Academic literature on the topic 'Climate and Climate Change not elsewhere classified'

Iraq has been experiencing water resources scarcity, and is vulnerable to climate change. Analysis of historical data revealed that the region is experiencing climate change to a degree higher than generally reported elsewhere. The relationship between climate change and its effect on water resources of a region has been sparsely addressed in published literature. To fill that gap this research work first investigates if there has been a significant change in climate in the region, which has been found to be true. In the next stage, the research projects future climatic scenarios of the region based on six oft-used General Circulation Model (GCM) ensembles, namely CCSM4, CSIRO-Mk3.6.0, GFDL-ESM2M, MEROC5, HadGEM2-ES, and IPSL-CM5A-LR. The relationship between climate change and its impact on water resources is explored through the application of the popular, widely used SWAT model. The model depicts the availability of water resources, classified separately as blue and green waters, for near and distant futures for the region. Some of the findings are foreboding and warrants urgent attention of planners and decision makers. According to model outputs, the region may experience precipitation reduction of about 12.6% and 21% in near (2049–2069) and distant (2080–2099) futures, respectively under RCP8.5. Those figures under RCP4.5 are 15% and 23.4%, respectively and under RCP2.6 are 12.2% and 18.4%, respectively. As a consequence, the blue water may experience decreases of about 22.6% and 40% under RCP8.5, 25.8% and 46% under RCP4.5, and 34.4% and 31% under RCP2.6 during the periods 2049–2069 and 2080–2099, respectively. Green water, by contrast, may reduce by about 10.6% and 19.6% under RCP8.5, by about 14.8% and 19.4% under RCP4.5, and by about 15.8% and 14.2% under RCP2.6 during the periods 2049–2069 and 2080–2099, respectively. The research further investigates how the population are adapting to already changed climates and how they are expected to cope in the future when the shift in climate is expected to be much greater.

Interest in northern forests is increasing worldwide for both timber production and climate change mitigation. Studies exploring forest productivity at an early age after fire and its determining factors are greatly needed. We studied forest productivity, defined as the combined quality of stocking and growth, of 116 10- to 30-year-old postfire sites. The sites were spread over a 90 000 km2 area north of the Quebec commercial forestry limit and were dominated by Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P. and Pinus banksiana Lamb. Seventy-two percent of our sites were classified as unproductive, mainly because of poor growth. Because growth was mostly determined by climatic factors, afforestation alone may not be sufficient to increase stand productivity in our study area. In addition, our results suggest that P. banksiana on dry sites may be less resilient to fire than previously thought, presumably because of poor site quality and climate. Overall, this is one of the first studies to explore productivity issues at an early age in natural northern forests, and the analysis scheme that defines forest productivity as the result of growth and stocking could provide a useful tool to identify similar issues elsewhere.

Abstract. Generally, investigation of long-term mangroves fragmentation changes can be used as an important tool in assessing sensitivity and vulnerability of these ecosystems to the multiple environmental hazards. Therefore, the aim of this study was to reveal the trend of mangroves fragmentation changes in Khamir habitat using satellite imagery and Fragstats software during a 30-year period (1986–2016). To this end, Landsat images of 1986, 1998, and 2016 were used and after computing the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to distinguish mangroves from surrounding water and land areas, images were further processed and classified into two types of land cover (i.e., mangrove and non-mangrove areas) using the maximum likelihood classification method. By determining the extent of mangroves in the Khamir habitat in the years of 1986, 1998 and 2017, the trend of fragmentation changes was quantified using CA, NP, PD and LPI landscape metrics. The results showed that the extent of mangroves in Khamir habitat (CA) decreased in the period post-1998 (1998–2016). The results also showed that, the NP and PD increased in the period of post-1998 and in contrast, the LPI decrease in this period. These results revealed the high degree of vulnerability of mangroves in Khamir habitat to the drought occurrence and are thus threatened by climate change. We hope that the results of this study stimulate further climate change adaptation planning efforts and help decision-makers prioritize and implement conservative measures in the mangrove ecosystems on the northern coasts of the PG and the GO and elsewhere.

Forest plays a vital role in carbon sequestration and climate regulation. A crucial tool for managing forest, particularly in protected regions, is keeping track of how the land cover changes in natural places. Using geospatial approaches, such as remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS), the present study has revealed spatio-temporal changes in land use categories and forest cover in the Chandaka National Park of Odisha, India, throughout the period of 1980-2020. The Landsat, LISS III and Sentinel satellite images of the year 1980, 2000 and 2020 were utilized respectively to map five land use land cover categories i.e. deciduous broadleaf forest, crop land, mixed forest, scrub land and water bodies in this preserved area. The satellite images were classified using a Supervised Classification method using Maximum Likelihood algorithm and ground control points (GCPs) were used for the spatial statistical analyses. The overall accuracies of the classification method in land cover categories in year 1980, 2000 and 2020 were 90.45%, 92.76% and 94.68%, respectively. Elsewhere, in order to study land use land cover (LULC) change and loss in forest of the Chandaka National Park, LULC classification, per-pixel scales post classification and self-knowledge on the LULC change process were used. The LULC change detection results showed that deciduous broadleaf forest decreased from 179.01 sq. km (76.66%) in 1980 to 132.75 sq. km (56.85%) in 2020, while mixed forest cover increased by 8.17 sq. km (3.50%) in 1980 to 38.84 sq. km (16.63%) in 2020. Crop land, Scrub land and Water bodies were also increased by 3.34%, 3.27% and 0.07%, respectively. Two significant change processes in the area are the logging activities in several places for timber and the conversion of natural forests with plantation. Agriculture expansion in the forest’s periphery is linked to the dramatic decline in forest cover change. The decline in forest cover is also a result of the production of charcoal and lumber exploitation. Overall, our findings indicated that more public awareness and participatory forest management are necessary to preserve Chandaka National Park. This study highlights the use of geospatial technologies in understanding the changes in LULC in the Chandaka National Park.

Abstract. Available reports of dissolved oxygen, δ15N of nitrate (δ 15NNO3) and δ15N of total nitrogen (δ15Nbulk) for trap material and surface/downcore sediments from the Arabian Sea (AS) were synthesized to explore the AS' past nitrogen dynamics. Based on 25 μmol kg−1 dissolved oxygen isopleth at a depth of 150 m, we classified all reported data into northern and southern groups. By using δ15Nbulk of the sediments, we obtained geographically distinctive bottom-depth effects for the northern and southern AS at different climate stages. After eliminating the bias caused by bottom depth, the modern-day sedimentary δ15Nbulk values largely reflect the δ15NNO3 supply from the bottom of the euphotic zone. Additionally to the data set, nitrogen and carbon contents vs. their isotopic compositions of a sediment core (SK177/11) collected from the most southeastern part of the AS were measured for comparison. We found a one-step increase in δ15Nbulk starting at the deglaciation with a corresponding decrease in δ13CTOC similar to reports elsewhere revealing a global coherence. By synthesizing and reanalyzing all reported down core δ15Nbulk, we derived bottom-depth correction factors at different climate stages, respectively, for the northern and southern AS. The diffusive sedimentary δ15Nbulk values in compiled cores became confined after bias correction revealing a more consistent pattern except recent 6 ka. Such high similarity to the global temporal pattern indicates that the nitrogen cycle in the entire AS had responded to open-ocean changes until 6 ka BP. Since 6 ka BP, further enhanced denitrification (i.e., increase in δ15Nbulk) in the northern AS had occurred and was likely driven by monsoon, while, in the southern AS, we observed a synchronous reduction in δ15Nbulk, implying that nitrogen fixation was promoted correspondingly as the intensification of local denitrification at the northern AS basin.

