Can the planet be saved in Time? On the temporalities of socionature, the clock and the limits debate

The tendency of capitalist modernity to impose predictable, homogenous and linear representations of time for economic productivity has made it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to effectively respond to catastrophic environmental changes that are emergent, sudden, non-linear and unpredictable. A confusion between the actions and consequences of environmental change, and socialized representations of time and space within which humans must respond to such changes, not only paralyses possible solutions within fixed imaginaries but is also out of synch with the perpetual coming-into-being of socionature entanglements. The multiple temporalities coordinating interactions of humans and non-human natures are instead fetishized and made governable, commensurable and reproducible through the mechanistic intervals of the clock. We argue that the desire for transformative system change can be found in temporal desynchronizations to clock Time (capital T) and that political strategies to responding to socio-ecological crises reside in alter-temporalities (lower t time) of emergent socionature relations. Through an example of the desynchronized temporalities of tinawon rice production, we show how alter-temporalities emerge to reclaim cultural and food sovereignty from the otherwise flattening effects of modernity. We highlight the futuring potentials of such temporalities and their implication within ongoing debates between ecomodernists and those advocating limits to growth. Given that continuing to act in the Time of capital evidently fails to bring about system change and even aids in perpetuating our crises, we claim that responding in time (lower t) is itself a political act in raising the possibility for more convivial and life-affirming futures.

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Pleistocene–Holocene environmental change in the Canary Archipelago as inferred from the stable isotope composition of land snail shells

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/j.yqres.2010.11.004 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 75 (3) ◽

pp. 658-669 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Yurena Yanes ◽

Crayton J. Yapp ◽

Miguel Ibáñez ◽

María R. Alonso ◽

Julio De-la-Nuez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Change ◽

Canary Islands ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Isotope Composition ◽

Moving Average ◽

Land Snail ◽

Balance Model ◽

Low Latitude ◽

The Times

AbstractThe isotopic composition of land snail shells was analyzed to investigate environmental changes in the eastern Canary Islands (28–29°N) over the last ~ 50 ka. Shell δ13C values range from −8.9‰ to 3.8‰. At various times during the glacial interval (~ 15 to ~ 50 ka), moving average shell δ13C values were 3‰ higher than today, suggesting a larger proportion of C4 plants at those periods. Shell δ18O values range from −1.9‰ to 4.5‰, with moving average δ18O values exhibiting a noisy but long-term increase from 0.1‰ at ~ 50 ka to 1.6–1.8‰ during the LGM (~ 15–22 ka). Subsequently, the moving average δ18O values range from 0.0‰ at ~ 12 ka to 0.9‰ at present. Calculations using a published snail flux balance model for δ18O, constrained by regional temperatures and ocean δ18O values, suggest that relative humidity at the times of snail activity fluctuated but exhibited a long-term decline over the last ~ 50 ka, eventually resulting in the current semiarid conditions of the eastern Canary Islands (consistent with the aridification process in the nearby Sahara). Thus, low-latitude oceanic island land snail shells may be isotopic archives of glacial to interglacial and tropical/subtropical environmental change.

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Mobile Worlds: Choice at the Intersection of Demographic and Environmental Change

Annual Review of Environment and Resources ◽

10.1146/annurev-environ-102016-060952 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 245-265 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jon Barnett ◽

W. Neil Adger

Keyword(s):

Environmental Change ◽

Size Composition ◽

Capabilities Approach ◽

Environmental Risks ◽

Limits To Growth ◽

Sustainable Solutions ◽

Root Cause ◽

Integrate Analysis ◽

Individual Decisions ◽

New Research

Research on environmental change has often focused on changes in population as a significant driver of unsustainability and environmental degradation. Demographic pessimism and limited engagement with demographic realities underpin many arguments concerning limits to growth, environmental refugees, and environment-related conflicts. Re-engagement between demographic and environmental sciences has led to greater understanding of the interactions between the size, composition, and distribution of populations and exposure to environmental risks and contributions to environmental burdens. We review the results of this renewed and far more nuanced research frontier, focusing in particular on the way demographic trends affect exposure, sensitivity, and adaptation to environmental change. New research has explained how migration systems interact with environmental challenges in individual decisions and in globally aggregate flows. Here we integrate analysis on demographic and environmental risks that often share a root cause in limited social freedoms and opportunities. We argue for a capabilities approach to promoting sustainable solutions for a more mobile world.

