scholarly journals Klimaforandringer: Perspektiv og skala i studiet af det høje nord

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Hastrup
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
The One ◽  
Strategic Perspective

Klima og klimaforandringer er blevet nye store temaer i antropologien, og det er påtrængende at stille kritiske spørgsmål til brugen af disse begreber, der synes at indeholde både konkret (lokalt) vejr og abstrakt (globalt) klima. Spørgsmålet er, hvordan man kan bruge „klimaet“ strategisk og produktivt i antropologiske analyser uden at gøre det til endnu en udefrakommende ulykke, der rammer klodens svage befolkninger. I artiklen argumenteres der for en nytænkning af skalabegrebet, som kan rumme både det „lokale“ og det „globale“, i og med at der er tale om et analytisk perspektiv snarere end et empirisk forhold. Herigennem åbnes der for en komparativ analyse af „klimaets“ infiltrering i det sociale og dets varierende forklaringsværdi. Artiklen trækker på forfatterens arbejde i Island og Grønland. Søgeord: klimaforandringer, skala, worlding, Island, Grønland English: Climate Explanations: Perspective and Scale in the Study of the High North“Climate” has entered into everyday parlance across the globe. In anthropology, “climate change” has opened up a new field of concern for vulnerable populations on the one hand and for the distinctiveness of the discipline on the other. In this article it is argued that while climate as such is a meteorological abstraction, it may also function as a strategic perspective, which allows for a comparison between ascribed values and dynamisms in social worlds. It is further shown how the implications of worldwide climate change open up for a new understanding of scale as an analytical rather than an empirical category. The substance draws from the author’s work in Northwest Greenland and in Iceland. Keywords: Climate change, scale, worlding, Iceland, Greenland 

International Law Obligations Arising in relation to Nationally Determined Contributions

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Nationally Determined Contributions ◽  
The One

AbstractThis article analyzes the international law obligations that arise in relation to nationally determined contributions (NDCs). It argues that distinct and concurrent obligations arise from two separate sources. On the one hand, treaty obligations arise under the Paris Agreement, which imposes an obligation of conduct on parties: they must take adequate measures towards the realization of the mitigation targets contained in their NDCs. On the other hand, communications such as NDCs may constitute unilateral declarations that also create legal obligations. These unilateral declarations impose obligations of various types, which may extend beyond mitigation. For example, they may specify measures of implementation or demand the achievement of a particular result. The potential ‘double-bindingness’ of NDCs should be a central consideration in the interpretation of international law obligations regarding climate change.

“Every Act of Preservation is an Act of Creation”: Paul Schrader’s Eco-theology in First Reformed

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-188
Author(s):  
Tatiana Prorokova
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
The Other ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Current State ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The One

This chapter scrutinizes the complex relationship between climate change and theology, as represented in First Reformed, as well as Paul Schrader’s understanding of humanity’s major problems today. Analyzing the issue of ecological decline through the prism of religion, Schrader outlines the ideology that presumably might help humanity survive at the age of global warming. Through the complex discussions of such issues as despair, anxiety, and hope, Schrader deduces the formula of survival in which preservation is the key component. Equating humans to God, Schrader, on the one hand, censures those actions that led to progress but destroyed the environment, yet, on the other hand, he foregrounds the fact that humans can also save the planet now. Schrader portrays both humans and Earth as living organisms created by God. He draws explicit parallels between the current state of our planet and the problems that we experience – from political ones, including war, to more personal ones like health issues.

A Cosmopolitical Ethnography of a Changing Climate among the Q’ero of the Peruvian Andes

Anthropos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Geremia Cometti
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Peruvian Andes ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Multiple Worlds ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
The One

The Q’ero of the Peruvian Andes are suffering rapid changes in their environment due to climate change. This article puts forward the necessity of a cosmopolitical ethnography in order to understand how a specific society deals with climate change. On the one hand, a subtle ethnography can indeed enable the researcher to transcribe the point of view of the societies directly concerned, making it possible to go beyond an approach based on the dichotomies emanating from state policies and development enterprises, like those between nature and culture or tradition and modernity. On the other hand, a cosmopolitical approach will shed new light on the way in which those societies confront this double threat by revealing the cohabitation of multiple worlds.

