scholarly journals CLIMATE CRISIS: TIME TO RETHINK ECONOMIC PLANNING BY DEMYSTIFYING CAPITALISM AND ITS MARKET(S)

2021 ◽  
pp. 341-360
Author(s):  
Blaž Vrečko Ilc
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Planning ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Epistemic Closure ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Alternative Vision ◽  
Climate Crisis

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to open up epistemological space for revitalising the idea of democratic economic planning as a viable alternative vision. It argues that a proper development of the idea must be preceded by a comprehensive critical interrogation of a hegemonic multidimensional ideological mystification of capitalism and its markets. By utilizing Marxist and eco-socialist insights the article identifies and analyses several central ideological mystifications that enact an epistemic closure. These range from the obfuscation of capitalism’s role in creating the climate crisis as an inherently unsustainable system, to the mystification of its non-evolutionary origins, to the obfuscation of the role economic planning plays in contemporary capitalism, to the mystification of markets as ideal spaces of freedom and innovation obfuscating the ever present market-related oppression, exploitation and environmental devastation, and to silencing concrete historical examples of democratic economic planning such as project Cybersyn that should serve as an inspiration for imagining an alternative order. Keywords: climate change, ideological mystification, democratic economic planning, capitalism, neoliberalism

What we can learn from the parallels between the COVID-19 and the future climate change crises

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén D. Manzanedo ◽  
Peter Manning
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Preventative Measures ◽  
The Future ◽  
Behavioral Norm ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Global Population

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak pandemic is now a global crisis. It has caused 1.6+ million confirmed cases and 100 000+ deaths at the time of writing and triggered unprecedented preventative measures that have put a substantial portion of the global population under confinement, imposed isolation, and established ‘social distancing’ as a new global behavioral norm. The COVID-19 crisis has affected all aspects of everyday life and work, while also threatening the health of the global economy. This crisis offers also an unprecedented view of what the global climate crisis may look like. In fact, some of the parallels between the COVID-19 crisis and what we expect from the looming global climate emergency are remarkable. Reflecting upon the most challenging aspects of today’s crisis and how they compare with those expected from the climate change emergency may help us better prepare for the future.

“Famous, Beloved, Reviled, Respected, Feared, Celebrated:” Media Construction of Greta Thunberg

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily D Ryalls ◽  
Sharon R Mazzarella
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Time Magazine ◽  
Alternative Construction ◽  
Media Construction ◽  
Climate Crisis

Abstract In the 16 months before TIME magazine naming Greta Thunberg its Person of the Year, as her influence grew, so too did the news media’s attempts to make sense of her. This project analyzes profiles of Greta Thunberg to understand how journalists constructed the persona that has become “Greta.” We argue the paradoxical framing of Thunberg as exceptional and fierce and childlike contributes to an alternative construction of girlhood grounded in the positive portrayal of her Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. While featuring ASD as her “superpower” is potentially progressive, we argue foregrounding Thunberg’s whiteness and age cements her construction as the iconic voice of the climate crisis movement, potentially downplaying the need for collective action to end climate change.

scholarly journals Are there similarities between the Corona and the climate crisis?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Decision Procedures ◽  
Free Rider ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Look Back ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Climate Crisis

AbstractIn this short paper, I look back at the early stages of the Corona crisis, around early February 2020, and compare the situation with the climate crisis. Although these two problems unfold on a completely different timescale (weeks in the case of Corona, decades in the case of climate change), I find some rather striking similarities between these two problems, related with issues such as uncertainty, free-rider incentives, and disincentives of politicians to adequately address the respective issue with early, farsighted and possibly harsh policy measures. I then argue that for complex problems with certain characteristics, it may be necessary to establish novel political decision procedures that sidestep the normal, day-to-day political proceedings. These would be procedures that actively involve experts, and lower the involvement of political parties as far as possible to minimize the decision-makers’ disincentives.

scholarly journals The Sustainability Argument for Open Science

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Govaart ◽  
Simon M. Hofmann ◽  
Evelyn Medawar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Academic Environments ◽  
Science Practices ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Systemic Level ◽  
Climate Crisis

Ever-increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions narrow the timeframe for humanity to mitigate the climate crisis. Scientific research activities are resource demanding and, consequently, contribute to climate change; at the same time, scientists have a central role in advancing knowledge, also on climate-related topics. In this opinion piece, we discuss (1) how open science – adopted on an individual as well as on a systemic level – can contribute to making research more environmentally friendly, and (2) how open science practices can make research activities more efficient and thereby foster scientific progress and solutions to the climate crises. While many building blocks are already at hand, systemic changes are necessary in order to create academic environments that support open science practices and encourage scientists from all fields to become more carbon-conscious, ultimately contributing to a sustainable future.

scholarly journals A "Stubbornly Persistent Illusion"?:

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-35
Author(s):  
Aaron S. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Climate Crisis

The climate crisis impacts the northern polar regions in disproportionate ways, and ecomusicology is an academic discourse. In bringing these two seemingly unrelated pairs together, I argue for academic discourse in ecomusicology that makes connections with the climate crisis in music and sound studies. What can ecomusicology offer humanity as we face climate catastrophe? While not a panacea, ecomusicology can serve to further collapse the unfortunate nature-culture dichotomy that is at the root of so many social and environmental problems.  Academic discourse always should have a place for titillation, but we must not avoid the climate crisis in music scholarship, for that only enables climate change denialism. I elaborate on an ecomusicology that is both new and not new, providing examples of climate connections in ecomusicological discourse. Ultimately, we must make such connections and do something about the problems we face as a civilization.