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Expressions of climate perturbations in western Ugandan crater lake sediment records during the last 1000 yr

Climate of the Past Discussions ◽

10.5194/cpd-9-5183-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 5183-5226 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

K. Mills ◽

D. B. Ryves ◽

N. J. Anderson ◽

C. L. Bryant ◽

J. J. Tyler

Keyword(s):

Environmental Change ◽

East Africa ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Sediment Cores ◽

Ice Age ◽

Ecosystem Response ◽

Large Lakes ◽

Crater Lakes ◽

Continental Scale ◽

Western Uganda

Abstract. Equatorial East Africa has a complex, regional patchwork of climate regimes, with multiple interacting drivers. Recent studies have focussed on large lakes and reveal signals that are smoothed in both space and time, and, whilst useful at a continental scale, are of less relevance when understanding short-term, abrupt or immediate impacts of climate and environmental changes. Smaller-scale studies have highlighted spatial complexity and regional heterogeneity of tropical palaeoenvironments in terms of responses to climatic forcing (e.g. the Little Ice Age [LIA]) and questions remain over the spatial extent and synchroneity of climatic changes seen in East African records. Sediment cores from paired crater lakes in western Uganda were examined to assess ecosystem response to long-term climate and environmental change as well as testing responses to multiple drivers using redundancy analysis. These archives provide annual to sub-decadal records of environmental change. The records from the two lakes demonstrate an individualistic response to external (e.g. climatic) drivers, however, some of the broader patterns observed across East Africa suggest that the lakes are indeed sensitive to climatic perturbations such as a dry Mediaeval Climate Anomaly (MCA; 1000–1200 AD) and a relatively drier climate during the main phase of the LIA (1500–1800 AD); though lake levels in western Uganda do fluctuate. The relationship of Ugandan lakes to regional climate drivers breaks down c. 1800 AD, when major changes in the ecosystems appear to be a response to sediment and nutrient influxes as a result of increasing cultural impacts within the lake catchments. The data highlight the complexity of individual lake response to climate forcing, indicating shifting drivers through time. This research also highlights the importance of using multi-lake studies within a landscape to allow for rigorous testing of climate reconstructions, forcing and ecosystem response.

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The study of life and food systems for Native Hawaiians based on their environment

AlterNative An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples ◽

10.1177/11771801211038263 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 117718012110382

Author(s):

Mapuana CK Antonio ◽

Kuaiwi Laka Makua ◽

Samantha Keaulana ◽

LeShay Keliiholokai ◽

J Kahaulahilahi Vegas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cultural Values ◽

Food Systems ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Food Sovereignty ◽

Nutrition Transition ◽

Well Being ◽

Native Hawaiians ◽

Social Barriers ◽

Community Engaged Research ◽

Adverse Health Outcomes

Health and well-being are a function of familial relationships between Native Hawaiians and their land. As a result of settler colonialism, Native Hawaiians face systemic and social barriers, which impede their relationship to land, with implications of adverse health outcomes. This qualitative study explores changes in health among Native Hawaiians, with a specific focus on food systems and the environment. Community-engaged research approaches were utilized to recruit 12 Hawaiian adults. The major themes include the following: (1) health as holistic and a harmonious balance, (2) nutrition transition and current connections to ‘āina (land extending from the mountain to the sea; that which feeds or nourishes), and (3) food sovereignty and community solutions to uplift the Lāhui (Nation of Hawai‘i). Consideration of cultural values, community strengths, and traditional lifestyle practices may address health inequities and changes in food systems related to health that stem from colonization, determinants of health, and environmental changes.

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Approaches for Measuring Sustainability

Sustainable Practices ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-4852-4.ch009 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 158-184

Author(s):

Evangelos Grigoroudis ◽

Vassilis S. Kouikoglou ◽

Yannis A. Phillis

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Environmental Economic ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Soil Formation ◽

Sustainability Indicators ◽

Measuring Technique ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Limits To Growth

The environment provides the economy with resources (e.g., water, air, fuels, food, metals, minerals, and drugs), services (e.g., the cycles of H2O, C, CO2, N, O2; photosynthesis, and soil formation), and mechanisms to absorb waste. Economic growth is based on these three services, and since the global ecosystem does not grow, economic growth cannot continue indefinitely. The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development have received much attention among policy-makers and scientists as a result of the existence of limits to growth and the dramatic environmental changes of the last decades. Sustainability integrates environmental, economic, and societal aspects. It also covers different geographical scales: ecosystems, regions, countries, and the globe. In this chapter, the authors review various models of sustainability assessment. Since there is no universally accepted definition and measuring technique of sustainability, these different models lead to different assessments. They also present a discussion of the sustainability indicators, aggregation tools, and data imputation techniques used in each approach.

