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This paper suggests that the dominance of one debate on climate related conflict – establishing whether climate change leads to conflict, or not ‐ is the product of Imperial knowledge produced in the Global North Orientalising the Global South. This debate is also one in which the subdiscipline of political geography has been inadvertently complicit by accepting positivist approaches, that erase the subject and their subjectivities from this discussion, and frame them as science. The argument in this paper problematises the fundamental understanding of 'climate conflict', as defined and universalised by Western science in the Western academy. Instead, it argues that the subaltern's lived experience and interpretation of hazards and their relationship with conflicts needs to be located and centred in this conversation – not just as that of a hapless victim but as knowledge producers able to set the agendas and re‐orient the focus of this field. Research examining conflicts around floods and evictions begins to map a new future for how that might be possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of an argument about the value of a geographical approach to the connection between local weather and physical exercise, this paper begins with how that connection features in four areas of scholarship that have been at the forefront of exploring it so far. By comparing how each of them commonly imagines 'the human' and 'the weather' in their studies, we particularly highlight how different bodies of work illuminate different facets of the weather‐exercise connection. This, we suggest, represents an opportunity for geographers to explore how these facets combine in context with a view to tackling the complex public health challenges associated with increasing human inactivity and a warming world. Building on that, we end with three promising cross‐cutting themes that we think could usefully guide these endeavours: adaptation, decision‐making and place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the century, biofuels have been promoted not only for their potential to mitigate climate change and address energy security but also for the potential benefits to socio-ecological systems. However, the purported benefits were almost immediately called into question as evidence began to emerge of the potential negative consequences of biofuel production. Recent debates have highlighted the social impacts, particularly land access and food security, yet much of the academic literature on these social impacts remains in high level. This paper identifies peer-reviewed literature that documents the social impacts of biofuel expansion at the local (household and community) scale. A systematic review identified just seventeen research papers that presented evidence of the local livelihood impacts of biofuel production and processing. Three issues emerge from the review as especially important at the local level: household economics, food security and ecosystem services. Within the research, there is a bias towards the cultivation of Jatropha curcas in particular geographies (Africa and Asia). The evidence also shows that the costs and benefits are unevenly distributed within and between communities, with consequences for the ways in which social, economic and environmental impacts are experienced. We conclude by arguing that more evidence on the impacts of biofuels at the local level is desperately needed in order to demystify this complex issue and stimulate a more nuanced understanding of the winners and losers of this commodity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With climate change and pandemics, the last few years has ushered in a planetary age. Moreover, the concept of the 'globalisation'—a totalising and capitalist‐centric concept that homogenises the entire planet into a territory to conquer—has become incapable of adequately accounting for the planetary events taking place. To date, geographical literature has used the term 'planetary' in important, but disparate ways; and in so doing, underplaying the emancipatory potential the concept has in resisting the totalising concept of the 'globalisation'. This paper looks to the wider humanities and social science to offer four propositions—materiality, human as praxis, antinational and safeguarding—the planetary can be more coherently conceptualised geographically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change can only be tackled with public support for sustainable policies. Thus, public attitudes towards climate change matter. More than 3 decades of climate change opinion (CCO) research—conducted by geographers, environmental psychologists, behavioural scientists, sociologists etc.—have provided us with a wealth of information about which predictors shape public CCOs. This review synthesises these findings and highlights the different geographies (the self, the nation, the region, the digital) that emerge within this research. Given the increased importance of social media, virtual geographies of climate change scepticism are increasingly being identified. Our paper argues that new research agendas must be developed to address the meshwork of virtual space and small scale geographies (regions, towns, districts) in which CCOs are formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is arguably the most debated and contentious environmental issue today. Hitherto neglected, the role of cities is beginning to attract attention particularly within the academic milieu. Cities are acknowledged as development drivers but also considered major drivers of climate change as a result of activities associated with the release of harmful substances such as carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases. Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is noted as a major contributor to climate change due to the release of harmful substances during waste treatment and disposal activities. MSWM remains a challenge across the globe but particularly in the South where many cities lack regular waste collection and disposal services. The paper addresses the gap between the North and South through a critical analysis of the current global debate on cities, MSWM, and climate change. The paper reports that there are major differences between the North and South in almost all components of MSWM, from waste generation to treatment and disposal. A notable difference is that the shift in priority from local burdens to the global concern for climate has occurred mainly in the North. Furthermore, the priorities and needs of cities in the South are largely neglected in the global debate. A major example is the failure to acknowledge the role of the Informal Waste Sector even though it is a prominent feature of MSWM systems and a notable contributor to resource recovery in cities in the South. Lessons from the South suggest that climate change cannot be treated in isolation. Recognition of the role of the Informal Waste Sector is crucial because it introduces other important issues such as urban poverty, local economic development, urban governance and exclusionary practices, and citizenship rights. The paper suggests the need for a more inclusive approach if we are to have a truly global solution to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grand challenges such as climate change, ageing societies and food security feature prominently on the agenda of policymakers at all scales, from the EU down to local and regional authorities. These are challenges that require the input and collaboration of a diverse set of societal stakeholders to combine different sources of knowledge in new and useful ways - a process that has occupied the minds of economic geographers looking at innovation in recent decades. Work in economic geography has in particular examined infrastructural, capability, network and institutional challenges that may be found in different types of regions. How can these insights improve researchers' and policymakers' understanding of the potential for innovation policies to address grand challenges? In this paper, we review these insights and then identify areas that push economic geographers to go beyond their previous focus and interests, notably by considering innovation policy in light of transformational rather than mere structural failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is generally recognized that the projected changes in the global climate will have serious negative consequences for the Caribbean as a whole, it is becoming more and more evident that the impacts of climate change will not be uniformly felt across the region. The primary aim of this paper is to provide a review of the Caribbean climate change literature. The paper begins with a brief discussion on the shifting nature of Caribbean vulnerability within the context of the region's longstanding and continued exposure to forces of global economic and environmental change. Particular attention is paid to both the practical and discursive dimensions of vulnerability, and the specific ways the term has been understood and framed in relation to other crosscutting themes such as adaptation and resilience in the broader academic literature. In addition to providing an overview of the regional climate change science literature, the paper offers a critical review of the existing climate change impacts literature for the Caribbean. By drawing on, and taking stock of this growing body of impact studies, the paper seeks to shed light on the differential and multi-scalar drivers of social and economic vulnerabilities to climate variability and change in the Caribbean as well as highlight some of the existing knowledge gaps that need to be addressed. The paper ends by providing some brief ref lections on the emerging themes arising from the discussion and highlights a few key areas for future academic research for the Caribbean in light of existing knowledge gaps observed in the regional climate change impact literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contextualises the relation between climate change and human migration using the concepts of neoliberalism, sovereignty and otherness. The paper is intended to provide a general account of climate change and migration research, which seeks to extend understanding of the relation beyond a focus on policy and policy-relevant research. The argument is that because the relation between climate change and migration is so vast, touching on so many aspects of life, the debate on climate change and migration needs to be pluralised. This is especially the case given the future-conditional nature of the relation between climate change and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of climate change from both natural science and social science disciplines are increasingly turning their focus to the issue of extreme events. Extreme heat waves, storms, droughts, and coastal inundations pose a disproportionate risk to human life, livelihood, and capital across the world. In the Global South, including Africa, much of the adverse impacts come from hydroclimate extremes as people with limited means are often highly vulnerable to climate shocks. The focus of this review paper will be on hydroclimate extremes in Africa. This paper will consider observations and modeling studies of heat extremes, drought, and flooding from heavy rainfall, along with observations and modeling studies of extreme streamflow events in major rivers and extremes of lake level. This being said, observations of trends in extreme events need to be situated in a context of understanding regional hydroclimate variability. There is tremendous diversity and variability in the hydroclimate of Africa and many extreme events, especially of precipitation and streamflow are associated with patterns