scholarly journals Vernacular Knowledge, Natural Disasters, and Climate Change in Monsoon Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senjo Nakai
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Disaster Management ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Information Campaigns ◽  
The Public ◽  
Monsoon Asia ◽  
The Past ◽  
Local Resilience ◽  
Technological Limitations

In Monsoon Asia, home to more than half of the world’s population, extreme climatic events are expected to become more frequent and intense due to climate change. Modern disaster management to date has focused on assessing the risks of natural hazards based on historical data, responding to disasters through prevention and mitigation techniques, and information campaigns, instead of vernacular knowledge cultivated in the local environment. This has led the public to a dangerous complacency about the power of technology over nature, and neglecting the possibility of “unforeseen” events. Climate change has not only made it more difficult to assess the risks of natural hazards, but has also diminished local resilience to them. However, since the adoption of the Hyogo Framework for Action in 2005, Monsoon Asia has begun multi-sectoral efforts to build local resilience to natural hazards by integrating vernacular knowledge into modern disaster management. Whereas in the past, experts and government agencies regarded the public as mere recipients of their services, they have now become acutely aware of the need to build partnerships with local communities to compensate for current technological limitations in disaster management, and to imaginatively prepare for the increasing risks of climatic contingencies. To achieve these goals, vernacular knowledge can be a useful resource, and a number of efforts have been initiated in the region to preserve such knowledge in imaginative forms to pass it on to future generations.

Understanding the decay of stone-built cultural heritage

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.J. Smith ◽  
M. Gomez-Heras ◽  
S. McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Building Stone ◽  
Stone Decay ◽  
Building Stones ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Built Heritage ◽  
Common Misconceptions

The problem of the decay and conservation of stone-built heritage is a complex one, requiring input across many disciplines to identify appropriate remedial steps and management strategies. Over the past few decades, earth scientists have brought a unique perspective to this challenging area, drawing on traditions and knowledge obtained from research into landscape development and the natural environment. This paper reviews the crucial themes that have arisen particularly, although not exclusively, from the work of physical geographers — themes that have sought to correct common misconceptions held by the public, as well as those directly engaged in construction and conservation, regarding the nature, causes and controls of building stone decay. It also looks to the future, suggesting how the behaviour of building stones (and hence the work of stone decay scientists) might alter in response to the looming challenge of climate change.

What the past can say about the present and future of fire

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 66-87
Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Marlon
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Combustion Products ◽  
Temperature Changes ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Very High

AbstractWildfires are an integral part of most terrestrial ecosystems. Paleofire records composed of charcoal, soot, and other combustion products deposited in lake and marine sediments, soils, and ice provide a record of the varying importance of fire over time on every continent. This study reviews paleofire research to identify lessons about the nature of fire on Earth and how its past variability is relevant to modern environmental challenges. Four lessons are identified. First, fire is highly sensitive to climate change, and specifically to temperature changes. As long as there is abundant, dry fuel, we can expect that in a warming climate, fires will continue to grow unusually large, severe, and uncontrollable in fire-prone environments. Second, a better understanding of “slow” (interannual to multidecadal) socioecological processes is essential for predicting future wildfire and carbon emissions. Third, current patterns of burning, which are very low in some areas and very high in others—are often unprecedented in the context of the Holocene. Taken together, these insights point to a fourth lesson—that current changes in wildfire dynamics provide an opportunity for paleoecologists to engage the public and help them understand the potential consequences of anthropogenic climate change.

scholarly journals Brief Communication: Key papers of 20 years in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Animesh K. Gain ◽  
Yves Bühler ◽  
Pascal Haegeli ◽  
Daniela Molinari ◽  
Mario Parise ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Earth System ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Major Subject ◽  
20Th Anniversary ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
Twentieth Anniversary

Abstract. To mark the twentieth anniversary of Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS), an interdisciplinary and international journal dedicated to the public discussion and open-access publication of high-quality studies and original research on natural hazards and their consequences, we highlight eleven key publications covering major subject areas of NHESS that stood out within the past 20 years. The selected articles represent excellent scientific contributions in the major areas of natural hazards and risks and helped NHESS to become an exceptionally strong journal representing interdisciplinary areas of natural hazards and risks. At its 20th anniversary, we are proud that NHESS is not only used by scientists to disseminate research results and innovative novel ideas but also by practitioners and decision-makers to present effective solutions and strategies for sustainable disaster risk reduction.

Climate Change and Tourism in English-Language Newspaper Publications

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 352-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihan (David) Ma ◽  
Andrei P. Kirilenko
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
English Language ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Geographical Patterns ◽  
The Past ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Ability To Act

Tourism is one of the sectors of the economy that is most dependent on climate, creating multiple vulnerabilities and new opportunities arising with changing climate. Even though the links between tourism and climate have been well researched, this scientific knowledge has not percolated into policies and the ability to act. This disconnect between scientific knowledge and practices is frequently blamed on inadequate climate change communication to the public in mass media. We studied the mass media framing of climate change and tourism by analyzing English newspaper publications worldwide over the past 30 years. The paper presents a Big Data analysis of the content, geographical patterns, and temporal changes in newspapers’ publications on climate change and tourism.

scholarly journals Disaster Management in Nepalese Context: An Ecological Perspective

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Disaster Management ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Policy Science ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sustainable Livelihood ◽  
Disaster Policy

