Journal articles on the topic 'Climatic changes – Political aspects – China'

A wide range of climate change-induced effects have been implicated in the prevalence of infectious diseases. Disentangling causes and consequences, however, remains particularly challenging at historical time scales, for which the quality and quantity of most of the available natural proxy archives and written documentary sources often decline. Here, we reconstruct the spatiotemporal occurrence patterns of human epidemics for large parts of China and most of the last two millennia. Cold and dry climate conditions indirectly increased the prevalence of epidemics through the influences of locusts and famines. Our results further reveal that low-frequency, long-term temperature trends mainly contributed to negative associations with epidemics, while positive associations of epidemics with droughts, floods, locusts, and famines mainly coincided with both higher and lower frequency temperature variations. Nevertheless, unstable relationships between human epidemics and temperature changes were observed on relatively smaller time scales. Our study suggests that an intertwined, direct, and indirect array of biological, ecological, and societal responses to different aspects of past climatic changes strongly depended on the frequency domain and study period chosen.

Many observational facts and studies have shown that the climatic conditions in the Hai River Basin, which is the political and cultural centre of China, changed significantly over last half of the 20th century. This study attempts to evaluate the variability of climatic elements such as precipitation and temperature in the basin based on observed meteorological data, and the temporal variations and sudden changes of precipitation and temperature during past 40 years (1961-2000) are analyzed combining moving-average and linear regression with Mann-Kendall method. In addition, the observed climatic changes are attributed to different factors including natural variability and anthropogenic forcing using the fingerprint-based attribution method. The results indicate that: 1) during 1961-2000, the precipitation slightly decreased and the estimated sudden change time was 1965, the temperature significantly increased and the estimated sudden change time was 1964; 2) natural climate variability may be the factors responsible for the observed precipitation changes during the past 40 years in the basin, while anthropogenic forcing may be the main factors responsible for the observed temperature changes during the past 40 years in the basin.

Climate change affects many aspects of the physiological and biochemical processes of growing maize and ultimately its yield. A comprehensive climate suitability model is proposed that quantifies the effects of temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and wind in different phenological stages of maize. It is calibrated using weather and yield data from China’s Henan Province. The comprehensive suitability model showed the capability of correctly hindcasting observed temporal and spatial changes in maize phenology in response to climatic factors. The predicted yield based on the suitability model can well match the recorded field yield very well from 1971–2020. The results of correlation showed that the yields are more closely related to multi-weather factors, temperature and precipitation than to solar radiation and wind. The sensitivity analysis illustrates that temperature and precipitation are the dominant weather factors affecting yield changes based on a direct differentiation method. The comprehensive suitability model can provide a scientific support and analysis tool for predicting grain production considering climate changes.

Abstract Nowadays, changes in environment have become characteristic of notorious mainstream political topics, with a corresponding moral, political, and financial support. The presented article deals with the landscape-ecological scientific aspects of climatic changes and of ecosystem services. The research of both phenomena is based on the complex investigation of the geosystem and, as a second step, on the scientifically-based interpretation of the obtained results. The problem resides in the question concerning the capability of scientific institutions and teams to deal with these topics with scientific profoundness, taking into account intensive public pressure and high expectations.

The paper analyzes the Chinese influences on the doctrine of the French physiocrat François Quesnay from the perspective of the cultural specifics of the perception of economic and political ideas. The approaches of Chinese researchers were impacted by Marxist methodology, sinocentric views and fragmentary use of primary sources. The application of the Marxist concept of socio-economic formations supported the arguments that feudal Confucianism could not influence the views of physiocrats, which reflected the emergence of capitalist relations. In the 18th century opponents of the physiocrats used the comparison of the Tableau Économique with the scheme of the Chinese Book of Changes to disqualify Quesnay’s doctrine. For Chinese researchers this comparison became a confirmation of the value of the Tableau Économique and an incentive to search for the ideas of circular flows and equilibrium in both tables. The study of Despotism in China content confirms its connection with the actual historical China. It is concluded that Chinese scholars seek to interpret the historical precedent of the influence of Confucian thought on Quesnay’s doctrine in the context of plans to increase the global clout of China’s social sciences.

Abstract This article analyzes how the Basel missionaries interpreted the nineteenth- and twentieth-century revolutionary changes in China. After a short historical overview, it assesses the different aspects and roots of what implicitly constituted the political theology of the Basel Mission. In the body part of the essay it analyzes documents written by missionaries (letters, reports written to the home committee) to understand how the missionaries saw the epochal changes that they witnessed: the Taiping Rebellion in the nineteenth century and the political changes taking place between 1911–1949. A final section considers how timely the past Basel missionaries’ political views are in present-day China and how they are reflected in parts of recent Chinese political theology.

Intended to stimulate interest in probing the interrelationship between the press and social change in China, this paper investigates some salient aspects of the changes of the Chinese press in post-1989 years and their implications for journalistic professionalization. It is argued that under the hybrid system of economic freedom and political repression, journalism as a profession, while benefiting from the changing information environment, suffers from persistence in the Maoist press theory and the nation-wide commercialization. It is further argued that press professionalization can hardly be guaranteed unless a more democratic and freer political climate emerges in China.

This Introduction was written in November 2002, when the 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was being held where more than 2000 delegates (representing 66 million Party members) decided on future policies and changes in the leadership. The way these decisions were prepared and endorsed reminds us how China differs from Western democracies. However, apart from the political structures, to what extent is China different?The following five essays, all written by Chinese scholars, allow us a glimpse into contemporary Chinese culture through informative reports on philosophy, cultural studies, fiction, gender construction and women's poetry, and traditional Chinese medicine. Of course, these articles are far from covering all aspects, or even all major aspects, of Chinese culture, yet they offer us views of specific areas by experts who, from their insiders' vantage points, lead us into the heart of the intellectual debate in contemporary China.Although the authors of these essays, with few exceptions, hesitate to generalize on present conditions and possible future scenarios, their arguments have something in common and suggest, perhaps unknowingly, important clues for understanding Chinese culture. When reading these essays, I am struck by the following, recurrent aspects.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the linkages between climate change, income dynamics and nutrition intake in rural China. Design/methodology/approach – Using a system of simultaneous equations in a three-stage least squares model instrumented with carbohydrates, fats, proteins and farm income the authors found generally that the greatest impact on nutrition would be from changes in temperature. Findings – The authors do not find that modest changes in precipitation affect nutrient intake, but extreme events such as drought do. Furthermore, the authors found a strong income effect and this income effect is opposite the heating effect. This may suggest that large swings in nutrient intake brought about by climate change may be countermanded by equivalent increases in income. The authors also found that in terms of general measures of elasticity that market effects, especially in the price of meats, can impact carbohydrate, fat and protein intake as much as global warming. Originality/value – The authors believe that three aspects of this manuscript will make it interesting. First, in the short term, poorer households would be the most vulnerable and sensitive to climate change. However, in the long term, all households in rural China appear able to deal with changing climatic conditions through adaptation. Second, the authors do not find evidences to prove the existence of a poverty nutrition trap in rural China. Third, the results also indicate that, the nutrition intake of households in rural China is more prone to gradual changes, rather than extreme events.

The article considers the impact of environmental changes on population migration and security of countries. Theoretical aspects of Environmental migration, in particular its essence and types, are studied. The main directions of scientific research in this field are considered. In particular, much attention is about finding ways to adapt to changes in the environment and minimize the negative consequences of these changes to achieve sustainable development in both regions and countries. The study found that internal population movements are mainly due to climatic factors such as storms and floods. It was determined that in 2019, about 52% of new mixing was caused by storms and 40% - by floods. Countries for which the phenomenon of ecological migration is most characteristic are India, the Philippines, the United States, China, and Indonesia. The main problems that arise in the study of Environmental mobility of the population are identifiedThey are mainly related to the lack of information and statistical base for conducting qualitative and diverse research.

Import substitution has become a key factor in the transition of the Russian economy to innovation-driven development. Apart from everything else, the results of testing of the Prebisch — Singer hypothesis point to the need for this transition. The article considers theoretical and legal aspects of Russia’s import substitution policy in agriculture. This sector depends on natural and climatic conditions, it is also characterized by seasonality of production processes and it uses animals and plants as resources for production. Therefore, extraordinary measures are required to organize import substitution in this sphere. Moreover, in accordance with Engel’s law, it is necessary to ensure not only the country’s food independence but also the high quality of agricultural production. To this end, the main principles of import substitution should be enshrined in federal legislation. In this case, the interests of national agricultural producers will be better protected from changes in the political environment.

