scholarly journals Climate Fiction and the Ethics of Existentialism

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-178
Author(s):  
Jens Kramshøj Flinker
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Narrative Ethics ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Reading Practice ◽  
Ethical System ◽  
Positive Side ◽  
Climate Fiction ◽  
Better Than

        The purpose of this article is twofold: Existentialism as a philosophical discipline and ethical reference point seems to be a rare guest in ecocriticism. Based on an analysis of Lyra Koli's climate fiction Allting Växer (2018) this article argues that existentialism has something to offer to the ecocritical field. I make use of an econarratological approach, drawing on James Phelan's narrative ethics. Thus, I emphasize the article's second purpose, as narrative ethics is about reconstructing narratives own ethical standards rather than the reader bringing a prefabricated ethical system to the narrative. This reading practice can help to question the idea that some ethical and philosophical standards are better than others within ecocriticism—by encouraging scholars in ecocriticism to relate to what existentialism has to do with climate change in this specific case. In continuation of my analysis, I argue that Allting Växer is pointing at a positive side of existentialist concepts such as anxiety or anguish, that is, that there is a reflecting and changing potential in these moods or experiences. This existentialist framework contrasts with the interpretation of "Anthropocene disorder" (Timothy Clark) as the only outcome when confronting the complexity of the Anthropocene.

A test of prospect theory

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Feeny ◽  
Ken Eng
Keyword(s):  
Total Hip Arthroplasty ◽  
Prospect Theory ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Standard Gamble ◽  
Health States ◽  
Current Health ◽  
Current State ◽  
Direction Opposite ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Utility Scores

Objectives: Prospect theory (PT) hypothesizes that people judge states relative to a reference point, usually assumed to be their current health. States better than the reference point are valued on a concave portion of the utility function; worse states are valued on a convex portion. Using prospectively collected utility scores, the objective is to test empirically implications of PT.Methods: Osteoarthritis (OA) patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty periodically provided standard gamble scores for three OA hypothetical states describing mild, moderate, and severe OA as well as their subjectively defined current state (SDCS). Our hypothesis was that most patients improved between the pre- and postsurgery assessments. According to PT, scores for hypothetical states previously > SDCS but now < SDCS should be lower at the postsurgery assessment.Results: Fourteen patients met the criteria for testing the hypothesis. Predictions were confirmed for 0 patients; there was no change or mixed results for 6 patients (42.9 percent); and scores moved in the direction opposite to that predicted by PT for 8 patients (57.1 percent).Conclusions: In general, the direction and magnitude of the changes in hypothetical-state scores do not conform to the predictions of PT.

scholarly journals Invasive Plants and Climate Change Will Alter Desert Landscapes

Eos ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Kornei
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Invasive Plants ◽  
Biosphere 2 ◽  
Drought Conditions ◽  
Better Than

In experiments conducted in Biosphere 2, invasive buffelgrass weathers higher temperatures and drought conditions better than its native brethren.

A Legacy of Zeal and Perseverance

2021 ◽  
pp. 223-259
Author(s):  
Clive Gamble
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Modern Synthesis ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
The Past ◽  
Better Than

What happened to the surviving time revolutionaries and their legacy? Knighthoods, high office, a peerage, and bespoke mansions all followed. France preserved Boucher de Perthes’s legacy better than England that of its time revolutionaries, whom it forgot. War, however, destroyed Abbeville in 1940 and with it Boucher de Perthes’s collections and public statue. Lubbock was the last to die in 1913, having seen the Piltdown forgery. Then follows an excursion into the development of the modern synthesis of human origins with scientific dates, a detailed deep-sea record of climate change and the ages of the sites they found on the Somme and at Hoxne. Changing views of our remote ancestors are shown in artists’ imaginings and through bestselling authors. The reticence of Prestwich and Evans to speculate was forgotten as deep history was fleshed out to resonate with the present. The chapter ends by placing the time revolution at the start of an interest in universal and deep history. The time revolutionaries changed our relationship with time and set in motion a dialogue with the past that continues to challenge and enthral.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 199-202
Author(s):  
Philip Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Climate History ◽  
Accurate Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Religious Dimensions ◽  
Better Than

My own interest in the topics of this book dates back a good many years. In fact, it predates the emergence of the modern field of climate history, or the identification of global warming as an incipient menace. In saying that, I am claiming no status as a prodigy, still less a prophet. Rather, in my teenage years, I read a great deal of speculative fiction, science fiction, in which themes of climate change and cataclysm have long percolated, at least since the latter years of the nineteenth century. We can debate how accurate the scientific analyses or predictions were in many of these works—in many cases, the level of accurate knowledge was minimal—but those works had the inordinate advantage of thinking through the human and cultural consequences of catastrophe, commonly speculating about religious dimensions. Obviously, some works succeeded better than others in that regard, but the essential project was critically important. If we are foretelling that the world will be assailed by lethal menaces, then we cannot fail to go on to imagine what the political or cultural consequences would or should be....