Abstract. Nitrogen and carbon contents vs. their isotopic compositions for past 35 ka for a sediment core (SK177/11) collected from the most southeastern part of the Arabian Sea (AS) were presented. A one-step increase in δ15Nbulk starting at the deglaciation with a corresponding decrease in δ13CTOC was found similar to documentation elsewhere which showed a global coherence in general. We synthesized available reports including dissolved oxygen, δ15N of nitrate (δ15NNO3), as well as δ15N of total nitrogen (δ15Nbulk) for trap material and surface/downcore sediments in the AS in order to explore the past nitrogen dynamics in the Arabian Sea. According to 25 μmol kg−1 dissolved oxygen isopleth at 150 m deep, we classified all reported data into northern and southern groups. We obtained geographically distinctive bottom-depth effects for northern and southern AS at different climate stages. By eliminating the bias caused by bottom depth, the modern day sedimentary δ15Nbulk values largely reflect the δ15NNO3 supply from the bottom of the euphotic zone; meanwhile, the diffusive sedimentary δ15Nbulk in long cores became confined revealing a more consistent pattern except recent 6 ka. The nitrogen cycle in entire AS apparently responded to open-ocean changes until 6 ka, during which further enhanced denitrification in the northern AS was likely local and driven by monsoon; while in the southern AS either nitrogen fixation was enhanced correspondingly to the continuously reduced δ15Nbulk for a compensation or the decreasing trend just followed the global pattern dominated by a longer term coupling of N2 fixation and denitrification.

This paper examines processes that make migration possible among climate change affected communities in Shinyanga Rural District of Shinyanga region, Tanzania. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used to gather data. Whereas qualitative data was analyzed thematically, numerical data was analyzed descriptively. Findings show that short term migration, plays an important role in soliciting resources necessary for permanent migration. Further, climate change-induced migration in the study area involves the realization that the eco-system is no longer livelihood supportive. The migration process also involves identification of opportunities in destination prior to moving out from the original home. Finally, migrants need to solicit resources to cater for en route costs and for investing in destination. The study concludes that climate change impacts ignite the desire to migrate. However, for migration to happen there are multiple facets that need to be addressed. The study recommends improved access to information about opportunities available elsewhere for people in climate change affected areas.

AbstractClimate-related disasters cause substantial disruptions to human societies. With climate change, many extreme weather and climate events are expected to become more severe and more frequent. The International Disaster Database (EM-DAT) records climate-related disasters associated with observed impacts such as affected people and economic damage on a country basis. Although disasters are classified into different meteorological categories, they are usually not linked to observed climate anomalies. Here, we investigate countrywide climate features associated with disasters that have occurred between 1950 and 2015 and have been classified as droughts, floods, heat waves, and cold waves using superposed epoch analysis. We find that disasters classified as heat waves are associated with significant countrywide increases in annual mean temperature of on average 0.13 ∘C and a significant decrease in annual precipitation of 3.2%. Drought disasters show positive temperature anomalies of 0.08 ∘C and a 4.8 % precipitation decrease. Disasters classified as droughts and heat waves are thus associated with significant annual countrywide anomalies in both temperature and precipitation. During years of flood disasters, precipitation is increased by 2.8 %. Cold wave disasters show no significant signal for either temperature or precipitation. We further find that climate anomalies tend to be larger in smaller countries, an expected behavior when computing countrywide averages. In addition, our results suggest that extreme weather disasters in developed countries are typically associated with larger climate anomalies compared to developing countries. This effect could be due to different levels of vulnerability, as a climate anomaly needs to be larger in a developed country to cause a societal disruption. Our analysis provides a first link between recorded climate-related disasters and observed climate data, which is an important step towards linking climate and impact communities and ultimately better constraining future disaster risk.

Quantifiability of the pecuniary change regarding the climatic change is foreseen yet the ignorable fact of the century. This did not lead to a catastrophic change; however, it paved the path to the change in the governance of the conditions which led to moderate methodologies. This research contrasts directly with the immediate public discussion and greenhouse gas reduction expenditures. These forecasts demonstrate that climate change initially improves economic stability. But these advantages are declining. In the later century, the effects will be more negative. The global average effects will be equivalent in poorer economies to the health loss of a few percent of income. The marginal cost of carbon dioxide pollution is estimated at over two hundred. The social costs of carbon are quite elusive. The estimated price of $50/tc is somewhat lower than in the EU but far higher than the price for carbon elsewhere for a normal discount rate. Current forecasts are incomplete, with optimistic and negative prejudices on harm costs from climate change. The indirect consequences of climate change on economic growth, large-scale destruction of habitats, low chance, the effects of global change on violence and war are among the most important of the lost impacts. The effect of climate change is troublesome from the welfare point of view because it has an endogenous population, and because policy assessments can divide impatience, risk aversion, and inequality within and within nations.

Population growth, at both the national and global level, will most certainly impact Canada’s climate, and, more broadly, its environment. While Canada’s population has been projected to continue to grow for many decades, what happens elsewhere in terms of population growth will be particularly important to Canada. Although greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in Canada have levelled off somewhat over the last decade and a half, global emissions have continued to climb. As a direct result, with increased GHGs in the atmosphere, Canada’s northern climate has already been impacted in a major way with considerable warming, particularly in its most northern forests and Arctic ecosystems.L’accroissement de la population, autant à l’échelle nationale que mondiale, aura certainement un effet sur le climat au Canada et, plus largement, sur son environnement. Selon les projections, la population canadienne devrait continuer à augmenter pendant encore plusieurs décennies. Or, ce qui se passe ailleurs en termes d’accroissement de la population sera particulièrement important pour le Canada. Bien que les émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES) au Canada se soient nivelées au cours de la dernière décennie et demie, les émissions globales ont cependant continué à grimper. En conséquence directe de cette augmentation de GES dans l’atmosphère, le climat dans le nord du Canada a déjà subi un impact majeur par un réchauffement important, surtout dans les forêts les plus au nord et les écosystèmes arctiques.Mots-clés : population et environnement; climat; utilisation d’énergie; pointe de population

Stakeholders involved in debates around climate-energy policy shape public conversations through different “frames”: message units that strategically emphasize particular aspects of an issue while downplaying others. I investigate the presence of frames within climate change discourse and their political influence in the creation of climate-energy policies. Findings suggest that science frames may play a limited role when it comes to the development of actual climate policy at the state level, and importantly, that the strategic use of issue frames was able to level the playing field between environmental advocates and historically dominant industry actors. This work thus contributes to ongoing debates in the climate change framing literature by considering the “real world” of political communication coupled with an on-the-ground policy conflict.