of natural variability on a range of time scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is committed to supporting adaptation in developing countries but identifying priority needs depends on an assessment of vulnerability. Indicators and indices are one common method for vulnerability assessments. A variety of vulnerability indicators and indices have been created for global level, cross-country comparison within regions and also at sub-national level, and as a result of these indicators, a variety of methodological critiques have arisen. This paper reviews vulnerability science and the evolution of indicators for vulnerability assessment and then assesses whether there is utility in using indicators for assessing the risk of loss and damage - one of the latest thrusts of the international policy negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes slope management through terrace agriculture in Latin America's hilly to mountainous terrain to assess the practice's potential role in climate-change adaptation in the region. We review the historical geography of slope management in variable climates and highlight the role of social, rural innovation, and hybrid knowledge in the face of climate change's effects on agriculture. Although the literature on terrace agriculture in the region is extensive, further research is needed to better foresee the future of terrace agriculture, particularly in terms of its role in facing sustainability challenges posed by future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the use of 'community' rhetoric in the Transition Town Network (TTN). This is seen in both its external and internal context. Externally, TTN has emerged against the backdrop of an increasing use of 'community' rhetoric in environmental governance, for example, in renewable energy projects. Internally, the use of 'community' language and 'community' ways of operating are crucial for understanding this movement, in how it sees itself and the lineage it builds upon. Particularly, TTN builds upon the polysemic, subjective nature of the word, fused with their unique permaculture inspired meaning. TTN have emerged as an important response to climate change and peak oil (; ). This paper attempts to address their crucial, if neglected, focus on 'community'. In the wide sweep of writing on 'community', what distinctive, if anything, can TTN add to current understandings and practices of 'community'? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the effects of climate change are becoming more and more pronounced, the Arctic region is attracting renewed attention from politicians, transnational corporations, and environmentalists alike, many of whom are based geographically far from the region itself. Interests span from the prospects of vast oil and mineral riches and shorter international shipping routes, to preserving what is often framed as a fragile, pristine environment. As a resource frontier and a wilderness, but also a homeland and a space of culture to its inhabitants, the Arctic is characterised by potentially conflicting geographical imaginaries and visions of both the present as well as the future of the region. Hence, the political geographies of the Arctic are both messy and complex. This paper examines some of the principal themes and issues of Arctic geopolitics and offers a discussion of how scholars of Political Geography have engaged the topic at a time when an increasing number of academics are directing their analytical gaze towards the North. Focusing on publications from the past decade, it aims to contextualise scholarly debates on Arctic geopolitics and illustrate the complexity and richness of the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes insights from urban political ecology (UPE) to highlight the importance of carbon in urban climate politics. Through an emphasis on the socio-material politics of urban climate governance, this analysis provides an explicit account of the performance of power within and over the urban landscape. Two specific efforts are reviewed here, including local greenhouse gas inventorying practices and urban educational and outreach efforts to create carbon conscious citizens. By considering these social and political processes in relation to ecological aspects of urban carbon cycling, it becomes evident that urban interventions into climate change do little to disrupt or restructure the ways in which carbon flows into or out of cities and instead operate at the level of carbon representation (via measurement) and subjection (via educational outreach). A UPE framework also helps highlight the ways in which urban carbon governance erases importance aspects of social and spatial difference among carbon emitters and how efforts to change individual behavior direct attention away from carbon intensive urban development. The review concludes with some thoughts on why social scientists should pay closer attention to the myriad ways that carbon is modeled, measured, and monitored as an ecological, technical, and political project in the world's cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent 'oil shocks' in the form of not only price volatility, but also catastrophic oil spills, growing acceptance of climate change, and public contestations over oil wars and major projects, have multiplied in recent years - indications that the spaces and practices of energy intensive social formations are becoming increasingly politicized objects of concern. The paper summarizes the petro-state thesis and reviews recent contributions on the geographies of oil. While the petro-state is useful for conceptualizing some aspects of the political dynamics of oil, it fails to capture some of the dynamics of concern in four major areas of work on geographies of oil: petro-capitalism and economies of oil violence, socially produced scarcity, petro-state(s) and expanded oil polities, and the 'new