Making new history: Contemporary art and the temporal orientations of climate change in Oceania

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Wander
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Digital Design ◽  
Marshall Islands ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Genealogical Relationship ◽  
The Us ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

This article explores artistic production in the region of Oceania that resists the ahistorical and future-oriented temporality of climate change discourse, as it perpetuates colonial structures of power by denying Indigenous futures and ignoring the violent histories that have led to the current climate breakdown. In the video poem Anointed (2018), prominent climate justice activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner strategically combines spoken word poetry with visual montage in order to situate Cold War nuclear tests by the US military within the same temporal plane as rising sea levels currently threatening the Marshall Islands. Katerina Teaiwa’s exhibition Project Banaba (2017) similarly mobilizes archival imagery in order to visualize the genealogical relationship between Banabans and the settler landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Sean Connelly’s architectural and design practice in Hawaiʻi Futures, an ongoing digital design project that engages with the threats of sea level rise and coastal erosion in Hawaiʻi, problematizes linear formations of time and favours a future structured around cyclical, ecological time instead. Interacting with vastly different sites, strategies and temporalities, these three multidisciplinary projects provide critical alternatives to the ahistorical framing of colonial climate change in Oceania and thus play a crucial role in constructing a more just future.

The Subsident Gulf: Refiguring Climate Change in Jesmyn Ward’s Bois Sauvage

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly McKisson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Literary Fiction ◽  
Actual Process ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
Environmental Racism ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
The Us ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

Abstract This article focuses on figures of subsidence in Jesmyn Ward’s novels of Bois Sauvage. Subsidence not only describes an actual process of sinking land in the US Gulf Coast bioregion but also refigures how those who study climate change can understand and address its material effects. A focus on subsidence makes visible the sometimes-invisible infrastructure of the ground, and analysis scaled to the figure of subsidence forces a reorientation of vision—away from rising sea levels and toward the destabilizing loss of land. From this perspective, Ward’s fiction identifies histories of colonial engineering, extraction, and displacement as key ecological dangers. Unsettling national narratives of the Gulf Coast, Ward’s subsident figurations connect issues of environmental emergency to structures of environmental racism, which unevenly enhance the precarity of certain communities by diminishing the ecological infrastructures of their lands. This article argues that literary fiction can produce new understandings of situated environmental challenges and can pose particular obligations for environmental justice.

scholarly journals Effects of climate change on spatiotemporal patterns of tropical cyclone tracks and their implications for coastal agriculture in Myanmar

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Hirano
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Considerable Increase ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Spatiotemporal Patterns ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

AbstractImportant aspects for understanding the effects of climate change on tropical cyclones (TCs) are the frequency of TCs and their tracking patterns. Coastal areas are increasingly threatened by rising sea levels and associated storm surges brought on by TCs. Rice production in Myanmar relies strongly on low-lying coastal areas. This study aims to provide insights into the effects of global warming on TCs and the implications for sustainable development in vulnerable coastal areas in Myanmar. Using TC records from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship dataset during the 30-year period from 1983 to 2012, a hot spot analysis based on Getis-Ord (Gi*) statistics was conducted to identify the spatiotemporal patterns of TC tracks along the coast of Myanmar. The results revealed notable changes in some areas along the central to southern coasts during the study period. These included a considerable increase in TC tracks (p value < 0.01) near the Ayeyarwady Delta coast, otherwise known as “the rice bowl” of the nation. This finding aligns with trends in published studies and reinforced the observed trends with spatial statistics. With the intensification of TCs due to global warming, such a significant increase in TC experiences near the major rice-producing coastal region raises concerns about future agricultural sustainability.

scholarly journals The Archive: Digital Art and an Unsustainable Future

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tallulah Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Digital Art ◽  
Environmental Disaster ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Ecological Implications ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

