Australia's national climate: learning to adapt?

Pride in Australia's extreme climate has long been a part of Australia's national identity. Today, climate continues to be enrolled in a range of nationalistic projects, including the (re)development of climate science and other responses to climate change. In this paper, we outline some of the contours of the ‘Australian national climate’, claims to know it, and four idealised responses to it: bounce back, dismissal, endurance, and migration. We argue that the deeply cultural framing of climate in Australia—in particular, Australians' emphasis on the climate's inherent variability and unknowability, and their own historical adaptability—is being exploited by the federal government and hampering climate change mitigation nationally.     

Editorial: The Nordic World Heritage Foundation

Abstract

This article identifies the current state of knowledge in the literature regarding the possible impacts of future climatic change on archaeological sites and ensembles. Drawing on the literature review a matrix of potential impacts is collated to provide a simplified overview. This theoretical ‘menu’ is then tested by applying it to a vulnerability assessment of the World Heritage site of Skellig Michael in Ireland. The case study results reveal some knowledge gaps, particularly in regard to the impacts of climate change on buried archaeological remains.     

Perceptions of tourism impacts and community resilience to natural disasters

Evidence since at least the 1990s suggests that global climate patterns have undergone dramatic changes, often resulting in weather-induced natural disasters that have caused widespread environmental damage. Such conditions raise serious threats to communities that are dependent on natural resources and ecosystem services for tourism development. Communities located in high-risk disaster regions face greater challenges in developing a tourism economy that is both resilient and sustainable. Residents in these communities live with a constant awareness of external threats and try to build a degree of resilience that includes traditional disaster prevention measures and a long history of post-disaster reconstruction. It is necessary to understanding the relationships between tourism and community resilience to address planning and development goals in an era of increasing climate uncertainty.

Three communities are examined that are regularly exposed to the threats of typhoons and flooding and are located within National Scenic Areas in Taiwan. In-depth interviews with community leaders and surveys of residents were undertaken. Residents with high potential to experience natural disasters generally have high degrees of awareness of various forms of tourism impacts. Their perceptions of tourism impacts are positively correlated with community resilience. The strongest relationships are between a perception of the positive economic impacts from tourism and the local capacity for undertaking adaptive responses; and between an awareness of the environmental impacts of tourism and the perceived fragility of their environment. Empowering community resilience usually requires long-term capacity building and is correlated with all three types of perceived tourism impacts. Deconstruction of the special experiences of disaster-prone tourism destinations provides a more nuanced insight into the relationships between community knowledge and awareness of resilience needs and the role and impacts of tourism. This, in turn, facilitates understanding of community tourism development in the face of contemporary changes in weather and climate.     

《鸡肋编》的生态环境史料价值

《鸡肋编》是宋代较为重要的一种笔记史料,历来受到宋史学者的重视。本文对其中有关宋代气候、动植物、自然灾害等的记载加以整理和分析,从而了解宋代由这些因素所构成的生态环境状况。     

Newspaper Reporting on Climate Change,Green Energy and Carbon Reduction Strategies across Canada 1999–2009

Canada’s climate change strategy faces an uncertain future since the country’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011, making domestic public debate and awareness critical in the search for effective mitigation policies. This article presents a spatio-temporal analysis of newspaper reporting across Canada on climate change and carbon reduction approaches, ranging from renewable energies (solar, wind, hydro power) to carbon management (e.g., carbon capture and storage [CCS]) and economic approaches (e.g., carbon trade, ecological fiscal reform). The findings of a news article keyword analysis show that the overall growth of the Canadian news coverage during this time period was significantly fragmented into isolated peaks of activity rather than continuous growth of the topic of climate change. Furthermore, the study finds a strong news emphasis on technology- and growth-oriented solutions as opposed to a comprehensive ecological modernization that would encourage a deeper structural discussion about Canada’s much-criticized carbon-intensive energy economy.     

全球气候变化对国际安全的挑战与思考

鉴于全球气候变化开始困扰国际社会以至威胁人类生存,如何解决这一非传统安全问题,便成为当今世界关注的焦点与亟待解决的问题。对此,学者们认为,各国间的谅解与互信,特别是在战略上的合作,对全球气候变化的治理、能源的合理使用是至关重要的。然而,由于传统的国家利益观念的影响,国际社会能否达成共识,将是治理气候变化这一潜在威胁的关键。历史上,危机常常可以转化为机遇。那么,国际社会能否抓住这一机遇,对来自全球气候变化的挑战进行认真的思考与治理,这将是对人类智慧的考验。     

China's Energy Security: Challenges and Priorities

In a companion paper to the essays comparing China's and India's economic rise (Prime, 2009) as well as India's energy security (Dadwal, 2009), two specialists on China's energy industries review the country's challenges posed by the need to dramatically increase energy use in order to support economic growth while coping with pressures to reduce environmental impacts from emissions of greenhouse gases. After reviewing the current mix of fuels in the economy and discussing each major energy resource (in terms of proven reserves, production, consumption, and foreign import requirements), the authors focus on measures undertaken by the Chinese government and corporations to improve access to vital supplies. The paper covers efforts to enhance the country's energy security, which include diversifying sources of oil supply, purchasing oil and gas concessions and financing of energy infrastructure development in African and Central Asian countries, instituting reforms to encourage more efficient energy use, and developing alternative energy sources. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O130, P280, Q400. 7 figures, 2 tables, 82 references.     

The Clean Energy Dilemma in Asia: Is There a Way Out?

A prominent American geographer and specialist on energy and environmental policies in developing countries assesses the challenge to sustainable development posed by Asia's rapid economic growth and the concurrent need to reduce the environmental impacts of energy production and use. A particular focus is on China and India, as rapidly growing energy consumers and greenhouse gas emitters, and on Russia as a potentially important supplier of natural gas and liquid alternatives to coal use. The author suggests some elements of a strategy to resolve the dilemma of reducing global environmental impacts without penalizing Asia's economic development, although a significant energy transition over the next several decades appears quite difficult.     

Capacity Building toward Resilience: How Communities Recover,Learn, and Change in the Aftermath of Extreme Events

When faced with natural disasters, communities respond in diverse ways, with processes that reflect the extent of damage experienced by the community, their resource availability, and stakeholder needs. Local‐level processes drive decisions about mitigating future flood risks, such as if, how, and where to rebuild, as well as changes in zoning practices and public outreach programs. Because of their potentially recurring nature, floods offer an opportunity for communities to learn from and adapt to these experiences with the goal of increasing resiliency through deliberation, modification of former policies, and adoption of new policies. By following the response to the September 2013 floods in seven Colorado communities, this study investigates if, how, and why communities successfully learn from extreme events and change their local government policies to increase resilience and decrease vulnerability to future floods. We find that greater openness of post‐flood decision process is associated with more in‐depth deliberation, learning, and more substantive and frequent policy change.