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Crises spur reflection and re-evaluation of what matters and what is valued. The impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis, COVID-19 pandemic and climate emergency are reigniting debates about the nature of economic development approaches and what they aim to achieve in urban settings. Addressing a substantive gap in contemporary debates by helping to navigate a burgeoning and diverse field, this paper provides a critical and comparative assessment of five leading agendas that have been positioned as alternative and progressive policy responses to urban economic change: inclusive growth; the wellbeing economy; community wealth building; doughnut economics; and the foundational economy. Taking an international perspective, the paper provides a comparative review of their stated visions, mechanisms for change, and the spatial scales through which they are led and implemented. Our argument is that these alternative approaches to urban economic development are shaping creative, innovative and progressive responses to longstanding urban problems within policy and practice communities but require on-going scrutiny and evaluation to realise their potential to meaningfully achieve transformative change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops the notion of metonymy scenarios by exploring the social and cognitive dimensions of various creative uses of metonymy in a collection of digital banners created for the Global Climate Strike movement. The paper argues that the banners exploit existing metonymic relationships to activate dominant anthropocentric discourses in society, and to subvert them via processes of recontextualisation and reappropriation, in order to challenge system conventions and normative attitudes regarding climate change. The literature to date has not adequately considered metonymy as a dynamic and scenario-activating cognitive operation, nor has it thoroughly investigated the relationship between metonymy and irony. However, the data analysed here show that several creative uses of metonymy, including twice-true metonymy, metonymy in combination with metaphor, and the juxtaposition of different metonymies are markers of what this paper posits as metonymic mininarratives or scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed palaeogeographical studies of the accumulative fan in the Serteyka River valley in W Russia and underlying biogenic deposits were carried out. The base of a representative core of biogenic sediments in the distal zone is dated to 1291 BC, while its top to 1631 AD. In this paper, palynological, plant macrofossils, Chironomide and Cladocera, geochemical, geochronological and sedimentological analysis were performed. Four phases of biogenic deposition were distinguished by pollen and geochemical analyses. Two of them coincide with the climatic fluctuation during Medieval Climate Anomaly and Little Ice Age. During the formation of the fan, overbank deposits were accumulated also, indicating numerous and intense floods, which are in line with the trend observed for other sites in this region. The accumulative fan is formed by lower, middle and upper deluvia and agricultural diamicton in its top. All units have specific sedimentological and geochemical features as well as low admixture of plant macrofossils. The beginning of the formation of this relief form dates back to the second half of the 17th century AD, and the end of the accumulation falls on the second half of the 18th century AD. Our work suggests that natural conditions had an impact on the formation and development of studied accumulative fan, however, the decisive factor causing the intensification of the slope processes were related with deforestation resulted from strong human impact, which was marked in palynological and macrofossils analyses (e.g. increase in the contribution of plants macrofossils related to agriculture). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early industrialization of the developed countries has enabled their leadership in technological innovation, including environmentally sound technologies. ESTs are technologies that help prevent, control, or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Endorsed as an integral part of climate action, a binding obligation to ensure access for global south to these technologies remains missing from international environment law and international intellectual property rights law. Transfer of technology also faces certain economic barriers such as lack of infrastructure and human resources that enable adoption and absorption of ESTs. Moreover, there exists ideological differences between developed countries and developing and least developed countries regarding mechanism of technology transfer, creating an impasse in international negotiations to achieve EST transfer. In this paper the author has attempted to reframe the discussion on transfer of ESTs through a climate justice perspective. An incorporation of the practical aspects of the common but differentiated responsibilities of the developed countries into the TRIPS regime, in the form of binding obligations to technology transfer and financial assistance, or relaxations in patent protections, may provide adequate resolution. A balanced and rational approach to EST transfer, beyond the exigencies of global politics, is necessary for the continued prosperity of the Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a time of multiple, competing, and nested crises, the draw to storytelling is intuitive. Stories help us make sense of the world around us. People are drawn to stories because of their emphasis on community, and the way they create possibilities when it feels like there are none. This paper builds upon geographic research on storytelling, articulating how stories are critical for creating meaning in light of crises. Based on 14 months of fieldwork with storytellers in Appalachia and Alaska, two regions facing profound social, climatic, and economic change and with culturally rich storytelling traditions, research for