While it is widely recognized that climate change will have significant impacts on the developing world, the social dimensions of vulnerability are often ignored in development projects and practices aimed at promoting adaptation to climate change. This book presents case studies that shed light on the tendency to promote policies and practices that fit conveniently into traditional development paradigms, and explores how development may need to shift focus in relation to climate change adaptation. The chapters offer critical perspectives that challenge many mainstream views on vulnerability, adaptive capacity, resilience, and the role of development projects in the context of climate change. The international case studies illustrate how responses to climate change that are embedded in traditional approaches to development may actually exacerbate vulnerability instead of reducing it. Adaptation projects often focus on dealing with the physical impacts of climate change (increased water scarcity, flooding, heat stress, etc.) through technical interventions, investments in infrastructure, and disaster preparedness, while they rarely call into question the underlying systems and structures that have contributed to the social and economic inequalities (inadequate access to resources, forced displacement, etc). This book presents adaptation as more than isolated decisions, actions, policies or practices aimed at addressing specific changes in the climate, but rather as a collection of on-going processes shaped by social, economic, political, institutional, and cultural dynamics. The book illustrates how approaching adaptation through 'development as usual' is unlikely to promote, maintain or enhance the well-being of populations faced with the complex challenges posed by climate change. Individual, household, community, sectoral and national decisions are seldom solely about climate change, and adaptation strategies may bring conflicts of interest that call for new ways of negotiating and collaborating, and recognition of the existing and emerging power relations that influence whose values and interests prevail in shaping development pathways. While many of the chapters are critical to current approaches to adaptation within the field of development, they also show how development can serve as a pathway towards sustainability. Alternatives are already emerging, and the process of adapting to climate change may itself be transforming development paradigms. This book will help researchers, practitioners and policymakers working at the interface between climate change and development to make sense of the changing dynamics and emerging opportunities, to enable efforts that work to create a better life for everyone.

The Climate Change 2001 volumes of the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC provide the most comprehensive assessment of climate change since its second report, Climate Change 1995. This Synthesis Report gives a comprehensive summary of the main points of the three separate volumes of the Report: The Scientific Basis; Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability; and Mitigation.

We are at an environmental impasse. Many blame our personal choices about the things we consume and the way we live. This is only part of the problem. Different forms of social power - political, economic and ideological - structure the choices we have available. This book analyses how we make social and environmental history and why we end up where we do. Using case studies from different environmental domains - earth and water, air and fire - Nature, Choice and Social Power examines the form that social power takes and how it can harm the environment and hinder our efforts to act in our own best interests. The case studies challenge conventional wisdoms about why gold is valuable, why the internal combustion engine triumphed, and when and why suburbs sprawled. The book shows how the power of individuals, the power of classes, the power of the market and the power of the state at different times and in different ways were critical to setting us on a path to environmental degradation. It also challenges conventional wisdoms about what we need to do now. Rather than reducing consumption and shrinking from outcomes we don't want, it proposes growing towards outcomes we do want. We invested massive resources in creating our problems; it will take equally large investments to fix them. Written in a clear and engaging style, the book is underpinned with a political economy framework and addresses how we should understand our responsibility to the environment and to each other as individuals within a large and impersonal system.

We are at an environmental impasse. Many blame our personal choices about the things we consume and the way we live. This is only part of the problem. Different forms of social power - political, economic and ideological - structure the choices we have available. This book analyses how we make social and environmental history and why we end up where we do. Using case studies from different environmental domains - earth and water, air and fire - Nature, Choice and Social Power examines the form that social power takes and how it can harm the environment and hinder our efforts to act in our own best interests. The case studies challenge conventional wisdoms about why gold is valuable, why the internal combustion engine triumphed, and when and why suburbs sprawled. The book shows how the power of individuals, the power of classes, the power of the market and the power of the state at different times and in different ways were critical to setting us on a path to environmental degradation. It also challenges conventional wisdoms about what we need to do now. Rather than reducing consumption and shrinking from outcomes we don't want, it proposes growing towards outcomes we do want. We invested massive resources in creating our problems; it will take equally large investments to fix them. Written in a clear and engaging style, the book is underpinned with a political economy framework and addresses how we should understand our responsibility to the environment and to each other as individuals within a large and impersonal system.

Some issues addressed in this Working Group III volume are mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, managing biological carbon reservoirs, geo-engineering, costing methods, and decision-making frameworks.

