Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Moving Beyond Short-Term Coping And Adaptation, Christine Wamsler, Ebba Brink

Christine Wamsler

Throughout human history, people have coped with, and adapted to, their environment. This accumulated capacity at local level is increasingly recognized to be critical in improving resilience and transformation. Nevertheless, city dwellers’ coping and adaptive practices are little known, poorly documented and often not taken into account in the work of municipal authorities and aid organizations. Against this background, this study provides a systematic overview of urban residents’ coping and adaptive practices, presents critical insights into their risk-reducing effects and discusses their role in the development of policies and projects to increase resilience. It shows that coping should not automatically …

Local Levers For Change: Mainstreaming Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Into Municipal Planning To Foster Sustainability Transitions, Christine Wamsler, Christopher Luederitz, Ebba Brink

Christine Wamsler

Unprecedented global challenges demand wide-reaching societal modification to ensure life support functions and human well-being. In the absence of adequate international responses to climate change and the need for place-based adaptation, local governments have a pivotal role in fostering sustainability transitions. In this context, the importance of ecosystem-based adaptation is increasingly recognized as a multi-benefit approach that utilizes ecosystem services to harmonize human-environment systems. Although research advocates the mainstreaming of ecosystem-based adaptation to advance sustainable planning, the pathways for its systematic implementation are missing and it remains unclear how local authorities can best integrate this new approach into their core …

Unnatural Disasters: Rethinking The Distinction Between Natural And Man-Made Catastrophe, Michael D. Cooper, Esq.

Michael D. Cooper, Esq.

The distinction between “natural” and “man-made” disaster has grown increasingly difficult to defend. Our current conception conflates extreme natural events with the notion of disaster—an exclusively human construct. We define our cultural perception of “natural” disaster through three “man-made” constructs. First, our values alone characterize the scope and scale of loss. Second, our volition exacerbates otherwise benign natural hazards, exposes us to otherwise avoidable hazards, and, through technology, generates new and otherwise non-existent hazards. Finally, when natural hazards do unleash their destructive powers, pre-existing socio-economic inequalities manifest as vulnerabilities that ultimately determine both absolute and relative social outcomes and impacts. …

Biomes And Ecosystems, Robert Warren Howarth

No abstract provided.

Migration And Disaster-Induced Displacement: European Policy, Practice, And Perspective, Michael D. Cooper

Michael D. Cooper, Esq.

Over the last decade, a series of devastating natural disasters have killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, and decimated the built environment across wide regions, shocking the public imagination and garnering unprecedented financial support for humanitarian relief efforts. Some suggest that disaster migration must be supported by the international community, first as an adaption strategy in response to climate-change, and second, as a matter of international protection. This study surveys the current state of law as it relates to persons displaced by natural disaster, with a specific focus on the 27 member states of the European Union plus …

Mathematical Modeling Of Drought Resilience In Agriculture, Ram Ranjan

Ram Ranjan

Ensuring drought resilience for farmers is an important policy concern. Yet, a quantitative treatment of the concept of drought resilience has been lacking in the literature. This paper designs a mathematical model of drought resilience to assess farmers’ survival strategies when faced with the prospect of repeated droughts. A key distinction is being made here between consecutive droughts and one-off droughts, as it is the former which is of most concern to farmers as well as policy makers. The mathematical model is generalized to incorporate the possibility of more than one set of a certain number of consecutive droughts occurring …

Innovation Cooperation: Energy Biosciences And Law, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This Article analyzes the development and dissemination of environmentally sound technologies that can address climate change. Climate change poses catastrophic health and security risks on a global scale. Universities, individual innovators, private firms, civil society, governments, and the United Nations can unite in the common goal to address climate change. This Article recommends means by which legal, scientific, engineering, and a host of other public and private actors can bring environmentally sound innovation into widespread use to achieve sustainable development. In particular, universities can facilitate this collaboration by fostering global innovation and diffusion networks.

Drought Resilient Strategies, Ram Ranjan

Ram Ranjan

Drought resilience is defined in this paper as the capacity of farmers to survive a certain number of consecutive droughts. Farmers can enhance their drought resilience through accumulating wealth and through conserving groundwater. A stylized model quantifies drought resilience and analyzes key trade-offs between wealth accumulation and groundwater conservation strategies. Findings highlight differing patterns of drought resilient strategies for farmers varying in their endowments and time preferences.