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Future Environments of South America

The Physical Geography of South America ◽

10.1093/oso/9780195313413.003.0030 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Thomas T. Veblen ◽

Kenneth R. Young

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Environmental Change ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Human Impacts ◽

Southern Oscillation ◽

Physical Geography ◽

Tierra Del Fuego ◽

South American ◽

Policy Options ◽

Natural Processes

An important goal of this book has been to provide a comprehensive understanding of the physical geography and landscape origins of South America as important background to assessing the probabilities and consequences of future environmental changes. Such background is essential to informed discussions of environmental management and the development of policy options designed to prepare local, national, and international societies for future changes. A unifying theme of this book has been the elucidation of how natural processes and human activities have interacted in the distant and recent past to create the modern landscapes of the continent. This retrospective appreciation of how the current landscapes have been shaped by nature and humans will guide our discussion of possible future trajectories of South American environments. There is abundant evidence from all regions of South America, from Tierra del Fuego to the Isthmus of Panama, that environmental change, not stasis, has been the norm. Given that fact, the history, timing, and recurrence intervals of this dynamism are all crucial pieces of information. The antiquity and widespread distribution of changes associated with the indigenous population are now well established. Rates and intensities of changes related to indigenous activities varied widely, but even in regions formerly believed to have experienced little or no pre-European impacts we now recognize the effects of early humans on features such as soils and vegetation. Colonization by Europeans mainly during the sixteenth century modified or in some cases replaced indigenous land-use practices and initiated changes that have continued to the present. Complementing these broad historical treatments of human impacts, other chapters have examined in detail the environmental impacts of agriculture (chapter 18) and urbanism (chapter 20), and the disruptions associated with El Niño–Southern Oscillation events. The goal of this final synthesis is to identify the major drivers of change and to discuss briefly their likely impacts on South American environments and resources in the near and medium-term future. Our intent is not to make or defend predictions, but rather to identify broad causes and specific drivers of environmental change to inform discussions of policy options for mitigating undesirable changes and to facilitate potential societal adaptations to them.

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Farmers’ Perspective on Agriculture and Environmental Change in the Circumpolar North of Europe and America

Land ◽

10.3390/land8120190 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 190 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Christopher Poeplau ◽

Julia Schroeder ◽

Ed Gregorich ◽

Irina Kurganova

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Environmental Change ◽

Online Survey ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Biogeochemical Cycles ◽

Small Scale ◽

Local Market ◽

Food Transport ◽

Circumpolar North ◽

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

Climate change may increase the importance of agriculture in the global Circumpolar North with potentially critical implications for pristine northern ecosystems and global biogeochemical cycles. With this in mind, a global online survey was conducted to understand northern agriculture and farmers’ perspective on environmental change north of 60° N. In the obtained dataset with 67 valid answers, Alaska and the Canadian territories were dominated by small-scale vegetable, herbs, hay, and flower farms; the Atlantic Islands were dominated by sheep farms; and Fennoscandia was dominated by cereal farming. In Alaska and Canada, farmers had mostly immigrated with hardly any background in farming, while farmers in Fennoscandia and on the Atlantic Islands mostly continued family traditions. Accordingly, the average time since conversion from native land was 28 ± 28 and 25 ± 12 years in Alaska and Canada, respectively, but 301 ± 291 and 255 ± 155 years on the Atlantic Islands and in Fennoscandia, respectively, revealing that American northern agriculture is expanding. Climate change was observed by 84% of all farmers, of which 67% have already started adapting their farming practices, by introducing new varieties or altering timings. Fourteen farmers reported permafrost on their land, with 50% observing more shallow permafrost on uncultivated land than on cultivated land. Cultivation might thus accelerate permafrost thawing, potentially with associated consequences for biogeochemical cycles and greenhouse gas emissions. About 87% of the surveyed farmers produced for the local market, reducing emissions of food transport. The dynamics of northern land-use change and agriculture with associated environmental changes should be closely monitored. The dataset is available for further investigations.

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ULVS XXVI: Sedimentological and Palynological Studies of Holocene Environmental Changes from a Plateau Basin Infill Sequence at Grerat D'nar Salem, near Beni Ulid, in the Tripolitanian Pre-desert

Libyan Studies ◽

10.1017/s0263718900001928 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

pp. 1-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

D. D. Gilbertson ◽

C. O. Hunt ◽

N. R. J. Fieller

Keyword(s):

Environmental Change ◽

Field Survey ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Archaeological Remains ◽