This important volume brings together scientific, cultural, literary, historical, and philosophical perspectives to offer new understandings of the critical issues of our ecological present and new models for the creation of alternative ecological futures. At a time when the narrative and theoretical threads of the environmental humanities are more entwined than ever with the scientific, ethical, and political challenges of the global ecological crisis, this volume invites us to rethink the Anthropocene, the posthuman, and the environmental from various cross-disciplinary viewpoints. The book enriches the environmental debate with new conceptual tools and revitalizes thematic and methodological collaborations in the trajectory of ecocriticism and the environmental humanities. Alliances between the humanities and the social and natural sciences are vital in addressing and finding viable solutions to our planetary predicaments. Drawing on cutting-edge studies in all the major fields of the eco-cultural debate, the chapters in this book build a creative critical discourse that explores, challenges and enhances the field of environmental humanities.

Bioregionalism and Global Ethics suggests that current trends towards globalization are creating entirely new social and environmental problems which require cross-cultural dialogue towards the creation of a new "global ethic." Current models of development are based on an implicit global ethic which advocates bringing everyone in the world up to the same standards of living as those prevalent in the so-called "developed" countries through unlimited economic growth. Evanoff argues that this goal is not only unattainable but also undesirable because it ultimately undermines the ability of the environment to sustain both human and non-human flourishing, exacerbates rather than overcomes social inequalities both within and between cultures, and fails to achieve genuine human well-being for all but a wealthy minority. An alternative bioregional global ethic is proposed which seeks to maximize ecological sustainability, social justice, and human well-being through the creation of economically self-sufficient and politically decentralized communities delinked from the global market but confederated at appropriate levels to address problems that transcend cultural borders. Such an ethic is based on a transactional view of the relationship between self, society, and nature, which attempts to create more symbiotic and less conflictual modes of interaction between human cultures and natural environments, while promoting the flourishing of both. Instead of a single monolithic global ethic, bioregionalism suggests that there should be sufficient convergence between cultures to allow for the successful resolution of mutual problems, but also sufficient divergence to enable the continued evolution of both biological and cultural diversity on a global scale.

How does climate change affect social work and social development? What actions are needed to integrate the three pillars of economic development, environmental development and social protection? With global warming and the increase in natural disasters due to the emission of greenhouse gases, an alternative approach to the natural environment is vital. The main focus of this volume is to emphasize the person-in-environment concept and to find measures for its implementation. For social work the environment has traditionally been viewed as a world of human relationships as opposed to the interaction between man and environment. This informative and incisively written edited collection brings together experts from around the world to analyze the person-in-environment concept and to find measures for its implementation. Through the presentation of theoretical and practical platforms for environmental social work or 'green social work', we hope to bring about a new paradigmatic shift in our attitude to the concept of person-in- environment.

Identifying, measuring and improving social impact is a significant challenge for corporate and private foundations, charities, NGOs and corporations. How best to balance possible social and environmental benefits (and costs) against one another? How does one bring clarity to multiple possibilities and opportunities? Based on years of work and new field studies from around the globe, the authors have written a book for managers that is grounded in the best academic and managerial research.It is a practical guide that describes the steps needed for identifying, measuring and improving social impact. This approach is useful in maximizing the impact of different types of investments, including grants and donations, impact investments, and commercial investments.With numerous examples of actual organizational approaches, research into more than fifty organizations, and extensive practical guidance and best practices, Measuring and Improving Social Impacts fills a critical gap.

Trust is an important factor in risk management, affecting judgements of risk and benefit, technology acceptance and other forms of cooperation. In this book the world's leading risk researchers explore all aspects of trust as it relates to risk management and communication. Drawing on a wide variety of disciplinary approaches and empirical case studies (on topics such as mobile phone technology, well-known food accidents and crises, wetland management, smallpox vaccination, cooperative risk management of US forests and the disposal of the Brent Spar oil drilling platform), this is the most thorough and up-to-date examination of trust in all its forms and complexities. The book integrates diverse research traditions and provides new insights into the phenomenon of trust. Factors that lead to the establishment and erosion of trust are identified. Insightful analyses are provided for researchers and students of environmental and social science and professionals engaged in risk management and communication in both public and private sectors. Related titles The Tolerability of Risk (2007) 978-1-84407-398-6