Guangdong Province is one of China’s largest and most developed regions. It is home to more than 113 million people and features unique geographical and climatic characteristics. Typhoons that pass through often result in heavy rainfall, which causes flooding. The region’s risk of typhoon and flood disasters, and the resulting indirect economic impacts, have not been fully assessed. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a method for assessing the spatial and temporal cumulative risk of typhoon-induced flood disasters, and the resulting indirect economic impacts, in order to deal with the uncertainty of disasters. We combined an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and spatial analysis using a geographic information system (GIS) to produce a comprehensive weighted-risk assessment from three different aspects of disaster, vulnerability, and resilience, with 11 indicators. A new method for computing risk based on spatial and temporal cumulative patterns of typhoon-induced flood disasters was introduced. We incorporated those direct impacts into a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to simulate indirect economic losses in alternative scenarios according to different risk levels. We found that the risk in the coastal area is significantly higher than that in the northern mountainous area. The coastal areas of western Guangdong, Pearl River Delta, and Chaoshan Plain face the greatest risk. Our results indicate that typhoon and flood disasters have negative effects on the real GDP, residents’ income, consumption, and several other macroeconomic indicators. We found differing disaster impacts across industrial sectors, including changes in the output, prices, and flow of labor among industries. Our estimates provide scientific support for environmental planning, spatial planning, and disaster-risk management in this important region. They are also of reference value for the development of disaster management strategies in similar climatic regions around the world.

Criminal procedure in China had been governed by the 1979 Criminal Procedure Law (CPL 1979). This was amended in 1996 (the Amendment). In many aspects, the Amendment introduces important changes to the previous procedures and significantly redistributes the existing division of powers within the criminal justice system. It restricts police power and the prosecution's discretion. It enhances the position of the court and differentiates the role of judges. It also offers more protection for the rights of the accused and enhances the position of defence lawyers in the criminal process in substantive and procedural aspects. Consequently criminal lawyers are expected to play a more active and meaningful role in criminal defence.

The article discusses economic aspects of the strategic partnership of Russia and China, in particular, the dynamics of bilateral trade, the changes in its structure, the need for our country to pursue a long-term industrial policy in order to depart from mainly commodity orientation of exports to China. It is concluded that the situation in the bilateral trade situation could not satisfy the Russian partners because it contradicts to the objectives of the development perspective and to the challenges of modernizing Russian economy.

This article is devoted to trade, investment and institutional aspects of Russion-Chinese economic cooperation. The perspective of this cooperation, problems of growth and structural changes of China’s economy are also analyzed. This research based on analyzes of key indicators: GDP growth and structure, import and export volume and structure, foreign trade’s amount and structure, indicators of investment activity. Institutional aspects of bilateral relationships are analyzed. This work also contains evaluation of Russian-Chinese relationship’s perspectives and analyzes of growth problems and structure changes in Chinese economy, which is connected to service sector development and quality of life’s growth. Development of Chinese market creates opportunities for the growth of Russian export, but on the condition that our country could form the supply of quality and interesting products. The authors come to a conclusion that significant growth of Russia and People’s Republic of China economic interactions is a fundamental base for political partnership and strategical interactions.

The article covers the political and legal aspects of establishing and developing e-commerce and the digital economy in the PRC. The authors consider the features, periodization, and factors characterizing their development from the perspective of scientists and practitioners of the People's Republic of China. The authors conclude that changes caused by multidirectional processes (the global pandemic of Covid-19 and, as a result, negative global changes in the economy) accelerated the digitalization of many industries, primarily in the economy and trade; the trend emerging in the development of the digital economy in the PRC fully corresponds to the global development trend in the direction of “electronic commerce - digital economy - digitalized economy”; having the second largest indicators of the development of the digital economy, the PRC ensures this process with state program and legislative acts; high rates of development of the digital economy are supported by state support and national factors that contribute to the development of the digital economy; the promising growth of the digital economy will be ensured by the leadership of the state in the implementation of the proposed global initiatives.

Urbanization changes the land surface environment, which alters the regional climate system. In this study, we took the Haihe River Basin in China as a case study area, as it is highly populated and experienced rapid urbanization from 2000–2015. We investigated how land use and cover change (LUCC) was driven by urban land development affects land-climate dynamics. From 2000–2015, we collected data from the land use and cover database, the remote sensing database of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) series, and the meteorological database to process and generate regional datasets for LUCC maps. We organized data by years aligned with the selected indicators of land surface, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), albedo, and land surface temperature (LST), as well as of regional climate, cloud water content (CWC), and precipitation (P). The assembled datasets were processed to perform statistical analysis and conduct structural equation modelling (SEM). Based on eco-climatology principles and the biophysical process in the land-climate dynamics, we made assumptions on how the indicators connected to each other. Moreover, we testified and quantified them in SEM. LUCC results found that from 2000–2015 the urban area proportion increased by 214% (2.20–6.91%), while the agricultural land decreased by 7.2% (53.05–49.25%) and the forest increased by 4.3% (10.02–10.45%), respectively. This demonstrated how cropland intensification and afforestation happened in the urbanizing basin. SEM results showed that the forest had both positive and negative effects on the regional hydrological cycle. The agricultural land, grassland, and shrub had indirect effects on the P via different biophysical functions of LST. The overall effects of urbanization on regional precipitation was positive (pathway correlation coefficient = 0.25). The interpretation of how urbanization drives LUCC and alters regional climate were herein discussed in different aspects of socioeconomic development, biophysical processes, and urbanization-related atmospheric effects. We provided suggestions for further possible research on monitoring and assessment, putting forth recommendations to advance sustainability via land planning and management, including agricultural land conservation, paying more attention to the quality growth of forest rather than the merely area expansion, integrating the interdisciplinary approach, and assessing climatic risk for extreme precipitation and urban flooding.

Field-work in north, south and west China villages reveals that prior to the establishment of the People's Republic family organization at all three sites was characterized by the same customary arrangements concerning ownership of property, economic ties among family members, family management and family division. During the collective era and the present period of family fanning changes in these aspects of family life have been along similar lines. I was in a Hebei village for four months during 1986–87, and in 1990 carried out three-month periods of field-work in villages in Shanghai county and on the Chengdu Plain in Sichuan.

Michael Palmer's article examines the development of three important aspects in Chinese family law: divorce, adoption and family planning. It is a commendable effort to approach Chinese family law broadly in order to bring family planning policy within its study. There remains a glaring gap in Chinese legal scholarship between the study of family law and the study of population. The disciplines are divided into two camps with little cross-fertilization. Palmer's article clearly demonstrates the importance and necessity of including family planning within the study of family law. The article is also a laudable attempt to examine the dynamic interaction between family law and socioeconomic changes.

Analysis of the impacts of climate variability on evapotranspiration (ET) is of great importance in understanding climate variability and its effect on hydrological aspects. In this study, temporal and spatial variations in reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and actual evapotranspiration (AET) were comprehensively detected in the Taohe River Basin from 1981 to 2010. The spatial distributions of annual sensitivity of ET0 and AET to climatic variables were investigated. The quantitative contributions, the possible causes and dominant controlling factors were analyzed. The results suggested the following. (1) Considerable changes in ET0 occurred due to climate variability in the Gannan Plateau area (GPA) and Loess Plateau area (LPA) by 3.54 mm/yr and 3.39 mm/yr from 1981 to 2010, respectively. (2) Net solar radiation was the most sensitive factor on ET0. The dominant factor was air temperature leading to increase in ET0 due to high sensitive coefficient to ET0 and also exhibited significant increasing magnitude. (3) Precipitation (PPT) was the most sensitive factor for AET. AET in the GPA is controlled by air temperature and in LPA is controlled by PPT. This study provides a beneficial reference to agriculture, water resource and eco-environment management strategies in this region for associated policymakers and stakeholders.

Abstract Climate adaptation research often ignores the broader socio-cultural human sphere within which climate change takes place. Dominant viewpoints on climate adaptation derive from the biophysical world that often excludes social, economic, and political contexts that also connect to biophysical changes. Hybrid methodological mixed methods approaches to climate adaptation provide paradigmatically different questions. This perspective is useful for identifying socio-cultural aspects of climatic adaptation. To demonstrate the power of a hybrid approach for interconnecting human and non-human factors implicated in climate adaptation, we deploy an in-depth case study of N. Benin, West African farmers who increasingly must configure their farming methods to tackle erratic changes in weather. The case study examines the role gender dynamics play in climate adaptation that found few gender differences in the ways male and female farmers perceive the biophysical aspects of climate adaptation on their subsistence farming lifestyle from their initial village climate survey. However, the qualitative components of their study uncovered significant gender differences in socio-cultural adaptation challenges, vulnerabilities, and future lifestyle opportunities. We discuss the transformative policy implications about ignoring gender difference and the importance of taking an intersectional approach to variation in climate adaptation policy making.

