scholarly journals Holistic Management: Misinformation on the Science of Grazed Ecosystems

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Carter ◽  
Allison Jones ◽  
Mary O’Brien ◽  
Jonathan Ratner ◽  
George Wuerthner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Plant Productivity ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Holistic Management ◽  
Ecological Principles ◽  
Grazing Systems ◽  
Animal Communities

Over 3 billion hectares of lands worldwide are grazed by livestock, with a majority suffering degradation in ecological condition. Losses in plant productivity, biodiversity of plant and animal communities, and carbon storage are occurring as a result of livestock grazing. Holistic management (HM) has been proposed as a means of restoring degraded deserts and grasslands and reversing climate change. The fundamental approach of this system is based on frequently rotating livestock herds to mimic native ungulates reacting to predators in order to break up biological soil crusts and trample plants and soils to promote restoration. This review could find no peer-reviewed studies that show that this management approach is superior to conventional grazing systems in outcomes. Any claims of success due to HM are likely due to the management aspects of goal setting, monitoring, and adapting to meet goals, not the ecological principles embodied in HM. Ecologically, the application of HM principles of trampling and intensive foraging are as detrimental to plants, soils, water storage, and plant productivity as are conventional grazing systems. Contrary to claims made that HM will reverse climate change, the scientific evidence is that global greenhouse gas emissions are vastly larger than the capacity of worldwide grasslands and deserts to store the carbon emitted each year.

Political Preferences, Personality Traits, and Environmentalism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Soutter ◽  
René Mõttus
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Environmental Attitudes ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Party Voting

Although the scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change continues to grow, public discourse still reflects a high level of scepticism and political polarisation towards anthropogenic climate change. In this study (N = 499) we attempted to replicate and expand upon an earlier finding that environmental terminology (“climate change” versus “global warming”) could partly explain political polarisation in environmental scepticism (Schuldt, Konrath, & Schwarz, 2011). Participants completed a series of online questionnaires assessing personality traits, political preferences, belief in environmental phenomenon, and various pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Those with a Conservative political orientation and/or party voting believed less in both climate change and global warming compared to those with a Liberal orientation and/or party voting. Furthermore, there was an interaction between continuously measured political orientation, but not party voting, and question wording on beliefs in environmental phenomena. Personality traits did not confound these effects. Furthermore, continuously measured political orientation was associated with pro-environmental attitudes, after controlling for personality traits, age, gender, area lived in, income, and education. The personality domains of Openness, and Conscientiousness, were consistently associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, whereas Agreeableness was associated with pro-environmental attitudes but not with behaviours. This study highlights the importance of examining personality traits and political preferences together and suggests ways in which policy interventions can best be optimised to account for these individual differences.

scholarly journals Coastal green infrastructure to mitigate coastal squeeze

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Chávez ◽  
Debora Lithgow ◽  
Miguel Losada ◽  
Rodolfo Silva-Casarin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Risk Evaluation ◽  
Good Practices ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Holistic Management ◽  
Coastal Squeeze ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Coastal Risk

AbstractInfrastructure is necessary to protect and provide the goods and services required by humans. As coastal green infrastructure (CGI) aims to respect and work with natural processes, it is a feasible response to mitigate or avoid the consequences of coastal squeeze. The concept of CGI is receiving increased attention of late due to the challenges facing us, such as climate change, population growth and the overexploitation of natural resources on the coast. Terms which may be applied to encourage the construction of infrastructure, or to minimize the responsibility for poorly made decisions, often induce misunderstanding. In this paper, the concept of CGI and its use in solving coastal problems is reordered. Four categories are proposed, according to the degree of naturalness of the project: Nature reclamation, Engineered ecosystems, Ecologically enhanced engineering, and De-engineering/Relocation. Existing coastal risk evaluation frameworks can be used to design many types of CGI. Key concepts, challenges and good practices for the holistic management of coastal squeeze are presented from the analysis of successful and unsuccessful CGI projects worldwide.

scholarly journals An Ecosystem-Based Approach to Climate-Smart Agriculture with Some Considerations for Social Equity

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1564
Author(s):  
Kofi Akamani
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Social Equity ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Smart Agriculture