During the 1950s and 60s, scientists began to question the widespread use of DDT, a pesticide used indiscriminately for agricultural purposes because of its efficiency in killing insects. Researchers were discovering that contact with the chemical was leading to the decline of many species of predatory birds, and was a major factor in causing cancer and reproductive defects in humans. DDT was affecting ecosystems in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and was contaminating countless species of animals by working its way up the food chain. In 1962, Rachel Carson famously wrote about the plight in Silent Spring, and in 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency banned the substance. The road to banning DDT, however, was far from straightforward. The grassroots movement, which was led by a group of ten scientists who created Environmental Defense Fund, was opposed early and often by various corporations and political groups. These groups claimed that EDF was based on "junk science," and that its founding scientists were simply radicals. One of these scientists was Charles Wurster, and in DDT Wars Wurster gives us the story of the many scientific and legal maneuvers EDF made in order to have DDT banned from legal use as a pesticide. Many issues swirled as the battle waged: was DDT's use in controlling malaria in ravaged countries a reason not to ban it as a pesticide? And what legal precedents would be set, once the substance was banned? Wurster breaks down the multifaceted battle from start to finish, showing us the crucial turning points and the many ramifications of EDF's victory. Though its existence was threatened early on, Environmental Defense Fund's fiftieth anniversary is approaching, and the organization has now morphed into a leader on many different environmental activist fronts. DDT Wars is the dramatic story of the original issue that EDF was founded to fight, and is one of the strongest examples we have of grassroots environmentalism affecting positive change.

* The first and only comprehensive international sourcebook of Sustainability Appraisal/Assessment (SA) principles, approaches and instruments from all governments, businesses and NGOs worldwide* The essential guide for all impact assessment practitioners, business analysts, researchers, policymakers and international organizations* Written by two world-renowned practitioners and authors, with support from a wealth of international organizations and expertsA unique state-of-the-art analysis of the status and scope of SA, drawing on a wealth of international experiences and approaches. This fully comprehensive guide highlights how SA can be used to integrate the key environmental, social and economic (ESE) pillars of sustainability into decision-making at all levels-from policy to project to investment-by government, business and industry, or international organizations. Distilling both published and unpublished materials, as well as in-depth workshop discussions and contributions from a range of leading experts, organizations and agencies, this book provides an indispensable window into the field. It will be of significant value to professionals everywhere who are in need of a solid, practical guide to what constitutes SA and, more importantly, how and when it can be applied.

Sustainability Appraisal is a sourcebook of the state-of-the-art of this rapidly emerging and diversifying area. It draws on a wealth of international experiences and approaches to illustrate the status and scope of Sustainability Appraisal/Assessment (SA) This comprehensive guide highlights how SA can be used to analyse and integrate the key environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainability into decision-making at all levels, from policy to project to investment, by government, business and industry, or international organizations. Distilling both published and unpublished materials, and with contributions from a range of leading experts, organizations and agencies, this book will be of significant value to professionals everywhere who are in need of a solid, reference guide to what constitutes SA practice and, more importantly, how and when it can be applied.

Increasingly it is being recognized that consumer behavior may be a key trigger in the march toward sustainable development. Several lines of psychological theory and approaches have been developed relatively independently, each of which may provide major implications and action points on how consumers might be moved toward more sustainable behavior. This book is the first that brings together this variety of perspectives and theoretical angles around the common ambition of sustainable development. The contributors are all leading social scientists in the field of consumer behavior who met the challenge to sketch out their theoretical perspectives, but also to go beyond their normal theorizing and think out of the box in order to show how these theoretical perspectives might be made actionable in terms of key managerial and policy perspectives toward sustainable development. The result is a book that shows a wealth of information and approaches the question of how to encourage sustainable behavior from a myriad of divergent perspectives. This should stimulate scientists and policy-makers alike to find similarities, differences, and synergies between state-of-the-art psychological thinking about how to most effectively stimulate sustainable consumer behavior.

Introduces students to current and emerging environmental hazards to human- and related ecosystem health. Explains detrimental policy changes to existing policies and recently developed policies that impact the health of the environment and that of communities. Presents a perspective for global sources of pollution and how actions have emerged for control of environmental hazards such as climate change and global air pollution. Includes foundation lectures, case studies, and practice questions to help create student led discussions for both in-class and homework assignments. Describes social justice issues and COVID-19 impacts in relation to environmental hazards.

Our lives increasingly take place in ever more complex and interconnected networks that blur the boundaries we have traditionally used to define our social and political spaces. Accordingly, the policy problems that governments are called upon to deal with have become less clear-cut and far messier. This is particularly the case with climate change, environmental policy, transport, health and ageing - all areas in which the tried-and-tested linear policy solutions are increasingly inadequate or failing. What makes messy policy problems particularly uncomfortable for policy makers is that science and scientific knowledge have themselves become sources of uncertainty and ambiguity. Indeed what is to count as a 'rational solution' is itself now the subject of considerable debate and controversy. This book focuses on the intractable conflict that characterises policy debate about messy issues. The author first develops a framework for analysing these conflicts and then applies the conceptual framework to four very different policy issues: the environment - focussing on climate change - as well as transport, ageing and health. Using evidence from Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific, the book compares how policy actors construct contending narratives in order to make sense of, and deal with, messy challenges. In the final section the author discusses the implications of the analysis for collective learning and adaptation processes. The aim is to contribute to a more refined understanding of policy-making in the face of uncertainty and, most importantly, to provide practical methods for critical reflection on policy and to point to sustainable adaptation pathways and learning mechanisms for policy formulation.