Social mobilization has long been considered a major characteristic of Chinese life and, more recently, a key aspect of China’s state capacity. The existing literature on social mobilization in the country, however, is characterized by studies of pre-1978 China, many of which are scattered and fragmentary. This problem has not only resulted in misjudging the vital role of social mobilization as a process of change and an analytical construct, but has also overlooked the work of other researchers, especially those in China, studying a wide range of aspects of socio-economic and socio-political activities in present-day China. As a result, the research literature has not kept pace with the profound changes occurring in the country, providing no adequate theoretical foundation and capability for analyzing and theorizing the dynamics at work in contemporary China. This analytical article seeks to critically review the current state of knowledge relating to social mobilization in China and the main theoretical problems in the literature, paying special attention to the missing links between different perspectives.

During the last years, China started to keep a close eye on changes in the Arctic. But its opportunities to take part in the regional resources development are restricted by the fact that it has no physical access to the Arctic Ocean. Thus, Chinese diplomacy has to exert many efforts in order to secure Beijing's regional ambitions and develop partnership ties with circumpolar states. The closest friends of China in the Arctic are Scandinavian countries. In this article the author intends to analyse the aspects of Sino-Scandinavian cooperation in the Arctic.

Abstract. Human land use has placed enormous pressure on natural resources and ecosystems worldwide and may even prompt socio-ecological collapses under some circumstances. Efforts to avoid such collapses are hampered by a lack of knowledge about when they may occur and how they may be prevented. Computational models that illuminate potential future developments in the land system are invaluable tools in this context. While such models are widely used to project biophysical changes, they are currently less able to explore the social dynamics that will be key aspects of future global change. As a result, strategies for navigating a hazardous future may suffer from “blind spots” at which individual, social and political behaviours divert the land system away from predicted pathways. We apply CRAFTY-EU, an agent-based model of the European land system, in order to investigate the effects of human behavioural aspects of land management at the continental scale. We explore a range of potential futures using climatic and socio-economic scenarios and present a coherent set of cross-sectoral projections without imposed equilibria or optimisation. These projections include various behavioural responses to scenarios including non-economic motivations, aversion to change and heterogeneity in decision-making. We find that social factors and behavioural responses have dramatic impacts on simulated dynamics and can contribute to a breakdown of the land system's essential functions in which shortfalls in food production of up to 56 % emerge. These impacts are largely distinct from, and at least as large as, those of projected climatic change. We conclude that the socio-economic aspects of future scenarios require far more detailed and varied treatment. In particular, deviation from simple economic rationality at individual and aggregate scales may profoundly alter the nature of land system development and the achievability of policy goals.

The Yangtze River Middle Reaches Megalopolis (YRMRM) is the primary urban cluster in central China, which is of vital ecological and economic importance over the Yangtze River basin. To fill the gap on updated evidence needed to support sustainable spatial planning and development in the YRMRM, we systematically characterise its urban spatial patterns and analyse their changes from 2000 to 2015 from two levels. At the regional level, landscape indices are used to depict urban morphology from four aspects, including fragmentation, complexity, contiguity and dispersion. At the local level, spatial autocorrelation analysis is conducted to detect whether the urban morphological patterns, as described by the four landscape indices, are clustered locally. The results showed an increasingly accelerated urban expansion in the YRMRM (approximately 250 km−2/a), contributed mainly by agricultural land conversion (60–80%, depending on subdivisions). An uneven spatial development pattern is identified in the three key metropolitan areas in the YRMRM. The Wuhan Metropolitan Area develops in a continuous and less fragmented fashion, with increased shape complexity and local dispersion. The spatial pattern of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Metropolitan Area seems to be increasingly fragmented, complex and dispersed. The spatial development pattern in the Poyang Lake Metropolitan Area is overall continuous with an increasingly complex shape and severe local dispersion. Using landscape indices as indicators of sustainability, we discuss the potential environmental and climatic challenges in the YRMRM and the three metropolitan areas. Our results could help to raise awareness and concern for well-targeted management and planning in specific areas.

AbstractData has become one of the most valuable assets for governments and firms. Yet, we still have a limited understanding of how data reshapes international economic relations. This paper explores various aspects of data politics through the lens of China’s digital rise and the country’s global engagement. I start with the theoretical premise that data differs from traditional strategic assets (e.g., land, oil, and labor), in that it is nonrival and partially excludable. These characteristics have generated externality, commitment, and valuation problems, triggering three fundamental changes in China’s external economic relations. First, data’s externality problem makes it necessary for states to regulate data or even to pursue data sovereignty. However, clashes over data sovereignty can ignite conflicts between China and other countries. Second, the commitment problem in data use raises global concerns about foreign government surveillance. As data is easier to transfer across borders than physical commodities, Chinese tech companies’ investments abroad are vulnerable to national security investigations by foreign regulators. Chinese tech companies, therefore, confront a “deep versus broad” dilemma: deep ties with the Chinese government help promote their domestic business but jeopardize their international expansion. Lastly, data’s valuation problem makes traditional measures (e.g., GDP) ill-suited to measure the relative strengths of the world’s economies, which may distort perceptions of China and other states.

Abstract Bilateral relations between China and the United States have evolved over the past two decades from the ‘same bed, different dreams’ of the 1990s when, despite different interests and perceptions, globalisation and multilateralism drew them closer, to the potential ‘different beds, same nightmare’ scenario where their economies draw further apart and their governments are locked in hegemonic rivalry. Drawing on Wendtian constructivism and cognitive psychology, this article proposes a systematic and dynamic theoretical framework and a review of the evolution of Sino–US relations to explain how and why the above changes happened. We subdivide Sino–US relations since the early 1990s into five periods that describe the United States’ China strategy in four aspects and China’s US strategy in three aspects. Our findings are that the United States’ China strategy has changed dramatically while China’s US strategy has remained relatively stable, and that Sino–US relations from the early 1990s to mid-2010 were characterised by cooperation borne of strategic compatibility, whereas those ensuing were characterised by competition due to strategic incompatibility. We argue that rivalry between the two countries stems from their fundamentally different ideas, namely, Chinese statist nationalism and American liberal hegemony, and that gaps in perception have exacerbated the differences. Simply put, their ‘different dreams’ have led to the ‘same nightmare’.

China has made a continuing effort over the past decade to conduct a judicial reform (Hu, 2007; Jiang, 1997) in order to accommodate its fast-developing market and economy. The judicial reform changes a number of aspects of Chinese litigation practices including the selection of judges, the hearing of cases and the writing of judgments. This research aims at describing, analyzing and explaining some of the ways in which Chinese judges change their discursive construction of civil judgments due to the ongoing judicial reform. A variety of data are used in this research: a medium-sized corpus of Chinese civil judgments, lawyers and judges’ accounts, written laws (statutes) and legal news reports. Analytical results suggest that Chinese civil judgments, although being a highly institutionalized and standardized genre, include a number of discursive instances demonstrating Chinese judges’ context-specific writing variations and their efforts in enhancing the transparency of background litigation practices.

Abstract China’s transformation into the world’s largest energy consumer constitutes one of the most profound changes to the global energy system in recent years. In providing the low-carbon technology sector with financial assistance and technical solutions aimed at developing clean energy across the world, China has proactively contributed to global energy governance. China’s emergence as a global leader in renewable energy development and emissions reduction, therefore, carries positive implications for its future role in global renewable energy governance. In seeking to understand the structure and trends of China’s domestic renewable energy governance, this study analyses what role China can and will play in the global sphere. Specifically, by examining how its domestic renewable energy context shapes its global approach in this regard, the study analyses two aspects of China’s engagement in global renewable energy governance: the institutional aspect and the market aspect. The study concludes by making recommendations as to how China may play a more positive and active role in global renewable energy governance.

Endemic species of Atlantic Forest Central Corridor may have evolved under adverse climate conditions, but their response to modern climate change is unclear. The aim of this study is to evaluate the response of the endemic and endangered ant species Dinoponera lucida to biotics and abiotics factors based on three scales: ecological factors inside forest fragment, physical attributes of landscape and climatic variables of the assessed region. Data collection took place in a representative selection of forest fragments in the region where the species is distributed in. Pitfalls were used to collect samples and to assure the presence and absence of the species in the site. We also checked the abundance of food resources and applied a hemispherical photography technique to measure shading inside the fragment, in loco. Landscape attributes data and climatic predictors were collected through geoprocessing techniques. All predictors were associated with binary “presence” and “absence” data based applied in logistic models. There was no significant response to environmental aspects within the fragment or to landscape, but there was strong and peculiar response to climatic variables such as temperature and rainfall. Accordingly, D. lucida presents a restricted realized niche, a feature shared among many endangered species that can disappear due to displacement and to habitat loss caused by climate and environmental changes. This species presents all the criteria necessary to be considered as rare, which is a controversial subject with political implications for Espírito Santo state, and makes D. lucida the ideal target for urgent conservation strategies.