realities of oil,' such as price volatility, changes in size and location of demand and supply, and the energy dilemmas associated with energy security and climate change. The conclusion discusses recent work that ties the political geographies of oil to geographies everyday life, pointing to a research agenda for integrating the consideration hydrocarbons into wider geographical inquiries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together Foucauldian approaches to biopolitics and recent developments in climate change and disaster studies on vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience to develop a biopolitics of adaptation. I approach climate change impact assessments, vulnerability approaches, and resilience approaches as distinct systems of knowledge with biopolitical effects. This means that each renders life amenable to governmental intervention and control through specific sets of techniques and rationalities that produce 'truths' about emergent life and how to secure this life. A biopolitical reading offers a critical alternative to conventional narratives of these fields' development, which suggest that the emergence of vulnerability and resilience approaches provide progressively more complex accounts of risk that shine new light on the 'vulnerability puzzle.' In contrast, this review suggests that the emergence of vulnerability and resilience approaches allow researchers and practitioners to target increasingly intimate levels of socio-ecological life, the affective relations between people and their environments. In drawing attention to the often under-acknowledged politics of life at play in climate change and disaster studies, this review seeks to highlight possibilities for a subversive and affirmative biopolitics of adaptation that transgresses rather than sustains existing political ecological order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three distinct but overlapping policy objectives have influenced environmental policy, structures and processes in contemporary large South African cities: sustainable development, environmental justice and adapting and mitigating for climate change. These goals have been characterized here as three waves of urban environmental policy. This paper responds to the position that sustainability, justice and climate change interventions must be aligned. Despite the global and national commitment to this objective, evidence suggests that environmental injustices and a lack of environmental sustainability persist in all three waves, in spite of policy efforts. What's more is that these disjunctures are not confined to South Africa, or even the global south, but are experienced globally. The wisdom behind calls for aligning these objectives is therefore questioned through a review that illustrates that despite apparent similarities between the objective of addressing environment and development concerns, the motivations behind the three waves are distinct, as are the governance arrangements and structures and tools for implementation. By focusing on the distinctions between these three modes of environmental governance, this review provides a nuanced perspective on what it means to govern the environment at the urban scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vector-borne diseases inflict a heavy health burden. Numerous vector species have expanded their ranges while some vector-borne diseases have emerged in new geographic areas or reemerged in former endemic areas, potentially due to global climate change. The continued health burden and the expansion in vector and vector-borne disease ranges have led to an increased need for understanding and predicting in space and time the potential abundance and distribution of vectors and the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Advances in computing technologies, increased spatial data availability, and greater understanding of ecological drivers have made it commonplace to attempt to understand and estimate, in time and space, vector populations and vector-borne disease incidence. Although there have been great advances there are still limitations due to complex and varying ecologies and epidemiological contexts of vector-borne diseases as well as data limitations. In this paper, we will provide an overview of and examine advances and limitations in the use of geospatial technologies for understanding and prediction of the drivers of vector populations and vector-borne diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past two decades, work across a range of fields, but particularly geography, has engaged 'critical hydropolitics' as a way to highlight not only the politics inherent in decisions about water, but also the foundational assumptions of more conventional hydropolitical analyses that tend to focus on conflicts and cooperation over water resources, with a heavy emphasis on 'the state' as the key actor and scale of analysis. In this article we review critical hydropolitical literature that focuses on transboundary rivers that descend from the eastern Tibetan Plateau, namely the Lancang‐Mekong, Yarlung Tsangpo‐Brahmaputra and Nu‐Salween river basins. We highlight five key and interrelated themes that have emerged in the literature to date ‐ the state, scale, infrastructure, knowledge and logics, and climate change ‐ and discuss how these provide useful tools for more fine‐grained analyses of power, control and contestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite repeated calls for greater collaboration between physical and human geographers, the unique interdisciplinary potential of geography remains largely underutilized. Yet geographers are well positioned to take a leading role in the interdisciplinary turn in climate‐related research. This paper explores the possibilities for physical and human geographers to collaborate within and beyond the discipline, specifically on the topic of climate