Motivating the political will necessary for fair and ambitious climate change policies is significantly complicated by the rise of populism. Right-wing populist communication targets civil servants and intellectuals as conspirators furthering a climate agenda for their own self-interest. Yet, despite the real world implications of populist communication, more work is needed to both (1) understand the presence of populist frames in media communication on climate change and (2) untangle the relationships between the far-right and diverse forms of climate skepticism. Completing a content analysis of newspaper opinion pieces and Fox News programing between 2008 and 2020, I find that populist skeptic frames are an important part of media communication on climate change in both the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. Additionally, I find that populist skeptic frames most commonly use process skeptic claims, leveraging conspiratorial language to describe collusion between the government and scientists to falsify the severity of climate change and control the public for their own gain. Using a survey experiment, I find that higher populist attitudes are negatively associated with both belief in climate change and support for climate mitigation policies among Republicans. Conversely, I do not find a significant effect of exposure to a populist process skeptic frame, prompting the need for more work on the connections between populist skeptic framing and climate change attitudes.

Waves are a primary factor in beach health, sediment transport, safety, internal nutrient loading, and coastal erosion, the latter of which has increased along Lake Michigan's western coastline since 2014. While high water levels are undoubtedly the primary cause of this erosion, the recent losses may also be indicative of changes in the lake's wind-driven waves. This study seeks to examine long-term trends in the magnitude and direction of Lake Michigan waves, including extreme waves and storm events using buoy measurements (National Data Buoy Center Buoys 45002 and 45007) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers Wave Information Study (USACE WIS) wave hindcast.

Tests show significant long-term decreases in annual mean wave height in the lake's southern basin (up to -1.5mm/yr). When wave-approach direction was removed by testing directional bins for trends independently, an increase in the extent of the affected coast and rate of the shrinking waves was found (up to -4mm/yr). A previously unseen increasing trend in wave size in the northern basin (up to 2mm/yr) was also revealed.

Data from the WIS model indicated that storm duration and peak wave height in the southern basin has decreased at an averaged rate of -0.085hr/yr and -5mm/yr, respectively, from 1979 to 2017. An analysis of the extreme value distribution's shape in the southern basin found a similar pattern in the WIS hindcast model, with the probability of observing a wave larger than 5 meters decreasing by about -0.0125yr^-1. In the northern basin, the probability of observing a wave of the same size increased at a rate of 0.0075yr^-1.

The results for trends in the annual means revealed the importance of removing temporal- and spatial-within-series dependencies, in wave-height data. The strong dependence of lake waves on approach direction, as compared to ocean waves, may result from the relatively large differences in fetch length in the enclosed body of water. Without removal or isolation of these dependencies trends may be lost. Additionally, removal of the seasonal component in lake water level and mean wave-height series revealed that there was no significant correlation between these series.

Does increased participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) improve the democratic quality at intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)? Multilateral institutions and global governance mechanisms have emerged during the past few decades to tackle global challenges, such as climate change. However, policy making institutions such as IGOs are often viewed as lacking democratic legitimacy. The decision- making process remains tied to nation-states represented often by non-elected delegates, yet the decisions affect people who do not have a say in the process. One remedy proposed by global governance scholars to close such democratic deficit is to include a variety of stakeholders such as non-governmental actors. I challenge the conventional wisdom that assumes the democratic potential of these actors, and unpack the “blackbox” of NGOs to assess their internal politics.

Tropical ecosystems play a key role in regulating the global climate and the carbon cycle thanks to the large amounts of water and carbon exchanged with the atmosphere. These biogeochemical fluxes are largely the result of high photosynthetic rates. Photosynthetic activity is highly dependent on climate and vegetation, and therefore can be easily modified along with changes in those two factors. A better understanding of what drives or alters photosynthetic activity in the tropics will lead to more accurate predictions of climate and subsequent effects on ecosystems. The seasonal pattern of photosynthetic activity is one of the main uncertainties that we still have about tropical ecosystems. However, this seasonality of tropical vegetation and its relationship to climate change and land cover is key to understanding how these ecosystems could be affected and have an effect on climate.

In this dissertation, I present three projects to improve our understanding about tropical ecosystems and how their photosynthetic activity is affected by climate and land cover change. The lack of field-based data has been one of the main limiting factors in our study of tropical ecosystems. Therefore, in these projects I extensively use remote sensing-derived data to analyze large scale and long term patterns. In the first study, I looked at the seasonal relationship between photosynthetic activity and climate, and how model simulations represent it. Vegetation in most of the tropics is either positively correlated with both water and light, or positively correlated with one of them and negatively with the other. Ecosystem models largely underestimate positive correlations with light and overestimate positive correlations with water. In the second study, I focus on the effect of land cover change in photosynthetic activity and transpiration in a highly deforested region in the Amazon. I find that land cover change decreases tropical forests photosynthetic activity and transpiration during the dry season. Also, land cover change increases the range of photosynthetic activity and transpiration in forests and shrublands. These effects are intensified with increasing land cover change. In the last project, I quantify the amount of change in evapotranspiration due to land cover change in the entire Amazon basin. Our remote sensing-derived estimates are well aligned with model predictions published in the past three decades. These results increase our confidence in climate models representation of evapotranspiration in the Amazon.

Findings from this dissertation highlight (1) the importance of the close relationship between climate and photosynthetic activity and (2) how land cover change is altering that relationship. We hope our results can build on our knowledge about tropical ecosystems and how they could change in the future. We also expect our analysis to be used for model benchmarking and tropical ecosystem monitoring.

Droughts are complex natural disasters caused due to deficit in water availability over a region. Water availability is strongly linked to precipitation in many parts of the world that rely on monsoonal rains. Recent studies indicate that the choice of precipitation datasets and drought indices could influence drought analysis. Therefore, drought characteristics for the Indian monsoon region were reassessed for the period 1901-2004 using two different datasets and standard precipitation index (SPI), standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI), Gaussian mixture model-based drought index (GMM-DI), and hidden Markov model-based drought index (HMM-DI). Drought trends and variability were analyzed for three epochs: 1901-1935, 1936-1970 and 1971-2004. Irrespective of the dataset and methodology used, the results indicate an increasing trend in drought severity and frequency during the recent decades (1971-2004). Droughts are becoming more regional and are showing a general shift to the agriculturally important coastal south-India, central Maharashtra, and Indo‑Gangetic plains indicating food security challenges and socioeconomic vulnerability in the region.