The article presents the key directions of China’s socio-economic policy since the XVIII Congress of the CPC (2012), which introduced the fifth generation of Chinese leaders led by Xi Jinping. The emphasis is placed on the consideration of the main components of China’s transition to a new model of economic development. Assessing institutional changes with regard to this task, the author argues that alongside with strengthening market principles in the economy, they provide for enhancing the supervisory and regulatory functions of the government based on a number of newly adopted laws and regulations. The authorities’ efforts to improve people’s wellbeing and expand domestic demand extended to the creation of a comprehensive social security system, state support for the poor, tax relief, ensuring good conditions for small businesses, developing education and medical services. As a result in early 2020s the PRC declared overcoming absolute poverty and building a moderately prosperous society. Favorable framework was provided for the science and technology development, e.g. growing R&D spending, tax benefits, the creation of numerous innovation centers, as well as expanding international cooperation in science and technology. This allowed the PRC to become one of the world leaders in a number of aspects of innovative development. China’s green and carbon transition policy meets the terms of the Paris Agreement on climate and provides for establishing stringent eco-environmental protection systems as well as changing energy mix through closure of carbon-intensive industries, stimulating eco-friendly technologies, creation of a national carbon market, etc. All this gives hope for a gradual improvement of the country’s eco-environment. Currently, China’s economy bears visible traces of its transition to a new development model. Despite all its problems and global challenges, the macro- and microeconomic results of the policy, pursued by the Chinese leadership, cause reasonable optimism about the country’s further development.

Rangelands provide several valuable ecological services and provide for the livelihoods of local herders on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). However, rangelands are being degraded due to overgrazing, policy changes and climate change. In this context, a survey was conducted in Zhuaxixiulong township of Gansu Province, China to examine the rangeland management systems and identify problems herders are facing in terms of livestock production and livelihoods using a Participatory Rural Appraisal approach. The results indicated that local herders perceived recent trends in rangeland degradation, climatic change, and political changes, and had developed management practices to adapt to these changes, such as adjusting transhumance patterns, cooperating with local institutions and adopting more collective actions in production practices. This study suggests that, to promote a sustainable rangeland management system in the QTP, policy-makers should recognise indigenous knowledge systems of grazing practices and rangeland management, as well as the need for more advanced technical methods. More attention should be paid to recent changes in climate, social transformations and economic changes to enhance the viability of such a pastoral society. To ensure the sustainability of the social–ecological system, there is a need to strengthen public participation and cooperation with all types of institutions to formulate appropriate policies and improve public services.

Immigrant associations known commonly as huiguan have long been a research area among specialists on the Overseas Chinese. Recently, the same subject has attracted increasing attention among scholars who attempt to examine urban life in late imperial China. In either case, the existing historical literature seems to have focused on the two following aspects of huiguan development: the various principles of organizational formation such as common native place, surname, occupation and the new locational identity, and how they interacted with one another and shaped the community structure; the functional relevance of huiguan firstly to the various needs of the immigrant society and the local elite, and secondly to the overriding concerns of the ruling authority, be it the Chinese imperial bureaucracy or the governing authorities in a foreign settlement. Yet few attempts have been made to delineate the longitudinal evolution of these associations over an extended period in any single locale, and above all, to provide an analytical framework to decipher the complex interplay of different forces behind organizational changes. Relying primarily on Chinese newspapers, huiguan archives and publications in Singapore,3 this paper represents a very preliminary effort along both lines. After a brief background discussion on the nineteenth century, I will try to document closely several significant features in the development of Chinese huiguan in Singapore between the turn of the century and the beginning of the Pacific War. The main thrust here is to demonstrate the possibility of going beyond number games, that pay too much attention to organizational inventory, to examine more substantive issues such as changes in organizational forms, the revamping of institutional set-ups, leadership turnover and varying functional priorities. Then the following section will seek to account for these organizational metamorphoses. It will be argued that our explanatory paradigm should at least consist of three categories of factors: domestic forces associated with community evolution; the impact of the host society; and influences emanating from China and particularly the native area.

In March 1988 the People's Republic of China announced the birth of the first test-tube baby born to a 39-year-old infertile peasant woman. This surprise announcement appeared in strong contradiction to China's population reduction goals amidst a population crisis. Yet, the media attention given to this medical achievement would seem to be consistent with the political, social, and economic changes taking place in the last decade, including technological innovation as the key to a modern socialist nation. In short, this announcement highlights tensions facing China as it simultaneously attempts to modernize within a trans-national economy, control population, and maintain traditional Confucian family values within a rapidly changing context.

The article undertakes the analysis of the receptions of liberty in China on a sample of the translation of John Stuart Mill's “On Liberty” by Yan Fu. It is shown that in the Yan Fu' interpretation of liberty undergoes fundamental semantic changes in accordance with the ideological Chinese traditions, in particular with neo-Confucianism. Yan Fu puts collective liberty above the individual one, views the citizen only as part of a united nation. To understand the process of adaptation the new European concept, it is important to bear in mind that the translation and understanding of European thought were conducted within the framework of power relations between China as a colony and Western countries as metropolises. The linguistic aspects of the reception of liberty do not simply reflect the cultural and political realities of China in the late XIX - early XX centuries; it also changes them. Yan Fu tried to combine different types of European and Chinese ideas, in order to change the collective Chinese identity and process the collective memory.

Over the last two decades, China and Russia have been developing Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) systems mainly based on long-range Air Defense, ballistic and cruise missiles, supported by Electronic Warfare and cyber-attack capabilities. Initially, these systems were used for defense purposes, but over time. it was recognized they could be also applied for imposing military situation in the specific regions and create effective response to NATO countries and their concept of conducting military operations. The main aim of the article is to asses and present the impact of Chinese and Russian Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) systems on changes in global political relations and balance of military power. In the course of this study, the author used numerous analyzes, synthesis, comparisons and case studies methods mainly concentrated on presently operating A2/AD systems. This article undertakes the analysis of the Chinese bases located in the South China Sea and Djibouti, Russian A2/AD systems within Russia's borders with particular emphasis on Kaliningrad Oblast, and A2/AD systems in Crimea and Syria created as part of Russian military operations. This research allowed us to conclude that some of the A2/AD systems serve to defend borders, while the rest are created to influence the geopolitical and military situation or to gain an advantage in the area of military operations. It can be also evaluate that the use of these systems allow dominate future conflicts because they enable to establish a full control zones which are completely closed for opponents forces operations.