Climate Fiction and the World Literary System

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-74
Author(s):  
Andrew Milner ◽  
J.R. Burgmann
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability ◽  
System P ◽  
Green Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Climate Fiction ◽  
Literary System ◽  
Structural Determinant

The chapter opens with a discussion of two early instances of global warming cli-fi, Arthur Herzog’s Heat and George Turner’s The Sea and Summer, and argues that both are more or less oblivious to the wider world beyond their respective national frontiers. It proceeds to elaborate an account of the place of SF in the world literary system, understood in Wallerstein and Moretti’s terms as comprising a core, semi-periphery and periphery. This model is then applied more specifically to cli-fi, distinguishing between structural and conjunctural determinants of the evolution of the sub-genre. The main structural determinant, it argues, will be the world SF system. But this may be either countered or reinforced by one or more of three main conjunctural factors: the degree of perceived vulnerability to extreme climate change of any particular national political economy; the salience of Green politics within any particular national polity; and the salience of climate change within broader environmentalist discussions in any particular national culture. The chapter concludes with critical accounts of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Science in the Capital trilogy, Frank Schätzing’s Der Schwarm, Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy and Antti Tuomainen’s Parantaja.

The Drivers of Corporate Climate Change Strategies and Public Policy

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Backman ◽  
Alain Verbeke ◽  
Robert A. Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Information Management ◽  
North American ◽  
Climate Change Impact ◽  
Change Strategies ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
Better Than

Effective public policy to mitigate climate change footprints should build on data-driven analysis of firm-level strategies. This article’s conceptual approach augments the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and identifies investments in four firm-level resource domains (Governance, Information management, Systems, and Technology [ GISTe]) to develop capabilities in climate change impact mitigation. The authors denote the resulting framework as the GISTe model, which frames their analysis and public policy recommendations. This research uses the 2008 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) database, with high-quality information on firm-level climate change strategies for 552 companies from North America and Europe. In contrast to the widely accepted myth that European firms are performing better than North American ones, the authors find a different result. Many firms, whether European or North American, do not just “talk” about climate change impact mitigation, but actually do “walk the talk.” European firms appear to be better than their North American counterparts in “walk I,” denoting attention to governance, information management, and systems. But when it comes down to “walk II,” meaning actual Technology-related investments, North American firms’ performance is equal or superior to that of the European companies. The authors formulate public policy recommendations to accelerate firm-level, sector-level, and cluster-level implementation of climate change strategies.

scholarly journals The Co-construction of Agricultural Policies as a Bottom-up Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change and Variability (CCV) in the Regional County Municipality (RCM) of Haut-Richelieu, Québec

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherine Akkari ◽  
Christopher Robin Bryant ◽  
Claude Marois
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Climate Change And Variability ◽  
Positive Side ◽  
Farming Community

The overall objective of this article is to improve the understanding of the adaptation process to climate change and variability at the farm and the farming community levels through a mostly bottom-up process, while using the approach of co-construction in the Regional County Municipality (RCM) of Haut-Richelieu. To achieve this, the grounded theory approach is used. The results show that all participants recognized the fact that climate change is happening. According to the farmers, climate change is the main determinant of adaptive capacity, followed by institutional support. Most farmers recognized that extremes (or variability) are associated with climate change. To a lesser extent, some farmers concluded that one should not separate climatic factors from non-climatic factors. The results also show that while some farmers recognized the positive and the negative side of climate change and variability (CCV), the others are very optimistic about it as if they only see the positive side; there is nonetheless a need to see both sides of CCV. Moreover, there is still some uncertainty related to CCV, which comes from disinformation and desensitization of the farmers mainly in relation to the causes of CCV along with the nature of climatic events. Despite the latter, the results show that agriculture in the RCM of Haut-Richelieu is well adapted to cope with climate change and variability. Farmers have already adopted measures to cope with CCV; however, they adapt spontaneously. Furthermore, nearly all farmers need help mainly from the agricultural public and private institutions to better adapt to CCV.

scholarly journals You can’t be better than me: The role of the reference point in modulating people’s pursuit of wealth

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 65-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Pittarello ◽  
Enrico Rubaltelli ◽  
Rino Rumiati
Keyword(s):  
Reference Point ◽  
Better Than

scholarly journals Climate Fiction and the Crisis of Imagination

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-119
Author(s):  
Chiara Xausa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
Environmental Humanities ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Environmental Racism ◽  
Slow Violence ◽  
Climate Fiction ◽  
Climate Crisis

This article analyses the representation of environmental crisis and climate crisis in Carpentaria (2006) and The Swan Book (2013) by Indigenous Australian writer Alexis Wright. Building upon the groundbreaking work of environmental humanities scholars such as Heise (2008), Clark (2015), Trexler (2015) and Ghosh (2016), who have emphasised the main challenges faced by authors of climate fiction, it considers the novels as an entry point to address the climate-related crisis of culture – while acknowledging the problematic aspects of reading Indigenous texts as antidotes to the 'great derangement’ – and the danger of a singular Anthropocene narrative that silences the ‘unevenly universal’ (Nixon, 2011) responsibilities and vulnerabilities to environmental harm. Exploring themes such as environmental racism, ecological imperialism, and the slow violence of climate change, it suggests that Alexis Wright’s novels are of utmost importance for global conversations about the Anthropocene and its literary representations, as they bring the unevenness of environmental and climate crisis to visibility.

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