Drought severities are commonly reported using drought classes obtained by assigning pre-defined thresholds on drought indices. Current drought classification methods ignore modeling uncertainties and provide discrete drought classification. However, the users of drought classification are often interested in knowing inherent uncertainties in classification so that they can make informed decisions. A probabilistic Gamma mixture model (Gamma-MM)-based drought index is proposed as an alternative to deterministic classification by SPI. The Bayesian framework of the proposed model avoids over-specification and overfitting by choosing the optimum number of mixture components required to model the data - a problem that is often encountered in other probabilistic drought indices (e.g., HMM-DI). When sufficient number of components are used in Gamma-MM, it can provide a good approximation to any continuous distribution in the range (0,infinity), thus addressing the problem of choosing an appropriate distribution for SPI analysis. The Gamma-MM propagates model uncertainties to drought classification. The method is tested on rainfall data over India. A comparison of the results with standard SPI shows significant differences, particularly when SPI assumptions on data distribution are violated.

Finding regions with similar drought characteristics is useful for policy-makers and water resources planners in the optimal allocation of resources, developing drought management plans, and taking timely actions to mitigate the negative impacts during droughts. Drought characteristics such as intensity, frequency, and duration, along with land-use and geographic information, were used as input features for clustering algorithms. Three methods, namely, (i) a Bayesian graph cuts algorithm that combines the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and Markov random fields (MRF), (ii) k-means, and (iii) hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm were used to find homogeneous drought regions that are spatially contiguous and possess similar drought characteristics. The number of homogeneous clusters and their shape was found to be sensitive to the choice of the drought index, the time window of drought, period of analysis, dimensionality of input datasets, clustering method, and model parameters of clustering algorithms. Regionalization for different epochs provided useful insight into the space-time evolution of homogeneous drought regions over the study area. Strategies to combine the results from multiple clustering methods were presented. These results can help policy-makers and water resources planners in the optimal allocation of resources, developing drought management plans, and taking timely actions to mitigate the negative impacts during droughts.

The North American Arctic was one of the last regions on Earth to be settled by humans, due to its extreme climate, limited range of resources, and remoteness from populated areas. Despite these factors, it holds a rich and complex history relating to Inuit, Iñupiat, Inuvialuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples and their ancestors. The artifacts, dwellings, and food remains of these ancient peoples are remarkably well preserved due to cold temperatures and permafrost, allowing archaeologists to reconstruct their lifeways with great accuracy. Furthermore, the combination of modern Elders’ traditional knowledge with the region’s high-resolution ethnographic record allows past peoples’ lives to be reconstructed to a level simply not possible elsewhere. Combined, these factors yield an archaeological record of global significance—the Arctic provides ideal case studies relating to issues as diverse as the impacts of climate change on human societies, the complex process of interaction between indigenous peoples and Europeans, and the dynamic relationships between environment, economy, social organization, and ideology in hunter-gatherer societies. In this book, each Arctic cultural tradition is described in detail, with up-to-date coverage of recent interpretations of all aspects of their lifeways. Additional chapters cover broad themes applicable to the full range of arctic cultures, such as trade, stone tool technology, ancient DNA research, and the relationship between archaeology and modern arctic communities. The resulting volume, written by the region’s leading researchers, is by far the most comprehensive coverage of North American arctic archaeology ever assembled.

Adaptive governance is defined by a focus on decentralized decision-making structures and procedurally rational policy, supported by intensive natural and social science. Decentralized decision-making structures allow a large, complex problem like global climate change to be factored into many smaller problems, each more tractable for policy and scientific purposes. Many smaller problems can be addressed separately and concurrently by smaller communities. Procedurally rational policy in each community is an adaptation to profound uncertainties, inherent in complex systems and cognitive constraints, that limit predictability. Hence planning to meet projected targets and timetables is secondary to continuing appraisal of incremental steps toward long-term goals: What has and hasn’t worked compared to a historical baseline, and why? Each step in such trial-and-error processes depends on politics to balance, if not integrate, the interests of multiple participants to advance their common interest—the point of governance in a free society. Intensive science recognizes that each community is unique because the interests, interactions, and environmental responses of its participants are multiple and coevolve. Hence, inquiry focuses on case studies of particular contexts considered comprehensively and in some detail.Varieties of adaptive governance emerged in response to the limitations of scientific management, the dominant pattern of governance in the 20th century. In scientific management, central authorities sought technically rational policies supported by predictive science to rise above politics and thereby realize policy goals more efficiently from the top down. This approach was manifest in the framing of climate change as an “irreducibly global” problem in the years around 1990. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established to assess science for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The parties negotiated the Kyoto Protocol that attempted to prescribe legally binding targets and timetables for national reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. But progress under the protocol fell far short of realizing the ultimate objective in Article 1 of the UNFCCC, “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system.” As concentrations continued to increase, the COP recognized the limitations of this approach in Copenhagen in 2009 and authorized nationally determined contributions to greenhouse gas reductions in the Paris Agreement in 2015.Adaptive governance is a promising but underutilized approach to advancing common interests in response to climate impacts. The interests affected by climate, and their relative priorities, differ from one community to the next, but typically they include protecting life and limb, property and prosperity, other human artifacts, and ecosystem services, while minimizing costs. Adaptive governance is promising because some communities have made significant progress in reducing their losses and vulnerability to climate impacts in the course of advancing their common interests. In doing so, they provide field-tested models for similar communities to consider. Policies that have worked anywhere in a network tend to be diffused for possible adaptation elsewhere in that network. Policies that have worked consistently intensify and justify collective action from the bottom up to reallocate supporting resources from the top down. Researchers can help realize the potential of adaptive governance on larger scales by recognizing it as a complementary approach in climate policy—not a substitute for scientific management, the historical baseline.