Demokratie im 21. Jahrhundert

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Political System ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One

Whereas democracy still seemed to be triumphantly sweeping the world before the turn of the century, today it finds itself under immense pressure, not only as a viable political system, but also as a theoretical and normative concept. The coronavirus crisis has underlined and accelerated these developments. There are manifold reasons for this, above all the fundamental changes the state and society have undergone in the face of globalisation, digitalisation, migration, climate change and not least the current pandemic, to name the most significant of them. This volume analyses the changes to democracy in the 21st century and the crises it has experienced. In doing so, the book identifies where action is needed, on the one hand, and investigates appropriate, up-to-date reforms and the prospects for politics, political communication and political education, on the other. With contributions by Ulrich von Alemann, Bernd Becker, Frank Brettschneider, Frank Decker, Claudio Franzius, Georg Paul Hefty, Andreas Kalina, Helmut Klages, Uwe Kranenpohl, Pola Lehmann, Linus Leiten, Dirk Lüddecke, Thomas Metz, Ursula Münch, Ursula Alexandra Ohliger, Veronika Ohliger, Rainer-Olaf Schultze, Peter Seyferth, Hans Vorländer, Uwe Wagschal, Thomas Waldvogel and Samuel Weishaupt

scholarly journals CURRENT TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WATER MANAGEMENT COMPLEX: UKRAINIAN REALITIES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 196-202
Author(s):  
Lyudmila Levkovska ◽  
Inna Irtyshcheva ◽  
Іryna Dubynska
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
The Other ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Water Management Complex ◽  
Low Carbon Development ◽  
The One

Aim. The ratification of the Paris Agreement by Ukraine envisages an increase in the ability to adapt to the negative effects of climate change, as well as promoting low carbon development so as not to endanger food production. At the same time, water resources, on the one hand, are one of the most vulnerable to climate change components of the environment from the state of which the food security of the country depends directly, and on the other hand, the activity of the water management complex causes the emergence of both direct and indirect carbon footprint. Therefore, an indispensable prerequisite for sustainable low carbon development is the assessment of the carbon footprint of the main sectors of Ukraine's water management complex and the identification of priority measures for their decarbonisation and adaptation to expected climate change. Methods. The methodological basis for the assessment of the carbon footprint of the main sectors of the water management complex was the life cycle method (LCA), by which, based on the open data of the National Inventory of Anthropogenic Emissions from Sources and Absorption by Greenhouse Gas Absorbers in Ukraine and the statistical analysis of the results of previous studies. By means of systematic analysis of the main factors of greenhouse gas emission in the water management complex of Ukraine, the priority directions of its decarbonisation and adaptation to climate change were determined. Results. The estimated carbon footprint of Ukraine's water complex in 2017 was estimated to be 5.15 million tons of CO2-equiv, which was 1.6% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in Ukraine in 2017, and taking into account the potential carbon footprint enduse processes can be increased by up to 3%. Due to the deterioration of the water supply networks, an average of 35% of the supplied water is lost in Ukraine. Reducing network leakage by at least 10% will reduce carbon footprint by 30,000 tons of CO2-equiv annually. The priority areas for decarbonisation of the water management complex should be modernization of water supply and water treatment infrastructure, improvement of energy efficiency of pumping equipment and introduction of drip irrigation, and its adaptation to climate change – development of the network of green infrastructure. Conclusions. The low-carbon development of the water management system should include the introduction and coordination of such measures, which, on the one hand, minimize the adverse effects of climate change on water resources and contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of water management activities, and on the other hand, guarantee the achievement of sustainable development goals, in particular for ensuring water and society proper sanitary conditions.

scholarly journals MÁS ALLÁ DEL CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO: IMPLICACIONES DE LA CONTAMINACIÓN MARINA POR AGROQUÍMICOS SOBRE LAS INTERACCIONES SIMBIÓTICAS Y EL ÉXITO ECOLÓGICO DE LOS CORALES

e-CUCBA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
HECTOR OCAMPO-ALVAREZ ◽  
FABIAN ALEJANDRO RODRÍGUEZ-ZARAGOZA
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
External Environment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Symbiotic Interactions ◽  
Coral Reef Ecosystems ◽  
The One

Coral reefs are highly productive marine ecosystems that harborahigh biodiversity. The forming organisms of these reefs are the scleractinian corals, which form symbiotic interactions with multiple microorganisms. One of the best known symbiotic interactions in these systems is the one established with the microalgae Symbiodinium. The microalgae produce through photosynthesis up to 90% of the energy required by the coral. On the other hand, Symbiodiniumreceives from the coral an appropriate niche, that protects Symbiodiniumfrom the external environment, from the competition with other organisms and predation; it also provides abundant nutrients produced by other coral symbiontshighlighting the bacteria. As well as this, multiple symbiotic interactions confer metabolic capabilities to corals, which have enabled their capacity to adapt to climate changes for millions of years. However, in recent decades coral reef ecosystems are being extensively decimated. Given the new characteristics of an environment with significant changes sometimes somewhat erratic, probably the interactions that initially provided ecological advantages to corals are no longer sufficient to overcome environmental adversities or that as a result of the changes generated in the environment. The diversity of microorganisms capable of interactions that can be formed with the few remaining microorganisms do not confer to the coral, sufficient adaptative advantages to face the challenge of climate change. In this essay, we argue about the possibility that a decrease in the stock of microorganisms capable of interacting with corals, as a result of marine pollution, is a cause of the loss of biological aptitude of corals to survive in the current global climate change.