this paper discusses the practice of storytelling, as told by storytellers, and how different approaches to storytelling help address the climate crisis specifically with notes for crises more broadly. Further, considering calls to use storytelling to address climate change, this paper examines and critiques the stories that are currently being told and valued. Finally, this paper outlines the kinds of stories that could be told to address crises, noting specifically how stories are sites of cultural and political struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of archaeological proxy records representative of population dynamics is paramount for a richer understanding of prehistoric cultural change, but its use require a dialectic assessment between proximate climatic drivers and ultimate cultural responses. Focusing on the Stone Age archaeological record of Western Norway (11,500–4300 cal. BP), this paper presents an exhaustive empirical curation and statistical testing between changing climates and demographic responses among coastal hunter-fisher-gatherers. The results connect long-term demographic fluctuations with changes in annual mean temperatures and seasonality and the results are discussed in relation changes in technology, subsistence and mobility. The paper also highlights the process of population decline and cultural loss towards the end of the Late Mesolithic (ca. 7000–6000 cal. BP) and emerging cultural novelties and population re-growth during the Early and Middle Neolithic (ca. 6000–4300 cal. BP). However, despite its strong correlation, the archaeological record of Western Norway lacks sufficient detail to ascribe an exclusive explanatory role to climate change, especially in episodes of significant population decline. This helps to emphasise that changing climates, while evidently central, form but a part of a larger system of interactions leading to demographic fluctuations and cultural change, the substantiation of which requires significant empirical improvements to the archaeological record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Car dependency greatly contributes to the climate crisis and the corrosion of public space. In response, cities are introducing pedestrianisation, cycle lanes or tactical urban interventions aimed at repurposing streets for other road users. Framed as 'experiments', these reallocations of street space disrupt traditional transport planning procedures, often with promising results in promoting active travel. They are also associated with deep conflicts and criticism, especially by citizens defending the right to drive. Despite their ability to stop experiments, such conflicts have been little explored in the debates about experimentation and automobility. Similarly, street experiments have in most cases been uncritically embraced as a panacea for urban mobility problems, with little attention paid to experimentation as an expression of austerity urbanism. This paper aims to deepen our understanding of street experiments and their relationship to automobility by contextualising their conflictual unfolding as an expression of post-political planning in the age of austerity urbanism. Through a critical examination of the Torino Mobility Lab, a collaborative pedestrianisation experiment in Torino, we show how the governance-beyond-state setup of such projects masks a complex and contested coexistence of different meanings and processes for reimagining urban mobility and public space. We show how conflicts emerge embedded in the problematic and post-political governance of transport experiments. Nested within austerity urbanism, the experiment remains limited in its ability to create healthy spaces for participation. We conclude by highlighting the limitations and contradictions of attempts to overcome car dependency embedded in post-political frameworks and neoliberal-austerity planning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have raised concerns regarding the reconstruction of glacier mass balance using tree-ring data. The method relies on a stable relationship between both variables and summer (June–August) or melt season (May–September) temperature. However, with recent anthropogenic climate change the stability of this relationship is challenged by both, a divergence between tree-ring and temperature, as well as mass balance and temperature data. Establishing to what extent this divergence influences the reconstruction of mass balance using tree-ring data is important to assess the future viability and applicability of the method. In this paper we analyze the relationship between the Torneträsk tree-ring and Storglaciären mass balance records, their response to climate change, and investigate changes in the relationship. We provide evidence for a sensitivity loss in the Torneträsk record and quantify its impact on the reconstruction of summer mass balance of Storglaciären. We find that by including years post 1980, the amplitude of reconstructed variability is reduced, but it remains possible to explain the variance of the record significantly. Our results suggest that for glaciers without an extensive mass balance record the applicability of the method is challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short paper discusses people's news experiences before, during and after societal crisis situations, contributing with a sequential typology outlining the three phases ritual check-in, shocked immersion and regained stability. Theoretically, we draw on classical contributions to media studies and sociology, particularly the concepts of ritual communication and ontological security. Empirically, we build on qualitative interview studies with news audiences in Norway, spanning 5 years and different crisis cases including political turmoil, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. We underline the significance of emotional distancing to regain stability, and identify crises lacking start- and endpoints as particularly difficult to navigate. These insights should instigate further debate about our understanding of news audiences in a