Tribes As Essential Partners In Achieving Sustainable Governance, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Indigenous peoples have modeled sustainable development around the world. Incentivizing the innovation and instillation of wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources can come in the form of public funding, including renewable portfolio standards, feed in tariffs and green tag programs. This article analyzes ways in which tribal communities are helping to expand cooperative good governance.

Lost In Translation? A Boundary Work Perspective On Making Climate Change Governable, Robert Hoppe

Robert Hoppe

No abstract provided.

Framing Water Policy In A Carbon Affected And Carbon Constrained Environment, Noah D. Hall, Robert H. Abrams

Noah D Hall

Climate change driven by greenhouse gas emissions is substantially altering water availability while increasing water demand. Shifts in domestic energy policy and production, while needed to confront the challenge of climate change, may further stress the nation’s water resources. These changes and new demands will be most severe in regions that are already experiencing water stresses and conflicts. This article examines the extent of the changes in water supply and demand by assessing how water conflicts will be addressed in the four overarching water use categories: water for population security, water for ecological security, water for energy security, and water …

The North American Great Lakes, Noah D. Hall

Noah D Hall

The Great Lakes are a vast resource shared by two countries, ten states and provinces, and hundreds of Indian tribes or First Nations. They are the quintessential commons that have seen their share of tragedies. Addressing competing pressures of economic development and environmental protection is only part of the challenge. The real struggle has been governance: How is management of an international transboundary resource best accomplished under the legal and political limitations of constitutional federalism? This chapter analyses the international agreements, court decisions, interstate compacts, and federal statutes that created a transboundary water regime, considering in detail the Great Lakes– …

Climate Change And Great Lakes Waters Resources: Avoiding Future Conflicts With Conservation, Noah D. Hall

Noah D Hall

Despite the complexities of climatology, certain consistent themes emerge with implications for water availability: as the world gets warmer, it will experience increased regional variability in precipitation, more frequent heavy precipitation events, becoming more susceptible to drought. This article focuses on how climate change will impact Great Lakes water resources. It explores what a changing climate will mean for the Great Lakes, including possible lowering of lake levels, impacts on fisheries and wildlife, changes in Great Lakes shorelines, and reduction of groundwater supplies. Climate change will also reduce water supplies in other parts of the country, creating increased pressure to …

Exit Timing Decisions Under Land Speculation And Resource Scarcity In Agriculture, Ram Ranjan, Sorada Tapsuwan

Ram Ranjan

This paper models the impact of water scarcity in agriculture on the timing of exit decisions for farmers faced with the prospect of declining profitability in agriculture but increasing benefits from land rezoning in the future. The prospects of land rezoning are modeled as a Poisson process. The analysis highlights the role of speculative rewards in making farmers resilient to declining profitability in agriculture and also identifies the circumstances under which water prices may become an ineffective policy tool for allocating water. An empirical application is performed for the case of a drought prone region in Western Australia. Results indicate …

When Environmentalists Collide: Understanding Conflicting Views And Values Of Environmentalists To Wind Energy, Brad Jessup

Brad Jessup

No abstract provided.

Legislating The Highway Act Of 1956: Lessons For Climate Change Regulation, Roel Hammerschlag

Roel Hammerschlag

In the United States, greenhouse gas regulation can produce a revenue stream of approximately 0.5 % of gross domestic product, through emissions taxes or auctions of emission allowances. Many advocates of climate change regulation envision a federally-coordinated, research & development megaproject to develop greenhouse gas-free energy technologies; the funding for such a project would likely be drawn from the regulatory revenues. In contemporary American history, there is only one other example of a similarly-sized, federal megaproject funded by a tax schema, which is the Interstate System funded by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. A structured review of the political …

More Smoke Than Fire: The 1997 'Haze' Crisis And Other Environmental Issues In Indonesia', Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Reports on the 1987 haze crisis, analyses the four explanations put forward for the crisis and speculates on political consequences for the Suharto government.

Rising Temperatures: Rising Tides, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Transboundary environmental problems do not distinguish between political boundaries. Global warming is expected to cause thermal expansion of water and melt glaciers. Both are predicted to lead to a rise in sea level. We must enlarge our paradigms to encompass a global reality and reliance upon global participation.