scholarly journals Anthropocene and “Development”: Intertwined Trajectories Since the Beginning of The Great Acceleration

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 400-413
Author(s):  
Marina Dantas de Figueiredo ◽  
Fábio Freitas Schilling Marquesan ◽  
José Miguel Imas

ABSTRACT Objectives: We aim to propose the thesis that the trajectories of the Anthropocene and the current mainstream understandings of development are intertwined from the beginning. It means that the Anthropocene and the “development” are coetaneous: the implementation of development policies for the so-considered underdeveloped regions started to happen at the same time of what is known as The Great Acceleration of production, consumption and environmental degradation in a global level. Method: In this conceptual paper, we adopt a decolonial critique as an analytical lens and argue that different geopolitical positions may be necessary for approaching the issue of the Anthropocene from epistemological reflections that can include the cultural and political context of the production and reproduction of local knowledge. Results: Our theoretical argumentation sheds light on the role of Global North and South relations in shaping the environmental crisis. Latin America (LA) exemplifies the modus operandi of the intertwinement of the practical effects of development policies and the environmental consequences underlying the Anthropocene, in which natural resources are over-explored to satisfy export-oriented trade, from the South toward the North. LA is not only a propitious context to show the validity of our thesis, but also the source of alternatives to such developmental model. Conclusion: The emphasis on development as a cause of the Anthropocene supports The Great Acceleration thesis. The proposition of the name Developmentocene comes from the thesis that development and Anthropocene are coetaneous, the intertwinement of both resulting in the very definition of the new epoch.

Author(s):  
Peter North ◽  
Molly Scott Cato

This concluding chapter draws together lessons learned from the encounters between social economy activists and academics from Latin America and Europe which were brought together in this collection. It discusses the role of antagonism in social economies, especially in the light of austerity in Europe – and Latin America’s experiences of a lost decade. It discusses tensions between the benefits of top down, centralised, state delivered welfare, and grassroots creativity, arguing for the development of 45 degree politics that maintains the best of both conceptions, with the state maintaining universal access and sufficient resources, while grassroots actors ensure that initiatives are tailored to local needs. Finally it brings together arguments for the need for the SSE sector to develop conceptions of prosperous livelihoods providing dignity and inclusion for those currently denied a livelihood with dignity in the concept of the Anthropocene. It concludes by arguing that these conceptions can best be developed though continued dialogue between actors in the global North and South.


Author(s):  
Verena Winiwarter

The 3rd World Congress of Environmental History, held in Florianópolis, Brazil had the theme: “Convergences: The Global South and the Global North in the Era of Great Acceleration”. The short paper gives an overview of the rewards such congresses can bring. It specifically deals with the plenary talks by Robert Billot and Brigitte Baptiste, highlights the role of scholarly co-operation and makes a case for the opportunity offered by such congresses to review the environment of the hosting country, for which the plenary roundtables, the excursions, and field trips and comparative panels are referred to as examples. World congresses might have an environmental cost, but they do provide unique opportunities for scholarly exchange, in terms of themes, methods, conceptual approaches, and sources used. Behaving in an environmentally conscious way but at the same time enabling and fostering international and intergenerational exchange is a challenge that will have to be taken up in the future.


Author(s):  
Ted Schrecker

This chapter begins with a conception of political economy that foregrounds unequal distributions of power and resources and the role of transnational actors and processes. Two specific case examples are described in some detail: (1) the structural adjustment conditionalities demanded by the international financial institutions roughly post-1980 and their impacts on health systems and social determinants of health and (2) the connections between trade and investment liberalization and health outcomes, with a focus on harmonization of intellectual property protection regimes, on food systems, and generically of the incorporation of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in many bilateral and regional agreements. The chapter concludes by identifying two directions for future inquiry: the erosion of familiar distinctions between global North and South and the normative implications of the proliferation of cross border influences on health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 2520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelina Cassianides ◽  
Elodie Martinez ◽  
Christophe Maes ◽  
Xavier Carton ◽  
Thomas Gorgues

The Marquesas islands are a place of strong phytoplanktonic enhancement, whose original mechanisms have not been explained yet. Several mechanisms such as current−bathymetry interactions or island run-off can fertilize waters in the immediate vicinity or downstream of the islands, allowing phytoplankton enhancement. Here, we took the opportunity of an oceanographic cruise carried out at the end of 2018, to combine in situ and satellite observations to investigate two phytoplanktonic blooms occurring north and south of the archipelago. First, Lagrangian diagnostics show that both chlorophyll-a concentrations (Chl) plumes are advected from the islands. Second, the use of Finite-size Lyaponov Exponent and frontogenesis diagnostics reveal how the Chl plumes are shaped by the passage of a mesoscale cyclonic eddy in the south and by a converging front and finer-scale dynamic activity in the north. Our results based on these observations provide clues to the hypothesis of a fertilization from the islands themselves allowing phytoplankton to thrive. They also highlight the role of advection to disperse and shape the Chl plumes in two regions with contrasting dynamical regimes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6578
Author(s):  
Caterina Anastasia