Victorian England was both the world’s first industrial society and its most powerful global empire. Ecological Form coordinates those facts to show how one version of the Anthropocene first emerged into visibility in the nineteenth century. Many of that era’s most sophisticated observers recognized that the systemic interconnections and global scale of both empire and ecology posed challenges best examined through aesthetic form. Using “ecological formalism” to open new dimensions to our understanding of the Age of Coal, contributors reconsider Victorian literary structures in light of environmental catastrophe; coordinate “natural” questions with social ones; and underscore the category of form—as built structure, internal organizing logic, and generic code—as a means for generating environmental and therefore political knowledge. Together these essays show how Victorian thinkers deployed an array of literary forms, from the elegy and the industrial novel to the utopian romance and the scientific treatise, to think interconnection at world scale. They also renovate our understanding of major writers like Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, John Ruskin, and Joseph Conrad, even while demonstrating the centrality of less celebrated figures, including Dinabandhu Mitra, Samuel Butler, and Joseph Dalton Hooker, to contemporary debates about the humanities and climate change. As the essays survey the circuits of dispossession linking Britain to the Atlantic World, Bengal, New Zealand, and elsewhere—and connecting the Victorian era to our own—they advance the most pressing argument of Ecological Form, which is that past thought can be a resource for reimagining the present.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

AbstractPrice-based climate change policy instruments, such as carbon taxes or cap-and-trade systems, are known for their potential to generate desirable results such as reducing the cost of meeting environmental targets. Nonetheless, carbon pricing policies face important economic and political hurdles. Powerful stakeholders tend to obstruct such policies or dilute their impacts. Additionally, costs are borne by those who implement the policies or comply with them, while benefits accrue to all, creating incentives to free ride. Finally, costs must be paid in the present, while benefits only materialize over time. This chapter analyses the political economy of the introduction of a carbon tax in Mexico in 2013 with the objective of learning from that process in order to facilitate the eventual implementation of an effective cap-and-trade system in Mexico. Many of the lessons in Mexico are likely to be applicable elsewhere. As countries struggle to meet the goals of international environmental agreements, it is of utmost importance that we understand the conditions under which it is feasible to implement policies that reduce carbon emissions.

Abstract This expert opinion argues that human aspects of risk are poorly studied and need to be considered in any discussion of the role of global climate change on risk for vector-borne infections, particularly for those transmitted by ticks. It also covers the many models that are used predict the future distribution of Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections in the USA and elsewhere, based on anticipated changes in weather.

AbstractThe severity of extreme weather and climate change impacts around the world has been a public health concern in the last few decades. Apart from greenhouse gas generation, poor waste management exacerbates consequences of global warming such as flooding, lower crop yields, and the epidemic of diseases which can escalate into disastrous situations. The general public in developing economies sees wastes as valueless materials and disposes them through open burning, stream dumping, or as conveniently as possible. Also, the cutting of trees for firewood leads to deforestation and desertification that increase people’s vulnerability to climate change impact. Against this backdrop, there is a need for a paradigm shift toward developing indigenous technologies that convert solid waste to cheap and clean energy. Various innovations use the “green technology approach” in putting trash back into the value chain. Furthermore, the green technology approach has a great potential to enhance adaptation and resilience among climate change-displaced populations where they can set up microenterprise on useful end products. In this chapter, unique features of these technologies at the Renewable Resources Centre of the University of Ibadan, practice-oriented researches, and a case study at Kube-Atenda community Ibadan, Nigeria, are presented. This chapter is therefore set out to showcase examples of waste management initiatives and strategies that have been successfully implemented elsewhere by the authors. It also focuses on how some countries in the continent, with developing economies, may foster their resilience and their capacity to adapt to climate change.

AbstractThe severity of extreme weather and climate change impacts around the world has been a public health concern in the last few decades. Apart from greenhouse gas generation, poor waste management exacerbates consequences of global warming such as flooding, lower crop yields, and the epidemic of diseases which can escalate into disastrous situations. The general public in developing economies sees wastes as valueless materials and disposes them through open burning, stream dumping, or as conveniently as possible. Also, the cutting of trees for firewood leads to deforestation and desertification that increase people’s vulnerability to climate change impact. Against this backdrop, there is a need for a paradigm shift toward developing indigenous technologies that convert solid waste to cheap and clean energy. Various innovations use the “green technology approach” in putting trash back into the value chain. Furthermore, the green technology approach has a great potential to enhance adaptation and resilience among climate change-displaced populations where they can set up microenterprise on useful end products. In this chapter, unique features of these technologies at the Renewable Resources Centre of the University of Ibadan, practice-oriented researches, and a case study at Kube-Atenda community Ibadan, Nigeria, are presented. This chapter is therefore set out to showcase examples of waste management initiatives and strategies that have been successfully implemented elsewhere by the authors. It also focuses on how some countries in the continent, with developing economies, may foster their resilience and their capacity to adapt to climate change.

AbstractKenya is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change-related stresses and extreme events. According to FAO, over 75% of the country is classified as arid and semiarid with rainfall availability and amounts quite unevenly spread across the different parts of the country. The country has very skewed distribution of water sources with the western area being relatively well endowed with abundant water resources. The exponential growth in the country’s population over the years, together with rapid environmental degradation and poor water resource development programs, have worsened the country’s vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Ethnic conflicts over land resources are common-place in Kenya’s rural areas where majority of the people live and the effects of extreme climate change events are likely to exacerbate resource-based conflicts. In this chapter we explore the extent of climate change-induced resource conflicts in three counties along rainfall availability gradient, namely, Kiambu County which experiences relatively high rainfall and also high urban population, Machakos County, which generally experiences modest rainfall availability, and Makueni County regarded to be one of the most arid and semiarid counties in the country. Data were collected in 2017 using a closed ended questionnaire. Between-subjects MANOVA design was used to examine relationship between independent and dependent variables. Qualitative results of the open-ended question reveal that climate change impacts can be diverse, particularly for vulnerable regions such as arid and semiarid regions such as Makueni County. In this county, respondents mentioned nine ways climate change had impacted communities, with the most frequently mentioned impact being increasing food insecurity followed by increasing water shortages. Machakos followed with seven impacts mentioned starting with increased water shortages followed by scarcity of pasture. In Kiambu County, only four impacts were mentioned with food insecurity being frequently mentioned among the list of impacts of climate change in the county. Results of the descriptive and inferential statistics reveal that resource-based conflicts vary along the hydrological gradient. In Machakos County, resource-based conflicts are perceived to have risen during the last 5 years (M = 3.92, SD = 0.66), followed by Makueni (M = 4.10, SD = 0.670). Kiambu residents do not consider resource-based conflicts to have risen during the last 5 year, (M = 2.50, SD = 1.38). Differences in severity of climate related conflicts are statistically significant, F2, 76 = 12.78, p <0.01. Also, climate change is strongly perceived to be a factor in the rise of resource-based conflicts in Machakos County (M = 4.10, SD = 0.67). In Makueni County as well, climate change is perceived to be a significant contributor to resource-based conflicts (M = 3.98, SD = 1.70). These findings have relevance on county and national policies targeted to build capacity to cope with climate change induced resource-based conflicts among grassroot communities in Kenya.