This paper is meant to study the apocalyptic scenario of the at the perspectives of the Great Acceleration. the apocalyptic scenario is not a pure imagination of the literature works. Instead, scientific evidences are in favour of dramatic change in the climatic conditions related to the climax of Man actions. the modelling of the future climate leads to horrible situations including intolerable temperatures, dryness, tornadoes, and noticeable sear level rise evading coastal regions. Going far from these scientific claims, Homo Sapiens Sapiens extended his imagination through the Climate-Fiction (cli-fi) to propose a dramatic end. Climate Fiction is developed into a recording machine containing every kind of fictions that depict environmental condition events and has consequently lost its true significance. Introduction The Great Acceleration may be considered as the Late Anthropocene in which Man actions reached their climax to lead to dramatic climatic changes paving the way for a possible apocalyptic scenario threatening the existence of the humanity. So, the apocalyptic scenario is not a pure imagination of the literature works. Instead, many scientific arguments especially related to climate change are in favour of the apocalypse1. As a matter of fact, the modelling of the future climate leads to horrible situations including intolerable temperatures (In 06/07/2021, Kuwait recorded the highest temperature of 53.2 °C), dryness, tornadoes, and noticeable sear level rise evading coastal regions. These conditions taking place during the Great Acceleration would have direct repercussions on the human species. Considering that the apocalyptic extinction had really caused the disappearance of many stronger species including dinosaurs, Homo Sapiens Sapiens extended his imagination though the Climate-Fiction (cli-fi) to propose a dramatic end due to severe climate conditions intolerable by the humankind. The mass extinction of animal species has occurred several times over the geological ages. Researchers have a poor understanding of the causes and processes of these major crises1. Nonetheless, whatever the cause of extinction, the apocalyptic scenario has always been present in the geological history. For example, dinosaurs extinction either by asteroids impact or climate changes could by no means denies the apocalyptic aspect2.At the same time as them, many animal and plant species became extinct, from marine or flying reptiles to marine plankton. This biological crisis of sixty-five million years ago is not the only one that the biosphere has suffered. It was preceded and followed by other crises which caused the extinction or the rarefaction of animal species. So, it is undeniable that many animal groups have disappeared. It is even on the changes of fauna that the geologists of the last century have based themselves to establish the scale of geological times, scale which is still used. But it is no less certain that the extinction processes, extremely complex, are far from being understood. We must first agree on the meaning of the word "extinction", namely on the apocalyptic aspect of the concept. It is quite understood that, without disappearances, the evolution of species could not have followed its course. Being aware that the apocalyptic extinction had massacred stronger species that had dominated the planet, Homo Sapiens Sapiens has been aware that the possibility of apocalyptic end at the perspective of the Anthropocene (i.e., Great Acceleration) could not be excluded. This conviction is motivated by the progressive defaunation in some regions3and the appearance of alien species in others related to change of mineralogy and geochemistry4 leading to a climate change during the Anthropocene. These scientific claims fed the vast imagination about climate change to set the so-called cli-fi. The concept of the Anthropocene is the new geological era which begins when the Man actions have reached a sufficient power to modify the geological processes and climatic cycles of the planet5. The Anthropocene by no means excludes the possibility of an apocalyptic horizon, namely in the perspectives of the Great Acceleration. On the contrary, two scenarios do indeed seem to dispute the future of the Anthropocene, with a dramatic cross-charge. The stories of the end of the world are as old as it is, as the world is the origin of these stories. However, these stories of the apocalypse have evolved over time and, since the beginning of the 19th century, they have been nourished particularly by science and its advances. These fictions have sometimes tried to pass themselves off as science. This is the current vogue, called collapsology6. This end is more than likely cli-fi driven7and it may cause the extinction of the many species including the Homo Sapiens Sapiens. In this vein, Anthropocene defaunation has become an ultimate reality8. More than one in eight birds, more than one in five mammals, more than one in four coniferous species, one in three amphibians are threatened. The hypothesis of a hierarchy within the living is induced by the error of believing that evolution goes from the simplest to the most sophisticated, from the inevitably stupid inferior to the superior endowed with an intelligence giving prerogative to all powers. Evolution goes in all directions and pursues no goal except the extension of life on Earth. Evolution certainly does not lead from bacteria to humans, preferably male and white. Our species is only a carrier of the DNA that precedes us and that will survive us. Until we show a deep respect for the biosphere particularly, and our planet in general, we will not become much, we will remain a predator among other predators, the fiercest of predators, the almighty craftsman of the Anthropocene. To be in the depths of our humanity, somehow giving back to the biosphere what we have taken from it seems obvious. To stop the sixth extinction of species, we must condemn our anthropocentrism and the anthropization of the territories that goes with it. The other forms of life also need to keep their ecological niches. According to the first, humanity seems at first to withdraw from the limits of the planet and ultimately succumb to them, with a loss of dramatic meaning. According to the second, from collapse to collapse, it is perhaps another humanity, having overcome its demons, that could come. Climate fiction is a literary sub-genre dealing with the theme of climate change, including global warming. The term appears to have been first used in 2008 by blogger and writer Dan Bloom. In October 2013, Angela Evancie, in a review of the novel Odds against Tomorrow, by Nathaniel Rich, wonders if climate change has created a new literary genre. Scientific basis of the apocalyptic scenario in the perspective of the Anthropocene Global warming All temperature indices are in favour of a global warming (Fig.1). According to the different scenarios of the IPCC9, the temperatures of the globe could increase by 2 °C to 5 °C by 2100. But some scientists warn about a possible runaway of the warming which can reach more than 3 °C. Thus, the average temperature on the surface of the globe has already increased by more than 1.1 °C since the pre-industrial era. The rise in average temperatures at the surface of the globe is the first expected and observed consequence of massive greenhouse gas emissions. However, meteorological surveys record positive temperature anomalies which are confirmed from year to year compared to the temperatures recorded since the middle of the 19th century. Climatologists point out that the past 30 years have seen the highest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere for over 1,400 years. Several climatic centres around the world record, synthesize and follow the evolution of temperatures on Earth. Since the beginning of the 20th century (1906-2005), the average temperature at the surface of the globe has increased by 0.74 °C, but this progression has not been continuous since 1976, the increase has clearly accelerated, reaching 0.19 °C per decade according to model predictions. Despite the decline in solar activity, the period 1997-2006 is marked by an average positive anomaly of 0.53 °C in the northern hemisphere and 0.27 °C in the southern hemisphere, still compared to the normal calculated for 1961-1990. The ten hottest years on record are all after 1997. Worse, 14 of the 15 hottest years are in the 21st century, which has barely started. Thus, 2016 is the hottest year, followed closely by 2015, 2014 and 2010. The temperature of tropical waters increased by 1.2 °C during the 20th century (compared to 0.5 °C on average for the oceans), causing coral reefs to bleach in 1997. In 1998, the period of Fort El Niño, the prolonged warming of the water has destroyed half of the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean. In addition, the temperature in the tropics of the five ocean basins, where cyclones form, increased by 0.5 °C from 1970 to 2004, and powerful cyclones appeared in the North Atlantic in 2005, while they were more numerous in other parts of the world. Recently, mountains of studies focused on the possible scenario of climate change and the potential worldwide repercussions including hell temperatures and apocalyptic extreme events10 , 11, 12. Melting of continental glaciers As a direct result of the global warming, melting of continental glaciers has been recently noticed13. There are approximately 198,000 mountain glaciers in the world; they cover an area of approximately 726,000 km2. If they all melted, the sea level would rise by about 40 cm. Since the late 1960s, global snow cover has declined by around 10 to 15%. Winter cold spells in much of the northern half of the northern hemisphere are two weeks shorter than 100 years ago. Glaciers of mountains have been declining all over the world by an average of 50 m per decade for 150 years. However, they are also subject to strong multi-temporal variations which make forecasts on this point difficult according to some specialists. In the Alps, glaciers have been losing 1 meter per year for 30 years. Polar glaciers like those of Spitsbergen (about a hundred km from the North Pole) have been retreating since 1880, releasing large quantities of water. The Arctic has lost about 10% of its permanent ice cover every ten years since 1980. In this region, average temperatures have increased at twice the rate of elsewhere in the world in recent decades. The melting of the Arctic Sea ice has resulted in a loss of 15% of its surface area and 40% of its thickness since 1979. The record for melting arctic sea ice was set in 2017. All models predict the disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice in summer within a few decades, which will not be without consequences for the climate in Europe. The summer melting of arctic sea ice accelerated far beyond climate model predictions. Added to its direct repercussions of coastal regions flooding, melting of continental ice leads to radical climatic modifications in favour of the apocalyptic scenario. Fig.1 Evolution of temperature anomaly from 1880 to 2020: the apocalyptic scenario Sea level rise As a direct result of the melting of continental glaciers, sea level rise has been worldwide recorded14 ,15. The average level of the oceans has risen by 22 cm since 1880 and 2 cm since the year 2000 because of the melting of the glaciers but also with the thermal expansion of the water. In the 20th century, the sea level rose by around 2 mm per year. From 1990 to 2017, it reached the relatively constant rate of just over 3mm per year. Several sources contributed to sea level increase including thermal expansion of water (42%), melting of continental glaciers (21%), melting Greenland glaciers (15%) and melting Antarctic glaciers (8%). Since 2003, there has always been a rapid rise (around 3.3 mm / year) in sea level, but the contribution of thermal expansion has decreased (0.4 mm / year) while the melting of the polar caps and continental glaciers accelerates. Since most of the world’s population is living on coastal regions, sea level rise represents a real threat for the humanity, not excluding the apocalyptic scenario. Multiplication of extreme phenomena and climatic anomalies On a human scale, an average of 200 million people is affected by natural disasters each year and approximately 70,000 perish from them. Indeed, as evidenced by the annual reviews of disasters and climatic anomalies, we are witnessing significant warning signs. It is worth noting that these observations are dependent on meteorological survey systems that exist only in a limited number of countries with statistics that rarely go back beyond a century or a century and a half. In addition, scientists are struggling to represent the climatic variations of the last two thousand years which could serve as a