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Action for the Environment: Clean Air
by Rufus BellamyAction for the Environment. All around the world today, people are taking Action for the Environment. From small, local projects to large, global initiatives, people are finding ways to help prevent environmental damage. This new series helps build a foundation for a sustainable future by looking at: THE KEY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS, WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP. Other titles in the series: Garbage Disposal, Water Supplies, Saving Wildlife, Energy Supplies, Transportation Solutions, Protecting Habitats, Food for All.
Action Research for Climate Change Adaptation: Developing and applying knowledge for governance (Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research)
by Arwin Van Buuren Jasper Eshuis Mathijs Van VlietGovernments all over the world are struggling with the question of how to adapt to climate change. They need information not only about the issue and its possible consequences, but also about feasible governance strategies and instruments to combat it. At the same time, scientists from different social disciplines are trying to understand the dynamics and peculiarities of the governance of climate change adaptation. This book demonstrates how action-oriented research methods can be used to satisfy the need for both policy-relevant information and scientific knowledge. Bringing together eight case studies that show inspiring practices of action research from around the world, including Australia, Denmark, Vietnam and the Netherlands, the book covers a rich variety of action-research applications, running from participatory observation to serious games and role-playing exercises. It explores many adaptation challenges, from flood-risk safety to heat stress and freshwater availability, and draws out valuable lessons about the conditions that make action research successful, demonstrating how scientific and academic knowledge can be used in a practical context to reach useful and applicable insights. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of climate change, environmental policy, politics and governance.
Action Research for Sustainability: Social Imagination Between Citizens and Scientists
by Jonas EgmoseHow can action research further new research orientations towards sustainability? This book, empirically situated in the field of upstream public engagement, involving local residents, researchers and practitioners in bottom-up processes deliberating on urban sustainability, answers this question by analysing processes of social learning. The book addresses the need to move towards sustainability at societal level as a democratic challenge questioning the way we live on planet earth. By conceptualising sustain-ability as an immanent and emergent ability of ecological and social life, continuously to renew itself without eroding its own foundation of existence, it argues that since sustainability cannot be invented but only supported (or eroded) by science, we need to reframe science in the role of sustaining sustain-ability. Through analyses of a three year action research programme, aiming to provide local citizens with a greater say in the future of urban sustainability research, this book shows how action research can make important methodological contributions to processes of social learning between citizens and scientists by enabling free spaces in peoples everyday life and within academia, where aspects of un-sustainability can be addressed and new imaginations of more sustainable futures emerge.
Active Hope
by Joanna Macy Chris JohnstoneThe challenges we face can be difficult even to think about. Climate change, the depletion of oil, economic upheaval, and mass extinction together create a planetary emergency of overwhelming proportions. Active Hope shows us how to strengthen our capacity to face this crisis so that we can respond with unexpected resilience and creative power. Drawing on decades of teaching an empowerment approach known as the Work That Reconnects, the authors guide us through a transformational process informed by mythic journeys, modern psychology, spirituality, and holistic science. This process equips us with tools to face the mess we're in and play our role in the collective transition, or Great Turning, to a life-sustaining society.
Active Hope (revised): How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power
by Joanna Macy Chris JohnstoneThe challenges we face can be difficult even to think about. Climate change, war, political polarization, economic upheaval, and the dying back of nature together create a planetary emergency of overwhelming proportions. This revised, tenth anniversary edition of Active Hope shows us how to strengthen our capacity to face these crises so that we can respond with unexpected resilience and creative power. Drawing on decades of teaching an empowerment approach known as the Work That Reconnects, the authors guide us through a transformational process informed by mythic journeys, modern psychology, spirituality, and holistic science. This process equips us with tools to face the mess we’re in and play our role in the collective transition, or Great Turning, to a life-sustaining society.