Shrub Species ◽

North West ◽

Naturally Occurring ◽

Modern Landscape ◽

Early And Middle Holocene ◽

The Town

AbstractThis paper describes an integrated series of sedimentological and palynological studies of the arenaceous deposits which infill the large alluvial basin of Grerat D'nar Salem, which is located on a limestone plateau in the semi-arid pre-desert of Tripolitania north-west of the town of Beni Ulid. This research shows that in the early and middle Holocene this depression was occupied by a large semi-permanent or permanent water body which was surrounded by a grass-steppe vegetation with some tree and shrub species, perhaps growing in wetter stream- and wadi-beds. Sometime in the mid-Holocene the region became much more arid, the lake disappeared, matching the pattern of environmental change observed elsewhere in northern Africa. The geomor-phic environment became dominated by aeolian processes, interrupted by occasional winter floods, in a landscape dominated by grass steppe — essentially the situation that has continued to the present day. It is clear from general biogeographical and geomorphic considerations that Romano-Libyan floodwater farming in the region must have brought about significant changes in the character of wadi floors. Field survey indicates that it has also left a legacy in the contemporary distribution of plants, animals and runoff in the modern landscape. Nevertheless, no clear evidence has emerged from this study that the widespread and intensive flood-water farming, evidenced by the archaeological remains in the area, was associated with either a climate or a landscape notably different from that of today. The new palynological evidence suggests that the nature of the related ancient cultivation at Grerat is better viewed as a monoculture, rather than the mixed farming deduced previously for wadi-floor areas. There is no evidence that any naturally-occurring environmental change was associated with the introduction or loss of floodwater farming in the region. There is some sedimentological evidence that such activity might have led to problems of soil salinity in this basin.

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The Effects of the Hypsithermal on Prehistoric Foraging Efficiency in Missouri

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/40035270 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 70 (1) ◽

pp. 91-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Steve Wolverton

Keyword(s):

Environmental Change ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Choice Model ◽

Prey Availability ◽

Critical Factor ◽

Analytical Techniques ◽

Foraging Theory ◽

Foraging Efficiency ◽

Resource Depression ◽

Human Predation

Archaeological studies of temporal changes in human predation strategy using foraging theory tend to focus on the role of overexploitation of important prey resources and resulting resource depression. An alternative use of the prey-choice model framed under foraging theory is to investigate the influence of environmental changes, such as increases in climate stress, on prey availability. Environmental change can be expected to produce many of the same effects on human predation strategy as resource depression. Here analytical techniques typically used to study the effects of over-predation and resource depression caused by humans are used to monitor their response to fluctuations in prey availability related to climate change during the Holocene in Missouri. Data and interpretations presented here add to the growing body of zooarchaeological foraging theory literature implicating environmental change as a critical factor in human diet.

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Human responses to hydroclimate fluctuations over the last 200 kyr in Ethiopia

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11488 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Frank Schäbitz ◽

Verena Foerster ◽

Asfawossen Asrat ◽

Andrew S. Cohen ◽

Melissa S. Chapot ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Environmental Change ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Human Mobility ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Eastern Africa ◽

Southern Ethiopia ◽

Ethiopian Rift ◽

Mobility Patterns

Humans have been adapting to more demanding habitats in the course of their evolutionary history. Nevertheless, environmental changes coupled with overpopulation naturally limit competition for resources. In order to find such limits, reconstructions of climate and population changes are increasingly used for the continent of our origin, Africa. However, continuous and high-resolution records of climate-human interactions are still scarce. Using a 280 m sediment core from Chew Bahir*, a wide tectonic basin in southern Ethiopia, we reconstruct the paleoenvironmental conditions during the development of Homo sapiens. The complete multiproxy record of the composite core covers the last ~600 ka , allowing tests of hypotheses about the influence of climate change on human evolution and technological innovation from the Late Acheulean to the Middle/Late Stone Age, and on dispersal within and out of Africa. Here we present results from the uppermost 100 meters of the Chew Bahir core, spanning the last 200 kiloyears (ka). The record shows two modes of environmental change that are associated with two types of human mobility. The first mode is a long-term trend towards a more arid climate, overlain by precession-driven wet-dry alternation. Through comparison with the archaeological record, humid episodes appear to have led to the opening of &#8216;green&#8217; networks between favourable habitats and thus to increased human mobility on a regional scale. The second mode of environmental change resembles millennial-scale Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, which seem to coincide with enhanced vertical mobility from the Ethiopian rift to the highlands, especially in the time frame between ~65&#8211;21 ka BP. The coincidence of climate change and human mobility patterns help to define the limiting conditions for early Homo sapiens in eastern Africa.___________________* cored in the context of HSPDP (Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project) and CRC&#160;(Collaborative Research Centre) 806 &#8220;Our way to Europe&#8221;

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