civilization of the harmonious development between human and nature, inspire students responsibility to protect the earth. During past 8 year, there were 4 to 5 classes opening for different levels in Shanghai Normal University for each year, more than 1000 students joined the study in the course.

1991 Soichiro Honda Lecture: Energy, Efficiency, and the Environment: Three Big Es of Transportation

1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. Springer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Consumer Acceptance ◽  
Common Goal ◽  
Governmental Regulation ◽  
Personal Mobility ◽  
The Common

The three big Es of transportation are Energy, Efficiency, and the Environment. As the clouds of global climate change and the desire to rely less on Mid-East crude builds, how do manufacturers and refiners reconcile the needs of consumer acceptance and governmental regulation? How can policies and practices be united so that everyone involved works to the common goal of personal mobility? This lecture traces recent events that have resulted in paradox on top of paradox. As industry continues to react to the latest round of air pollution regulations, where are we headed as far as new CAFE limits and the potential for additional longer term controls related to the greenhouse effect? These are issues that will affect those in the equipment and oil industry, as well as the consumer, in the days ahead.

scholarly journals Global Climate Change Coverage in Malaysia Mainstream Newspapers

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 104-121
Author(s):  
Rahmat Bin Ghazali ◽  
Nor Jijidiana Binti Azmi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Climate Change Issue ◽  
Public Action ◽  
The Earth

Global Climate Change can affect human life and activities. The rising amount of natural disasters, the warming of the Earth and the melting of the icebergs are some examples of its effects. This study is conducted to analyze the coverage of global climate change issue in four Malaysia mainstream newspapers. The data for this study are collected from January 2008 to December 2010. A content analysis is conducted to identify the frequency of the articles related with global climate change, the articles length, the trend of newspaper coverage and the frames of the articles. The findings for this study will provide an understanding about the ways Malaysia mainstream newspapers provide the coverage about Global Climate Change and the audience reactions towards the issue. The findings also suggested that the coverage of global climate change is influenced by the events pertaining the issue. This can be observed from the trend of newspaper coverage. Finally, the result on the frames indicates that the most published topic in global climate change issue is public action to reduce the effects of global climate change and reduce the emissions of the greenhouse gas.

scholarly journals Global Warming – Truth and Myths

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Anthropogenic Effects ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Degree Of Certainty

Climate change is inevitable. Contributing to this change are (1) natural effects, which include the Earth in an interglacial period and (2) various other effects such as anthropogenic effects, which include the release of non-indigenous gases into the atmospheres. However, the exact contribution of each effect to global climate change is not known with any degree of certainty and the blame can only be partially laid on the existence of the interglacial period and somewhat less on other effects. It is not the purpose of this paper to debunk the idea of climate change but to recognize other factors that can play a role in the changing climate.

scholarly journals Discussões sobre as mudanças climáticas globais: os alarmistas, os céticos e os modelos de previsão do clima

GeoTextos ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Ronnieplex De Moura Cruz ◽  
Letícia Andrade da Silva ◽  
Elisiene De Macêdo Pereira ◽  
Rebecca Luna Lucena
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
Forecast Models

Este ensaio traz à tona questões intrigantes e dúvidas que permeiam as pesquisas voltadas às mudanças climáticas globais, enfatizando as discordâncias existentes entre as distintas correntes de cientistas e os prognósticos elaborados pelos modelos de previsão do clima. Para tanto, tomou-se por base as teorias propagadas por alarmistas e céticos, bem como o prognóstico do Painel Intergovernamental sobre as Mudanças Climáticas (IPCC) de 2007. O ensaio se baseou na análise de livros, relatórios técnicos e artigos científicos, além da interpretação dos gráficos contidos nos mesmos. Os resultados mostraram que sempre houve variação na temperatura da atmosfera, mesmo antes do surgimento do homem e em níveis bem mais elevados do que os atuais. Contudo, alarmistas e céticos concordam que a Terra passou por um aquecimento de cerca de 0,6ºC no século XX, havendo divergência no que diz respeito às causas desse aquecimento, suas consequências, e se ele ainda está ocorrendo. Entretanto, um aspecto que põe em xeque a confiabilidade de ambas as correntes diz respeito ao problema da previsão, pois são muitos os fatores e elementos envolvidos na complexidade do sistema climático, tornando, assim, previsões climáticas exatas praticamente impossíveis, e deixando o debate, até o momento, no campo das suposições. Abstract DISCUSSIONS ABOUT GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGES: THE ALARMISTS, THE SKEPTICS AND CLIMATE FORECAST MODELS This paper aims to discuss difficult questions and doubts about researches regarding global climate change, showing discordances about what different scientific groups and the forecasts elaborated by forecasting climate models. Therefore, we take for basis the theories formulated by the two scientific groups: the alarmists and skeptics, and the prognostic showed by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), 2007. This work was based in a research of books, technical documents and scientific papers, and the interpretation of graphs and data within these works. The results showed that oscillating temperatures always existed in the Earth’s atmosphere before human existence and the oscillation was larger than today. However, alarmists and skeptics believe that the earth atmosphere’s temperature elevated by approximated 0.6º C in the XX century, but there is a big divergence about the causes that rise and the consequences. Finally, an issue that questions the reliability of both groups, concerns the problem of forecast mainly because there are many factors and elements involved in the complexity of climate system thus making accurate climate predictions virtually impossible and leaving the debate so far, in the field of assumptions.

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