tumultuous world, particularly relevant to scholarship on news use and avoidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2019 to 2020, Zimbabwe experienced severe food insecurity. This paper explores the causes and drivers of the food crisis, policy, and programming response failures. Informed by primary data gathered through observations and secondary data, it argues that the food insecurity cannot be ascribed to the current agrarian structure alone. Instead, climate shocks, misgovernance of social security, politicization of food assistance, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) impacts and economic implosion deepened food insecurity. To prevent its recurrence, government must reconsider the land tenure system to promote productivity, support climate resilient agriculture, curb economic implosion, depoliticize social security system, and food transfer programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore and integrate different currencies that may underlie large-game hunting to guide a trans-Holocene analysis of variation in artiodactyl utilization using massive archaeofaunal data-sets from predominantly open-air sites from the Bonneville and Wyoming basins. The available empirical data continue to suggest that artiodactyls yield consistently higher return rates than lagomorphs allowing us to leverage predictions from both the prey choice and energetic risk-gain models that the relative importance of artiodactyl hunting should scale closely with climate-based change in their abundance on the landscape. We document with modeled climate data that seasonal variables correlated with the relative frequency of artiodactyl hunting, but that summer temperature had a significant overriding effect in both regions. Controlling for the negative relationship between summer temperature and artiodactyl abundances, we then document enhanced artiodactyl hunting in general and bison more specifically during the Fremont period that is consistent with a costly signaling hypothesis and the unique socio-ecological conditions of this context. Thus, climatic variation and its influence on artiodactyl abundances drives the overall trajectory of Holocene large game hunting variation but measurable and more subtle influences of costly signaling are also detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that for any community transformation to be achieved, cultural values and legal frameworks, which influence issues relating to land rights and food security, must form an integral part of any policy intervention efforts. We adopted feminism as both a methodological and an analytical framework. The dominant research paradigm was qualitative. The study sample was 184 people obtained using a systematic sampling method. Data collection was through focus groups and interviews. We challenge contemporary development initiatives, in terms of their intentions and sustainability. Finally, it is important that any development initiatives facilitate the participation and involvement of all genders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locally led adaptation is increasingly promoted as an important strategy for addressing the impacts of climate change. However, the understanding of rural realities in the Global South is still limited by insufficient information about the complex and dynamic relationships between rural communities and their environment. These relationships are influenced both by the material aspects of place and by the social and cultural dynamics that shape identities. This paper seeks to address this gap by providing an in-depth examination of how older and younger people are living with environmental change in two rural areas in Vietnam. Recognizing the lack of attention given to older people as important environmental actors, this paper will make three key contributions: move from a focus on the vulnerability of older people to one which highlights their capabilities; introduce an intergenerational approach that builds an inclusive understanding of rural communities; and embrace a complex appreciation of environmental change that looks beyond the usual framings of climate change and impact upon livelihoods' to other aspects of people's relationship with a changing environment. In doing so, this paper calls for an increased appreciation for the multiple values of nature, particularly how different community members engage with and appreciate their environment, to support more relevant and sustainable approaches to addressing local environmental challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous-led activism against proposed oil pipelines has relied heavily on social media, as in the #NoDAPL campaign against the Dakota Access Pipeline. This paper explores affective engagement in online activism, including the Standing Rock 'check-in' campaign on Facebook. Moving beyond dichotomous understandings of embodied vs digital activism, Cannupa Hanska Luger's Mirror Shields Project employs digital media in order to support direct action at Standing Rock. Patricia Clough draws a direct link between affect and technoscientific understandings of the body in her concept of biomediated bodies. This helps explain how physical and digital activism are linked: the digital and the physical cannot be understood as independent of each other, since online engagement always has an embodied aspect as well. Luger's Mirror Shields Project functions as a form of alterlife, in resistance to biopower, recognizing historical and ongoing harms while also creating new possibilities for resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to identify whether the interdependencies between climate action and social policies in the urban context are visible and, if so, in what areas and through what framings. Using a content analysis approach, it compares framings of the news on social policies in Barcelona over the course of a year. The results show that climate action is constructed discursively as an isolated issue, with its own logics and complexities, and with few references to other social policy areas. It also reveals that