scholarly journals Challenges to belief systems in the context of climate change adaptation

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brechtje S. Jooste ◽  
Jon-Vegard Dokken ◽  
Dewald Van Niekerk ◽  
Ruth A. Loubser
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Q Methodology ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social

This article focuses on the social aspects of climate change and explores the interrelationship between belief systems and adaptation. The links and interaction between external and internal realities are examined from the perspective of contextual vulnerability, with a focus on the multifaceted structure of belief systems. The aim was to determine those challenges regarding climate change adaptation that are caused by a community’s belief system and to make recommendations to overcome them. Diverse perceptions of climate change and beliefs from three townships in the North-West Province of South Africa were collected and analysed using Q-methodology, finding five distinct worldview narratives. These narratives were named naturalist collectivist, religious, religious determinist, activist collectivist and structural thinker. It is recommended that policymakers aim to address diverse views and should be informed by factors that increase resistance to belief revision. Information should be framed in ways that foster the perception of internal control, are clearly evidence based and encourage a desire to learn more.

scholarly journals Climate Change Adaptation Practices and Rice Farmers’ Level of Living in North-West, Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Danlami Haruna Yakubu ◽  
Joseph Gambo Akpoko ◽  
Mathew Oluwatuyi Akinola ◽  
Zakari Abdulsalam
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Sampling Procedure ◽  
Rice Varieties ◽  
North West ◽  
Rice Farmers ◽  
The North ◽  
Adaptation Practices ◽  
Level Of Living

The study examined the effect of climate change adaptation practices on rice farmers’ level of living in North-West, Nigeria. It targeted Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States in the North-West, Nigeria that are among the major rice producing States in the country. A multistage sampling procedure was used to obtain a sample of 522 farmers for the study. The data were obtained with the aid of structured interview schedule were analysed using both descriptive (frequency counts, percentages, ranges and means) and inferential (Chi-square) statistics. Findings of the study reveal that the majority (96%) of the respondents had their income from rice production, within the ₦50,000.00 to N499,999.00 (143 to 1,429 USD) range. The mean rice income was ₦308,742.00 (882 USD). The majority (84.48%) and (77.40%) of the respondents used improved rice varieties and intercropping as climate change adaptation practices, respectively. Other climate change adaptation practices used by the rice farmers included moderate use of fertilizers (93.10%) and other chemicals (89.85%), as well as use of organic manure (99.43%). The farmers also adjusted the planting calendar through early planting (92.34%) and early harvesting (93.10%). Similarly, the majority (89.85%) of the respondents made mounds and ridges across slopes while 96.17% and 89.08% used rivers/streams and dug wells for irrigation. About 51% of the rice farmers spent ₦5,000.00 - ₦370,999.00 of their rice income on vehicles. 54% spent ₦8,000.00 - ₦92,299.00 of their rice income on electronics and only about 14% spent ₦4,000.00 - ₦102,999.00 of their rice income on land and housing. There was a significant (X2 = 258.6325; p < 0.00) relationship between farmers’ use of climate change adaptation practices and their level of living. The study concluded that rice farmers’ use of climate change adaptation practices could lead to improvement in their rice income and level of living. Keywords: Climate change, Adaptation practices, Rice farmers, Level of living

scholarly journals Religious beliefs and climate change adaptation: A study of three rural South African communities

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Schuman ◽  
Jon-Vegard Dokken ◽  
Dewald Van Niekerk ◽  
Ruth A. Loubser
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
South African ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Community Members ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Education Data

This article argues that religious beliefs significantly influence a community’s understanding and experience of climate change adaptation, indicating the need for an inclusion of such information in climate change adaptation education. Data were collected using the Q-method, whereby recurring statements were identified from semi-structured interviews with participants from three rural communities in the North-West province of South Africa: Ikageng, Ventersdorp and Jouberton. The research found that community members who regard themselves as religious (overall of the Christian faith) fall under two groups: the religious determinists or fatalists, who see climate as a natural process that is governed by God, and religious participants who deny this ‘naturalness’ and acknowledge humans’ impact on the climate.

scholarly journals Ensemble models on palaeoclimate to predict India's groundwater challenge

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Partha Sarathi Datta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Humid Climate ◽  
Ensemble Models ◽  
North West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
14C Age

In many parts of the world, freshwater crisis is largely due to increasing water consumption and pollution by rapidly growing population and aspirations for economic development, but, ascribed usually to the climate. However, limited understanding and knowledge gaps in the factors controlling climate and uncertainties in the climate models are unable to assess the probable impacts on water availability in tropical regions. In this context, review of ensemble models on δ18O and δD in rainfall and groundwater, 3H- and 14C- ages of groundwater and 14C- age of lakes sediments helped to reconstruct palaeoclimate and long-term recharge in the North-west India; and predict future groundwater challenge. The annual mean temperature trend indicates both warming/cooling in different parts of India in the past and during 1901–2010. Neither the GCMs (Global Climate Models) nor the observational record indicates any significant change/increase in temperature and rainfall over the last century, and climate change during the last 1200 yrs BP. In much of the North-West region, deep groundwater renewal occurred from past humid climate, and shallow groundwater renewal from limited modern recharge over the past decades. To make water management to be more responsive to climate change, the gaps in the science of climate change need to be bridged.

scholarly journals A reflection about the social and technological aspects in flood risk management – the case of the Italian Civil Protection

