scholarly journals Anthropological Perspectives on Natural Resources Management, Climate Change and Global Warming: From Quandary to Actions

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Prakash Upadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Language And Culture

Anthropology brings its core theoretical tenet that culture frames the way people perceive, understand, experience, and respond to key elements of the worlds which they live in. This framing is grounded in systems of meanings and relationships that mediate human engagements with natural phenomena and processes including climate change. Anthropology’s potential contributions to natural resources, climate and global warming researches are the description and analysis of the mediating layers of cultural meanings, norms and social practices, which cannot be easily incarcerate by methods of other disciplines. There are vital key contributions that anthropology can bring to understandings of climate change. The foremost is awareness to the cultural values and political relations that shape the production and interpretation of climate change knowledge and shape the basis of responses to ongoing environmental changes as ecological colonialism. Anthropological knowledge is holistic –referring to the study of the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture. Climate change is ultimately about culture, for in its wake, more and more of the intimate human-environment relations, fundamental to the world’s cultural diversity. Anthropological lens cram to learn about human significance of climate change by studying the manner and the knowledge system of people in different cultures and communities to understand to the new threats of climate change, global warming and the local responses to tackle the menace. Through anthropological lenses on the scale of global geopolitics, anthropologists perceive the causes and effects of climate change to be about people and their life, survival, power, ethics and morals, environmental costs and justice, and cultural and spiritual endurance with a perception Raise Your Voice Not Sea Level. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ctbijis.v2i1.10815   Crossing the Border: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Vol.2(1) 2014: 75-92

Diatoms in Saline Lakes Paleoclimate and Paleoecology Interpretations

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 149-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik J. Ekdahl
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Light Availability ◽  
Ionic Concentration ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Environmental Response

Average global temperatures are predicted to rise over the next century and changes in precipitation, humidity, and drought frequency will likely accompany this global warming. Understanding associated changes in continental precipitation and temperature patterns in response to global change is an important component of long-range environmental planning. For example, agricultural management plans that account for decreased precipitation over time will be less susceptible to the effects of drought through implementation of water conservation techniques.A detailed understanding of environmental response to past climate change is key to understanding environmental changes associated with global climate change. To this end, diatoms are sensitive to a variety of limnologic parameters, including nutrient concentration, light availability, and the ionic concentration and composition of the waters that they live in (e.g. salinity). Diatoms from numerous environments have been used to reconstruct paleosalinity levels, which in turn have been used as a proxy records for regional and local paleoprecipitation. Long-term records of salinity or paleoprecipitation are valuable in reconstructing Quaternary paleoclimate, and are important in terms of developing mitigation strategies for future global climate change. High-resolution paleoclimate records are also important in groundtruthing global climate simulations, especially in regions where the consequences of global warming may be severe.

scholarly journals Effects of climate change on environmental sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 250 ◽  
pp. 01005
Author(s):  
Manuela Tvaronavičienė
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
The World

Adaptation strategies to the climate change include measures that can be taken to take account of the new climatic conditions. This paper aims at assessing the effects of climate change on environmental sustainability. This sustainability constitutes a major problem in many countries and regions around the world that experience industrial pollution, degradation of land as well as natural disasters caused by the global warming. The paper shows that adaptation strategies are often parallel strategies that can be integrated simultaneously with the management of natural resources. They can make resources more efficient and resilient to climate change. The paper shows that reducing the carbon footprint by more than 50 percent by 2030 and eliminating it by 2050 might be a viable solution how to tackle the climate change and support the environmental sustainability.