Active Landscape Photography: Diverse Practices (Active Landscape Photography)
by Anne C GodfreyDiverse Practices, the third book in the Active Landscape Photography series, presents a set of unique photographic examples for site-specific investigations of landscape places. Contributed by authors across academia, practice and photography, each chapter serves as a rigorous discussion about photographic methods for the landscape and their underlying concepts. Chapters also serve as unique case studies about specific projects, places and landscape issues. Project sites include the Miller Garden, Olana, XX Miller Prize and the Philando Castile Peace Garden. Landscape places discussed include the archeological landscapes of North Peru, watery littoral zones, the remote White Pass in Alaska, Sau Paulo and New York City’s Chinatown. Photographic image-making approaches include the use of lidar, repeat photography, collage, mapping, remote image capture, portraiture, image mining of internet sources, visual impact assessment, cameraless photography, transect walking and interviewing. These diverse practices demonstrate how photography, when utilized through a set of specific critical methods, becomes a rich process for investigating the landscape. Exploring this concept in relationship to specific contemporary sties and landscape issues reveals the intricacy and subtlety that exists when photography is used actively. Practitioners, academics, students and researchers will be inspired by the underlying concepts of these examples and come away with a better understanding about how to create their own rigorous photographic practices.
Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics
by Margaret E. Keck Kathryn SikkinkSurvey of non-governmental organizations' role in pressing for improvements in areas such as human rights, environmental stewardship and more.
Activists beyond Borders
by Margaret E. Keck Kathryn SikkinkA masterful combination of emerging theory and empirical comparison of one of the most intriguing areas of transnational politics. Keck and Sikkink access a broad range of theory from social movements, international relations, and comparative politics research to glean from a wealth of their own research findings solid and thought-provoking conclusions about the most interesting and least well-understood area of contentious politics in the world today. -Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University (Government) "Activists beyond Borders is a searching exploration of advocacy networks, providing compelling accounts in areas such as human rights and environmental protection and an intriguing glimpse into the transnational politics of the twenty-first century. "-Robert O. Keohane, Duke University Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists that coalesce and operate across national frontiers. Their targets may be international organizations or the policies of particular states. Historical examples of such transborder alliances include anti-slavery and woman suffrage campaigns. In the past two decades, transnational activism has had a significant impact in human rights, especially in Latin America, and advocacy networks have strongly influenced environmental politics as well. The authors also examine the emergence of an international campaign around violence against women.
Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America (Second Edition)
by Ted SteinbergAs the waters of the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain began to pour into New Orleans, people began asking the big question - could any of this have been avoided? How much of the damage from Hurricane Katrina was bad luck, and how much was poor city planning? Steinberg's Acts of God is a provocative history of natural disasters in the United States. This revised edition features a new chapter analyzing the failed response to Hurricane Katrina, a disaster Steinberg warnedcould happen when the book first was published. Focusing on America's worst natural disasters, Steinberg argues that it is wrong to see these tragedies as random outbursts of nature's violence or expressions of divine judgment. He reveals how the decisions of business leaders and government officials have paved the way for the greater losses of life and property, especially among those least able to withstand such blows - America's poor, elderly, and minorities. Seeing nature or God as the primary culprit, Steinberg explains, has helped to hide the fact that some Americans are simply better able to protect themselves from the violence of nature than others. In the face of revelations about how the federal government mishandled the Katrina calamity, this book is a must-read before further wind and water sweep away more lives. Acts of God is a call to action that needs desperately to be heard.
Acts of Resistance: The Power of Art to Create a Better World
by Amber Massie-BlomfieldWhat is the purpose of art in a world on fire? Can it be a genuine form of political resistance? What is the purpose of art in a world on fire? In this exhilarating and deeply inspiring work, Amber Massie-Blomfield considers the work of artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers—such as Gran Fury, Billie Holiday, Alexis Wright, Claude Cahun, Rick Lowe, and Joseph Beuys—alongside collectives, communities, and organizations that have used protest sites as their canvas and spearheaded political movements. From writer Ken Saro Wiwa combatting oil pollution in Nigeria and Susan Sontag directing Waiting for Godot in besieged Sarajevo to the women stitching subversive patchworks in Pinochet’s Chile and the artist-activists who blocked the building of a new airport in France, with stories drawn from environmentalism, feminism, anti-fascism, and other movements, Acts of Resistance brings together remarkable acts of creativity that have shifted history on its axis.
