scholarly journals Disjunctive Constellations: On Climate Change, Conjunctures and Cultural Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (102) ◽  
pp. 28-43
Author(s):  
Ben Highmore
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Critical Practice ◽  
Planetary Scale ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
The Everyday

The planetary scale of climate change challenges forms of conjunctural analyses that are based around the scale of national politics and culture. Global warming insists on planetary dimensions and invites us to treat humankind as a species that has developed a taste for fossil fuels. Critical cultural studies, and the human sciences more generally, seem founded on the principle that culture and society have historically worked to differentiate humans, and that the task of a critical practice is to investigate this process within and across specific geographical locales. How do we reconcile what seems to be an irreconcilable difference between cultural studies and climate change? Below I argue that, alongside the necessary work of conjunctural analysis, we should remember that the critical human sciences have other capacities that are more suited to negotiating the monstrous diversity of scales that global warming and the microcultures of the everyday articulate. Alongside conjunctural analysis I argue for the relevance of an approach that would posit 'disjunctive constellations' as objects for attention. While it might seem counter-intuitive, the disjunctive constellations I have in mind are at once more modest and (potentially) more expansive than a conjuncture. In my understanding, disjunctive constellations are not in opposition to conjunctures; they may well be the critical kernel at the heart of a conjunctural sensitivity.

scholarly journals The Race of Mankind: Global Warming In the 21rst Century

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Erik Lane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Third World ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third World ◽  
First World

The implementation process of the global accord on climate change has to start now in order to be implementable. The decentralized process if implementation should take the lessons from the theory of policy implementation into account (Pressman & Wildavsky, 1984; Wildavsky, 1987). The dependency upon various forms of coal (wood, stone) and fossil fuels is so large in the Third World that only massive financial assistance from the First World can mean a difference for the COP21 objectives. And many advanced countries (except Uruguay) also need to make great changes to comply with COP21.

scholarly journals The Impacts of Climate Change on Nigerian Ecosystems: A Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-291
Author(s):  
B. E. Ikumbur ◽  
S. Iornumbe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Climatic Variations ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
The World ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Climate change is the single biggest environmental issue facing the world today. It has become a great challenge to our generation and its impact is felt in almost every society in the world. Nigeria is one of the most vulnerable countries in Africa. Nigeria as a developing nation with a population of about 200 million people is likely to be adversely impacted by climate change due to its vulnerability and low coping capabilities. Climate change is evidently linked to human actions, and in particular from the burning of fossil fuels and changes in global patterns of land use. The impacts of human activities, as well as those of natural phenomena on global warming, climate change, and the environment, were presented and discussed. Various manifestations of its impact are evident in Nigeria, which includes temperature rise, increase in draught, and scarcity of food instigated by irregularities in rainfall, over flooding, and so on. This paper examines the concepts of global warming and climate change; its impact on the Nigeria ecosystems. It highlights the climate change-related risks and hazards the nation could face if best practices are not employed to prevent and mitigate its impact. Two sets of measures have been advocated for confronting climate change, these are mitigation and adaptation measures. The review explores possible adaptation strategies that are required to respond to the climatic variations and suggests ways that these adaptation strategies can be implemented.

scholarly journals Estimated climate impact of replacing agriculture as the primary food production system

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hugh MacDougall ◽  
Joeri Rogelj ◽  
Patrick Withey
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Production System ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Food Production System

Abstract Global agriculture is the second largest contributor to anthropogenic climate change after the burning of fossil fuels. However the potential to mitigate the agricultural climate change contribution is limited and needs to account for the imperative to supply food for the global population. Advances in microbial biomass cultivation technology have recently opened a pathway to growing substantial amounts of food for humans or livestock on a small fraction of the land presently used for agriculture. Here we investigate the potential climate change impacts of the end of agriculture as the primary human food production system. We find that replacing agricultural primary production with electrically powered microbial primary production before a low-carbon energy transition has been completed could redirect renewable energy away from replacing fossil fuels, potentially leading to higher total CO2 emissions. If deployed after a transition to renewable energy, the technology could alleviate agriculturally driven climate change. These diverging pathways originate from the reversibility of agricultural driven global warming and the irreversibility of fossil fuel CO2 driven warming. The range of reduced warming from the replacement of agriculture ranges from -0.22 [-0.29 to -0.04] ºC for Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP)1-1.9 to -0.85 [-0.99 to -0.39]ºC for SSP4-6.0. For limited temperature target overshoot scenarios, replacement of agriculture could eliminate or reduce the need for active atmospheric CO2 removal to achieve the necessary peak and decline in global warming.

