Another Climate Change Story: Looking Upstream

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-7
Author(s):  
Merrill Singer ◽  
Hans A. Baer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Social Response ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Economic Perspective ◽  
Sustainable Future ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Contemporary Climate

Abstract The applied anthropology of climate change seeks to bring the anthropological lens to the study of and social response to life on a warming planet. Recently, Practicing Anthropology published a special issue on Storying Climate Change! Here, we provide a critique of this set of papers from a political economic perspective based on the assertion that a threat of the magnitude of contemporary climate change warrants a more fully mobilized anthropological response than the local narrative approach called for in the special issue. Specifically, we argue that local stories of climate change experience are knotted together by the reigning global political economic system of capitalism and that this is a story we need to tell to build a sustainable future.

scholarly journals Human adaptation to climate change: An introduction to the special issue

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Pisor ◽  
James Holland Jones
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Human Adaptation ◽  
Empirical Knowledge ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Contemporary Climate

OBJECTIVES. Despite our focus on adaptation and human responses to climate, evolutionary and biological anthropologists (EBAs) are largely absent from conversations about contemporary “climate-change adaptation,” a term popular in other disciplines, the development world, and related policy decisions. EBAs are missing a big opportunity to contribute to impactful, time-sensitive applied work: we have extensive theoretical and empirical knowledge pertinent to conversations about climate-change adaptation and to helping support communities as they cope. This special issue takes a tour of EBA contributions to our understanding of climate-change adaptation, from data on past and contemporary human communities to theoretically informed predictions about how individuals and communities will respond to climate change now and in the future. First, however, we must establish what we mean by “climate change” and “adaptation,” along with other terms commonly used by EBAs; review what EBAs know about adaptation and about human responses to climate change; and identify just a few topics EBAs study that are pertinent to ongoing conversations about climate-change adaptation. In this article, we do just that. CONCLUSION. From our work on energy use to our work on demography, subsistence, social networks, and the salience of climate change to local communities, EBAs have an abundance of data and theoretical insights to help inform responses to contemporary climate change. We need to better reach the climate community and general public with our contributions.

Climate X or Climate Jacobin?

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-200
Author(s):  
Russell Duvernoy ◽  
Larry Alan Busk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Present Article ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Political Economic

In Climate Leviathan, Mann and Wainwright address the political implications of climate change by theorizing four possible planetary futures: Climate Leviathan as capitalist planetary sovereignty, Climate Mao as non-capitalist planetary sovereignty, Climate Behemoth as capitalist non-planetary sovereignty, and Climate X as non-capitalist non-planetary sovereignty. The authors of the present article agree that the depth and scale of destabilizations induced by climate change cannot be navigated justly from within the present social-political-economic system. We disagree, however, on which of the non-capitalist orientations is better suited for generating viable alternatives to the worst dystopian futures. The article thus stages a debate to elucidate the theoretical and political divergence between Climate X and Climate Mao (renamed Climate Jacobin).

Global Health and International Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 216-235
Author(s):  
Andrew Harmer ◽  
Jonathan Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Economic System ◽  
International Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Global Population

This chapter explores the relationship between international development and global health. Contrary to the view that development implies ‘good change’, this chapter argues that the discourse of development masks the destructive and exploitative practices of wealthy countries at the expense of poorer ones. These practices, and the unregulated capitalist economic system that they are part of, have created massive inequalities between and within countries, and potentially catastrophic climate change. Both of these outcomes are detrimental to global health and the millennium development goals and sustainable development goals do not challenge these dynamics. While the Sustainable Development Goals acknowledge that inequality and climate change are serious threats to the future of humanity, they fail to address the economic system that created them. Notwithstanding, it is possible that the enormity and proximity of the threat posed by inequality and global warming will energise a counter movement to create what Kate Raworth terms ‘an ecologically safe and socially just space’ for the global population while there is still time.

scholarly journals Special Issue on Climate Migration

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Anda David ◽  
Frédéric Docquier
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
Weather Shocks ◽  
Temperature Trends ◽  
Agricultural Areas ◽  
Slow Onset

How do weather shocks influence human mobility and poverty, and how will long-term climate change affect future migration over the course of the 21st century? These questions have gained unprecedented attention in public debates as global warming is already having severe impacts around the world, and prospects for the coming decades get worse. Low-latitude countries in general, and their agricultural areas in particular, have contributed the least to climate change but are the most adversely affected. The effect on people's voluntary and forced displacements is of major concern for both developed and developing countries. On 18 October 2019, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) organized a workshop on Climate Migration with the aim of uncovering the mechanisms through which fast-onset variables (such as weather anomalies, storms, hurricanes, torrential rains, floods, landslides, etc.) and slow-onset variables (such as temperature trends, desertification, rising sea level, coastal erosion, etc.) influence both people's incentives to move and mobility constraints. This special issue gathers five papers prepared for this workshop, which shed light on (or predict) the effect of extreme weather shocks and long-term climate change on human mobility, and stress the implications for the development community.

Introduction to 'The Unusual Suspects in Climate Change Adaptation – Small Coastal Cities and Towns' Special Issue

2021 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. 105786
Author(s):  
Martin Lehmann ◽  
David C. Major ◽  
James Fitton ◽  
Ken Doust ◽  
Sean O'Donoghue
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Coastal Cities

scholarly journals A room with a view: a special issue with a special perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-210
Author(s):  
Simone Borghesi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Emissions Trading ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Climate Policies

AbstractThe present article describes the main insights deriving from the papers collected in this special issue which jointly provide a ‘room with a view’ on some of the most relevant issues in climate policy such as: the role of uncertainty, the distributional implications of climate change, the drivers and applications of decarbonizing innovation, the role of emissions trading and its interactions with companion policies. While looking at different issues and from different angles, all papers share a similar attention to policy aspects and implications, especially in developing countries. This is particularly important to evaluate whether and to what extent the climate policies adopted thus far in developed countries can be replicated in emerging economies.

scholarly journals Special Issue “Levering Sustainable Food Systems to Address Climate Change (Pandemics and Other Shocks and Hazards): Possible Transformations”

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8206
Author(s):  
Andrew Spring ◽  
Erin Nelson ◽  
Irena Knezevic ◽  
Patricia Ballamingie ◽  
Alison Blay-Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Sustainable Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
The World

Since we first conceived of this Special Issue, “Levering Sustainable Food Systems to Address Climate Change—Possible Transformations”, COVID-19 has turned the world upside down [...]

scholarly journals Poverty and climate change: introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephane Hallegatte ◽  
Marianne Fay ◽  
Edward B. Barbier
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
National Wealth ◽  
Economic Statistics ◽  
Climate Vulnerability ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

AbstractBecause their assets and income represent such a small share of national wealth, the impacts of climate change on poor people, even if dramatic, will be largely invisible in aggregate economic statistics such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Assessing and managing future impacts of climate change on poverty requires different metrics, and specific studies focusing on the vulnerability of poor people. This special issue provides a set of such studies, looking at the exposure and vulnerability of people living in poverty to shocks and stressors that are expected to increase in frequency or intensity due to climate change, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and impacts on agricultural production and ecosystem services. This introduction summarizes their approach and findings, which support the idea that the link between poverty and climate vulnerability goes both ways: poverty is one major driver of people's vulnerability to climate-related shocks and stressors, and this vulnerability is keeping people in poverty. The paper concludes by identifying priorities for future research.

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