‘Pathetic earthlings! Who can save you now?’ Science fiction, planetary crisis and the globalisation of Chinese culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 205943642110678
Author(s):  
John Hartley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Experimental Models ◽  
Planetary Scale ◽  
The World ◽  
Chinese Policy

Chinese policy has turned to the globalisation of communication and stories. Beyond the diplomatic ‘voice’, one of the ways that Chinese culture is reaching out to the rest of the world is through science fiction. Sci-fi can be construed as a specialist thinking-circuit for cultures to build and explore experimental models of collective action at global and planetary scale. What do its stories tell us about the globalisation of Chinese culture? When the need to ‘save the world’ has crossed over from sci-fi to science, from entertainment to activism, and from a thought experiment to imminent danger, humans as a whole face challenges of their own making: climate change, environmental pollution, pandemics, extinctions, exclusions and nuclear annihilation. Can sci-fi inspire collective action at species scale? What role will globalising China play?

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 199-202
Author(s):  
Philip Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Climate History ◽  
Accurate Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Religious Dimensions ◽  
Better Than

My own interest in the topics of this book dates back a good many years. In fact, it predates the emergence of the modern field of climate history, or the identification of global warming as an incipient menace. In saying that, I am claiming no status as a prodigy, still less a prophet. Rather, in my teenage years, I read a great deal of speculative fiction, science fiction, in which themes of climate change and cataclysm have long percolated, at least since the latter years of the nineteenth century. We can debate how accurate the scientific analyses or predictions were in many of these works—in many cases, the level of accurate knowledge was minimal—but those works had the inordinate advantage of thinking through the human and cultural consequences of catastrophe, commonly speculating about religious dimensions. Obviously, some works succeeded better than others in that regard, but the essential project was critically important. If we are foretelling that the world will be assailed by lethal menaces, then we cannot fail to go on to imagine what the political or cultural consequences would or should be....

scholarly journals Can the Cop21 Stop the Rise of CO2s

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. p14
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Global Public Good ◽  
Irreversible Change ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
Environmental Process ◽  
Coal Power

The UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 is a huge international reunion to attempt to enact with unanimity policies that counteract global warming or its effects. Can such really overcome the difficult problematic of collective action inherent in providing global public good? The Global Environmental Process runs meeting after meeting-no results. The global thermometer keeps rising, as Co2s do not decrease. The first manifestations of Hawking’s irreversible change have appeared around the world. Only one major non-incremental policy would make a difference: close down coal power.

scholarly journals The Power of Spectacle

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Greenspan
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Free Market ◽  
New Urbanism ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Eastern Shore ◽  
Western Philosophical Tradition ◽  
The World ◽  
Traditional Chinese Culture

When people say Shanghai looks like the future the setting is almost always the same. Evening descends and the skyscrapers clustered on the eastern shore of the Huangpu light up. Super towers are transformed into giant screens. The spectacular skyline, all neon and lasers and LED, looms as a science fiction backdrop. Staring out from the Bund, across to Pudong, one senses the reemergence of what JG Ballard once described as an “electric and lurid city, more exciting than any other in the world.” The high-speed development of Pudong – in particular the financial district of Lujiazui – is the symbol of contemporary Shanghai and of China’s miraculous rise. Yet, Pudong is also taken as a sign of much that is wrong with China’s new urbanism. To critics the sci-fi skyline is an emblem of the city’s shallowness, which focuses all attention on its glossy facade. Many share the sentiment of free market economist Milton Friedman who, when visiting Pudong famously derided the brand new spectacle as a giant Potemkin village. Nothing but “the statist monument for a dead pharaoh,” he is quoted as saying. This article explores Pudong in order to investigate the way spectacle functions in China’s most dynamic metropolis. It argues that the skeptical hostility towards spectacle is rooted in the particularities of a Western philosophical tradition that insists on penetrating the surface, associating falsity with darkness and truth with light. In contrast, China has long recognized the power of spectacle (most famously inventing gunpowder but using it only for fireworks). Alongside this comes an acceptance of a shadowy world that belongs to the dark. This acknowledgment of both darkness and light found in traditional Chinese culture (expressed by the constant revolutions of the yin/yang symbol) may provide an alternative method for thinking about the tension between the spectacular visions of planners and the unexpected and shadowy disruptions from the street.

scholarly journals Urban Transport in Vietnam:

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
pp. 117-122
Author(s):  
Thi Hoa Nguyen ◽  
Thi Thuy Hoa Phan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Challenging Problem ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
The World ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
The Common ◽  
Big Cities

Environmental pollution has become a problem not only for one nation, one region but also for the common concern of all humanity. The process of socio-economic development of the countries in the world has led to tremendous impacts on the environment, causing the human environment to change and become increasingly degraded. important. These are climate change - global warming, depletion of the ozone layer and acid rain ... especially air pollution caused by transportation. In Vietnam, environmental pollution in big cities is becoming a pressing problem. The problem of overcrowding of transport in big cities, which has been very difficult, now adds a serious situation of pollution that is increasing to worrying levels. What a challenging problem that is posing on the shoulders of managers. The paper presents the realities of environmental pollution, especially air pollution from vehicle emissions. Besides, also initially offering solutions to reduce pollution caused by urban transport in Vietnam.