references to climate change in other social policy areas do not operate as framings. The paper claims that discursive strategies that separate climate change policy from other social policy areas can invisibilise the connections that operate between these policies, links that are key for pursuing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, especially in the urban context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaciers and ice caps in Norway are presently undergoing mass loss, areal reduction, and frontal retreat, mainly a result of increased summer ablation due to rising summer temperatures over Scandinavia, especially after 2000 CE. In this paper, the glacier mass-balance response of 10 Norwegian glaciers with continuous mass balance observations (>10 years) to climate projections from 1971–2000 to 2071–2100 have been estimated. Projected changes in mean summer temperature and mean winter precipitation from 1971–2000 to 2071–2100, applying the RCP8.5 emission scenario for five different regions in Norway; 'Sogn og Fjordane' and 'Hordaland', now Vestland County in western Norway, 'Oppland', now part of Innlandet County in eastern Norway, and Nordland County and Finnmark County, both in Northern Norway), range between +3.5°C and +5.0°C, and between +5% and +25%, respectively. These climate projections have been converted (by linear regression with overlapping observational mass-balance data) into specific surface glacier mass balance [winter balance (B w), summer balance (B s), and annual balance (B a) for 10 glaciers in Norway with mass-balance series [Ålfotbreen, Nigardsbreen (part of Jostedalsbreen), Austdalsbreen (part of Jostedalsbreen), Rembesdalskåka (part of Hardangerjøkulen), Blomstølskardsbreen (part of Søre Folgefonna), Storbrean, Hellstugubrean, Gråsubrean, Engabreen (part of Vestre Svartisen, Langfjordjøkelen (data: http://glacier.nve.no/glacier/viewer/ci/no/) yielding a total, cumulative surface glacier mass loss from 2000 to 2100 CE in the range of -85.2 ± 4 to -197.3 ± 10 m water equivalents. The estimated changes in equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs), in the range of 230 ± 10 to 630 ± 30 m, indicate that the mean ELA may reach the upper part of 7 of the 10 glaciers included in this study [Ålfotbreen, Austdalsbreen, Rembesdalskåka, Blomstølskardsbreen, Gråsubrean, Engabreen and Langfjordjøkelen] by the end of the 21st century. The projected glacier mass loss and ELA rise, and thus changes in glacier length, area and volume, will most likely have profound consequences for future glacier hydrology (runoff), hydropower production, wildlife, ecosystems, glacier hazards, and tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last deglaciation, atmospheric CO2 increased by about 75 ppm. The deep ocean is likely the dominant source of this atmospheric CO2 rise in the atmospheric pool; however, a consensus accounting for the entire 75 ppm remains elusive. Since the deep ocean cannot account for the entire 75 ppm, the terrestrial environment likely makes up the remainder. This paper provides a mechanism for an unaccounted-for portion of the source of this terrestrial carbon, that being soil organic carbon (SOC) from the tropical montane Andes, and with that, minimum constraints on the contribution of SOC to the total rise in atmospheric CO2 during the last deglaciation. Using numerical climate modeling input into an empirical model derived from tropical montane forests of the Andes Mountains in South America, this study finds that during the last deglaciation, the organic layer thickness was thinning from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the present (pre-industrial) in the tropical montane Andes. This overall warming and organic layer thickness thinning may have led to a loss of available carbon storage space, causing a leak of CO2 into the atmosphere over this time scale. This study finds an estimate for the contribution of global atmospheric CO2 from SOC in tropical montane Andean soils is likely at least ∼1.4 ppm CO2 since the LGM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities play increasingly recognised roles in global climate change responses: as change laboratories, spaces of opportunity, and as administrative and economic hubs that concentrate human and financial resources and needs. They host high climate mitigation potential and acute climate adaptation vulnerabilities. Scholarship flags conventional urban planning approaches to limit global warming to 1.5°C as inadequate. Yet urban sustainability transitions literature features few examples of functioning alternative governance and planning paradigms. This paper assesses one such approach, new municipalism: social movements centred on a democratic transformation of the local economy and state. We combine attention to urban sustainability transitions and new municipalism research to interrogate whether and how the latter can facilitate the provision of leadership and institutional arrangements that enable urban transformation to sustainability. Our desk study considers two prominent examples of new municipalism in Spain, where Barcelona en Comú and Ahora Madrid arose as anti-austerity movements to combat neoliberal urban agendas during the 2010s. We find that the praxis of collective decision-making associated with new municipalism does offer inclusive, innovative policy pathways and the potential to implement experimental knowledge and learning in complex real-world settings at the urban scale. We argue, however, that powerful neoliberal mechanisms impose structural constraints on the very push for deep political change that new municipalist movements embody. By linking transformative climate governance needs with new municipalism movements and wider political economic structuring forces, we explicate the tensions and contested dynamics of institutionalising progressive social movements in the multi-scalar governance of urban sustainability transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drylands are diverse and dynamic ecosystems that have been occupied by humans throughout the