Mental Models and Risk Perceptions Related to Climate Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Bostrom
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Mental Models ◽  
Ozone Depletion ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Stratospheric Ozone ◽  
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

Mental models are the sets of causal beliefs we “run” in our minds to infer what will happen in a given event or situation. Mental models, like other models, are useful simplifications most of the time. They can, however, lead to mistaken or misleading inferences, for example, if the analogies that inform them are misleading in some regard. The coherence and consistency of mental models a person employs to solve a given problem are a function of that person’s expertise. The less familiar and central a problem is, the less coherent and consistent the mental models brought to bear on that problem are likely to be. For problems such as those posed by anthropogenic climate change, most people are likely to recruit multiple mental models to make judgments and decisions. Common types of mental models of climate change and global warming include: (a) a carbon emissions model, in which global warming is a result of burning fossil fuels thereby emitting CO2, and of deforestation, which both releases sequestered CO2 and decreases the possible sinks that might take CO2 out of the atmosphere; (b) a stratospheric ozone depletion mental model, which conflates stratospheric ozone depletion with global warming; (c) an air pollution mental model, in which global warming is viewed as air pollution; and (d) a weather change model, in which weather and climate are conflated. As social discourse around global warming and climate change has increased, mental models of climate change have become more complex, although not always more coherent. One such complexity is the belief that climate changes according to natural cycles and due to factors beyond human control, in addition to changes resulting from human activities such as burning fossil fuels and releasing other greenhouse gases. As our inference engines, mental models play a central role in problem solving and subjective projections and are hence at the heart of risk perceptions and risk decision-making. However, both perceiving and making decisions about climate change and the risks thereof are affective and social processes foremost.

Global Warming

2011 ◽  
pp. 30-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Costas P. Pappis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Industrial Growth ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Basic Facts

As noted in the previous chapter, climate change has emerged in recent years as one of the most critical topics at almost all levels of decision making, both private and public. This constitutes a radical change compared to the common perception only a few years ago. Climate change, a result of global warming, is a reality of universal acceptance, affecting in many ways the life of human societies as well as the environment. Continuing research over the last decades has established concrete knowledge of the basic facts about the results of interactive processes in the Earth system,which determine climate and climate change. It has particularly shown the anthropogenic influences on these processes. There is no doubt that human activities are the critical cause of the changes in the climate that Earth is experiencing since the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century, i.e. since the time that a period of rapid industrial growth with far reaching social and economic consequences begun in Britain and spread to Europe and other countries all over the world. The industrial revolution marked the beginning of a dramatic increase in the use of fossil fuels, which is the main cause of climate change.

Climate Change, Global Warming, and Agricultural Droughts

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gennady V. Menzhulin ◽  
Sergey P. Savvateyev
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Spatial Variations ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
The Earth

The climate of a region is a representation of long-term weather conditions that prevail there. Over the millions of years of the existence of the atmosphere on the earth, the climate has changed all the time; ice ages have come and gone, and this has been the result of natural causes. Recently (on geological time scales) the human population has expanded—from half a billion in 1600, to 1 billion in 1800, to almost 3 billion in 1940, and it now stands at about 6 billion. The climate may well now be influenced not only as before by natural events but also by human activities. For example, we are producing vast amounts of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels, and this is causing the temperature of the earth to rise significantly. If we argue that we should control our activities to preserve this planet as a habitable environment for future generations, we need to have some scientific knowledge of the effects of our present activities on climate. In recent years the evidence has been accumulating that on the time scale of decades there is global warming (i.e., the global annual mean surface temperature is increasing). There is also evidence accumulating that part of this increase is a consequence of human activities. The evidence is largely statistical. Within this trend there are bound to be temporal fluctuations and spatial variations. Moreover, in addition to the increase in temperature, it is reasonable to assume that there is, overall, an increase in evaporation of water from the surface of the earth and that there will be a consequent increase in precipitation. But within this overall scenario there are bound to be local variations; some areas may experience more precipitation, but some areas may experience less precipitation. The effect of climate change on the proneness to drought is therefore not uniform but can be expected to vary from place to place. Therefore, whether one is concerned with considering the relation between climate and proneness to drought from the historical evidence or whether one is trying to use models to predict the effect of future climatic conditions, it is necessary to consider the local spatial variations.