Although the transition to industrial agriculture in the 20th century resulted in increased agricultural productivity and efficiency, the attainment of global food security continues to be elusive. Current and anticipated impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector are likely to exacerbate the incidence of food insecurity. In recent years, climate-smart agriculture has gained recognition as a mechanism that has the potential to contribute to the attainment of food security and also enhance climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, several conceptual and implementation shortfalls have limited the widespread adoption of this innovative agricultural system at the landscape scale. This manuscript argues for the use of ecosystem management as an overarching framework for the conceptualization and implementation of climate-smart agriculture. The manuscript focuses on clarifying the foundational assumptions and management goals, as well as the knowledge and institutional requirements of climate-smart agriculture using the principles of ecosystem management. Potential challenges that may be faced by the application of an ecosystem management approach to climate-smart agriculture are also discussed. Furthermore, the manuscript calls for a heightened focus on social equity in the transition toward an ecosystem-based approach to climate-smart agriculture. The US farm bill is used as an illustrative case study along with other examples drawn mostly from sub-Saharan Africa.

scholarly journals Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture and Its Mitigation Strategies: A Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1318
Author(s):  
Gurdeep Singh Malhi ◽  
Manpreet Kaur ◽  
Prashant Kaushik
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Productivity ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
Pest Infestation ◽  
Average Global Temperature ◽  
Metabolic Activities ◽  
Global Threat ◽  
Food And Nutritional Security

Climate change is a global threat to the food and nutritional security of the world. As greenhouse-gas emissions in the atmosphere are increasing, the temperature is also rising due to the greenhouse effect. The average global temperature is increasing continuously and is predicted to rise by 2 °C until 2100, which would cause substantial economic losses at the global level. The concentration of CO2, which accounts for a major proportion of greenhouse gases, is increasing at an alarming rate, and has led to higher growth and plant productivity due to increased photosynthesis, but increased temperature offsets this effect as it leads to increased crop respiration rate and evapotranspiration, higher pest infestation, a shift in weed flora, and reduced crop duration. Climate change also affects the microbial population and their enzymatic activities in soil. This paper reviews the information collected through the literature regarding the issue of climate change, its possible causes, its projection in the near future, its impact on the agriculture sector as an influence on physiological and metabolic activities of plants, and its potential and reported implications for growth and plant productivity, pest infestation, and mitigation strategies and their economic impact.

Why scientific evidence is no longer enough in public debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Pilditch
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Climate Change Denial ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
Global Problems

Many of the global problems humanity is facing concern acting appropriately given the available evidence. However, issues including climate change denial (McGlade and Ekins, 2015; Steffen et al., 2015) and anti-vaccination movements (Hargreaves, Lewis, and Speers, 2003; Petrovic, Roberts, and Ramsay, 2001) appear to run contrary to overwhelming evidence. The investigation of these issues has pointed to two possible causes; either insufficient exposure to the evidence at hand, or ulterior / biased motives5. Here I show such explanations are unnecessary, and further, why current counterarguments focussed on scientific evidence may not only be ineffective, but may backfire. I highlight that denialist arguments focusing on credibility-based attacks can provoke rational scepticism of the issue at hand, requiring a shift in counterargument strategy – away from the evidence itself. I show the maximally effective counterargument strategy is to separately and directly address credibility-attacks, salvaging both the immediate issue, and future debate.

Labor Migration and Climate Change Adaptation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
JAMIE DRAPER
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Labor Migration ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Acceptable Alternative ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Normative Question ◽  
Do So

Social scientific evidence suggests that labor migration can increase resilience to climate change. For that reason, some have recently advocated using labor migration policy as a tool for climate adaptation. This paper engages with the normative question of whether, and under what conditions, states may permissibly use labor migration policy as a tool for climate adaptation. I argue that states may use labor migration policy as a tool for climate adaptation and may even have a duty to do so, subject to two moral constraints. First, states must also provide acceptable alternative options for adaptation so that the vulnerable are not forced to sacrifice their morally important interests in being able to remain where they are. Second, states may not impose restrictive terms on labor migrants to make accepting greater numbers less costly for themselves because doing so unfairly shifts the costs of adaptation onto the most vulnerable.

scholarly journals End-to-End Modeling Reveals Species-Specific Effects of Large-Scale Coastal Restoration on Living Resources Facing Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim de Mutsert ◽  
Kristy A. Lewis ◽  
Eric D. White ◽  
Joe Buszowski
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ecosystem Model ◽  
Wetland Loss ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Plan Implementation ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Specific Species