Adani, Following Its Dirty Footsteps: A Personal Story
by Lindsay SimpsonAdani’s license to mine 60 million tonnes of coal for 60 years threatens Australia’s precious ancient source of groundwater in the Galillee Basin, a vast underground water reservoir, part of the Great Artesian Basin, occupying more than 20% of Australia. How could a company with a globally disastrous reputation for environmental destruction along with a dubious financial status woo an Australian Prime Minister, a State Premier and a handful of regional mayors to back a project to build Australia’s largest coalmine and the world’s largest coal terminal only kilometres from the Great Barrier Reef? This book documents the inconceivable story of how Australian governments abrogated their responsibilities to protect this world heritage icon; bypassing environmental safeguards, thereby irrevocably damaging Australia’s reputation as environmental steward of some of the world’s most valuable natural assets.
Adapt: How Humans Are Tapping into Nature's Secrets to Design and Build a Better Future
by Amina KhanAmina Khan believes that nature does it best. In Adapt, she presents fascinating examples of how nature effortlessly solves the problems that humans attempt to solve with decades worth of the latest and greatest technologies, time, and money. Humans are animals too, and animals are incredibly good at doing more with less. If a fly’s eye can see without hundreds of fancy lenses, and termite mounds can stay cool in the desert without air conditioning, it stands to reason that nature can teach us a thing or two about sustainable technology and innovation. In Khan’s accessible voice, these complex concepts are made simple. There is so much we humans can learn from nature’s billions of years of productive and efficient evolutionary experience. This field is growing rapidly and everyone from architects to biologists to nano-technicians to engineers are paying attention. Results from the simplest tasks, creating Velcro to mimic the sticking power of a burr, to the more complex like maximizing wind power by arranging farms to imitate schools of fish can make a difference and inspire future technological breakthroughs.Adapt shares the weird and wonderful ways that nature has been working smarter and not harder, and how we can too to make billion dollar cross-industrial advances in the very near future.
Adaptation and Change On the Galapagos Islands
by Helen Sillett"The vampire finch and the sneaker iguana have something in common. They both live on the Galapagos Islands, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. These islands are a natural wonderland full of strange and amazing birds and animals. Some people have heard about the Galapagos because of the giant tortoises (turtles) that live there. Maybe you have seen these animals in a book or on television. The Galapagos Islands are also famous because of a young man named Charles Darwin, who visited them in 1835. Later, Darwin went on to become one of the most important scientists the world has ever known."-Introduction
Adaptation and Evolution in Marine Environments, Volume 1: The Impacts of Global Change on Biodiversity (From Pole to Pole)
by Guido Di Prisco Cinzia VerdeThe poles undergo climate changes exceeding those in the rest of the world in terms of their speed and extent, and have a key role in modulating the climate of the Earth. Ecosystems adapted to polar environments are likely to become vulnerable to climate changes. Their responses allow us to analyse and foresee the impact of changes at lower latitudes. We need to increase our knowledge of the polar marine fauna of continental shelves, slopes and deep sea, as identifying the responses of species and communities is crucial to establishing efficient strategies against threats to biodiversity, using international and cross-disciplinary approaches. The IPY 2007-2009 was a scientific milestone. The outstanding contribution of Marine Biology is reflected in this volume and the next one on "Adaptation and Evolution in Marine Environments - The Impacts of Global Change on Biodiversity" from the series "From Pole to Pole", making these volumes a unique and invaluable component of the scientific outcome of the IPY.
Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies for Climate Change
by Ai Hiramatsu Kensuke Fukushi Akimasa SumiIn recent decades there has been a growing awareness of how intricate the interactions are between human beings and the environment. Fortunately, progress has been made in understanding this relationship, and new technologies have been effective in addressing environmental problems. However belatedly, there has been an acknowledgment of the incompatibility of the world's finite resources with humankind's increasingly greater needs for them, and of how such a challenge demands broadened collaboration among engineers, social scientists, politicians and financial powers. Global agreement that the essential issues of the twenty-first century cannot be solved by any one discipline has led to the concept of sustainability. The transdisciplinary contributions selected for inclusion in this book address these concerns with an overview of the diverse fields of study related to sustainability. This collection of work is intended to pave the way for further collaboration among scientists and nations as well.