modeling. We first examine geographical research critically examining the production and circulation of climate knowledge. Drawing on insights from a recent literature called "Critical Physical Geography," we then outline how geographers might engage in collaborative and interdisciplinary work in order to promote more democratic practices of producing climate knowledge, enrich understandings of climate change, and more effectively serve goals of social and environmental justice. We argue that both the discipline of geography and the field of climate research stand to gain enormously from geographers' efforts to talk across the divide between social and natural science within and beyond the boundaries of geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain glaciers are transient hydrologic reservoirs persisting at the habitable extremes of Earth that both document and respond to climate change. They withhold water in solid phase from other reservoirs and ultimately impact sea levels. Moreover, they are valued resources with economic and cultural significance for human societies living below them. They also preserve histories of past climates. Yet, when climate change forces glaciers to lose mass, the water and suspended matter flow downstream with various impacts. Profoundly, current glacier and environmental changes are now accelerating and being propelled by human activity. Diverse consequences of these changes are emerging, and many are negative for society. Nevertheless, these changes coincide with a time in human history during which science is able to observe changes with unprecedented detail. Geography has a key role to play in analyzing the patterns and impacts of mountain glacier changes over multiple spatial and temporal scales and involving an integrated approach that draws on different disciplines and innovative technology to account for interactions between multiple spheres of the Earth System. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising mean temperatures, sea-level rise, and the increasing frequencies of extreme climate events, such as drought and heat waves, are expected to destabilize global food systems. In response to this challenge, there has been a growing body of research seeking to address climate change impacts on food systems. To evaluate the current directions of climate change and food systems research, we undertook a literature search of 196 peer-reviewed articles on the topic of climate change and food systems. Studies varied in scope and methodology, and many were framed in the context of food security. Three recurring themes within climate change and food systems research were identified: (1) vulnerability and adaptation, (2) sustainable food systems, and/or (3) biophysical impacts on food production. Additionally, we identified research gaps and discernible directions for future research. Our synthesis suggests that much of the current climate change and food systems research neglects systems-based perspectives to conceptualizing problems and solutions, there is little consideration of the differential impacts of biophysical drivers and associated outcomes in different regions, and finally, there is a lack of critical perspectives addressing underlying political structures that maintain current food systems. We suggest that future research bridge these gaps if we are to adequately address the inherently complex nature of food systems under a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation has grown rapidly in prominence in development practice and scholarship. Alongside this growth, adaptation has been folded into the world of development. This article reviews the ways that adaptation has become a concern for the world of development, suggesting three important trends: problematizations of vulnerability, the financial architecture of adaptation, and the tool of climate change 'mainstreaming'. Given that adaptation has entered the development arena, this article reviews relevant critical development literature that might helpfully shed light on the operation of adaptation. The article first reviews a tripartite typology of development scholarship: pro-development/instrumental, post-development, and critical development studies. Then, it reviews the analogous research on adaptation according to this typology, showing the limits to both the instrumental and post-adaptation scholarship. Finally, the article engages a vein of critical development studies - concerned particularly with the churning of development priorities and their management and governance - in order examine how adaptation works as an organizing principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In western North America, wildfire is a critical component of many ecosystems and a natural hazard that can result in catastrophic losses of human lives and property. Billions of dollars are spent suppressing wildfires each year. In the past decades, academic research has made substantial contributions to the understanding of fire and its interaction with climate and land management. Most reviews of the academic literature, however, are centered in either natural or social science. We offer an integrated cross-disciplinary guide to state-of-the art fire science and use this review to identify research gaps. We focus on the modern era and understanding fire in the context of a changing climate in western North America. We find that studies combining social and natural science perspectives remain limited and that interactions among coupled system components are poorly understood. For example, while natural science studies have identified how fuel treatments alter fire regimes, few social science studies examine how decisions are made about fuel treatments and how these decisions respond to changes in fire regimes. A key challenge is to better quantify the effects of actual fire management policies in a way that accounts for the complexity of