Abstract This chapter examines the gendered effects of drought-induced migration in rural Morocco for settler migrants and farmers who stay behind in sending communities. Due to state investments in irrigation, the Saiss plains of Morocco are experiencing rural-rural migration as an adaptive strategy for many who are escaping climate change and unemployment, to take advantage of labor opportunities in agricultural sectors elsewhere. The well-being and decision making power of male and female migrants in receiving communities (Betit and Sidi Slimane) and women staying behind in sending communities (Ain Jemaa) are examined. The chapter begins with a literature review on decision making power, gender, migration, and work in rural areas. Following this, the case study characteristics are presented, which detail how climate change is fueling migration, gender norms in host and sending communities, as well as the gender dynamics in accessing economic opportunities and decision making power. The chapter ends with recommendations to strengthen the women's decision making power as migration continues, with a focus on strengthening landed property ownership for women.

Abstract Wealth creation and poverty alleviation processes in the forest-bounded areas entail the use of such forests to a greater extent. Studies elsewhere show that there is often a tendency to use such forests until they are depleted before technology comes in to improve livelihoods. In this chapter, we examine community livelihoods in relation to ecosystem integrity for communities surrounding the Makere Forest Reserve, particularly socio-economic characteristics of communities, their links to forest utilization and implications for ecosystem integrity. We used mixed methods to collect data: (i) a household questionnaire; (ii) focus group discussions; (iii) key informant interviews; and (iv) a literature review, backed up with satellite imagery. Quantitative and qualitative data collected were subjected to statistical and non-statistical tests, respectively, with the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer software for quantitative data analysis. Livelihood activities in the area include shifting cultivation, livestock keeping, firewood fetching, charcoal making, harvesting timber and illegal logging. The motive for such forest exploitation is both for meeting household needs as well as for wealth accumulation. Forest users take part in such activities regardless of the distance they have to travel from their villages to come to the forest areas. We found education is an integral part of wealth status, but had nothing to do in terms of improving livelihood activities for ecosystem integrity. The absence of livelihood diversification of farm-related activities penetrates into weak forest governance strategies resulting in proliferation of deforestation and forest degradation. To maintain forest integrity, integrated approaches in forest management and alternative livelihood activities are needed such as beekeeping, fishing and modernized livestock keeping. These activities have the potential to increase household food and income and alleviate poverty levels without compromising ecosystem integrity.

AbstractSince the early 1990s, with the economic development and population growth, desertification has increasingly attracted the attention of governments, international organizations, and scientists around the world. The evaluation of desertification has become a new interest in land science research. Inner Mongolia is a largely deserted province in China, with the deserted land covering 640,000 km2; 91.16%, 41.4%, and 41.0% of the desertification was caused by wind erosion, water erosion, and saline desertification, respectively. Desertification is so disastrous that it can cause additional ecological problems (Liu and Wang 2006; Ye 2008). The causes of desertification in Inner Mongolia can be classified into human and natural causes. Regarding human causes, irrational irrigation methods are the main causes, mainly due to the pressure of population growth, overgrazing (Fig. C8.1), the expansion of dry land reclamation (Fig. C8.2), woodcutting, and the harvesting of Chinese herbal medicine (Fig. C8.3). Regarding natural causes, climate change and the geographical environment are the main issues. Within Inner Mongolia, the arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid arid regions deep in the hinterland of the continent and far away from the ocean comprise the most arid and fragile environmental zone, which lies in the same latitude as areas with the lowest precipitation and highest evaporation. In the past 40 years, precipitation has shown a decreasing trend in parts of the arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid arid regions of Inner Mongolia, whereas the temperature in other areas has shown an increasing trend. These changes in the climate have led to an increase in evaporative power and contributed to soil salinization, which have exacerbated desertification to a certain extent.

With dwindling water supplies and the impacts of climate change, many cities are turning to water sources previously considered unusable. One such source for inland cities is brackish groundwater. With prolonged drought throughout Texas, cities such as El Paso, Lubbock, and San Antonio are desalinating brackish groundwater to supplement existing water sources. Similar projects are under consideration elsewhere in Texas. While brackish groundwater contains fewer total dissolved solids than seawater, desalination of brackish groundwater is still an energy-intensive process. Brackish water desalination using reverse osmosis, the most common desalination membrane treatment process, consumes 20 to 40 times more energy than traditional surface water treatment using local water sources. This additional energy consumption leads to increased carbon emissions when using fossil fuel-generated electricity. As a result of concern over greenhouse gas emissions from additional energy consumption, some desalination plants are powered by wind-generated electricity. West Texas is a prime area for desalination of brackish groundwater using wind power, since both wind and brackish groundwater resources are abundant in the area. Most of the Texas Panhandle and Plains region has wind resource potential classified as Class 3 or higher. Additionally, brackish groundwater is found at depths less than 150 m in most of west Texas. This combination of wind and brackish groundwater resources presents opportunities for the production of alternative drinking water supplies without severe carbon emissions. Additionally, since membrane treatment is not required to operate continuously, desalination matches well with variable wind power. Implementing a brackish groundwater desalination project using wind-generated electricity requires economic feasibility, in addition to the geographic availability of the two resources. Using capital and operating cost data for wind turbines and desalination membranes, we conducted a thermoeconomic analysis for three parameters: 1) transmission and transport, 2) geographic proximity, and 3) aquifer volume. Our first parameter analyzes the cost effectiveness of tradeoffs between building infrastructure to transmit wind-generated electricity to the desalination facility versus pipelines to transport brackish groundwater to the wind turbines. Secondly, we estimate the maximum distance between the wind turbines and brackish groundwater at which desalination using wind power remains economically feasible. Finally, we estimate the minimum available brackish aquifer volume necessary to make such a project profitable. Our analysis illustrates a potential drinking water option for Texas (and other parts of the world with similar conditions) using renewable energy to treat previously unusable water. Harnessing these two resources in an economically efficient manner may help reduce future strain on the energy-water nexus.

This paper provides an overview of building-integrated Carbon Sequestration (CS) techniques focusing on their potential environmental impact and associated costs. CS techniques are classified into three categories: 1) Biotic (Green Roofs, Vertical Greenery Systems (VGS), and Algae Facades); 2) Materials (carbon-negative and carbon absorb- ing building materials); and 3) Equipment (filter towers). Preliminary literature review shows that Green Roofs and VGS can capture 150gC/m2 – 650gC/m2, while algae facades go up to 2430gC/m2 – 2970gC/m2. Biomass and filter towers could absorb a relatively high amount of approximately 1 x 10^15 gC and 687.5 x 10^9 gC, respectively (without normalization). By analyzing and summarizing each CS technique based on performance indicators like prerequisites, CS potential, costs and area required, it was found that Biotic techniques can be applied to a structure’s roof and facades for a large range of projects having low to high budgets. Biomass must be highly encouraged to be mixed with all the construction materials which can sequester up to 10^15 gC. Equipment, which has one of the highest potentials to sequester carbon and are highly expensive, can be used in urban spaces like parks and markets. A comparative analysis is finally done specifically showing the CS potential associated with the Biotic CS techniques to allow architects and designers to evaluate these technologies and analyze their integration potential in architectural practice.