Adaptation to a Changing Climate in the Arab Countries: A Case for Adaptation Governance and Leadership in Building Climate Resilience
by Dorte VernerIn the Arab countries, climate change is a risk to poverty reduction and economic growth, threatening to unravel many of the development gains that have been achieved. The Arab Region is already suffering adverse consequences from climate variability and change. This book provides information on climate change and its impact in the Arab Region, as well as technical guidance on climate adaptation options for policy makers. The areas addressed include the economic impacts of climate change (as measured by the reduction in household income and GDP); the impacts of climate change on the water, health, and tourism sectors; livelihoods and well-being in rural and urban areas; biodiversity; disaster risk management; as well as gender and other social relations. The report is written through a participatory and collaborative process, led by the World Bank in partnership with the League of Arab States, incorporating both regional and international experts on the topics.
Adaptation to Climate Change: A Spatial Challenge
by Rob RoggemaAs it becomes clear that climate change is not easily within the boundaries of the 1990's, society needs to be prepared and needs to anticipate future changes due to the uncertain changes in climate. So far, extensive research has been carried out on several issues including the coastal defence or shifting ecozones. However, the role spatial design and planning can play in adapting to climate change has not yet been focused on. This book illuminates the way adaptation to climate change is tackled in water management, ecology, coastal defence, the urban environment and energy. The question posed is how each sector can anticipate climate change by creating spatial designs and plans. The main message of this book is that spatial design and planning are a very useful tool in adapting to climate change. It offers an integral view on the issue, it is capable in dealing with uncertainties and it opens the way to creative and anticipative solutions. Dealing with adaptation to climate change requires a shift in mindset; from a technical rational way of thinking towards an integral proactive one. A new era in spatial design and planning looms on the horizon.
Adaptation to Climate Change and Sea Level Rise: The Case Study of Coastal Communities in New Brunswick, Canada (SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science)
by Sebastian Weissenberger Omer ChouinardThe book provides a concise and interdisciplinary outlook on the impacts of climate change on coastal areas and how coastal communities adapt to them. The first chapter analyses how sea level rise, changing ocean conditions, or increased climate variability and the socio-environmental context of the coastal zone leads to vulnerable communities. The second chapter addresses adaptation strategies and tools, and gives some examples of their application around the world. The third chapter describes participative action research projects undertaken in New Brunswick and how this community based approach has enabled communities to increase their climate resilience.
Adaptation to Climate Change and Variability in Rural West Africa
by Joseph A. Yaro Jan HesselbergThis book presents conceptual and empirical discussions of adaptation to climate change/variability in West Africa. Highlighting different countries' experiences in adaptation by different socio-economic groups and efforts at building their adaptive capacity, it offers readers a holistic understanding of adaptation on the basis of contextual and generic sources of adaptive capacity. Focusing on adaptation to climate change/variability is critical because the developmental challenges West Africa faces are increasingly intertwined with its climate history. Today, climate change is a major developmental issue for agrarian rural communities with high percentages of the population earning a living directly or indirectly from the natural environment. This makes them highly vulnerable to climate-driven ecological change, in addition to threats in the broader political economic context. It is imperative that rural people adapt to climate change, but their ability to successfully do so may be limited by competing risks and vulnerabilities. As such, elucidating those vulnerabilities and sources of strength with regard to the adaptive capacities needed to support successful adaptation and avoid maladaptation is critical for future policy formulation. Though the empirical discussion is geographically based on West Africa, its applicability in terms of the processes, structures, needs, strategies, and recommendations for policy transcends the region and provides useful lessons for understanding adaptation broadly in the developing world.
Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture: Research and Practices
by Toshichika Iizumi Ryuichi Hirata Ryo MatsudaThis book highlights state-of-the-art research and practices for adaptation to climate change in food production systems (agriculture in particular) as observed in Japan and neighboring Asian countries. The main topics covered include the current scientific understanding of observed and projected climate change impacts on crop production and quality, modeling of autonomous and planned adaptation, and development of early warning and/or support systems for climate-related decision-making. Drawing on concrete real-world examples, the book provides readers with an essential overview of adaptation, from research to system development to practices, taking agriculture in Asia as the example. As such, it offers a valuable asset for all researchers and policymakers whose work involves adaptation planning, climate negotiations, and/or agricultural developments.