This short story, “The Archive”, grew out of the eco-critical research I underwent during my postgraduate degree at Goldsmiths, University of London. In recent years, literary studies have become increasingly invested in environmentalism. The damaging consequences of human endeavour are now widely regarded within environmentalist and scientific communities, and by environmental literary theory or “ecocriticism”, as a shift from the Holocene (the geological epoch that provided the appropriate conditions for mammals to thrive), to the “Anthropocene” (the epoch in which human activity has become the dominant driving force of climatic change). The ecological implications of the Anthropocene prompt questions regarding human enterprise and responsibility; fuelling dystopian or apocalyptic end of the world narratives and anxieties towards technology, capitalism and post-humanism. This short piece explores the current problems facing climate change activists, namely the inconsistencies between the scientific community’s attitude towards ecological degradation and popular culture’s. Slajov Zizek suggests that public denial and the disassociation from environmental disaster is not caused by a lack of scientific knowledge, but because we as individuals fail to corroborate what we already know about climate change with our sensory experience of the everyday: ‘We know it, but we cannot make ourselves believe in what we know’. The Archive questions this pervasive delusion, one that denies climate change even in the face of dwindling resources, increasing natural disaster and rising sea levels. We as a society consume natural resources excessively, without any regard for the consequences.  My work draws attention to the suicidal nature of this desire, and encourages its readers to take responsibility for their actions, for the sake of humanity’s survival.

scholarly journals Climate Change, Mining and Traditional Indigenous Knowledge in Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Birch
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Depth Of Knowledge ◽  
The North ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Indigenous Society

Australia, in common with nations globally, faces an immediate and future environmental and economic challenge as an outcome of climate change. Indigenous communities in Australia, some who live a precarious economic and social existence, are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Impacts are already being experienced through dramatic weather events such as floods and bushfires. Other, more gradual changes, such as rising sea levels in the north of Australia, will have long-term negative consequences on communities, including the possibility of forced relocation. Climate change is also a historical phenomenon, and Indigenous communities hold a depth of knowledge of climate change and its impact on local ecologies of benefit to the wider community when policies to deal with an increasingly warmer world are considered. Non-Indigenous society must respect this knowledge and facilitate alliances with Indigenous communities based on a greater recognition of traditional knowledge systems.

Climate Change, Global Justice, and Health Inequities

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-56
Author(s):  
Sharon Friel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Environmental Epidemiology ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Health Inequities ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

This chapter explains the role of human activities in driving climate change, and some of its most significant impacts. It discusses justice issues raised by climate change, including causal responsibility, future development rights, the distribution of climate change harms, and intergenerational inequity. The chapter also provides a status update on current health inequities, noting the now recognized role of political, economic, commercial, and social factors in determining health. This section also discusses environmental epidemiology and the shift to eco-social approaches and eco-epidemiology, noting that while eco-epidemiologists have begun to research the influence of climate change on health, this research has not yet considered in depth the influence of social systems. The chapter concludes with an overview of how climate change exacerbates existing health inequities, focusing on the health implications of significant climate change impacts, including extreme weather events, rising sea levels, heat stress, vector-borne diseases, and food insecurity.

The Impact of Climate Change in the Modern Enterprise

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasios Danos ◽  
Konstantina Boulouta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Critical Infrastructure ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Modern Enterprise ◽  
The World ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
The Impact

This article analyses the profound and rapid climate changes that have taken place worldwide in the past two decades and their effects on modern enterprise. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing strategies to adapt to and counterbalance future impacts of climate change sustainably are among the most pressing needs of the world today. Global temperatures are predicted to continue rising, bringing changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Such climatic events can have a major impact on households, businesses, critical infrastructure and vulnerable sections of society, as well as having a major economic impact. Therefore, society must prepare to cope with living in a changing climate. The effects of a changing climate have considerable impacts on modern enterprises. In some parts of the world, these impacts are increasingly becoming evident.

scholarly journals Perceptions of Climate Change and Disaster Risk in Oceania

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (s1) ◽  
pp. s156-s156
Author(s):  
Joseph Cuthbertson ◽  
Frank Archer ◽  
Jose-Manuel Rodriguez-llanes ◽  
Andrew Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Influencing Factor ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Island Populations ◽  
Transportation Risk ◽  
Land Mass ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