On March 11, 2011 the largest earthquake to hit Japan occurred. This magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered a huge tsunami and killed 2,563 people. It led to the nuclear disaster at nuclear power plant in Fukushima. It was classified as a level 7 event - the same as Chernobyl. In our area we also have nuclear power plants and we are expected to have an earthquake which is estimated to be much larger than the one encountered on March of 2011. Through funding of 30 billion Yen we are building a 13m high seawall stretching 17.5km from the Tenryu estuary to Lake Hamana which is an enclosed coastal sea. In cooperation with our citizens we are planting trees on its slopes to help protect the natural landscape and to keep to a minimum any damage from the next tsunami. Risk management at a global scale due to Climate Change is very important concern involving our children's future and happiness. Global-warming prevention education is crucial for the survival of mankind. This is because there is a possibility of falling into a huge crisis that we cannot get out of. I would like to introduce my practical environmental education for the past 25 years at a technical high school and also introduce the ideas of two great Japanese educators, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Daisaku Ikeda. Furthermore, I would like to refer to the importance of global citizens through education for global warming prevention which is based on the way of thinking of Dr. Ikeda which is called "Human Revolution".

On March 11, 2011 the largest earthquake to hit Japan occurred. This magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered a huge tsunami and killed 2,563 people. It led to the nuclear disaster at nuclear power plant in Fukushima. It was classified as a level 7 event - the same as Chernobyl. In our area we also have nuclear power plants and we are expected to have an earthquake which is estimated to be much larger than the one encountered on March of 2011. Through funding of 30 billion Yen we are building a 13m high seawall stretching 17.5km from the Tenryu estuary to Lake Hamana which is an enclosed coastal sea. In cooperation with our citizens we are planting trees on its slopes to help protect the natural landscape and to keep to a minimum any damage from the next tsunami. Risk management at a global scale due to Climate Change is very important concern involving our children's future and happiness. Global-warming prevention education is crucial for the survival of mankind. This is because there is a possibility of falling into a huge crisis that we cannot get out of. I would like to introduce my practical environmental education for the past 25 years at a technical high school and also introduce the ideas of two great Japanese educators, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Daisaku Ikeda. Furthermore, I would like to refer to the importance of global citizens through education for global warming prevention which is based on the way of thinking of Dr. Ikeda which is called "Human Revolution".

Coastal Artillery Regiment (RAC) is a unit of the Portuguese Army with the mission of guaranteeing the coastal defense of the ports of Lisbon and Setúbal. The set consists of fixed, secret, camouflaged and fortified batteries, installed along the entrance to the Sado and Tejo rivers. The structures are equipped with heavy artillery pieces. RAC was deactivated in 1998 and its archive was recently declassified. In times of technological advances, there is an inevitable change in the paradigm of military architecture. Technically obsolete structures have fallen into extinction. These territorial voids must be discussed in the inevitable territory reorganization. Should they display archeology or just be absorbed by surroundings? How to deal with post-military heritage? And lastly, how can we deal and operate in such a territorial resilience example, in a way to take profit from this particular long extension of waterfront regarding Climate Emergency. Present paper is a result within two main research projects: “SOSClimateWaterfront” (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) program) and “Bunker architecture from mid 20th century and the post military Portuguese classified heritage” project. In this sense proposes a active research that means an accurate research about Portuguese bunkers and around military areas together with the discussion around the possible use of these areas as resilience areas to climate improvement within waterfronts around Lisbon.

Early experiences with energy savings certificates (ESCs) have revealed their merits and the challenges associated with them. While in the United States ESC markets have yet to gain significant traction, lessons can be drawn from early experiences in the states of Connecticut and New York, as well as from established markets in Italy, France, and elsewhere. The staying power of European examples demonstrates that ESCs can help initiate more efficiency projects. This article compares ESCs with renewable energy certificates (RECs), looks at the unique opportunities and challenges they present, and reviews solutions and best practices demonstrated by early ESC markets. Three major potential ESC market types are also reviewed: compliance, voluntary, and carbon. Additionally, factors that will benefit ESC markets in the United States are examined: new state EEPS policies, public interest in tools to mitigate climate change, and the growing interest in a voluntary market for ESCs.

South Africa is a “canary in a coal mine” for the world’s upcoming ecological crises, especially regarding electrical energy provision for a developing modern society, because aspects of the South African situation may be repeated elsewhere when ecological limits constrain economic activity. We describe the South African context in terms of social issues and economic development policies, environmental issues, and the electrical energy situation in the country. We explore implications of the South African context for the provision of electrical energy in terms of development objectives, climate change, the electrical grid, water, and solar, wind, ocean, and hydro energy resources. Thereafter, we explore future directions for electrical energy provision in the country, including some important questions to be answered. Next, we offer a rational way forward, including an assessment favoring concentrated solar power (CSP) as a path of least resistance for decoupling South Africa’s energy use from upstream and downstream environmental impacts. We conclude with some learnable lessons from the South African context for the rest of the developing and developed world.

The events related to climate change are recently challenging the Slovenian urban planning. One of them are the floods in urbanised areas that call for a radically new approaches to how the urban built structure is organised and managed. The continental (and largest) part of Slovenia has a subalpine climate which has been traditionally characterised by a moderate precipitation throughout the year. This is now being changed as the larger amounts of water fall on the ground in a shorter period. As the current urban structure is not shaped in accordance with these new circumstances, parts of the cities are getting flooded more often. Some mitigation measures have been implemented, however to address the issue comprehensively new urban planning approaches are needed too. The paper will present one of the tools that has been developed within the endeavours of the national Ministry of Spatial Planning to reform the urban planning system to better reflect the changes posed by the climate change. It is related to the urban design criteria for building plots planning. To allow the rainfall to penetrate the soil as soon as the precipitation reaches the ground, new measures in organisation of the building plots will be provided. The current system defines the percentage of the built-up area within the plot but does not consider the permitted percentage of the paved open spaces (which do not allow the water to penetrate into the grounds), therefor it will be supplemented by the new measures based on the ability of the plots to allow the penetration of the water. The paper firstly presents the current system of building plots regulation within the Slovenian planning system. It then reports the results of the extensive analyses that focused on the existing characteristics of building plots for different building typologies across the country (housing, production, trade, public services) with the aim to map the state of the art in terms of the potential of the existing building plots to allow the water to flow into the grounds. The third part explains the methodological framework for the new approach to the building plots regulation. The last part presents the newly proposed approach and relates it to other urban design tools that need to support the implementation in practice. The concluding section relates the lessons learnt in Slovenian case to the similar situations elsewhere and stress the responsibilities that the urban planning and design have in providing future urban environments that will ensure the environmentally just living conditions for all.