Global Natural Hazard and Disaster Vulnerability Management

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-104
Author(s):  
Nkemdilim Maureen Ekpeni ◽  
Amidu Owolabi Ayeni
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
Vulnerability Management ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Two Sides

This chapter examines both concept of global hazard and disaster and its management in the lights of its vulnerability. It categorized the different types of hazards and disasters and their components. From the research findings, it is observed that hazards and disaster are two sides of a coin. They occur at the interface between human systems and natural events in our physical environments. This chapter highlights that the major environmental changes driving hazards and vulnerability to disasters are climate change, land-use changes, and degradation of natural resources. After presenting a typology of disasters and their magnitude globally, management of disaster has transited from just being a “response and relief”-centric approach to a mitigation and preparedness approach.

scholarly journals Global warming and climate change with reference to South Africa. Some perspectives

2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 294-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gawie De Villiers ◽  
Giel Viljoen ◽  
Herman Booysen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Flood Damage ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Sufficient Evidence

According to the geological history of the earth, climate change is an integral part of environmental changes that occurred over time. Sufficient evidence is provided of recurrent wet and dry and cold and hot periods due to natural circumstances. Since the industrial revolution human activities increasingly contribute to air pollution by releasing huge volumes of carbon dioxide and other gasses into the atmosphere, so much so that it is generally accepted that increase in global warming the past decades is directly linked to human activities. Observable signs of human induced climate change include increasing average temperatures at many places, melting ice caps in polar areas, rising sea levels on a global scale and coastal disturbances and damages due to storm surges on coastal areas in various countries, also in South Africa. Consensus from a number of hydrological-meteorological circulation models show, for South Africa, a rise in average annual winter and summer temperatures of between 1.5 and 3.0 degrees Centigrade the following number of decades with a strong possibility of an increase in rainfall in the eastern parts and a decrease in rainfall in the western parts. Bigger floods and longer droughts should occur more frequently as well as severe sea onslaught activities along the eastern and south-eastern coastal areas. The net impact of the predictions on the community is negative. There is though other scientists who indicate that no concrete proof of climate change in South Africa exists; including changes with regard to river floods and droughts. According to more beneficial than detrimental. Despite the differences in opinion about the relative contribution of natural and human activities to the present global warming, changes in hydrological and characteristics of floods in several parts of South Africa in the immediate past, necessitate modifications to available models and approaches to flood damage management and control. Flood conditions need to be managed with applicable models. Modifications are furthermore essential as a result of meaningful demographic, social, physical and economic changes in the working and living environments of people and communities.

scholarly journals Large mammal exploitation during the c. 14–11 ka Oakhurst techno-complex at Klipdrift Cave, South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 116 (5/6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Discamps ◽  
Christopher S. Henshilwood ◽  
Karen L. van Niekerk
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Large Mammal ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Subsistence Patterns ◽  
The Impact

Understanding how hunter-gatherers adapted to the marked environmental changes of the last glacialinterglacial transition (~18 to 11.7 ka cal. BP) remains a key question for archaeologists. South Africa, with its rich and well-preserved archaeological sequences, has a major role to play in this study. Reconstructing the subsistence strategies of people during the Later Stone Age (LSA) is crucial for investigating human– environment interactions at this period in South Africa, yet data are scarce. Recent excavations at a new LSA site, Klipdrift Cave, in the southern Cape, revealed c. 14–11 ka levels with excellent faunal preservation associated with an Oakhurst lithic industry. Taphonomic and zooarchaeological analyses of these levels show an almost exclusive accumulation of large mammal remains by LSA groups, with evidence of meat removal, marrow extraction, fire use and the preferential import of nutritious elements back to the site. Large mammals from the site indicate a relatively stable environment dominated by open grasslands that is in accordance with isotopic analyses, with only subtle diachronic variability. Comparison of faunal dynamics with changes in lithic industries, shellfish density and composition reflects complex, asynchronous changes in the macromammal, micromammal, shellfish and lithic records throughout the Oakhurst levels. Rather than evidence of a strong impact of global climate change, Klipdrift Cave shows subtle shifts in subsistence patterns and technology that are better explained by internal societal dynamics and the history of the Oakhurst techno-complex, or local changes in site occupation and direct environment. Significance • LSA archaeological sequences can document the impact of the marked environmental changes of the Pleistocene–Holocene transition on hunter-gatherer societies. Studies of past subsistence strategies are central to our understanding of human–environment interactions in these contexts. • Zooarchaeological, taphonomical and palaeoecological analyses of the large mammal remains from the excavated LSA sequence at Klipdrift Cave provide new data on these interactions. The data highlight asynchronous changes in subsistence patterns, lithic technology and local environment, supporting a complex interplay between climate change, local environment, societal changes and human prehistory. • Klipdrift Cave data set also shows that excavation and analytical choices can strongly bias faunal analysis and environmental reconstructions based thereon.