Coastal erosion and wetland loss are affecting Louisiana to such an extent that the loss of land between 1932 and 2016 was close to 5,000 km2. To mitigate this decline, coastal protection and restoration projects are being planned and implemented by the State of Louisiana, United States. The Louisiana Coastal Master Plan (CMP) is an adaptive management approach that provides a suite of projects that are predicted to build or maintain land and protect coastal communities. Restoring the coast with this 50-year large-scale restoration and risk reduction plan has the potential to change the biomass and distribution of economically and ecologically important fisheries species in this region. However, not restoring the coast may have negative impacts on these species due to the loss of habitat. This research uses an ecosystem model to evaluate the effects of plan implementation versus a future without action (FWOA) on the biomass and distribution of fisheries species in the estuaries over 50 years of model simulations. By simulating effects using a spatially-explicit ecosystem model, not only can the changes in biomass in response to plan implementation be evaluated, but also the distribution of species in response to the planned restoration and risk reduction projects. Simulations are performed under two relative sea level rise (SLR) scenarios to understand the effects of climate change on project performance and subsequent fisheries species biomass and distribution. Simulation output of eight economically important fisheries species shows that the plan mostly results in increases in species biomass, but that the outcomes are species-specific and basin-specific. The SLR scenario highly affects the amount of wetland habitat maintained after 50 years (with higher levels of wetland loss under increased SLR) and, subsequently, the biomass of species depending on that habitat. Species distribution results can be used to identify expected changes for specific species on a regional basis. By making this type of information available to resource managers, precautionary measures of ecosystem management and adaptation can be implemented.

scholarly journals A review of seawater intrusion in the Nile Delta groundwater system – the basis for assessing impacts due to climate changes and water resources development

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 10873-10911 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Mabrouk ◽  
A. Jonoski ◽  
D. Solomatine ◽  
S. Uhlenbrook
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Regional Process ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
Resources Development

Abstract. Serious environmental problems are emerging in the River Nile basin and its groundwater resources. Recent years have brought scientific evidence of climate change and development-induced environmental impacts globally as well as over Egypt. Some impacts are subtle, like decline of the Nile River water levels, others are dramatic like the salinization of all coastal land in the Nile Delta – the agricultural engine of Egypt. These consequences have become a striking reality causing a set of interconnected groundwater management problems. Massive population increase that overwhelmed the Nile Delta region has amplified the problem. Many researchers have studied these problems from different perspectives using different methodologies, following different objectives and, consequently, arrived at different findings. However, they all confirmed that significant groundwater salinization has affected the Nile Delta and this is likely to become worse rapidly in the future. This article presents, categorizes and critically analyses and synthesizes the most relevant research regarding climate change and development challenges in relation to groundwater resources in the Nile Delta. It is shown that there is a gap in studies that focus on sustainable groundwater resources development and environmentally sound protection as an integrated regional process in Nile Delta. Moreover, there is also a knowledge gap related to the deterioration of groundwater quality. The article recommends further research that covers the groundwater resources and salinization in the whole Nile Delta based on integrated three-dimensional groundwater modelling of the Nile delta aquifer.

State of the Climate Report: Suriname

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kepa Solaun ◽  
Gerard Alleng ◽  
Adrián Flores ◽  
Chiquita Resomardono ◽  
Katharina Hess ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The State ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Natural Reserve ◽  
Emissions Scenarios ◽  
Agriculture Water

Suriname is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Among the factors that exacerbate its vulnerability are its dependency on fossil fuels, the degradation of important ecosystems (e.g., mangroves), and the fact that 87% of the population, and most of the countrys economic activity is located within the low-lying coastal area. Many sectors are at risk of suffering losses and damage caused by gradual changes and extreme events related to climate change. For Suriname to develop sustainably, it should incorporate climate change and its effects into its decision-making process based on scientific- evidence. The State of the Climate Report analyzes Surinames historical climate (1990-2014) and provides climate projections for three time horizons (2020-2044, 2045-2069, 2070-2094) through two emissions scenarios (intermediate/ SSP2-4.5 and severe/ SSP5-8.5). The analysis focuses on changes in sea level, temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, and winds for the seven subnational locations of Paramaribo, Albina, Bigi Pan MUMA, Brokopondo, Kwamalasamutu, Tafelberg Natural Reserve, and Upper Tapanahony. The Report also analyzes climate risk for the countrys ten districts by examining the factors which increase their exposure and vulnerability on the four most important sectors affected by climate change: infrastructure, agriculture, water, and forestry, as well as examining the effects across the sectors. The State of the Climate Report provides essential inputs for Suriname to develop and update its climate change policies and targets. These policies and targets should enable an adequate mainstreaming of climate change adaptation and resilience enhancementinto day-to-day government operations. It is expected that the Report will catalyze similar efforts in the future to improve decision-making by providing science-based evidence.

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