Adaptation to Climate Change in Southern Africa: New Boundaries for Development (Climate and Development Series)
by Steffen Bauer Imme ScholzAdverse climate impacts are already evident across Southern Africa and pose a serious threat to the development prospects of the region's societies. Sustainable development in this region will depend on the rapid development and implementation of effective adaptation measures. This volume identifies the new socioeconomic and political boundaries to development that result from ongoing climate change in Southern Africa. The collected papers explore the region's potential for a transition to development strategies that combine meaningful socioeconomic investment and adaptation measures while also improving livelihoods in the region. The chapters are backed up by detailed case studies which underscore the urgent need for national governments and multilateral agencies to develop strategies to support Southern Africa's societies in adapting to climate change.
Adaptation to Coastal Storms in Atlantic Canada (SpringerBriefs in Geography)
by Mary J. Thornbush Liette Vasseur Steve PlanteThis Briefs is based on an analysis that was performed on the 2010 winter storms that caused considerable damage to coastal communities in Atlantic Canada. The hazards that occurred were associated with storm surge, coastal erosion, and flooding. The analysis covered a large multi-site longitudinal project, where a participatory action research (PAR) approach was used to understand how people in nine coastal communities perceive and experience extreme weather events and to enhance their capacity to adapt and improve their resilience. This Briefs exposes the outcome of two series of interviews and activities that were conducted during the project, as well as the lessons learned, and general elements that should be considered when researchers collaborate with communities to define adaptation and resilience strategies. It makes an important contribution to the application of PAR as an integrated (social-ecological) approach to resilience and how such an approach [. . . ] can be adapted also to other communities.
Adaptation Urbanism and Resilient Communities: Transforming Streets to Address Climate Change (Advances in Urban Sustainability)
by Billy Fields John L. RenneAdaptation Urbanism and Resilient Communities outlines and explains adaptation urbanism as a theoretical framework for understanding and evaluating resilience projects in cities and relates it to pressing contemporary policy issues related to urban climate change mitigation and adaptation. Through a series of detailed case studies, this book uncovers the promise and tensions of a new wave of resilient communities in Europe (Copenhagen, Rotterdam, and London), and the United States (New Orleans and South Florida). In addition, best practice projects in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Delft, Utrecht, and Vancouver are examined. The authors highlight how these communities are reinventing the role of streets and connecting public spaces in adapting to and mitigating climate change through green/blue infrastructure planning, maintaining and enhancing sustainable transportation options, and struggling to ensure equitable development for all residents. The case studies demonstrate that while there are some more universal aspects to encouraging adaptation urbanism, there are also important local characteristics that need to be both acknowledged and celebrated to help local communities thrive in the era of climate change. The book also provides key policy lessons and a roadmap for future research in adaptation urbanism. Advancing resilience policy discourse through multidisciplinary framework this work will be of great interest to students of urban planning, geography, transportation, landscape architecture, and environmental studies, as well as resilience practitioners around the world.
Adaptations of Coastal Cities to Global Warming, Sea Level Rise, Climate Change and Endemic Hazards (SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science)
by Frederic R. SiegelThis book discusses the identification of, solutions to, and management of threats to high population coastal cities and their seaports from global warming, climate change and endemic hazards. These include prevention of sea water intrusion of freshwater coastal aquifers, emplacement of barriers that mitigate the threats from sea level rise, and inundation of urban centers plus those from storm surges that cause flooding and salination of inshore terrain. The book assesses mitigation of the effects of extreme weather events such as drought, and major flooding from heavy rainfall on coastal urban centers, or on associated drainage basins. It also considers how coastal cities can counter vulnerabilities from other physical hazards (e.g., earthquakes - building codes) and health hazards (e.g., pollution, public health response - preparedness) that may be related to a city’s geological/geographical location and service as a port of entry for goods and travelers (regional and international). The book also cites the high costs of safeguarding citizen and municipal assets, but notes possible sources of potential funding especially from less developed and developing nations. The book is written to give strong background information to students majoring in environmental sciences or those in other majors with interests in the effects of global warming/climate change, and will be of interest to social scientists, think tank personnel, government planners, and lay persons in environmentally oriented organizations.
Adapting African Agriculture to Climate Change: Transforming Rural Livelihoods (Climate Change Management)
by Walter Leal Filho Anthony O. Esilaba Karuturi P. C. Rao Gummadi SridharThis book summarizes the evidence from different African countries about the local impacts of climate change, and how farmers are coping with current climate risks. The different contributors show how agricultural systems in developing countries are affected by climate changes and how communities prepare and adapt to these changes.