Introduction:This study profiles climate change as an emerging disaster risk in Oceania. The rationale for undertaking this study was to investigate climate change and disaster risk in Oceania. The role of this analysis is to examine what evidence exists to support decision-making and profile the nature, type, and potential human and economic impact of climate change and disaster risk in Oceania.Aim:To evaluate perceptions of climate change and disaster risk in the Oceania region.Methods:Thirty individual interviews with participants from 9 different countries were conducted. All of the participants were engaged in disaster management in the Oceania region as researchers, practitioners in emergency management, disaster health care and policy managers, or academics. Data collection was conducted between April and November 2017. Thematic analysis was conducted using narrative inquiry to gather first-hand insights on their perceptions of current and emerging threats and propose improvements in risk management practice to capture, monitor, and control disaster risk.Results:Interviewees who viewed climate change as a risk or hazard described a breadth of impacts. Hazards identified included climate variability and climate-related disasters, climate issues in island areas and loss of land mass, trans-nation migration, and increased transportation risk due to rising sea levels. These emerging risks are reflective of both the geographical location of countries in Oceania, where land mass due to rising oceans has been previously reported and climate change-driven migration of island populations.Discussion:Climate change was perceived as a significant contemporary and future risk, and as an influencing factor on other risks in the Oceania region.

The influence of climate change on waterborne disease and Legionella: a review

2018 ◽  
Vol 138 (5) ◽  
pp. 282-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
JT Walker
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Waterborne Diseases ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

Climate change is predicted to have a major impact on people’s lives with the recent extreme weather events and varying abnormal temperature profiles across the world raising concerns. The impacts of global warming are already being observed, from rising sea levels and melting snow and ice to changing weather patterns. Scientists state unequivocally that these trends cannot be explained by natural variability in climate alone. Human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, have warmed the earth by dramatically increasing concentrations of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere; as these concentrations increase, the more the earth will warm. Climate change and related extreme weather events are being exacerbated sooner than has previously been considered and are already adversely affecting ecosystems and human health by increasing the burden and type of disease at a local level. Changes to the marine environment and freshwater supplies already affect significant parts of the world’s population and warmer temperatures, especially in more temperate regions, may see an increased spread and transmission of diseases usually associated with warmer climes including, for example, cholera and malaria; these impacts are likely to become more severe in a greater number of countries. This review discusses the impacts of climate change including changes in infectious disease transmission, patterns of waterborne diseases and the likely consequences of climate change due to warmer water, drought, higher rainfall, rising sea levels and flooding.

THE PROBLEM OF “CLIMATE REFUGEES” IN VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW – SELECTED ISSUES

2018 ◽  
Vol VIII (z. 2) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Przemysław Osóbka
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Exclusive Economic Zones ◽  
The Status ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Economic Zones ◽  
Climate Refugees

The article is an attempt to respond to the need to find international legal solutions, extremely important for people living in the countries threatened by the consequences of climate change, among others, the effects of rising sea levels in the seas and oceans. I try to direct attention to the still underestimated in the international law problem of the so-called "climate refugees". Behind the concept that defies the classic definitions of "refugees", there are hundreds of thousands today, and soon perhaps millions of people whose lives, health and property will be threatened by the forces of nature. The originality of the approach presented in the article is an attempt to consider whether appropriate legal solutions that protect vulnerable populations can be sought on the basis of international humanitarian law, since so far no other branch of international law seemed adequate to take up this challenge. The urgent and important dimension of the problems discussed in the article completes the necessity of searching for and finding answers to questions about the relationship between climate change and public international law. These are the legal consequences of climate deterritorialisation of sovereign states, such as the status of the population of the state without land territory, the loss of territories by archipelago states, the change of the sea borders, territorial waters, exclusive economic zones, and finally the responsibility of states for climate change. In the context of 'climate refugees', there is still no binding legal act that would meet the needs of thousands of people affected by climate change. This causes dissonance because, beyond any doubt, the situation in which these people find themselves raises a lot of fears - for their own lives, safety, health, etc. Today, entire communities and even countries face the problem of progressing deterritorialisation in face of climate threats. climate change, they face the risk of a non-culpable threat to their sovereignty.

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