coupled natural and natural-human system interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the most challenging geophysical science and policy issues in modern times. The combined anthropogenic and natural forcing on the climate has profound impacts on the major spheres of the Earth system. Scholarly analysis has also revealed a cascading array of effects on the socioeconomic and political fabric. One of the more subtle effects of climate change is how it may affect certain sub-groups of people. Herein, we draw upon the literature to present the case for why African Americans are particularly vulnerable to climate change. While the focus is on one specific racial group, it is important to note that many of these findings may apply to an array of under-represented or underserved groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How climate change might affect tornadoes remains an open scientific question. Climatological studies are often contested due to inconsistencies in the available data. Statistical methods are used to overcome some of the data limitations. A few of these methods including using the proportion of tornadoes occurring on big tornado days, estimating tornado energy from the damage path, and modeling counts spatially are described here. The methods move beyond analyses of occurrences by damage ratings and spatial smoothing. Applications of these and related methods will help grow the nascent field of tornado climatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the two primary frameworks used to explore the external relations of regions. It argues that the concepts of multi-level governance and paradiplomacy are used to describe similar, but distinct, international activities on the part of regions and sub-state governments. Both approaches look at the ways in which regions engage beyond the local level, and increasingly so. The inevitable overlap between their subject matter has meant that the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, leading to a mischaracterisation of the practices themselves. The international mobilisation of regions manifests in numerous modes, and therefore much greater specificity is required in analysing and interpreting these varied phenomena. In particular, the novelty of paradiplomacy, and the political contestation that it can imply, risks being under-reported. Firmer boundaries between the two approaches, and a better conceptualisation of the relationship between them, are called for in this interdisciplinary review. The article argues that where multi-level governance presents a predominately structural account of 'governance' based activities, paradiplomacy has the potential to provide an agency-oriented explanation of autonomous, diplomatic practices - often with deeply political connotations. It is suggested that the two can represent parallel, alternative or complementary approaches, depending on the exact nature of the activity under consideration. It concludes by suggesting future avenues for paradiplomatic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droughts and landfalling tropical cyclones (TCs; tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes) are important features of the hydroclimate of the southeastern USA at seasonal, interannual, and interdecadal scales. The societal impacts and climatological aspects of both droughts and Atlantic TCs have been widely addressed in the scientific literature. However, in general, previous research has assessed the two phenomena separately. Recently, the spatiotemporal patterns and hydroclimatic impacts of drought amelioration by landfalling TCs have been analyzed for the southeastern USA, as well as the large-scale dynamic forcing mechanisms that enhance or suppress drought-TC co-occurrence. At multidecadal time scales, both droughts and TCs in this region vary in association with several leading modes of basin-wide and regional climate variability. These climate modes appear to be coherently linked to a background oceanic-atmospheric pattern that either promotes or suppresses the likelihood of both droughts and TC landfalls. The relative frequency of TC landfalls in drought-stricken areas, the importance of these events in the regional moisture budget, and the potential for future changes in the large-scale forcing environment raise fundamental questions about possible changes in the hydroclimate of the southeastern USA, where population growth and rising water demand already place strain on freshwater resources. In this article, we provide a review and synthesis of the recent research on variability in drought, landfalling TCs, the characteristics of the space-time association between these two phenomena in the southeastern USA, and the coherent large-scale oceanic-atmospheric environment that either promotes or suppresses their co-occurrence. Further, we review Global Climate Model projections related to these factors, and we identify avenues for future research on this important topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including climate change, environmental protection and greenhouse gas.

