| 1. |
- Adger, W. Neil, et al.
(author)
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Resilience implications of policy responses to climate change
- 2011
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In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. - : Wiley. - 1757-7780 .- 1757-7799. ; 2:5, s. 757-766
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article examines whether some response strategies to climate variability and change have the potential to undermine long-term resilience of social-ecological systems. We define the parameters of a resilience approach, suggesting that resilience is characterized by the ability to absorb perturbations without changing overall system function, the ability to adapt within the resources of the system itself, and the ability to learn, innovate, and change. We evaluate nine current regional climate change policy responses and examine governance, sensitivity to feedbacks, and problem framing to evaluate impacts on characteristics of a resilient system. We find that some responses, such as the increase in harvest rates to deal with pine beetle infestations in Canada and expansion of biofuels globally, have the potential to undermine long-term resilience of resource systems. Other responses, such as decentralized water planning in Brazil and tropical storm disaster management in Caribbean islands, have the potential to increase long-term resilience. We argue that there are multiple sources of resilience in most systems and hence policy should identify such sources and strengthen capacities to adapt and learn.
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| 2. |
- Atteridge, Aaron, et al.
(author)
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Is adaptation reducing vulnerability or redistributing it?
- 2018
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In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1757-7780 .- 1757-7799. ; 9:1
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As globalization and other pressures intensify the economic, social and biophysical connections between people and places, it seems likely that adaptation responses intended to ameliorate the impacts of climate change might end up shifting risks and vulnerability between people and places. Building on earlier conceptual work in maladaptation and other literature, this article explores the extent to which concerns about vulnerability redistribution have influenced different realms of adaptation practice. The review leads us to conclude that the potential for adaptation to redistribute risk or vulnerability is being given only sparse—and typically superficial—attention by practitioners. Concerns about ‘maladaptation’, and occasionally vulnerability redistribution specifically, are mentioned on the margins but do not significantly influence the way adaptation choices are made or evaluated by policy makers, project planners or international funds. In research, the conceptual work on maladaptation is yet to translate into a significant body of empirical literature on the distributional impacts of real-world adaptation activities, which we argue calls into question our current knowledge base about adaptation. These gaps are troubling, because a process of cascading adaptation endeavors globally seems likely to eventually re-distribute risks or vulnerabilities to communities that are already marginalized and vulnerable. We conclude by discussing the implications that the potential for vulnerability redistribution might have for the governance of adaptation processes, and offer some reflections on how research might contribute to addressing gaps in knowledge and in practice.
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| 3. |
- Azar, Christian, 1969
(author)
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Biomass for energy: a dream come true ... or a nightmare?
- 2011
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In: WIREs Climate Change. - : Wiley. - 1757-7780 .- 1757-7799. ; 2:3, s. 309-323
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Bioenergy can come to play a significant role in the global energy system and perhaps account for one fifth of global energy supply in 50 years in response to ambitions to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But bioenergy is complicated. There are both traditional and modern forms. In this article, I will exclusively look at modern forms, i.e., biomass for electricity, transport and heat, and process heat (not traditional forms used for cooking in developing countries). Furthermore, there are both 'good' and 'bad' kinds, expensive and inexpensive technologies, bioenergy systems that lead to massive carbon dioxide emissions and systems that are carbon neutral, and even ones that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while delivering energy. There is concern that certain bioenergy forms will, in response to increasing carbon prices, become so attractive that food prices increase significantly, that poor people are evicted from their lands, and that rainforest and other sensitive ecosystem are destroyed in order to pave the way for bioenergy plantations. This article offers a survey of these risks, and the policy instruments intended to deal with the challenges.
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| 4. |
- Ballantyne, Anne Gammelgaard, 1981-
(author)
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Climate change communication: what can we learn from communication theory?
- 2016
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In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 1757-7780 .- 1757-7799. ; 7:3, s. 329-344
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The literature on climate change communication addresses a range of issues relevantto the communication of climate change and climate science to lay audiencesor publics. In doing so, it approaches this particular challenge from avariety of different perspectives and theoretical frameworks. Analyzing the bodyof scholarly literature on climate change communication, this article criticallyreviews how communication is conceptualized in the literature and concludesthat the fi eld of climate change communication is characterized by diverging andincompatible understandings of communication as a theoretical construct. Insome instances, communication theory appears reduced to an ‘ad hoc’ toolbox,from which theories are randomly picked to provide studies with a fi tting framework.Inspired by the paradigm shift from transmission to interaction withincommunication theory, potential lessons from the fi eld of communication theoryare highlighted and discussed in the context of communicating climate change.Rooted in the interaction paradigm, the article proposes a meta-theoreticalframework that conceptualizes communication as a constitutive process of producingand reproducing shared meanings. Rather than operating in separateontological and epistemological perspectives, a meta-theoretical conceptualizationof communication would ensure a common platform that advances multiperspectiveargumentation and discussion of the role of climate changecommunication in society.