Water is becoming a support for landscape and urban projects in a densely urbanised area settled along the Tagus Estuary, dubbed the City of the Tagus Estuary (CTE). Analysing two recent projects along and towards the Tagus Estuary hydrographic network, this article highlights how the most evident limit (the water) can function as the strongest binder, natural link, and shared public space of the CTE. Located, respectively, on the north and south banks of the estuary, the analysed projects become a way to think about urban strategies and promotions that use water as a way to build (re-build or reformulate) the image of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Today, open spaces bound to waterlines support an appealing and winning urban regeneration formula. Our goal is to understand what kind of role water is called to play with regard to the CTE. We ask: is the water called to play merely the role of building a new image of the city as a ground for investors? Is water the way to build a green and habitable CTE? This article concludes that the analysed projects contribute (as expected) to the promotion of the surrounding areas and propose appropriate solutions while occasionally overcoming the current local urban planning.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 1719-1742 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-Chun Catherine Chang

This paper is an attempt to reassess the role of failure in policy mobilities. Empirically, this paper examines the various aftermaths of, and the continuing trans-local connections originating from, the prominent but un-materialized Sino-British Shanghai-Dongtan eco-city—with a particular consideration on its relation with a subsequently realized project—the Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city. The findings reveal that despite its apparent failure, Dongtan eco-city established a set of urban planning procedures adopted by many, including those who designed and delivered the Tianjin eco-city. Meanwhile, Dongtan’s failure to materialize motivated the Chinese government to pursue collaboration with the Singaporean government over the increased involvement of private Western partners. The intent to avoid association with Dongtan’s failure also fostered a new eco-urbanism model based on rebranding the planning practices of Singapore’s public housing. Parts of Dongtan eco-city have also lived on through the international circulation of a piece of planning software that was first developed for the failed project. This paper contributes to the policy mobilities literature by challenging its dominant focus on successful exemplars and exploring how a project fails in implementation yet parts of it remain mobile, influential and present in other developments. This paper also advances the understanding of contemporary urban sustainability by revealing how eco-urbanism models are co-produced in this globalizing era between the global North and South, as well as within the global South.


Author(s):  
Eduardo Robles

<p>The concept of Plantation conjures an image that identifies the North Florida / South Georgia region of the U. S. Leon County attracted many cotton planters from Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina in the 1820’s to the 1850’s. Up to the beginning of the Civil War, Leon County was the 5th largest producer of cotton counting all counties from Florida and Georgia. The Civil War brought the plantation culture to a standstill.</p><p>The plantations transformed the environment based on their need for open fields in which to cultivate different crops, or raise a variety of animals with the help of slaves. From the 1900’s many plantations abandoned their land to nature producing a deep change in the local landscape. Today plantations are not used as much for planting crops but more for hunting or as tree farms. The hunting plantations do not grow crops but provide good conditions for the hunting of animals and birds. Other plantations were torn apart, sold and now are part of the Tallahassee urban fabric. In other words, they disappeared.</p><p>The transformation of the plantations has been slow and steady, and has become the image of the area, even the region. The paper shows five plantations that represent five different evolutions of these traditional landscapes. The landscapes have evolved to accommodate the very local but fluid definition of place. It is this transformation, this evolving identity which helped preserve some of the traditional landscapes and the traditional architecture on them.</p><p>The most prominent feature of the plantation is the “Big House” or plantation house. The house embodies all aspects of the plantation life style. The construction materials and methods reflected the times, the technologies and the available resources.</p><p>The research has been done mainly in the archives of the Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation. The results, still pending, explain the land typology as it evolved from the golden decades of the plantation culture to the present day land use.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie M. Hughes ◽  
Pamela Paxton ◽  
Sharon Quinsaat ◽  
Nicholas Reith

Over the last century, women increasingly transcended national boundaries to exchange information, build solidarity, and bring change. Accounts suggest that as women's international presence expanded, the types of women who participated also shifted. During the first wave of women's movements, White Western women dominated, but over time women of the Global South increasingly organized themselves. Yet we do not know whether North-South inequalities in women's organizational membership have diminished. We collect longitudinal network data on 447 women's international nongovernmental organizations (WINGOs) and use visual tools and network measures to explore changes in the network structure from 1978 to 2008. Results suggest (1) WINGOs—while increasing in frequency—are not connecting to greater numbers of countries, (2) the North/South split in WINGO memberships does not change over time, (3) significant power differences between the North and South persist, and (4) substantial inequalities in WINGO memberships within the Global South also exist.


2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (2) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
M. Kornbleuth ◽  
M. Opher ◽  
I. Baliukin ◽  
M. Gkioulidou ◽  
J. D. Richardson ◽  
...  

Abstract Global models of the heliosphere are critical tools used in the interpretation of heliospheric observations. There are several three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) heliospheric models that rely on different strategies and assumptions. Until now only one paper has compared global heliosphere models, but without magnetic field effects. We compare the results of two different MHD models, the BU and Moscow models. Both models use identical boundary conditions to compare how different numerical approaches and physical assumptions contribute to the heliospheric solution. Based on the different numerical treatments of discontinuities, the BU model allows for the presence of magnetic reconnection, while the Moscow model does not. Both models predict collimation of the solar outflow in the heliosheath by the solar magnetic field and produce a split tail where the solar magnetic field confines the charged solar particles into distinct north and south columns that become lobes. In the BU model, the interstellar medium (ISM) flows between the two lobes at large distances due to MHD instabilities and reconnection. Reconnection in the BU model at the port flank affects the draping of the interstellar magnetic field in the immediate vicinity of the heliopause. Different draping in the models cause different ISM pressures, yielding different heliosheath thicknesses and boundary locations, with the largest effects at high latitudes. The BU model heliosheath is 15% thinner and the heliopause is 7% more inwards at the north pole relative to the Moscow model. These differences in the two plasma solutions may manifest themselves in energetic neutral atom measurements of the heliosphere.


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