The Caribbean is a region that experiences a wide range of climatic hazards: tropical waves, tropical cyclones, frontal storms, convective thunderstorms, and meteorological drought. Despite the influence of all of these climatic hazards on the Caribbean region, one climatic hazard, tropical cyclones (including tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes), dominates the hazards research and literature with little attention given to the other climatic hazards (non-tropical heavy rains, orographic precipitation, and meteorological drought). The purpose of this review article is to address such a bias in the literature by providing an overview of Caribbean climatic hazards not related to tropical cyclones (non-tropical storms, orographic precipitation, and meteorological drought) and discuss the potential impact of climate change upon these hazards. Because the impact of a future warm climate is not limited to tropical cyclones alone, mitigation and adaption efforts should strive to address the entire spectrum of Caribbean climatic hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world faces critical challenges in resource and energy sustainability, the importance of transforming the way governance institutions work across scales is increasingly recognized by policy makers, policy advocates and scientists. The scale problem has become a central topic of discussion in different disciplines, but it is one to which the discipline of geography has a particularly important contribution to make. This article argues for geography's relational concept of scale - seeing scales as interconnected arenas produced and constructed by social action, rather than naturally existing, discrete units - and shows some implications this has for how we frame and act on environmental issues. In particular, a relational perspective on scale changes the way we frame the scalar 'existence' of environmental problems and how we assign responsibility. This can open new possibilities for analyses and for politics that can be mobilized around these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a recent increase of interest within the academic literature on the justice issues posed by climate change and the human responses to its present and forecasted effects. In two parts (here and in a previous article), we review and synthesize the recent literature by asking what climate justice concerns have been identified within three related realms: (i) the characterization of climate change itself and the assignment of responsibility for that change; (ii) the differential or uneven impacts of climate change; and (iii) the actions taken to address the problems associated with climate change, including both mitigation and adaptation. Here in Part 2, we focus on the justice concerns of climate action, examining the scholarship on climate change mitigation mechanisms formulated at the international level (i.e., REDD+, CDM) and climate change adaptation projects and finance. We argue that geographers are well-positioned to conduct (and already well engaged in) research on the local climate justice paradoxes emerging from the currently uncritical focus of climate action policy on justice at the level of the national state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a recent increase of interest within the academic literature on the justice issues posed by climate change and the human responses to its present and forecasted effects. This literature is partially shaped by debates from environmental justice scholarship, but also has roots in various subfields of geography. In two parts (here and in a subsequent article), we review and synthesize the recent literature by asking what climate justice concerns have been identified within three related realms: (i) the characterization of climate change itself and the assignment of responsibility for that change; (ii) the differential or uneven impacts of climate change; and (iii) the actions taken to address the problems associated with climate change, including mitigation and adaptation. Here, in Part 1, we provide a basic outline of justice concepts; we address the characterization of climate change and the associated discursive framings; and we discuss the uneven impacts of climate change with a focus on the conceptualization of vulnerability. We suggest that the field of geography has much to offer to the debate on climate justice because of its unique understandings of the human-environment relationship based on a longstanding engagement with the spatiality and scale of environmental change, the corresponding human impacts, and the conceptual inseparability of nature and society. We identify, across Part 1 and Part 2, the need for a more comprehensive theory of justice to inform climate justice considerations - one that pays more attention to linked procedural, recognition, and scalar concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contains a new critical review of six predominant themes that have evolved over the last 40 years related to studies of alluvial fan dynamism. The themes include the development of conceptual models, field experiments, physical models, numerical models, high-resolution morphometric analyses, and climate change scenarios. Each theme is presented independently, but as highlighted in our concluding statements there should be greater efforts placed on integrating scientists from these disparate approaches. A case study is also presented in support of the review and pertains to ongoing work at the Colorado Natural Debris Flow Laboratory near Buena Vista, CO, USA. The case study uses repeat high-resolution topographic data to assess the 2- and 3-dimensional changes that occurred on a fan surface. The case study presents new field information to expand, support, and refute findings from the six research themes related to alluvial fan dynamics. Also, the case study provides a medium by which we show the need get back to more field-oriented data acquisition and analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has long been recognized as an important source of climate variability over the north Atlantic region. The NAO is often referred to as the regional expression of the Arctic Oscillation that reflects a redistribution of atmospheric mass between the Arctic and the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (NH). This review highlights our current understanding of these prominent teleconnection patterns and discusses outstanding questions and challenges that scientists face as they continue to build our knowledge of climate variability and change across the NH. The work discusses the strengths and limitations of the multitude of methods by which these phenomena have been defined, while highlighting