Holocene. Nonetheless, drylands are often conceived of as marginal, rare, and inimical to human livelihoods. This Special Issue interrogates the interactions between humans and arid and aridifying environments to investigate how drylands offer unique risks and opportunities to their resilient inhabitants. This article introduces the 11 environmental archeology papers and 1 discussion paper in this Special Issue, the proceedings of a 2021 virtual workshop on the topics of risk and resilience. Each contribution explores a different geographic and chronological context around the globe. We also introduce three subthemes of this Special Issue: "Multi-Scalar Analysis," "Abundance and Diversity," and "Cascading Risks." Collectively, a key strength of the case studies in this volume is the range of environmental archeology methods and datasets that they showcase. These authors draw out details within a multi-scalar understanding of risk and risk perception in the particular contexts in which they work. As we face compounding contemporary risks associated with the global impacts of a changing climate, it is more important than ever to recognize the range of human relationships with aridification, and the dynamic, localized socio-environmental histories of drylands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three decades of interdisciplinary research within the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project has provided extensive archaeological, environmental and geoarchaeological datasets. This paper seeks to bring together these datasets to explore diachronic socio-ecological dynamics within the Sagalassos Study Area, SW Türkiye. For this, we will use the Adaptive Cycles and Resilience Theory framework to explore socio-cultural development during changing climatic and environmental conditions. The paper aims to serve as an in-depth case study of these frameworks, integrating archaeological and environmental data, which – despite the increasing popularity of resilience theory – remains underdeveloped within the field of archaeology, especially within Mediterranean and Anatolian archaeology. We will explore the utility of the adaptive cycle framework for reconstructing diachronic human-environment interactions through changing settlement patterns documented during surveys conducted by the Sagalassos Project. Critical phases within the settlement record can be identified during the last 8000 years including apparent periods of ‘rupture’ during the Middle Chalcolithic, Middle-Late Bronze Age, Hellenistic and Middle-Byzantine periods; representing times of serious upheaval in ‘normal’ cultural traditions and lifeways. The adaptive cycle framework will help distinguish between the effects of environmental changes and social dynamics, as well as their potential interrelations in causing long-term social transformation in the Sagalassos Study Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubuntu has launched the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, 2020–2030. This commentary stipulates how ubuntu can reinforce the Pachamama rights and its significance to social work practice. The African philosophy of ubuntu has potential to enhance the framework of understanding environmental rights from an eco-spiritual social work perspective and integrating the concepts of Pachamama rights. Clearly showing the link between Pachamama and ubuntu, this paper reminds social workers to advance the Rights of Nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global environmental change has provoked changes in how humans experience and perceive their relationship to nature. Such conceptual changes can be observed through language use, and specifically lexical change. This paper investigates how such changes manifest through an analysis of how the terms 'greenhouse gas', 'climate gas', 'carbon', and 'CO2' are used in the Norwegian parliament in the time period 1999–2019. We observe a discursive specialization where different discursive dimensions are linked to the different expressions, corresponding to different framings of climate change, including technological, economic, and moral perspectives. Importantly, there is a shift over time where the discursive division of labor between the expressions is consolidated and new framings emerge. We show that a more refined language of GHG expressions is a discursive resource that contributes to making sense of the multiple ways that climate change impacts society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marcuse was the face of the Frankfurt School during the 1960s and '70s. His eclipse led, among other unfortunate consequences, to the disappearance of his critique of science and technology. That critique is based on an experiential ontology that derives in part from Marcuse's background in phenomenology. In this paper I trace the roots of that ontology in his early interpretation of Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. One-Dimensional Man takes up the phenomenological critique in a Marxist vein. This critique is newly relevant now that we face impending environmental catastrophe due to climate change. Thus the study of Marcuse today is not simply academic, but once again politically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the early Holocene onward, the Indian Subcontinent has accommodated a range of diverse human cultures and associated ecological adaptations and lifestyles. Around 10 kyrs ago, the Subcontinent has witnessed the development of later Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and their subsequent regional transitions to pastoralist (Neolithic) and agricultural (Chalcolithic) lifeways. The Holocene climate records reveal discrepancies in the timing and duration of climatic events, which can be attributed to a vast geographic isolation, the influence of height, elevation, and local climatic conditions. These changing climatic patterns including the development of a geographically variable monsoon directly impacted these various cultures including the Harappans and their contemporaries as well as younger Historical and