scholarly journals Dealing with Climate Change Crisis

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-90
Author(s):  
Krishna Prasad Oli ◽  
Tara Devi Dhakal ◽  
Navraj Pradhan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
International Policies ◽  
Key Topics ◽  
Climate Crisis

Climate change and its impact on human survival have been today's major challenge and key topics of discussion globally. When considering the catastrophic impacts climate change will bring to earth, in-depth studies on the mechanics and chemistry of climate changes has been emerging. Simultaneously, international and national policies to reduce the vulnerability from climate change have been developed. This article discusses environmental retrospect and climate change issues and highlights efforts taken by global community to reduce GHG. An analysis through an equity lens is made between developed and developing nations and distinction of science and post normal science, and how skeptics revolve around the myth of climate changing ‘naturally' is discussed. A brief status of climate change in Nepal has been mentioned and some mitigation and adaptation measures that can be carried out at the institutional and individual level to start solving the climate crisis conclude the paper. Key Words: Global warming, Climate change, International policies, Intra- generational equity, GHG, Renewable energy, Individual adaptation DOI: 10.3126/init.v2i1.2527 The Initiation Vol.2(1) 2008 pp79-90

scholarly journals Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Biblical Studies : Interpretations in the Context of Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul L. Leshota ◽  
Ericka S. Dunbar ◽  
Musa W. Dube ◽  
Malebogo Kgalemang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
African Women ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Climate Crisis

Climate change and its global impact on all people, especially the marginalized communities, is widely recognized as the biggest crisis of our time. It is a context that invites all subjects and disciplines to bring their resources in diagnosing the problem and seeking the healing of the Earth. The African continent, especially its women, constitute the subalterns of global climate crisis. Can they speak? If they speak, can they be heard? Both the Earth and the Africa have been identified with the adjective “Mother.” This gender identity tells tales in patriarchal and imperial worlds that use the female gender to signal legitimation of oppression and exploitation. In this volume, African women theologians and their female-identifying colleagues, struggle with reading and interpreting religious texts in the context of environmental crisis that are threatening life on Earth. The chapters interrogate how biblical texts and African cultural resources imagine the Earth and our relationship with the Earth: Do these texts offer readers windows of hope for re-imagining liberating relationship with the Earth? How do they intersect with gender, race, empire, ethnicity, sexuality among others? Beginning with Genesis, journeying through Exodus, Ruth, Ecclesiastes and the Gospel of John, the authors seek to read in solidarity with the Earth, for the healing of the whole Earth community.

scholarly journals Managing pandemics as super wicked problems: lessons from, and for, COVID-19 and the climate crisis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Auld ◽  
Steven Bernstein ◽  
Benjamin Cashore ◽  
Kelly Levin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Forward Path ◽  
Resource Requirements ◽  
Climate Crisis

AbstractCOVID-19 has caused 100s of millions of infections and millions of deaths worldwide, overwhelming health and economic capacities in many countries and at multiple scales. The immediacy and magnitude of this crisis has resulted in government officials, practitioners and applied scholars turning to reflexive learning exercises to generate insights for managing the reverberating effects of this disease as well as the next inevitable pandemic. We contribute to both tasks by assessing COVID-19 as a “super wicked” problem denoted by four features we originally formulated to describe the climate crisis: time is running out, no central authority, those causing the problem also want to solve it, and policies irrationally discount the future (Levin et al. in Playing it forward: path dependency, progressive incrementalism, and the “super wicked” problem of global climate change, 2007; Levin et al. in Playing it forward: Path dependency, progressive incrementalism, and the "super wicked" problem of global climate change, 2009; Levin et al. in Policy Sci 45(2):123–152, 2012). Doing so leads us to identify three overarching imperatives critical for pandemic management. First, similar to requirements to address the climate crisis, policy makers must establish and maintain durable policy objectives. Second, in contrast to climate, management responses must always allow for swift changes in policy settings and calibrations given rapid and evolving knowledge about a particular disease’s epidemiology. Third, analogous to, but with swifter effects than climate, wide-ranging global efforts, if well designed, will dramatically reduce domestic costs and resource requirements by curbing the spread of the disease and/or fostering relevant knowledge for managing containment and eradication. Accomplishing these tasks requires building the analytic capacity for engaging in reflexive anticipatory policy design exercises aimed at maintaining, or building, life-saving thermostatic institutions at the global and domestic levels.

scholarly journals CLIMATE CRISIS AND THE “WE”: An Essay in Deconstruction

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Policy Coordination ◽  
Abrupt Climate Change ◽  
Global Policy ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Global Powers

<p><em>The new theory of abrupt climate change has yet to receive a response from those arguing for global policy coordination with the COP21 treaty or those who believe in country resilience. The only method to halt climate change with Hawking’s irreversibiity is to cut CO2s sharply now. But it will not happen, because of human regidity, opportunism with guile and institutional inertia. The global powers, acting for “WE” or “US” concentrate all attention upon petty matters.</em></p>

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