reference in the projections. Therefore, the exceptional nature of this information must be qualified a little. Indeed, it is still difficult to know the return periods of climatic disasters in each region. But over the last century, the climate system has gone wild. Indeed, everything suggests that the climate is racing. Indeed, extreme events and disasters have become more frequent. For instance, less than 50 significant events were recorded per year over the period 1970-1985, while there have been around 120 events recorded since 1995. Drought has long been one of the most worrying environmental issues. But while African countries have been the main affected so far, the whole world is now facing increasingly frequent and prolonged droughts. Chile, India, Australia, United States, France and even Russia are all regions of the world suffering from the acceleration of the global drought. Droughts are slowly evolving natural hazards that can last from a few months to several decades and affect larger or smaller areas, whether they are small watersheds or areas of hundreds of thousands of square kilometres. In addition to their direct effects on water resources, agriculture and ecosystems, droughts can cause fires or heat waves. They also promote the proliferation of invasive species, creating environments with multiple risks, worsening the consequences on ecosystems and societies, and increasing their vulnerability. Although these are natural phenomena, there is a growing understanding of how humans have amplified the severity and impacts of droughts, both on the environment and on people. We influence meteorological droughts through our action on climate change, and we influence hydrological droughts through our management of water circulation and water processes at the local scale, for example by diverting rivers or modifying land use. During the Anthropocene (the present period when humans exert a dominant influence on climate and environment), droughts are closely linked to human activities, cultures, and responses. From this scientific overview, it may be concluded apocalyptic scenario is not only a literature genre inspired from the pure imagination. Instead, many scientific arguments are in favour of this dramatic destiny of Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Fig.2. Sea level rise from 1880 to 2020: a possible apocalyptic scenario (www.globalchange.gov, 2021) Apocalyptic genre in recent writing As the original landmark of apocalyptic writing, we must place the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 587 BC and the Exile in Babylon. Occasion of a religious and cultural crossing with imprescriptible effects, the Exile brought about a true rebirth, characterized by the maintenance of the essential ethical, even cultural, of a national religion, that of Moses, kept as pure as possible on a foreign land and by the reinterpretation of this fundamental heritage by the archaic return of what was very old, both national traditions and neighbouring cultures. More precisely, it was the place and time for the rehabilitation of cultures and the melting pot for recasting ancient myths. This vast infatuation with Antiquity, remarkable even in the vocabulary used, was not limited to Israel: it even largely reflected a general trend. The long period that preceded throughout the 7th century BC and until 587, like that prior to the edict of Cyrus in 538 BC, was that of restorations and rebirths, of returns to distant sources and cultural crossings. In the biblical literature of this period, one is struck by the almost systematic link between, on the one hand, a very sustained mythical reinvestment even in form and, on the other, the frequent use of biblical archaisms. The example of Shadday, a word firmly rooted in the Semites of the Northwest and epithet of El in the oldest layers of the books of Genesis and Exodus, is most eloquent. This term reappears precisely at the time of the Exile as a designation of the divinity of the Patriarchs and of the God of Israel; Daily, ecological catastrophes now describe the normal state of societies exposed to "risks", in the sense that Ulrich Beck gives to this term: "the risk society is a society of catastrophe. The state of emergency threatens to become a normal state there1”. Now, the "threat" has become clearer, and catastrophic "exceptions" are proliferating as quickly as species are disappearing and climate change is accelerating. The relationship that we have with this worrying reality, to say the least, is twofold: on the one hand, we know very well what is happening to us; on the other hand, we fail to draw the appropriate theoretical and political consequences. This ecological duplicity is at the heart of what has come to be called the “Anthropocene”, a term coined at the dawn of the 21st century by Eugene Stoermer (an environmentalist) and Paul Crutzen (a specialist in the chemistry of the atmosphere) in order to describe an age when humanity would have become a "major geological force" capable of disrupting the climate and changing the terrestrial landscape from top to bottom. If the term “Anthropocene” takes note of human responsibility for climate change, this responsibility is immediately attributed to overpowering: strong as we are, we have “involuntarily” changed the climate for at least two hundred and fifty years. Therefore, let us deliberately change the face of the Earth, if necessary, install a solar shield in space. Recognition and denial fuel the signifying machine of the Anthropocene. And it is precisely what structures eco-apocalyptic cinema that this article aims to study. By "eco-apocalyptic cinema", we first mean a cinematographic sub-genre: eco-apocalyptic and post-eco-apocalyptic films base the possibility (or reality) of the end of the world on environmental grounds and not, for example, on damage caused by the possible collision of planet Earth with a comet. Post-apocalyptic science fiction (sometimes abbreviated as "post-apo" or "post-nuke") is a sub-genre of science fiction that depicts life after a disaster that destroyed civilization: nuclear war, collision with a meteorite, epidemic, economic or energy crisis, pandemic, alien invasion. Conclusion Climate and politics have been linked together since Aristotle. With Montesquieu, Ibn Khaldûn or Watsuji, a certain climatic determinism is attributed to the character of a nation. The break with modernity made the climate an object of scientific knowledge which, in the twentieth century, made it possible to document, despite the controversies, the climatic changes linked to industrialization. Both endanger the survival of human beings and ecosystems. Climate ethics are therefore looking for a new relationship with the biosphere or Gaia. For some, with the absence of political agreements, it is the beginning of inevitable catastrophes. For others, the Anthropocene, which henceforth merges human history with natural history, opens onto technical action. The debate between climate determinism and human freedom is revived. The reference to the biblical Apocalypse was present in the thinking of thinkers like Günther Anders, Karl Jaspers or Hans Jonas: the era of the atomic bomb would mark an entry into the time of the end, a time marked by the unprecedented human possibility of 'total war and annihilation of mankind. The Apocalypse will be very relevant in describing the chaos to come if our societies continue their mad race described as extra-activist, productivist and consumerist. In dialogue with different theologians and philosophers (such as Jacques Ellul), it is possible to unveil some spiritual, ethical, and political resources that the Apocalypse offers for thinking about History and human engagement in the Anthropocene. What can a theology of collapse mean at a time when negative signs and dead ends in the human situation multiply? What then is the place of man and of the cosmos in the Apocalypse according to Saint John? Could the end of history be a collapse? How can we live in the time we have left before the disaster? Answers to such questions remain unknown and no scientist can predict the trajectory of this Great Acceleration taking place at the Late Anthropocene. When science cannot give answers, Man tries to infer his destiny for the legend, religion and the fiction. Climate Fiction is developed into a recording machine containing every kind of fictions that depict environmental condition events and has consequently lost its true significance. Aware of the prospect of ecological collapse additionally as our apparent inability to avert it, we tend to face geology changes of forceful proportions that severely challenge our ability to imagine the implications. Climate fiction ought to be considered an important supplement to climate science, as a result, climate fiction makes visible and conceivable future modes of existence inside worlds not solely deemed seemingly by science, however that area unit scientifically anticipated. Hence, this chapter, as part of the book itself, aims to contribute to studies of ecocriticism, the environmental humanities, and literary and culture studies. References David P.G. Bondand Stephen E. Grasby. "Late Ordovician mass extinction caused by volcanism, warming, and anoxia, not cooling and glaciation: REPLY." Geology 48, no. 8 (Geological Society of America2020): 510. Cyril Langlois.’Vestiges de l'apocalypse: ‘le site de Tanis, Dakota du Nord 2019’. Accessed June, 6, 2021, https://planet-terre.ens-lyon.fr/pdf/Tanis-extinction-K-Pg.pdf NajouaGharsalli,ElhoucineEssefi, Rana Baydoun, and ChokriYaich. ‘The Anthropocene and Great Acceleration as controversial epoch of human-induced activities: case study of the Halk El Menjel wetland, eastern Tunisia’. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research 18(3) (Corvinus University of Budapest 2020): 4137-4166 Elhoucine Essefi, ‘On the Geochemistry and Mineralogy of the Anthropocene’. International Journal of Water and Wastewater Treatment, 6(2). 1-14, (Sci Forschen2020): doi.org/10.16966/2381-5299.168 Elhoucine Essefi. ‘Record of the Anthropocene-Great Acceleration along a core from the coast of Sfax, southeastern Tunisia’. Turkish journal of earth science, (TÜBİTAK,2021). 1-16. Chiara Xausa. ‘Climate Fiction and the Crisis of Imagination: Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria and The Swan Book’. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal 8(2), (WARWICK 2021): 99-119. Akyol, Özlem. "Climate Change: An Apocalypse for Urban Space? An Ecocritical Reading of “Venice Drowned” and “The Tamarisk Hunter”." Folklor/Edebiyat 26, no. 101 (UluslararasıKıbrısÜniversitesi 2020): 115-126. Boswell, Suzanne F. "The Four Tourists of the Apocalypse: Figures of the Anthropocene in Caribbean Climate Fiction.". Paradoxa 31, (Academia 2020): 359-378. Ayt Ougougdal, Houssam, Mohamed YacoubiKhebiza, Mohammed Messouli, and Asia Lachir. "Assessment of future water demand and supply under IPCC climate change and socio-economic scenarios, using a combination of models in Ourika Watershed, High Atlas, Morocco." Water 12, no. 6 (MPDI 2020): 1751.DOI:10.3390/w12061751. Wu, Jia, Zhenyu Han, Ying Xu, Botao Zhou, and Xuejie Gao. "Changes in extreme climate events in China under 1.5 C–4 C global warming targets: Projections using an ensemble of regional climate model simulations." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 125, no. 2 (Wiley2020): e2019JD031057.https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031057 Khan, Md Jamal Uddin, A. K. M. Islam, Sujit Kumar Bala, and G. M. Islam. "Changes in climateextremes over Bangladesh at 1.5° C, 2° C, and 4° C of global warmingwith high-resolutionregionalclimate modeling." Theoretical&AppliedClimatology 140 (EBSCO2020). Gudoshava, Masilin, Herbert O. Misiani, Zewdu T. Segele, Suman Jain, Jully O. Ouma, George Otieno, Richard Anyah et al. "Projected effects of 1.5 C and 2 C global warming levels on the intra-seasonal rainfall characteristics over the Greater Horn of Africa." Environmental Research Letters 15, no. 3 (IOPscience2020): 34-37. Wang, Lawrence K., Mu-Hao Sung Wang, Nai-Yi Wang, and Josephine O. Wong. "Effect of Global Warming and Climate Change on Glaciers and Salmons." In Integrated Natural Resources Management, ed.Lawrence K. Wang, Mu-Hao Sung Wang, Yung-Tse Hung, Nazih K. Shammas(Springer 2021), 1-36. Merschroth, Simon, Alessio Miatto, Steffi Weyand, Hiroki Tanikawa, and Liselotte Schebek. "Lost Material Stock in Buildings due to Sea Level Rise from Global Warming: The Case of Fiji Islands." Sustainability 12, no. 3 (MDPI 2020): 834.doi:10.3390/su12030834 Hofer, Stefan, Charlotte Lang, Charles Amory, Christoph Kittel, Alison Delhasse, Andrew Tedstone, and Xavier Fettweis. "Greater Greenland Ice Sheet contribution to global sea level rise in CMIP6." Nature communications 11, no. 1 (Nature Publishing Group 2020): 1-11.