Current urban development is based on the principles of sustainability. Efforts to respond to the deepening economic, environmental, and social problems have led to the development of a number of innovative approaches, concepts, and models with the potential to contribute to the transition to sustainable development. The aim of the paper is to present selected current approaches to sustainable urban development and map out projects that explicitly contribute to meeting its objectives, funded by the 8th Framework Program for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020. To achieve this, the paper uses a literature review and analysis of secondary data obtained from the CORDIS database. A total of 406 relevant projects identified were classified into seven categories according to the predominant focus (corresponding sustainability challenge). Most projects (79%) were implemented in the field of smart, green, and integrated transport. However, in terms of the total amount of funding, the predominance of transport sustainability projects was not as significant. Projects related to sustainable energy, climate change, and environmental protection accounted for more than half of the total costs. Based on the findings, the paper emphasizes the need for implementing similar initiatives.

Serious disruptions and exceptional circumstances for society, that the society tries to prepare for and act in them are at the center of security of supply. Current examples are the COVID pandemic and the ongoing energy crisis for which Finland's security of supply has also been strongly highlighted. Disturbances can also be caused by weather phenomena: in Finland, such examples are windstorms, severe thunderstorms, floods, and droughts, which can, at least in principle, paralyze the society. It is possible to prepare for the impacts of weather phenomena, but the ongoing rapid climate change makes it more complicated. Some of the weather phenomena that cause impacts are fast and violent (e.g. intense thunderstorms) and some occur more slowly (e.g. long heat waves), and climate change affects the phenomena in different ways. In this work, the estimated impacts of climate change on Finland's security of supply were investigated. The starting point was to gain an understanding of which weather phenomena and weather situations are central to security of supply and which sectors of security of supply are the most vulnerable. The work constituted of workshops and expert interviews organized with the National Emergency Supply Agency. In addition to the interviews, the work covered past significant weather situations in Finland that are known to have had significant societal impacts. Information was also extracted from recent literature, especially regarding the vulnerabilities and adaptability of different sectors in Finland. Estimates of the climate change impacts on the identified phenomena were combined with the collected information, resulting in a first understanding of how climate change affects Finland's security of supply. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the impacts of climate change on security of supply are quite complex, especially due to the wide spectrum of weather phenomena and their different impact mechanisms. In addition, the matter becomes more complicated by the fact that there is no clear distinction of what weather phenomenon actually is critical to security of supply and what is not. For example, could the increasing adverse impacts on health care due to the increasingly common heat conditions reach a serious societal disturbance situation at some point, if it is not sufficiently prepared in advance? Another key result is that in terms of security of supply, the direct effects of climate change are very small in Finland compared to many other countries. Although the climate in Finland has already changed considerably and will continue to change in the future, the biggest impacts to security of supply seem to be reflected from elsewhere: the experts of the National Emergency Supply Agency consider the worst situation to be a lack of food, water and habitable living environment in the world, which would also be reflected to Finland. Among the sectors, food/water and energy supply and logistics are perceived as the most vulnerable. The work mainly focused on the direct effects of climate change, i.e. the effects of climate change on the occurrence of various weather phenomena. However, the work also considers to some extent indirect effects, i.e. those reflected from other parts of the world, and transitional effects that result from climate change mitigation measures, especially from the rapid energy transition.

Open File 8838 is a publication of Interdepartmental Memorandum of Understanding (IMOU) 5170 between Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), and Transport Canada Innovation Centre (TC-IC). IMOU 5107 aims to gain new insight into slow-moving landslides and the influence of climate changes through testing conventional and emerging monitoring technologies along strategically important sections of the national railway network in the Thompson River valley, British Columbia, and the Assiniboine River valley along the borders of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The results of this research will be applicable to other sites in Canada, and elsewhere around the world where slowmoving landslides and climate change are adversely affecting critical socio-economic infrastructure.

Interdepartmental Memorandum of Understanding (IMOU) 5170 between Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) and Transport Canada Innovation Centre (TC-IC) aims to gain new insight into slow-moving landslides, and the influence of climate change, through testing conventional and emerging monitoring technologies. IMOU 5107 focuses on strategically important sections of the national railway network in the Thompson River valley, British Columbia (BC), and the Assiniboine River valley along the borders of Manitoba (MN) and Saskatchewan (SK). Results of this research are applicable elsewhere in Canada (e.g., the urban-rural-industrial landscapes of the Okanagan Valley, BC), and around the world where slow-moving landslides and climate change are adversely affecting critical socio-economic infrastructure. Open File 8931 outlines landslide mapping and changedetection monitoring protocols based on the successes of IMOU 5170 and ICL-IPL Project 202 in BC. In this region, ice sheets, glaciers, permafrost, rivers and oceans, high relief, and biogeoclimatic characteristics contribute to produce distinctive rapid and slow-moving landslide assemblages that have the potential to impact railway infrastructure and operations. Bedrock and drift-covered slopes along the transportation corridors are prone to mass wasting when favourable conditions exist. In high-relief mountainous areas, rapidly moving landslides include rock and debris avalanches, rock and debris falls, debris flows and torrents, and lahars. In areas with moderate to low relief, rapid to slow mass movements include rockslides and slumps, debris or earth slides and slumps, and earth flows. Slow-moving landslides include rock glaciers, rock and soil creep, solifluction, and lateral spreads in bedrock and surficial deposits. Research efforts lead to a better understanding of how geological conditions, extreme weather events and climate change influence landslide activity along the national railway corridor. Combining field-based landslide investigation with multi-year geospatial and in-situ time-series monitoring leads to a more resilient railway national transportation network able to meet Canada's future socioeconomic needs, while ensuring protection of the environment and resource-based communities from landslides related to extreme weather events and climate change. InSAR only measures displacement in the east-west orientation, whereas UAV and RTK-GNSS change-detection surveys capture full displacement vectors. RTK-GNSS do not provide spatial coverage, whereas InSAR and UAV surveys do. In addition, InSAR and UAV photogrammetry cannot map underwater, whereas boat-mounted bathymetric surveys reveal information on channel morphology and riverbed composition. Remote sensing datasets, consolidated in a geographic information system, capture the spatial relationships between landslide distribution and specific terrain features, at-risk infrastructure, and the environmental conditions expected to correlate with landslide incidence and magnitude. Reliable real-time monitoring solutions for critical railway infrastructure (e.g., ballast, tracks, retaining walls, tunnels, and bridges) able to withstand the harsh environmental conditions of Canada are highlighted. The provision of fundamental geoscience and baseline geospatial monitoring allows stakeholders to develop robust risk tolerance, remediation, and mitigation strategies to maintain the resilience and accessibility of critical transportation infrastructure, while also protecting the natural environment, community stakeholders, and Canadian economy. We propose a best-practice solution involving three levels of investigation to describe the form and function of the wide range of rapid and slow-moving landslides occurring across Canada that is also applicable elsewhere. Research activities for 2022 to 2025 are presented by way of conclusion.