Planning for the Future in the Face of Climate Change

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Christopher Crockett ◽  
Paul Kohl ◽  
Julia Rockwell ◽  
Teresa DiGenova
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face

Epilogue

2016 ◽  
pp. 119-122
Author(s):  
Christian W. McMillen
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Past ◽  
Public Health Infrastructure ◽  
Health Infrastructure ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face ◽  
New Challenges

There will be more pandemics. A pandemic might come from an old, familiar foe such as influenza or might emerge from a new source—a zoonosis that makes its way into humans, perhaps. The epilogue asks how the world will confront pandemics in the future. It is likely that patterns established long ago will re-emerge. But how will new challenges, like climate change, affect future pandemics and our ability to respond? Will lessons learned from the past help with plans for the future? One thing is clear: in the face of a serious pandemic much of the developing world’s public health infrastructure will be woefully overburdened. This must be addressed.

Managing risks to Canada’s boreal zone: transdisciplinary thinking in pursuit of sustainability1

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena F. Creed ◽  
Peter N. Duinker ◽  
Jacqueline N. Serran ◽  
James W.N. Steenberg
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Boreal Zone ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face ◽  
Iso 31000

The policy landscape is changing as Canada considers its energy future. The Canadian boreal zone has a large amount of natural resources, giving Canada options in terms of its energy future. However, the sustainability of the boreal zone has been deemed at risk because of the cumulative effects of intensifying natural resource activities (forestry, mining, oil and gas, and renewable energy) on ecosystems in the face of the uncertainty associated with climate change. As Canada considers the future of the boreal zone, there will be additional challenges to ensure that we do not further disadvantage marginalized human populations living in the boreal zone who are at high risk of the consequences of climate change. In response to these challenges, the Boreal 2050 project was initiated to understand the risk of failing to achieve the future sustainability of the boreal zone using the ISO 31000 risk management framework. First, we identified the major drivers of the risks to the sustainability of the boreal zone, which include atmospheric change, the demand for provisioning and nonprovisioning ecosystem services, demographics and societal values, industrial innovation and infrastructure, and governance. Second, we analyzed the risk of failing to achieve a sustainable boreal zone using scenario analysis, where we framed four plausible future scenarios around two axes of change: the global economy’s energy and society’s capacity to adapt. Third, we evaluated the risk and determined that present governance systems are driving Canada towards failing to achieve a sustainable boreal zone. To ensure the future sustainability of the boreal, we need to shift from an oil/gas/coal-producing country to a renewable energy leader and shift from using a top-down strategy where Canadians have a low capacity to adapt towards a mixture of top-down and bottom-up participatory strategies where Canadians—particularly Indigenous peoples living in the boreal zone—have a higher capacity to adapt. To facilitate this shift in governance, substantive changes will be required in institutional arrangements designed to protect boreal ecosystems.

scholarly journals Predicted Shifts in the Distributions of Atlantic Reef-Building Corals in the Face of Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silas C. Principe ◽  
André L. Acosta ◽  
João E. Andrade ◽  
Tito M. C. Lotufo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Coral Species ◽  
Relative Concentration ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Brazilian Coast ◽  
Cascading Effects ◽  
Eastern Atlantic Ocean ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face

Many species drive the diversity of ecosystems by adding structural complexity to the environment. In coral reefs, stony corals act as habitat-forming species, increasing niche availability for other organisms. Some coral species play key roles as reef builders due to their abundance or morpho-functional characteristics. Thus, changes in the distributions of these species can entail cascading effects in entire ecosystems. With climate change, many coral species are experiencing shifts in their distributions, threatening the preservation of coral reefs. Here, we projected the current and future distributions of three key reef builders of the Atlantic (Mussismilia hispida, Montastraea cavernosa, and the Siderastrea complex) under three relative concentration pathway scenarios: the most optimistic, the most pessimistic and one moderate scenario (RCP2.6, 4.5, and 8.5). Our models revealed that all the above species will undergo habitat loss in the future (2100) in the most pessimistic scenario, although new areas could become suitable, including regions in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Additionally, when considering only its actual range of occurrence, M. hispida will lose habitats under all future scenarios. Moreover, in some regions of both the Tropical Northwestern Atlantic (TNA) and the Brazilian coast, these three species could disappear, with detrimental consequences for the associated communities. We highlight the need for an urgent change of course to guarantee functional reefs in the Atlantic in the future.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND FORESTS OF THE FUTURE: MANAGING IN THE FACE OF UNCERTAINTY

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 2145-2151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance I. Millar ◽  
Nathan L. Stephenson ◽  
Scott L. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face

A Conversation about Climate Change Law and the ‘International Community’

Climate Law ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 229-243
Author(s):  
Cinnamon P. Carlarne ◽  
Mohamed S. Helal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
International Community ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face ◽  
International Climate ◽  
International Climate Change

As international climate change law approaches its third decade of existence, the field continues to evolve and prove resilient in the face of daunting political, technical, and economic challenges. Moving forward with efforts to structure effective responses to climate change requires scholars and policymakers to engage with the reality that international cooperation on climate change continues to lag. Early efforts to address climate change presumed the existence of an international community that would facilitate the level of cooperation needed to structure effective solutions to a massive and complex collective-action problem. This vision of the international community, however, is an illusion the reliance on which may hamper efforts to think critically about how to address the causes and consequences of climate change. Here, we deconstruct the idea of a cooperative, international community as an operative basis for international climate change law, with the hope of facilitating increasingly open conversation around effective and sustainable modes of cooperation in the future.

scholarly journals Planning for climate change through additions to a national protected area network: implications for cost and configuration

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1794) ◽  
pp. 20190117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua J. Lawler ◽  
D. Scott Rinnan ◽  
Julia L. Michalak ◽  
John C. Withey ◽  
Christopher R. Randels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Suitable Habitat ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Reserve Network ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Conservation Plans ◽  
The Cost

Expanding the network of protected areas is a core strategy for conserving biodiversity in the face of climate change. Here, we explore the impacts on reserve network cost and configuration associated with planning for climate change in the USA using networks that prioritize areas projected to be climatically suitable for 1460 species both today and into the future, climatic refugia and areas likely to facilitate climate-driven species movements. For 14% of the species, networks of sites selected solely to protect areas currently climatically suitable failed to provide climatically suitable habitat in the future. Protecting sites climatically suitable for species today and in the future significantly changed the distribution of priority sites across the USA—increasing relative protection in the northeast, northwest and central USA. Protecting areas projected to retain their climatic suitability for species cost 59% more than solely protecting currently suitable areas. Including all climatic refugia and 20% of areas that facilitate climate-driven movements increased the cost by another 18%. Our results indicate that protecting some types of climatic refugia may be a relatively inexpensive adaptation strategy. Moreover, although addressing climate change in conservation plans will have significant implications for the configuration of networks, the increased cost of doing so may be relatively modest. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions’.

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