This paper attempts to identify major natural hazards and disaster incidents damage and losses in Nepal. Using participatory and geographical diversity approach and for collecting information, multi-criteria decision making methods and analytical hierarchic process to identify the hazard prone area with type and intensity and location -specific innovative practices and their legitimization for integrating local and skills knowledge into mainstream development policy , science and technology through educational assessment to incorporate local knowledge as live science for disaster management, climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihood improvement . Findings of the study reveal that their varieties of natural hazards, such as landslides, flood/inundation, droughts, soil erosion, earthquakes, thunderstorm/lightening and fire which are exacerbated by environmental degradation processes. There are location specific local practices for resources conservation, utilization and disaster management for the well-being of communities before, during and after disasters. Such practices passed on from one generation to the next without integrating into mainstream development strategies, disaster policy and science. Ecology knowledge and local skills and materials for hazard prevention and mitigation have the important role to mitigate the hazards and ensure the sustainability for community life style. Further, study forwarded an action-oriented model i.e. political-ecological framework for the environmental resource conservation, disaster management and climate change adaptation practice in mostly vulnerable locations of Nepal. Moreover, measures are suggested to enhance the community capacity for managing their livelihood resources and disaster at the community level with proper integration of local knowledge with science and mainstream development policy.

scholarly journals The Problem with People

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Supply ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Primary Driver ◽  
Change Problem ◽  
Energy Supply Security

Climate change has become a critical political issue in the past twenty years. However, there is a related issue that is often overlooked by governments, industry, and the public: energy supply security, defined by the IAEA (2007) as “...the ability of a nation to muster the energy resources needed to ensure its welfare” (n.p.). Conventional energy requires the burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide, the primary driver behind climate change (Pulles & Amstel, 2010, p. 4). Because of this, the problems of our dependence on fossil fuels and carbon fuelled global warming are interrelated. As such, solving the climate change problem may mitigate energy concerns. However, the potentially disastrous consequences of climate change will not be felt immediately while energy is critical to our daily survival; so, energy issues are arguably a more pressing concern.

scholarly journals Climate change in the context of global environmental governance possibilities

2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (No. 9) ◽  
pp. 436-448
Author(s):  
E. Cihelková
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Information Campaigns ◽  
Climate Change Issue ◽  
Balanced Development ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Objective Interpretation

Recent information campaigns of media and the ongoing substantive discussions of experts have been more and more devoted to the climate change issue and its impacts that could affect our future and threaten the sustainable and balanced development of the planet Earth. However, the categorical apparatus as presented at the above mentioned events is not always used correctly and the same is true about the objective interpretation of the very nature of the processes. Also the explanations of realistic options of governance to mitigate and streamline the effects associated with climate variability in order to achieve the least possible damage of global environment are not always given appropriately. Because of a lack of specific statistical data on climate variability, which are usually at the sole disposal of professional climate scientists, and owing to the attention the public pays to these phenomena only at times of climatic anomalies (floods, extreme heat and drought, etc.), the issue is still on the edge of a broader awareness of people and academic research. This paper is in essence an overview of scientific works, which aims to contribute to the understanding of the issue of climate change by the means of summarizing the main approaches and use of categories, defining their substance and especially clarifying the phenomena in relation to possibilities of global governance.

scholarly journals Žohari od usmenih predaja i vjerovanja u etnotradicijama do suvremene reklame ili o tome kako su žohari na Zemlji preživjeli više od 320 milijuna godina

2021 ◽  
pp. 259-271
Author(s):  
Suzana Marjanić
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past

The first segment of the zooethical article about cockroaches, insects of the order Blattodea, who have lived on Earth for more than 300 million years (cf. Grush, 2016) and will survive the apocalypse of climate change, is based on research by Russian folklorist Aleksandr V. Gura (Гура, 2005), who gives examples of beliefs about cockroaches from the Russian ethnotradition, which I then compare with examples from the Croatian ethnotradition.In the second part of the article, I problematize the contemporary attitude towards cockroaches, starting from the literary reality of the novel Kiklop (Cyclops, 1965) by Ranko Marinković – from “Maar-commercial” (“Maar-tonfilmska reklama”), Melkior’s critique of the ad-centric worldview that begins with his exit from the public toilet in the central town square. The ways in which insecticides are used against cockroaches (and other insects considered by modern civilization as pests) demonstrates that in the past at least some cultures – as Russian ethnotradition demonstrates – were far more considerate of cockroaches, as we suggested in the first part of this dichotomously structured article.

scholarly journals Clashing Tactics, Clashing Generations: The Politics of the School Strikes for Climate in Belgium

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anneleen Kenis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Intergenerational Conflict ◽  
Fault Line ◽  
Gradual Decline ◽  
Climate Politics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Consensus ◽  
The Moment

Much has been written about the challenges of tackling climate change in post-political times. However, times have changed significantly since the onset of the debate on post-politics in environmental scholarship. We have entered a politicised, even polarised world which, as this article argues, a number of voices within the climate movement paradoxically try to bring together again. This article scrutinises new climate movements in a changing world, focusing on the School Strikes for Climate in Belgium. It shows how the movement, through the establishment of an intergenerational conflict line and a strong politicisation of tactics, has succeeded in putting the topic at the heart of the public agenda for months on end. By claiming that we need mobilisation, not studying, the movement went straight against the hegemonic, technocratic understanding of climate politics at the time. However, by keeping its demands empty and establishing a homogenised fault line, the movement made itself vulnerable to forms of neutralisation and recuperation by forces which have an interest in restoring the post-political consensus around technocratic and market-oriented answers to climate change. This might also partly explain its gradual decline. Instead of recycling post-political discourses of the past, this article claims, the challenge is to seize the ‘populist moment’ and build a politicised movement around climate change. One way of doing that is by no longer projecting climate change into the future but reframing the ‘now’ as the moment of crisis which calls on us to build another future.

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