The editor takes an excitingly broad and refreshing approach to environmental justice, tracing the subject from its early developments to its contemporary need for a new non-anthropocentric ontology responsive to questions of human-non-human justice. This invaluable study includes 24 of the best available research articles in the field and offers a stimulating journey into the rich ambiguities, tensions and promise of environmental justice for the 21st century and beyond.

Raging floods, massive storms and cataclysmic earthquakes: every year up to 340 million people are affected by these and other disasters, which cause loss of life and damage to personal property, agriculture, and infrastructure. So what can be done? The key to understanding the causes of disasters and mitigating their impacts is the concept of 'vulnerability'. Mapping Vulnerability analyses 'vulnerability' as a concept central to the way we understand disasters and their magnitude and impact. Written and edited by a distinguished group of disaster scholars and practitioners, this book is a counterbalance to those technocratic approaches that limit themselves to simply looking at disasters as natural phenomena. Through the notion of vulnerability, the authors stress the importance of social processes and human-environmental interactions as causal agents in the making of disasters. They critically examine what renders communities unsafe - a condition, they argue, that depends primarily on the relative position of advantage or disadvantage that a particular group occupies within a society's social order. The book also looks at vulnerability in terms of its relationship to development and its impact on policy and people's lives, through consideration of selected case studies drawn from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Mapping Vulnerability is essential reading for academics, students, policymakers and practitioners in disaster studies, geography, development studies, economics, environmental studies and sociology.

Deliberative democracy is well-suited to the challenges of governing in the Anthropocene. But deliberative democratic practices are only suited to these challenges to the extent that five prerequisites - empoweredness, embeddedness, experimentality, equivocality, and equitableness - are successfully institutionalized. Governance must be: created by those it addresses, applicable equally to all, capable of learning from (and adapting to) experience, rationally grounded, and internalized by those who adopt and experience it. This book analyzes these five major normative principles, pairing each with one of the Earth System Governance Project's analytical problems to provide an in-depth discussion of the minimal conditions for environmental governance that can be truly sustainable. It is ideal for scholars and graduate students in global environmental politics, earth system governance, and international environmental policy. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.

Climate and Society presents from a transdisciplinary view, climate and its changes, impact and perception. The history of climate and its different approaches over time - which are anthropocentric and more system-oriented, academic and application-driven - are reviewed, as are the possibilities of managing climate, in particular by steering the greenhouse gas emissions. Most importantly, the concepts of climate as a resource for societies are discussed and the emergence of climate non-constancy and its impact, studied. In essence, this book provides an absorbing account of the cultural history of climate and relates it to contemporary scientific knowledge about climate, climate change and its impact.

Drawing on anthropological and historical data, this book examines human-wildlife relations in China, Tibet, Japan, Bhutan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Thailand and Vietnam. The volume initially focuses on the various ways in which wild animals are exploited as a resource, for food, medicine and crop-picking labour, before examining animals termed as pests or predators that are deemed to be harmful and dangerous. Bringing together anthropologists and historians, this book analyses the range, variability and historical mutability of human sensibilities towards animals in Asia and will be of interest to Asianists and anthropologists alike.

History reveals how civilisations can be decimated by changes in climate. More recently modern methods of warfare have exposed the vulnerability of the artefacts of civilisation. Bringing together a range of subjects - from science, energy and sustainability to aesthetics theory and civilization theory - this book uniquely deals with climate change and the ensuing catastrophes in relation to cultural factors, urbanism and architecture. It links the evolution of civilisation, with special emphasis on the dynamics of beauty as displayed in architecture and urbanism, to climate change. It then considers both the historic and predicted impacts of climate change and the threat it poses to the continued viability of human civilisation when survival is the top priority. This book gives students, researchers and professionals in architecture and sustainable design as well as anyone interested in the threat of global warming to civilisation, new insights as to what could be lost if action is not taken at a global level.

Crucial Issues in Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol: Asia and the World focuses on responses to climate change in the world's most populous region. This book provides the most comprehensive insight to the climate change discourse within Asia to date by drawing on the diverse disciplines and experience of legal practitioners, climate change consultants, government officials and academics. Individual chapters address issues such as how the various Asian countries - highly disparate in their cultures, socio-economic conditions and political systems - are responding to climate change, the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change, and the effective implementation of the Kyoto Protocol in Asia.