1. What are renewables?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Nick Jelley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Mass Production ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

‘What are renewables?’ defines renewable energy and provides a brief history of its use. It focuses on energy generated by solar, wind, and hydropower. These energy sources are renewable, in the sense that they are naturally replenished within days to decades. Only a few years ago, giving up our reliance on fossil fuels to tackle global warming would have been very difficult, as they are so enmeshed in our society and any alternative was very expensive. Nearly all of the sources of energy up to the 18th century were from renewables, after which time the world increasingly used fossil fuels. They powered the industrial revolution around the globe, and now provide most of our energy. But this dependence is unsustainable, because their use causes global warming, climate change, and pollution. Other than hydropower, which grew steadily during the 20th century and now provides almost a sixth of the world’s electricity demand, renewable energy was a neglected resource for power production for most of this period, being economically uncompetitive. But now, renewables are competitive, particularly through the support of feed-in tariffs and mass production, and governments are starting to pay more attention to clean energy, as the threat of climate change draws closer. Moving away from fossil fuels to renewables to supply both heat and electricity sustainably has become essential.

Global warming as ecocide

2018 ◽  
pp. 19-40
Author(s):  
Rob White
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
The State ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
State Legislation ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Treadmill Of Production

This chapter defines and describes the concept of ecocide, which refers to the destruction of ecological systems and habitats. This includes the everyday activities that contribute to climate change and thus to ecocide on a larger and small scale. The chapter then introduces the notion of state–corporate nexus by examining how industries, supported and abetted by governments, contribute to global warming. Indeed, pro-capitalist ideologies and practices ensure continued economic growth at the expense of ecological limits. As such, effective responses to climate change need to address the deep-seated inequalities and trends within the treadmill of production that go to the heart of the ownership, control, and exploitation of resources. The crime of ecocide is rarely embedded, however, in state legislation. This is, in part, because the state is directly implicated in perpetuating activities that contribute to global warming.

scholarly journals Global Warming and Carbon-Negative Technology: Prospects for a Lower-Cost Route to a Lower-Risk Atmosphere

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 973-984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Eisenberger ◽  
Roger W. Cohen ◽  
Graciela Chichilnisky ◽  
Nicholas M. Eisenberger ◽  
Ronald R. Chance ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Lower Risk ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Lower Cost ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Extraction Technology ◽  
Risk Levels ◽  
Reduced Costs ◽  
And Control

Aggressive efficiency improvements and a shift away from fossil fuels cannot offset climate change threats. This realization creates an imperative for ‘carbon-negative’ mitigation measures; that is, measures that can reduce atmospheric carbon faster than emissions will load the atmosphere. Among such measures, air extraction technology, coupled with secure sequestration, offers advantages of centralization and control without direct intervention in the biosphere or major collateral environmental impact. Significant new scientific developments in air extraction show promise of greatly reduced costs, such that decreasing the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere to substantially lower risk levels may be economically practicable. These developments create a strong case for expanded R&D efforts aimed at advancing air extraction technology.

scholarly journals Geoengineering the climate: an overview and update

2012 ◽  
Vol 370 (1974) ◽  
pp. 4166-4175 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Field Tests ◽  
Solar Radiation Management ◽  
Magic Bullet ◽  
List Type ◽  
Research Activity

The climate change that we are experiencing now is caused by an increase in greenhouse gases due to human activities, including burning fossil fuels, agriculture and deforestation. There is now widespread belief that a global warming of greater than 2 ° C above pre-industrial levels would be dangerous and should therefore be avoided. However, despite growing concerns over climate change and numerous international attempts to agree on reductions of global CO 2 emissions, these have continued to climb. This has led some commentators to suggest more radical ‘geoengineering’ alternatives to conventional mitigation by reductions in CO 2 emissions. Geoengineering is deliberate intervention in the climate system to counteract man-made global warming. There are two main classes of geoengineering: direct carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management that aims to cool the planet by reflecting more sunlight back to space. The findings of the review of geoengineering carried out by the UK Royal Society in 2009 are summarized here, including the climate effects, costs, risks and research and governance needs for various approaches. The possible role of geoengineering in a portfolio of responses to climate change is discussed, and various recent initiatives to establish good governance of research activity are reviewed. Key findings include the following. — Geoengineering is not a magic bullet and not an alternative to emissions reductions. — Cutting global greenhouse gas emissions must remain our highest priority. (i) But this is proving to be difficult, and geoengineering may be useful to support it. — Geoengineering is very likely to be technically possible. (i) However, there are major uncertainties and potential risks concerning effectiveness, costs and social and environmental impacts. — Much more research is needed, as well as public engagement and a system of regulation (for both deployment and for possible large-scale field tests). — The acceptability of geoengineering will be determined as much by social, legal and political issues as by scientific and technical factors. Some methods of both types would involve release of materials to the environment, either to the atmosphere or to the oceans, in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The intended impacts on climate would in any case affect many or all countries, possibly to a variable extent. There are therefore inherent international implications for deployment of such geoengineering methods (and possibly also for some forms of research), which need early and collaborative consideration, before any deployment or large-scale experiments could be undertaken responsibly.

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