This paper analysed socio-spatial changes in old urban neighbourhoods (Danwei compounds) in Chinese cities as a result of two major national level reforms: the Reform and Opening Up and the Urban Housing reform in 1978 and 1997, respectively. Existing research indicates fundamental changes have taken place in the political, economic and social aspects of Danwei compounds. However, there is a paucity of research on micro-level changes. To understand how these reforms have affected the social-spatial schema of Danwei Compounds, the study utilised mapping, key person interviews and field observation in AMS compound, Hefei city of Anhui province. This paper compared the AMS Danwei Compound before and after the reforms in terms of public spaces, building features and compound management. The study found that the AMS Danwei Compound has experienced a significant reduction in public space, an increase in building density and a reconfiguration of compound management actors. The study suggests the need for local planning authorities and government to pay attention to planning and design of the old city core by emphasising improvement in public spaces, attention to compact design principles for urban neighbourhood planning, and establishment of local community management body.

The rebirth of the Silk Road presents itself as a possible change in the status quo in Central Asia. China’s presents and influence in the region has been increasing in the past decade in the detriment of Russian influence. This paper analyzes the New Silk Road and Sino-Russian relations through the lens of liberalism, realism and neocolonialism. The Belt and Road Initiative presents itself as a revolutionary project however the changes it produces in terms of trade are minimal. Strategic aspects trump the trade related ones. The paper demonstrates that China needs Russia to participate in order to make the project successful while Russia should participate in order to limit China from taking control over the region, thus realism is they school of thought together with neocolonialism.

Neologisms refer to the words created to express new things, new concepts and new ideas in written and oral communication. Since the 1980s, the world has entered into an information age. The world has witnessed great changes in political, economic, cultural field. At the same time, China has been carrying out a series of political and economic reforms, which have brought about amazing changes in all social aspects. As a result, a great deal of neologisms have appeared both in English and Chinese. There are three sources of neologisms both in English and Chinese: creating new words with native word elements, adding new meanings to existing words and borrowing new words from other languages. This paper focus on the first one of these three sources: word-formation, and analyzes the similarities and differences of three major ways of word-formation of neologisms in both English and Chinese: compounds, affixations, shortenings.

In the 1990's – 2018 years. In the relations between the two states, radical changes took place in various spheres of management, culture and relations at the individual level of the population of Russia and China. To a greater extent, these were positive links, having common goals, complementing and enriching each other. These contacts were formed historically between the Chinese and the peoples in Russia - the USSR, since 1917, they have moved to a new level. The Chinese acted in the ranks of those who supported the councils, and those of the Chinese who lived on the territory of the Soviet country became also true participants in the ongoing socio-political processes, changes, as well as changes in the culture of peoples, the Soviet, party and national-state construction. Of course, as in this case, there were both difficult periods in relations, sometimes turning into an acute confrontational confrontation, rather, at the interstate level, and light, which was more closely connected with the relations of the Chinese, Russian and other peoples of China and Russia. The Chinese, especially the border provinces, settled for permanent settlement in Russia, and participated in the events that took place during the transformation. Therefore, in order to study these processes, a deeper understanding of their significance for the modern Russian- Chinese world, it is important to know the history of different aspects of life, the processes of formation of friendly relations between neighboring states. Very valuable will be the appeal to the experience of the past, which could be both a positive and negative practice that took place during the development of relations between the Chinese and the local population of the Far East. What can be useful to get and use from this experience, which could help bring peoples closer together, improve their situation, create acceptable living conditions, and provide a basis for the security of states.

Abstract Using the daily precipitation data of 545 meteorological stations in China from 1961 to 2016, the temporal and spatial characteristics of torrential rainfall and rain days in different months in China were detected from the three aspects of climatic state characteristics, change trend and interannual variations. The results showed that: (1) The torrential rainfall and rain days in different months in China from 1961 to 2016 had similar spatial differentiation characteristics in the corresponding months. The high-value areas of torrential rainfall and rain days gradually expanded from the southeast coast to the northwest inland from January to July, but mainly distributed in the east of the Hu Huanyong Line, and reduced from the northwest area to the southeast coastal area from August to December; The torrential rainfall and rain days were less distributed in the west of the Hu Huanyong Line in different months. (2) The temporal and spatial differentiation characteristics of torrential rainfall and rain days in different months in China from 1961 to 2016 were basically the same. The torrential rainfall and rain days in China had the most significant change trend from May to August, mainly distributed in the southeast monsoon region with an increasing trend. The torrential rainfall and rain days in the northwest have little changes in different months. (3) The interannual variations of the torrential rainfall and rain days in different months in China from 1961 to 2016 were similar. Thereinto, there was large fluctuation in the northern region from April to October, while the variations in the southern region fluctuated greatly from January to March and from November to December. The high-value areas of the torrential rainfall and rain days with large fluctuation gradually expanded from southeast to northwest, northeast and southwest with the development of month, with the fluctuation tending to decrease in the southeast, and then shrank from the northwest, northeast and southwest to the southeast, coupled with an increasing fluctuation in the southeast. The research has certain reference significance for flood control, disaster reduction, and the planning and utilization of water resources.

AbstractThis article examines the parent–child relations within rural-to-urban migrant households to explore the continuations and changes in the patrilineal family system under the forces of migration and urbanization in late-socialist China. Based on ethnographic data collected between 2008 and 2015 in Shanghai, it takes a processual approach to understand son preference as a contextualized family practice and examines four aspects of parent–child relations in migrant households: reproductive strategy, childrearing practices, educational investment, and parental expectation of adult children. Through exploring intimate negotiations between migrant parents and their children over material and emotional resources at different life stages, this article demonstrates how the gendered parent–child relations in migrant households in Shanghai have been shifting away from the traditional focus on sons and gradually giving way to pragmatic adjustments and emotional redefinition under the forces of socialist institutions and capitalist markets.