scholarly journals Creating the Healthiest Nation: Climate Change and Environmental Health Impacts in Nigeria: A Narrative Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. p61
Author(s):  
Morufu Olalekan Raimi ◽  
Tonye Vivien Odubo ◽  
Adedoyin Oluwatoyin Omidiji
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation

Climate change is a “threat multiplier and a prime cause of universal threat to health in the 21st century, including 4th industrial revolution. The health effects of climate change will increase dramatically over the next few years and pose a risk to human life and the well-being of billions of people. As we all know, the milieu is fundamental to our sustained earth survival and environmental changes (natural and artificial) affect it either to the benefit or detriment of humans. Climate change is one of such changes in the physical environment which has grave consequences for the existence of mankind. Climate change is interestingly, no longer a speculative subject. There is a good international scientific consensus existing to show that this phenomenon is real and if recent global warming movements continue, temperature rise, ocean levels and more frequently weather conditions that is extreme (storms, heat-waves, droughts, floods, cyclones, etc.) may perhaps cause severe food shortages, loss of shelter, water, livelihoods, extinction of flora and fauna species. In the recent past, the earth has witnessed devastating weather-related events in different portions of the globe including hurricanes (e.g., Katrina and Rita in USA), tsunamis, typhoons, flooding especially in the Asian Continent, wild fires especially in Australia, USA, etc. Currently, the on-going flood incident in Pakistan that has so far claimed about 1,600 lives and rendered another four million people homeless is a sad reminder of the ugly and devastating consequences of global warming on the environment. There is no gainsaying the fact that humankind is paying dearly for the massive alterations in the environment that have induced changes in climate. This is because of frequent incidence of changes in climate related disasters in the world today. There is hardly any month that passes without an incident occurring in one part of the globe or another since the advent of the 21st century. Changes in climate has significant and potentially devastating health consequences, whether through direct actions (e.g., deaths resulting from heat wave and weather disasters) or disruption of complex biological methods (e.g., changes in infectious diseases patterns, supplies in fresh water and production of food).The report of the fourth assessment of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have globally submitted that “it is estimated that the health of millions of people is affected, for instance, malnutrition increases; deaths increase, diseases and injury; burden of increase diarrheal diseases; frequency of increased cardio-respiratory diseases caused by high levels of ground-level ozone in cities due to climate change; besides altered spatial distribution of some communicable diseases”. The association amongst changes in climate, its drivers, systemic effects, health and socioeconomic growth, mitigation and adaptation has been specified.

Transitioning to a Prosperous, Resilient and Carbon-Free Economy

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Early Adoption ◽  
Weather Events

This book is a comprehensive manual for decision-makers and policy leaders addressing the issues around human caused climate change, which threatens communities with increasing extreme weather events, sea level rise, and declining habitability of some regions due to desertification or inundation. The book looks at both mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and adaption to changing conditions as the climate changes. It encourages the early adoption of climate change measures, showing that rapid decarbonisation and improved resilience can be achieved while maintaining prosperity. The book takes a sector-by-sector approach, starting with energy and includes cities, industry, natural resources, and agriculture, enabling practitioners to focus on actions relevant to their field. It uses case studies across a range of countries, and various industries, to illustrate the opportunities available. Blending technological insights with economics and policy, the book presents the tools decision-makers need to achieve rapid decarbonisation, whilst unlocking and maintaining productivity, profit, and growth.

scholarly journals Barriers and Benefits of Changing People’s Behavior Regarding Energy Saving of Air Conditioners at Home

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orose Leelakulthanit
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Role Model ◽  
The Other ◽  
Air Conditioners ◽  
Saving Behavior ◽  
Desirable Behavior