Medieval empires across India, at various levels. In some regions, environmental changes led to uneven cultural transitions, geographic migrations, and the development of regionally-distinct material cultures along with establishment of sedentary life-ways. This paper attempts to present a review broadly correlating general climatic patterns throughout the Holocene period of India with regional cultural dynamics. All geomorphic-climatic zones of the Subcontinent showed strong inter-proxy coherence between 9 and 5 kyrs in response to increased precipitation. After this warming period ends, we see a moderate dry period as a result of a weakening monsoon and an overall tendency toward aridity throughout all zones (after 4 kyrs). The temporal variation of human habitation and respective adaptive responses suggest broad linkages to the varying climatic and physiographic features at a regional scale. Learning how this shaped human eco-dynamics in the past can help us expand our understanding of human history and implement lessons for the present as well as the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses examples of multimodal discourse to show how frame analysis can account for the choices of form in a range of multimodal (image or image-plus-text) artifacts addressing issues of climate change. Relying on the concepts of frame metonymy and blending, the article discusses a selection of artifacts representing emergent frames such as Save the Planet and Hourglass, which are pervasive in multimodal representations of climate change. The article describes the advantages and disadvantages of common multimodal stylistic choices, while addressing issues of 'persuasive bleaching/overload'. It also uncovers some frame-related specificities of multimodal discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon tax has attracted attention as an instrument of climate action for transiting towards the objective of stabilising global temperatures below 2 °C. Its significance as a response to climate change is, however, disputed. Also, its possible implications on key fundamental human rights of poor populations are rarely discussed. South Africa enacted a Carbon Tax Act in 2019 amid the challenge of poverty and its commitments to both climate actions and human rights. This paper interrogates the significance of the Carbon Tax Act and clarifies the potential implications that it may have on key human rights of poor populations. It recommends the need to channel the revenue generated from the implementation of the Carbon Tax Act to address its potential adverse impact on human rights of poor populations in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global migration is expected to continue to increase as climate change, conflict and economic disparities continue to challenge peoples' lives. The political response to migration is a social determinant of mental health. Despite the potential benefits of migration, many migrants and refugees face significant challenges after they resettle. The papers collected in this thematic issue of Transcultural Psychiatry explore the experience of migration and highlight some of the challenges that governments and healthcare services need to address to facilitate the social integration and mental health of migrants. Clinicians need training and resources to work effectively with migrants, focusing on their resilience and on long-term adaptive processes. Efforts to counter the systemic discrimination and structural violence that migrants often face need to be broad-based, unified, and persistent to make meaningful change. When migrants are free to realize their talents and aspirations, they can help build local communities and societies that value diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Ötzi, the Iceman, was found in a gully in the Tisenjoch pass in the Tyrolean Alps in 1991, he was a huge surprise for the archaeological community. The lead initial investigator of the find argued that it was unique, preserved by serendipitous circumstances. It was hypothesised that the mummy with associated artefacts had been quickly covered by glacier ice and stayed buried until the melt-out in 1991. It is now more than 30 years since Ötzi appeared. In this paper, we take a closer look at how the find can be understood today, benefitting from increased knowledge gained from more than two decades of investigations of other glacial archaeological sites, and from previous palaeo-biological investigations of the find assemblage. In the light of radiocarbon dates from the gully and new glaciological evidence regarding mass balance, it is likely that Ötzi was not permanently buried in ice immediately after his death, but that the gully where he lay was repeatedly exposed over the next 1500 years. We discuss the nature of the ice covering the site, which is commonly described as a basally sliding glacier. Based on the available evidence, this ice is better understood as a non-moving, stationary field of snow and ice, frozen to the bedrock. The damaged artefacts found with Ötzi were probably broken by typical postdepositional processes on glacial archaeological sites, and not, as previously claimed, during conflict prior to Ötzi's flight from the valley below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate activists and environmental communicators stress that addressing the climate crisis requires both global and local advocacy for transformational change-making. While journalists in small, rural communities are known to actively advocate on issues for the common good, there has been little investigation of local media advocacy on climate change in rural Australia: a region at the forefront of global heating. This paper analyses the accounts of local journalists of their media coverage of the School Strikes 4 Climate in rural and regional Australia, as an empirical entry point for a conceptual discussion of local media advocacy in reporting climate change. We find that normative ideas about journalism coupled with polarised community views on climate change hindered these journalists from taking an advocacy