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. del Carmen Llasat ◽  
F. Siccardi
Keyword(s):  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Civil Protection ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ground Effects ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

Abstract. The right of a person to be protected from natural hazards is a characteristic of the social and economical development of the society. This paper is a contribution to the reflection about the role of Civil Protection organizations in a modern society. The paper is based in the inaugural conference made by the authors on the 9th Plinius Conference on Mediterranean Storms. Two major issues are considered. The first one is sociological; the Civil Protection organizations and the responsible administration of the land use planning should be perceived as reliable as possible, in order to get consensus on the restrictions they pose, temporary or definitely, on the individual free use of the territory as well as in the entire warning system. The second one is technological: in order to be reliable they have to issue timely alert and warning to the population at large, but such alarms should be as "true" as possible. With this aim, the paper summarizes the historical evolution of the risk assessment, starting from the original concept of "hazard", introducing the concepts of "scenario of event" and "scenario of risk" and ending with a discussion about the uncertainties and limits of the most advanced and efficient tools to predict, to forecast and to observe the ground effects affecting people and their properties. The discussion is centred in the case of heavy rains and flood events in the North-West of Mediterranean Region.

scholarly journals The institution and the city: the impact of hospitals and workhouses on the development of Dublin's north inner city, c. 1773–1911

Urban History ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-688
Author(s):  
Katherine Fennelly
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Industry And Commerce ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

AbstractCities develop around industry, markets and transport links. Dublin in the nineteenth century was similar, but additionally the north-west of the city developed around the expansion of a complex of institutional buildings for the reception, confinement and welfare of the poor and sick. This article argues that these institutions were implicit in the development of the modern city in the same way as industry and commerce. The physical development of the buildings altered and defined both the streetscape and, over time, the social identities and historical communities in the locale, in the same way that industrial development defined urban areas.

Paradigm Shifts of the African Worldview

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-361
Author(s):  
Michael Adetunji Ahove ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
African Worldview ◽  
High Level ◽  
Adaptation And Mitigation

Africa is the most vulnerable region of the world due to anthropogenic climate change challenges on account of dependence on nature for the sustenance of agriculture as her main source of income, high level of poverty, and low level of literacy. Climate change adaptation involves strategies of adjusting to the negative effects of climate change, while climate change mitigation involves techniques that help to reduce production of greenhouse gases through burning fossil fuels. The African worldview from the frontier of Nigerian epistemological and ontological perspectives as it finds expression in climate change adaptation and mitigation is built on the foundations of its relationship with nature, traditional religion and belief systems, agricultural practices, and some other day-to-day practices. Worldview analysis of the contemporary Nigerian has been conducted and classified into Original African, Westernized African, and Little Here-and-There African, a paradigm existing in Nigerians irrespective of level of Western education. What will be the fate of the younger Nigerian climate scientist in a globalized and technologically competitive world? This question gives rise to further discussion on the principles and application of the theory of Culturo-Techno-Contextual Approach as postulated by Peter A. Okebukola and applied to creating an environment for meaningful learning on climate change adaptation and mitigation for the future generations of Nigerians.

Assessing the Operationalization of Cultural Theory through Surveys Investigating the Social Aspects of Climate Change Policy Making

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 651-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Cambardella ◽  
Brian D. Fath ◽  
Andrea Werdenigg ◽  
Christian Gulas ◽  
Harald Katzmair
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
The Social

AbstractCultural theory (CT) provides a framework for understanding how social dimensions shape cultural bias and social relations of individuals, including values, view of the natural world, policy preferences, and risk perceptions. The five resulting cultural solidarities are each associated with a “myth of nature”—a concept of nature that aligns with the worldview of each solidarity. When applied to the problem of climate protection policy making, the relationships and beliefs outlined by CT can shed light on how members of the different cultural solidarities perceive their relationship to climate change and associated risk. This can be used to deduce what climate change management policies may be preferred or opposed by each group. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of how CT has been used in surveys of the social aspects of climate change policy making, to assess the construct validity of these studies, and to identify ways for climate change protection policies to leverage the views of each of the cultural solidarities to develop clumsy solutions: policies that incorporate strengths from each of the cultural solidarities’ perspectives. Surveys that include measures of at least fatalism, hierarchism, individualism, and egalitarianism and their associated myths of nature as well as measures of climate change risk perceptions and policy preferences have the highest translation and predictive validity. These studies will be useful in helping environmental managers find clumsy solutions and develop resilient policy according to C.S. Holling’s adaptive cycle.

Climate change and the adoption of agriculture in north-west Europe

2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Bonsall ◽  
Mark G. Macklin ◽  
David E. Anderson ◽  
Robert W. Payton
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Agricultural Expansion ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Agricultural Frontier ◽  
North West ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Northern France ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Poland ◽  
Southern Scandinavia

Farming can be shown to have spread very rapidly across the British Isles and southern Scandinavia around 6000 years ago, following a long period of stasis when the agricultural ‘frontier’ lay further south on the North European Plain between northern France and northern Poland. The reasons for the delay in the adoption of agriculture on the north-west fringe of Europe have been debated by archaeologists for decades. Here, we present fresh evidence that this renewed phase of agricultural expansion was triggered by a significant change in climate. This finding may also have implications for understanding the timing of the expansion of farming into some upland areas of southern and mid-latitude Europe.

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