Energy saving is a desirable behavior in terms of solving the global warming problem. In order to change people’s behavior from the non-saving to the saving use of air conditioners, for example, the barriers to and benefits of changing their behavior should be investigated. This study collected data from four focus groups consisting of eight adults in each group. Two of the focus groups were non-energy savers in terms of their use of air conditioners while the other two focus groups were energy savers in their use of air conditioners. The results indicated that the barriers to energy saving behavior regarding air conditioners were comfort, habit, and privacy. The benefits of energy saving in relation to the use of air conditioners included saving money, alleviating the climate change situation, saving natural resources, behaving as a good role model for family members, gaining better health, and lengthening the life of the air conditioners.

scholarly journals Towards sustainable community conservation in tropical savanna ecosystems: a management framework for ecotourism ventures in a changing environment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boycen Kumira Mudzengi ◽  
Edson Gandiwa ◽  
Never Muboko ◽  
Chiedza Ngonidzashe Mutanga
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Community Conservation ◽  
Feedback Systems ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Changing Environment ◽  
Management Framework ◽  
Depth Analysis

AbstractThe sustainability of ecotourism ventures under the Community Based Natural Resources Management in Zimbabwe is under stress due to environmental changes emanating from effects associated with socioeconomic factors, climate change and epidemic diseases. Using an in-depth analysis of the Mahenye ecotourism venture from the year 1982 to 2020 as a case study, this study sought to propose a management framework for ecotourism ventures in a changing environment by examining the sustainability of community conservation initiatives in Zimbabwe. Research methods included expert opinion from two natural resources governance academics, desktop research and authors’ experiences about Mahenye ecotourism venture. Results indicated that the Mahenye ecotourism venture has faced significant challenges but has been resilient to withstand the shocks such as population increase, exclusion of youths and women, climate change, hyperinflation, donor fatigue, reduced international ecotourist visitation and international hunting bans emanating from socioeconomic and political environmental changes. These shocks have a negative effect on the main elements of an ecotourism venture such as the wildlife resources, amenities, attraction, accessibility, management system, marketing, beneficiaries and linkages. The management framework highlights the interventions that can be made to enable ecotourism ventures in changing environments to remain sustainable. The interventions are promoting strong community cohesion, developing sustainable self-funding mechanisms, promoting multiple sources of income, carrying targeted environmental education programs, capacity building in managing ecotourism in periods of hyperinflation, improved marketing and offering a unique experience, promoting climate smart ecotourism, promoting domestic ecotourism visits, implementing effective feedback systems among stakeholders to decrease uncertainties and lobbying to have hunting bans removed.

Climate Change and the Health of Nations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony McMichael
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Human History ◽  
Agrarian Society ◽  
The Face ◽  
Mayan Civilization

When we think of "climate change," we think of man-made global warming, caused by greenhouse gas emissions. But natural climate change has occurred throughout human history, and populations have had to adapt to the climate's vicissitudes. Anthony J. McMichael, a renowned epidemiologist and a pioneer in the field of how human health relates to climate change, is the ideal person to tell this story. Climate Change and the Health of Nations shows how the natural environment has vast direct and indirect repercussions for human health and welfare. McMichael takes us on a tour of human history through the lens of major transformations in climate. From the very beginning of our species some five million years ago, human biology has evolved in response to cooling temperatures, new food sources, and changing geography. As societies began to form, they too adapted in relation to their environments, most notably with the development of agriculture eleven thousand years ago. Agricultural civilization was a Faustian bargain, however: the prosperity and comfort that an agrarian society provides relies on the assumption that the environment will largely remain stable. Indeed, for agriculture to succeed, environmental conditions must be just right, which McMichael refers to as the "Goldilocks phenomenon." Global warming is disrupting this balance, just as other climate-related upheavals have tested human societies throughout history. As McMichael shows, the break-up of the Roman Empire, the bubonic Plague of Justinian, and the mysterious collapse of Mayan civilization all have roots in climate change. Why devote so much analysis to the past, when the daunting future of climate change is already here? Because the story of mankindâs previous survival in the face of an unpredictable and unstable climate, and of the terrible toll that climate change can take, could not be more important as we face the realities of a warming planet. This sweeping magnum opus is not only a rigorous, innovative, and fascinating exploration of how the climate affects the human condition, but also an urgent call to recognize our species' utter reliance on the earth as it is.

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