scholarly journals Democracy and Planetary Fragility in the Anthropocene: on William Connolly’s Political Ontology

Stasis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-155
Author(s):  
Dmitry Lebedev
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
Political World ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One

As climate change rapidly intensifies, political theory urgently needs to respond to the shock of the Anthropocene and bring nature back to politics. William Connolly’s work is a paradigmatic example of such a theory that actively emphasizes the role nonhuman forces play in the social and political world and the discontinuity this emphasis brings to political theory. Connolly underscores fragile resonances between nature and culture and productively problematizes a human-centric vision of politics. However, while interrogating how contemporary political conjuncture catastrophically increases planetary fragility, he still insists on the continuity of his vision for democratic pluralism that this very conjuncture fundamentally puts in question. Thus, Connolly’s type of post-anthropocentric ontology remains rather inconsistently connected to explicitly political concerns. This article aims to clarify this connection. On the one hand, it shows how his brand of democratic politics that answers to the challenges of the Anthropocene presupposes a heightened degree of political negativism and universalism that used to be excluded from this politics. On the other, it demonstrates how the discontinuities in ontology must be simultaneously thought of as the discontinuities in established political theorizing and to continuously interrogate the very conjuncture that reveals the relevance of these ontological and political discontinuities.

scholarly journals Eco-utopia or eco-catastrophe? Re-imagining California as an ecological utopia

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronnie D. Lipschutz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The Other ◽  
Nuclear Threat ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Neal Stephenson ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Trump Administration

In this article, I explore four California-based eco-utopias: The Earth Abides (George Stewart, 1949), Ecotopia (Ernest Callenbach, 1975), Pacific Edge (Kim Stanley Robinson, 1990), and Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson, 1992). All four novels were written during, and deeply informed by, the Cold War (Although published in 1992, Snow Crash was clearly written toward the end of the Cold War and in the shadow of Soviet implosion), against a backdrop of imminent nuclear holocaust and a doubtful future. Since then, climate change has replaced the nuclear threat as a looming existential dilemma, on which a good deal of writing about the future is focused. Almost 70 years after the appearance of The Earth Abides, and 40 years after the publication of Ecotopia, eco-utopian imaginaries now seem both poignant yet more necessary than ever, given the tension between the anti-environmental proclivities of the Trump Administration, on the one hand, and the tendency of climate change to suck all of the air out of the room, on the other. And with drought, fire, flood, wind and climate change so much in the news, it is increasingly difficult to imagine eco-utopias of any sort; certainly they are not part of the contemporary zeitgeist—except in the minds of architects, bees and futurists, perhaps. But does this mean there is no point in thinking about them, or seeking insights that might make our future more sustainable? This article represents an attempt to revive eco-utopian visions and learn from them.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RISE OF POLITICAL COMPLEXITY IN WESTERN UGANDA

2000 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER ROBERTSHAW ◽  
DAVID TAYLOR
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
The Other ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Political Complexity ◽  
The One ◽  
Western Uganda

The histories of pre-colonial states in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa have engaged scholars for more than a century. First encountered by Europeans in the 1860s during the search for the source of the Nile, these states and their rulers inspired both admiration and frustration in their visitors. On the one hand, explorers were impressed by the power of the rulers and the complexities of their bureaucracies, but on the other, they were annoyed by the apparent vacillation of the monarchs in responding to their demands. From the historian's perspective, these initial encounters soon led to questions about the origins and longevity of these states. Stories of origins were encapsulated in myths and legends that missionaries began to record around the turn of the twentieth century, while efforts to elicit lists of kings who had ruled each state introduced African leaders to European-style historiography.

Sustainability Constraints as System Boundaries

2010 ◽  
pp. 51-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Ny ◽  
Jamie P. MacDonald ◽  
Göran Broman ◽  
Karl-Henrik Robèrt
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Management ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The One ◽  
Strategic Perspective ◽  
Tools And Methods

Sustainable management of materials and products requires continuous evaluation of numerous complex social, ecological, and economic factors. Many tools and methods are emerging to support this. One of the most rigorous is life-cycle assessment (LCA). But LCAs often lack a sustainability perspective and bring about difficult trade-offs between specificity and depth, on the one hand, and comprehension and applicability, on the other. This article applies a framework for strategic sustainable development to foster a new general approach to the management of materials and products, here termed “strategic life-cycle management.” This includes informing the overall analysis with aspects that are relevant to a basic perspective on (1) sustainability, and (2) strategy to arrive at sustainability. Early experiences indicate that the resulting overview could help avoiding costly assessments of flows and practices that are not critical from a sustainability or strategic perspective and help in identifying strategic knowledge gaps that need further assessment.

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