recent changes in their character. Addressed also are the various internal and external forcing mechanisms that shape these phenomena and ultimately help define their predictive nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general, previous research has only tangentially addressed questions about the duration of precipitation events and the spatial and temporal variability associated with accumulating precipitation, from local to global scales. As precipitation rates and intensities change with variations in the climate, it is imperative that changes in the duration of precipitation events are also considered. Impacts from changes in precipitation duration, coupled with changes in precipitation intensity and frequency, have significant implications for changes in extreme events such as droughts and floods, but also the potential changes in moderate to light precipitation events. Accurately depicting changes in precipitation duration will help answer fundamental questions about precipitation characteristics that have not been addressed previously. A review of previous research incorporating precipitation duration is presented in this manuscript, with an example of how sub-daily precipitation data can be used to provide additional insight into the overall nature of precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of whitebark pine ( Pinus albicaulis) forests over the past century exemplifies modern environmental change and the particular challenges faced in reconciling the scales of human observation with long-term ecological changes. A number of factors are implicated in driving observed declines in whitebark pine populations including fire suppression, climate change, the exotic pathogen Cronartium ribicola and associated white pine blister rust, and mountain pine beetle ( Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks, yet the actual effects of these factors vary widely across the range of whitebark pine that encompasses considerable environmental heterogeneity. Furthermore, the specific effects of these agents are difficult to isolate or predict in a forest type where disturbance regimes and succession operate on scales of centuries rather than decades. The resulting situation is highly complex, yet the urgency for restoration in some areas is leading to generalizations elsewhere that do not always account for the diversity of forests considered as whitebark pine communities. Our research reviews the current state of knowledge on the biogeography, disturbance regimes, and mechanisms of decline in whitebark pine communities. We then use an expanded temporal perspective based on dendroecological case studies to critically assess the potential effects of fire suppression in whitebark pine communities and the ecological relationship between whitebark pine and mountain pine beetle. Based on our findings, it appears that fire suppression is not the ubiquitous factor leading to whitebark pine declines, as often implicated in the published literature, and that whitebark pine may be well adapted to recover following mountain pine beetle outbreaks in areas that have not been impacted too severely from white pine blister rust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although downscaling methods for deriving local/regional climate change scenarios have been extensively studied, little guidance exists on how to use the downscaled scenarios in applications such as impact assessments. In this second part of a two-part communication, we review for non-climate scientists a number of practical considerations when utilizing climate change scenarios. The issues discussed are drawn from questions frequently asked by our colleagues on assessment teams and include sources of observational data for scenario evaluation, the advantages of scenario ensembles, adjusting for scenario biases, and the availability of archived downscaled scenarios. Together with Part I, which reviews various downscaling methods, Part II is intended to improve the communication between suppliers and users of local/regional climate change scenarios, with the overall goal of improving the utility of climate impact assessments through a better understanding by all assessment team members of the strengths and limitations of local/regional climate change scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal scientists postulate that salt marshes are significantly affected by dynamics of global climate. However, few studies have explicitly proposed a perspective that regards salt marshes as potential indicators of climate change. This review article evaluates the possibility of salt marshes as indicators of global climate change, focusing upon three major aspects: sedimentary, vegetation, and biogeochemical dynamics. The previous literature concerned with these aspects commonly argues that the primary impact of climate change on salt marshes occurs via sea-level variations, because hydrologic fluctuations regulate the frequency, duration, and depth of over-marsh flooding events. Sedimentary, floristic, and biogeochemical dynamics prove to be significantly influenced by sea-level changes regardless of climate zones, and hence, undoubtedly possess a potential for indicating climate signatures. However, where plant-plant interactions such as facilitation and competition are important, vegetation dynamics in salt marshes may not be an immediate, sole function of sea-level and climate variations. Also, specifically in the field of salt marsh biogeochemistry, enough long-term data have not been collected to convincingly conclude that biogeochemistry is a useful indicator of climate change. Therefore, while this review is concerned mainly with the possibility of salt marshes as indicators of climate change, their suitability or usefulness is a different matter to be resolved through further data collection and discussion in future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]