stance. We explore and critique the tacit 'quiet advocacy' practices used by these journalists reporting on climate in rural and regional Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change impacts on human development have been an issue of global concern in the past few decades. Over the past few years, there is increasing interest on the impacts of climate change on conflict, peace and security in Africa. This paper explores the extent to which climate change impacts and attendant effects on environmental resources are drivers of some of the conflicts in the Lake Chad region, specifically in Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. It applies the human security theory to establish the interface between climate impacts, human insecurity and local conflicts. We find that reduced access to natural resources such as fertile land, water and pasture is undermining livelihoods of vulnerable people and communities in the Lake Chad region, which triggered recurrent conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document discusses the need for urban and regional development studies to examine the relationship between ecology and economy, as well as the commodification of nature. It highlights the various initiatives and strategies being implemented in Europe, such as the EU's Green Deal, to address the challenges of ecological crisis and climate change. The special issue of the journal European Urban & Regional Studies focuses on these topics and includes papers that explore transformative resilience, sustainability transition challenges in peripheral regions, entrepreneurial action in local energy clusters, the impact of urban structure on automobile use, the use of green buildings, and energy poverty amelioration policies. [Extracted from the article]

This paper describes how urban resilience governance is structured and coordinated in 20 North American cities (19 US and one Canadian) based on interviews with city officials. This co-produced research evolved out of conversations with city officials in Portland, Oregon, who were interested to learn how other cities were organising resilience work. Interviews focused on emerging definitions, organisational structures, internal and external coordination efforts, and practitioners' insights. The paper includes a descriptive summary of how cities are structuring and coordinating resilience efforts. Additionally, we discuss how current trends in resilience coordination can inform future directions for urban resilience scholarship. We compare what practitioners view as key success factors against six commonly theorised characteristics for effective resilience governance. Overall, we find considerable overlap in lessons from theory and practice, including the benefits of a systems approach, the need for a clear definition of resilience, strong leadership, and stakeholder engagement. Practitioners use resilience to diagnose the overall health of their cities. Additionally, practice tends to emphasise limitations such as political turnover, trade-offs between centralised and dispersed organisation, and the need to carefully diagnose and scope resilience work, whereas the academic literature calls for multi-level and cross-scale governance and feedbacks and more transformative action. Given these insights, we highlight opportunities for new resilience scholarship, including analysing the benefits of the diagnostic phase of resilience planning, evaluating resilience goals to determine the best departmental fit, and understanding local barriers and trade-offs to adopting a broad systems approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of neoliberal environmentalism was to unleash the market to protect the environment; but as it turns out, things are getting worse on our way to catastrophe. Despite persistent failures, neoliberal environmentalism remains prevalent—and apparently without alternative. This paper directs focus on an often-overlooked dimension of this apparent stasis: the nexus of self and society in advanced capitalism, as shown in the linkage between neoliberal environmentalism and the autonomous ecoconsumer. Marcuse's concept of repressive desublimation is engaged to better understand how environmentalist desire is currently being thwarted in ways that inhibit movement toward socioecological emancipation. The paper provides an illustrative example of desublimated environmentalist desire in the current recycling crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-anxiety and associated emotions are on the rise. International estimates range from 25–68% prevalence. Australians now regard climate change as their top concern for the future, with some young people reconsidering their intentions to become parents. The emotional sequela from climate change is becoming clearer. How it is conceptualised, responded to, and reinforced within public discourse requires further consideration. This paper presents a multi-method qualitative text and discourse analysis of Australian online news articles published in 2022 reporting on emotions and our ecological future. Drawing on sociological theories of emotions and Foucauldian conceptualisations of discourse, we present insights into the potency of emotions and discourses within online news media. We identify four differing conceptualisations of emotions, interpret what these discourses can do, and conclude with ways in which the public can reclaim agency in resisting discourses that engender passivity in the context of future ecological threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, environmental studies in research on prehistoric China have been gaining popularity and importance. For Northwest China in particular, climate change, especially the so-called ~4.2k BP event has been seen as the main reason for an alleged collapse of Late Neolithic societies and a transition to pastoral-heavy economies and mobile lifeways. Yet, these explanatory models tend to rely on limited archaeological and environmental data and non-contemporaneous historical data, resulting in simplistic causal relationships between