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| 5. |
- Biermann, Frank, et al.
(author)
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Solar geoengineering : The case for an international non‐use agreement
- 2022
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In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. - : Wiley. - 1757-7780 .- 1757-7799. ; 13:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Solar geoengineering is gaining prominence in climate change debates as an issue worth studying; for some it is even a potential future policy option. We argue here against this increasing normalization of solar geoengineering as a speculative part of the climate policy portfolio. We contend, in particular, that solar geoengineering at planetary scale is not governable in a globally inclusive and just manner within the current international political system. We therefore call upon governments and the United Nations to take immediate and effective political control over the development of solar geoengineering technologies. Specifically, we advocate for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering and outline the core elements of this proposal.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Charpentier Ljungqvist, Fredrik, et al.
(author)
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Climate and society in European history
- 2021
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In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. - : Wiley. - 1757-7780 .- 1757-7799. ; 12:2
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article evaluates 165 studies from various disciplines, published between 2000 and 2019, which in different ways link past climate variability and change to human history in medieval and early modern Europe (here, c. 700-1815 CE). Within this review, we focus on the identification and interpretation of causal links between changes in climate and in human societies. A revised climate-society impact order model of historical climate-society interactions is presented and applied to structure the findings of the past 20 years' scholarship. Despite considerable progress in research about past climate-society relations, partly expedited by new palaeoclimate data, we identify limitations to knowledge, including geographical biases, a disproportional attention to extremely cold periods, and a focus on crises. Furthermore, recent scholarship shows that the limitations with particular disciplinary approaches can be successfully overcome through interdisciplinary collaborations. We conclude the article by proposing recommendations for future directions of research in the climatic change-human history nexus.
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| 9. |
- Charpentier Ljungqvist, Fredrik, 1982-, et al.
(author)
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Famines in medieval and early modern Europe—Connecting climate and society
- 2024
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In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. - 1757-7780 .- 1757-7799. ; 15:1
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The article evaluates recent scholarship on famines in Europe during the medieval and early modern periods (c. 700–1800), synthesizing the state-of-the-art knowledge and identifying both research gaps and interdisciplinary potentials. Particular focus is placed on how, and to what extent, climatic change and variability is given explanatory power in famine causation. Current research, supported by recent advances in palaeoclimatology, reveals that anomalous cold conditions constituted the main environmental backdrop for severe food production crises that could result in famines in pre-industrial Europe. Such food crises occurred most frequently between c. 1550 and 1710, during the climax of the Little Ice Age cooling, and can be connected to the strong dependency on grain in Europe during this period. The available body of scholarship demonstrates that famines in medieval and early modern Europe best can be understood as the result of the interactions of climatic and societal stressors responding to pre-existing vulnerabilities. Recent research has shown that societal responses to these famines, and the appropriation of their consequences, have been much more comprehensive, dynamic, and substantial than previously assumed. The article concludes by providing recommendations for future studies on historical famines.
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| 10. |
- Dellmuth, Lisa Maria, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Climate change on Twitter : Implications for climate governance research
- 2023
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In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. - 1757-7780 .- 1757-7799. ; 14:6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There is increasing public debate about the governance of climate change and its repercussions for nature and human livelihoods. In today's digitalized communication landscape, both public and private actors involved in climate change governance use social media to provide information and to interact with stakeholders and the broader public. This Focus Article discusses two main aspects of debates about climate change and climate governance on Twitter, which previous theories suggest to shape climate governance across domestic and global levels: non-state climate action and public opinion formation on the social media. We see significant advancement in the environmental social sciences studying these two areas. Yet, we also see the need for a better understanding of how public and private actors in the climate governance complex interact on Twitter, and how these actors shape, and are shaped by, experiences, values, and positions. This understanding will help to advance climate governance theories. This article proceeds in three steps. We first discuss previous social media research on non-state climate action and public opinion formation related to climate change and its governance. Then we sketch avenues for future research, elaborating how Twitter data might be used to investigate how non-state climate action and public opinion formation on social media are linked to and influence climate governance. We conclude by making the case for drawing together Twitter data and climate governance research into a more coherent research agenda.
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