The epidemic situation and etiological factors of enterovirus infection in Russia and Vietnam were analysed and compared. The identified strains of enteroviruses of 47 types, which circulated in Russia in 2018–2019, belonged to different species: Enterovirus species A (CV-A2, CV-A4, CV-A6, CV-A8, CV-A10, CV-A16, EV-A71), as well as Enterovirus species B and Enterovirus species C. The strains isolated from 87 children from southern Vietnam hospitalised in 2018–2019 into infectious hospitals while having enterovirus infection with exanthema were also studied. All identified strains were represented by Enterovirus species A: EV-A71 — 59 strains, CV-A10 — 20 strains, CV-A16 — 5 strains, CV-A6 — two strains and CV-A2 — one strain. Out of 59 viruses EV-A71, 53 strains belonged to genotype C4 and 6 strains belonged to genotype B5. The sequences of EV-A71 strains of genotype C4 from South Vietnam formed a monophyletic cluster with the sequences of EV-A71 viruses which circulated during 2016–2018 in different provinces of China, and they were very close to EV-A71 strains of the same genotype from the Yunnan Province. These strains were genetically different from Russian viruses and Vietnamese viruses identified in the years 2003–2005 and 2011– 2012. Most of the cases of enterovirus infection from southern Vietnam (78%) caused by EV-A71 virus of genotype C4 were reported in three provinces located in southern Vietnam in the Mekong Delta. The epidemic process and the etiology of enterovirus infection in Russia and Vietnam have common features. At the same time, the epidemic situation in these countries is not the same. The incidence of enterovirus infection is influenced by geographic, climatic, economic and demographic factors that differ in two countries. In the majority of territories of Russia, the climate is temperate or cold, seasonal rises in the incidence rates of enterovirus infection usually occur in the summer, when people go on vacation, spend a lot of time outdoors and swim in open reservoirs. In Vietnam, a constant high-level temperature, a high population density and a large proportion of children determine the higher incidence of enterovirus infection, especially in the southern provinces of Vietnam, compared to Russia. The fact that more than 20% of the Vietnamese population lives in the Mekong Delta, which is the largest river in Indochina, has a significant impact on the epidemic process of enterovirus infection in South Vietnam. The Mekong River which flows through China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and carries huge streams of water, including rainstorm waters and sewages, from all of these countries into the southern provinces of Vietnam, which have the highest incidence rates of enterovirus infection in the country. The results of the research underline the importance of active epidemiological and virological surveillance of enterovirus infection, which plays the key role in informing the public health authorities about the changes in the epidemic situation in order to take appropriate measures and develop the prevention strategies. The goal of anti-epidemic and preventive measures is to reduce the incidence of enterovirus infection and the economic burden of this infection for Russia and Vietnam.

IntroductionThe aim of this paper is to analyse shifting themes in the meanings of Hong Kong popular songs relating to ideological and political changes in Hong Kong since the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident (TSI). In particular, the paper examines the relationship between Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China (PRC) concerning the transmission of Hong Kong popular music, and argues that Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese popular musics articulate fluctuating political meanings. Attention will be focused predominantly on the lyrics, but some aspects of the music are also invoked. After highlighting the political and cultural relations between Hong Kong and the PRC, I discuss the social transformations and the struggles for democracy delineated in Chinese popular music during the 1989 TSI. This is followed by an examination of the intensification of the conflict between the PRC and Hong Kong over the dissemination of popular songs carrying democratic messages in Hong Kong. Finally, the paper considers the rise of patriotism and/or nationalism through lyrics rooted in the notion of educating Hong Kong Chinese people into accepting the cultural and political identity of mainland China, and the promotion of popular songs in the official language of the PRC, Putonghua, since the late transitional period.

<p>Ideological and political education has always been playing an important role for the development of socialist ideological education in China, as well as the main means to grasp the social trends of thoughts and influence the construction of their social essential values. Based on the in-depth questionnaire and survey of 1000 college students, the author deeply believes that the college students' current reading habits, mainstream way of information acceptance and the external communication ways in China are characterized by networking, video personalization and some other new features. Nowadays, it is difficult to meet the college students' ideological and political education needs through the single way of traditional classroom education. In view of the changes of information acceptance and exchange of college students, this paper fully understands that the film &amp; television media are strengthening and improving their ideological and political education, and puts forward the relationship between "film &amp; television media literacy" and the innovation of ideological and political education of college students, which makes film and television media resources become new forms and highlights of ideological and political education of college students with positive energy and helps to improve the effect of ideological and political education on their moral education, ethics, art aesthetics and other aspects.</p>

The aim of this article is to address the changes in consumer behavior due to the political, legal and economic factors caused by the COVID-19 process by reviewing the literature. It was not expected that this epidemic, which first appeared in Wuhan, China, would make such radical changes in the world's living conditions and bring heavy consequences. For this reason, it has been started to investigate what kind of changes this epidemic will create in consumer behavior and whether these changes will be permanent. Consumer behavior knowledge is an important factor in the success of businesses. Knowing how the consumer behaves and what factors affect him enables businesses to manage their marketing mix, branding and communication with customers more effectively. Consumer buying behavior shows a complex trend and can change. The current financial downturn has a huge impact on the economic and social aspects of consumers around the world. Therefore, by emphasizing the fundamental changes in consumer purchasing behavior, this article provides some important information for the immediate decision-making and management of businesses in times of crisis and the transformation of consumers in the face of the epidemic.

What is the strategy that made the Moon Jae-in administration maintain a 'balanced diplomacy', thus far? Regarding this, the views of Seoul's allies were negative and sometimes harsh. This paper tries to reveal the substance of Seoul's strategic position and its China policy by analyzing Moon's perception of national security. Here, the term of national security is assumed to have four aspects: existential threat, structural threat, economic secutiry, and political security. As a research methodology, we mainly used discourse and big data analysis. The results revealed that Moon's perception of China stood out for his pragmatism in flexibly responding to the external changes. In terms of national interests, he wanted to secure China's cooperation on the Korean Peninsula issue, ensure diplomatic and security autonomy against the US-China competition, hedge against various economic threats, and overcome domestic confrontation between progressives and conservatives. If we look at Moon's perception considering the meanings of balance, he shows a strong reluctance to outright power politics by great powers, an unexpectedly indifferent attitude toward the negative impact of the US-China competition on the stability and peace of Northeast Asian and the peninsula, and a strong desire to improve the poor distribution of power through national capacity building.

Renewable energy production is gaining importance in the context of global climate changes. However, in some countries other aspects increasing the role of renewable energy production are also present. Such a country is Ukraine, which is not self-sufficient in energy supply and whose dependency on poorly diversified import of energy carriers regularly leads to political tensions and has socio-economic implications. Production of agricultural biogas seems to be a way to both slow down climatic changes and increase energy self-sufficiency by replacing or complementing conventional sources of energy. One of the most substantial barriers to agricultural biogas production is the low level of agricultural concentration and significant economies of scale in constructing biogas plants. The aim of the paper was thus to assess the potential of agricultural biogas production in Ukraine, including its impact on energy self-sufficiency, mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the economic performance of biogas plants. The results show that due to the prevailing fragmentation of farms, most manure cannot be processed in an economically viable way. However, in some regions utilization of technically available manure for agricultural biogas production could cover up to 11% of natural gas or up to 19% of electricity demand. While the theoretical potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions could reach 5% to 6.14%, the achievable technical potential varies between 2.3% and 2.8% of total emissions. The economic performance of agricultural biogas plants correlates closely with their size and bioenergy generation potential.

The history of XX-century China can be divided into several periods that greatly altered the path of China’s historical development: Xinhai Revolution, Anti-Japanese war, civil war, establishment of PRC, Cultural Revolution, policy of reforms and openness. Uneven development of contemporary China has had its influence on Chinese holidays. The authors consider the concept of “national holidays of China” a basic category. In the Chinese language, a “holiday” is an unusual day or days connected with something. All national Chinese holidays fall into two categories: government and popular. Chinese government holidays include official holidays established by law; they are days-off for all Chinese citizens. Currently there are 7 government holidays in China and many popular holidays. Popular holidays include traditional holidays, occupational or social holidays, holidays of national minorities or others. Not all Chinese citizens have days-off during these popular holidays. There are two aspects of cultural problems in modern China: a big gap between urban culture and rural cultures; there is a problem of active borrowing and introduction of Western culture into the national culture of China. In particular, many western holidays have intervened into the tissue of Chinese culture. However, western holidays do not alter the cultural meaning of Chinese traditional holidays; they have acquired Chinese features and enriched the life of young Chinese people. Chinese festive culture is transformed within the following areas: traditional holidays are replaced with innovative ones; modern holidays are formed under the influence of new social and political conditions and cultural globalization; transformation of traditional holidays changes either their quantity or their content and cultural meaning. However, the authors have come to the conclusion that despite the transformational processes the cultural meaning and main cultural functions of traditional holidays are preserved: reunion of families and, hence, the reunion of the whole nation.