scholarly journals The Human Dimensions of Coastal Adaptation Strategies

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 546
Author(s):  
Chad J. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Human Dimensions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Coastal Adaptation ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Global Citizenry ◽  
Insight Into

Not only are humans responsible for the anthropogenic causes of currently observed climate change, but we are also responsible for our responses to climate change. How we choose to respond provides important insights into our ability to collectively act in the face of threats with the unique characteristics of climate change. This communication attempts to provide an overview of some of the difficulties in forging new policy directions along our coastlines in an era of climate change. It is meant as a referential framing for the research presented in this Special Issue. As this communication is being written, the world is gripped by a global pandemic caused by a variant of the coronavirus. There are important corollaries between the underlying characteristics of the coronavirus and the causes and effects of climate change. Seeing how the global citizenry is responding to the current epidemic provides some insight into the difficulties in fostering collective action towards climate change. As with the pandemic, the issue is not really one of understanding the problem, but rather the varying human responses to the problem. We can expect the same difficulties as we continue to confront the ever-growing problem of climate change.

scholarly journals Nanomaterials: Stimulant for biofuels and renewables, Yield and Energy Optimization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yogendra Kumar ◽  
Prerna Yogeshwar ◽  
Sushant Bajpai ◽  
Pooja Jaiswal ◽  
Shalu Yadav ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Energy Optimization ◽  
Energy Demands ◽  
The World

Sustainability has gained momentum due to climate change and environmental pollution. Mankind is trying to look for safer fuels to meet the energy demands and conserve the world for future...

scholarly journals Norms from Above, Movements from Below

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 226
Author(s):  
Ferth Vandensteen Manaysay
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Framing Theory ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
World Society ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
The World

This article seeks to analyse how conceptions of global climate change norms have contributed to the framing strategies and tactics of local indigenous people’s rights movements using the cases of Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance (CPA) from the Philippines and the Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) from Indonesia. Drawing on the combined theoretical frameworks of the world society approach and the social movement framing theory, this article argues that global climate change norms have provided indigenous people’s rights movements in Indonesia and the Philippines with new sources of vocabularies towards collective action. In theoretical and empirical terms, it contends that the exposure of the local indigenous social movements to global normative mechanisms have shifted local activism, as the world society approach envisages, while framing theory elucidates the manner in which movement-actors are able to interpret and transform the ideas they receive. A paired comparison, based on data collected from the CPA and AMAN’s public pronouncements as well as in-depth interviews with local indigenous movement leaders and members, shows material ideas and instruments that social movements receive from global institutional sources (such as the United Nations climate change agreements, global indigenous declarations, and international climate justice coalitions) have enabled them to produce novel frames for collective action at the local level. Contrastingly, it demonstrates how indigenous climate justice activists have also been able to frame their contentions against the prevailing global norms and ideas about climate change.

scholarly journals International Soft Law: A Review on Paris Agreement

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-262
Author(s):  
Mulko Asaad Ado
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
The World

Paris agreement, despite its many aspects and mixture of hard, soft, and non-obligations that are distinct and contain importance and vitality, however, they are not fully clarified in terms of their boundaries. There are various discussions and debates upon the agreements’ success or failure. Additionally, drives behind political parties, further motivation for more compliance with the agreement and to encourage major actors for higher response levels against climate change as it is “the most difficult and complex collective action problem of the world”. In this article, challenges to the agreement are noted and possible approaches towards a better future for application and compliance with the agreement are presented. For this purpose, categories of law are looked into in regard to Paris agreement and a number of aspects are highlighted. The interrelation link that exist among these obligations regardless of their forms is explored through the context of Paris agreement and its critical importance is emphasized. Our doctrine approach compares and investigates most recent and relevant studies upon the matter at hand and endeavors to create a better understanding on the importance of Paris agreement

scholarly journals The Human Dimensions of Coastal Adaptation Strategies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad J. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Human Dimensions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Coastal Adaptation ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Global Citizenry ◽  
Insight Into

Not only are humans responsible for the anthropogenic causes of currently observed climate change, but we are also responsible for our responses to climate change. How we choose to respond provides important insights into our ability to collectively act in the face of threats with the unique characteristics of climate change. This communication attempts to provide an overview of some the difficulties in forging new policy directions along our coastlines in an era of climate change. It is meant as a referential framing for the research presented in this special issue. As this communication is being written, the world is gripped by a global pandemic caused by a variant of the coronavirus. There are important corollaries between the underlying characteristics of the coronavirus and the causes and effects of climate change. Seeing how the global citizenry is responding to the current epidemic provides some insight into the difficulties in fostering collective action towards climate change. As with the pandemic, the issue is not really one of understanding the problem, but rather the varying human responses to the problem. We can expect the same difficulties as we continue to confront the ever-growing problem of climate change.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document