environmental changes and social response. This paper re-evaluates the Incipient Bronze Age in China's Northwestern region, discussing evidence for climate change and its exact dates, as well as textual and archaeological evidence. We argue that the old narratives perpetuating the image of a dichotomy between Steppe and Sown are inaccurate, while large-scale models of region-wide subsistence change in response to climate cooling tend to disregard local developments and group-specific responses as well as chronological issues. Focusing on the Xindian and Siwa archaeological phenomena, this paper provides a view into sub-regional responses to this climate event, warning against simplistic broad-brush reconstructions and calling for both a return to archaeological fundamentals and large-scale intensive fieldwork and interdisciplinary studies involving archaeologists, paleobotanists, zooarchaeologists, isotope specialists, and climate scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaughn, S. E. Engineering Vulnerability: In Pursuit of Climate Adaptation (Durham: Duke University Press, 2022), 256 pp. US $99.95 (cloth), US $26.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-4780-1548-2 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4780-1810-0 (paper). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As climate change threats to urban centres become more alarming, cities are proposing ambitious plans to adapt to climate impacts. These plans are increasingly subsumed within urban development projects, and embedded in global flows of capital and networks of environmental governance and planning. And yet, scholarship on urban adaptation has tended to approach the city as an analytically bounded territory, neglecting interconnections across space and processes of globalisation, urbanisation, and geopolitics. This paper extends theories of relational geographies to explore the emerging conditions of urban adaptation in the context of climate change and globalised urban development. Focusing on the global links of Dutch water expertise, and tracing relationships within and between Rotterdam, New York, and Jakarta, it illustrates the formation of global-urban networks – the multiscalar, multilevel connections through which capital, knowledge, and influence flow. It probes the ways in which these networks emerge to mobilise ideas and influence across geographical scales and political boundaries, driven and defined by interrelated factors including economic relationships, historically defined situational relationships, and interface conditions including narratives of culture and environmental urgency. The paper introduces the concept of 'network formation' to see and understand such interconnected, relational processes. It explains the spatial and temporal interconnections within and across sites, and the relationships between urban spatial projects and broader political economies and ecologies. The paper asserts the importance of conceptualising the relationships and interfaces of increasingly mobile and interconnected urban environmental futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on mixed H 2 / H ∞ fuzzy maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of photovoltaic (PV) system under asymmetric saturation and variations in climatic conditions. To maximize the power from the PV panel array, the DC–DC boost converter is controlled by its duty ratio which is practically saturated between 0 and 1. MPPT based on conventional control presents the problems of oscillations around maximum power point (MPP) and divergence under rapid climatic changes. In order to attenuate the effect of atmospheric condition variation and take into account asymmetric saturation of the duty ratio, we propose a novel robust saturated controller based on both H 2 / H ∞ performances and Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) representation of PV-boost nonlinear system. Within this approach, the nonlinear PV-boost system and its reference are first described by T-S fuzzy models. Second, the saturation effect is represented by a polytopic model. Then, a fuzzy integral state feedback controller is designed to achieve stable MPPT control. Based on Lyapunov function, the mixed H 2 / H ∞ stabilization conditions are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The optimization of the attraction domain of closed-loop system is solved as a convex optimization problem in LMI terms. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed controller under irradiance and temperature variations is demonstrated through the simulation results. The comparison with some existing controllers shows an improvement of MPPT control performance in terms of power extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action on climate change has enjoyed popular support in most Western countries. Despite this, successive governments have struggled to implement policy to tackle this issue. Using the case of opposition to the Clean Energy Act, passed in Australia to establish an emissions trading scheme, this paper argues that a growing and broad sentiment of distrust in political elites, described as 'anti-politics', can explain some of this contradiction. Particular forms of climate policy, in particular emissions trading schemes, have been successfully framed as policies that appeal to the interests of a new class of liberal elites while hurting ordinary working people. This frame was used successfully in Australia by conservative forces to oppose the Clean Energy Act. While used cynically by political leaders in this case, the paper argues that anti-political sentiment reflects genuine concerns about the detachment between the state and voting population. This detachment is reflected in neoliberal climate policies. Through briefly examining the cases of the Trump Administration's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the Gilets Jaunes protest movement, the paper argues that while formulating climate policy we must consider anti-political sentiment, developing responses to the climate crisis from a bottom-up rather than top-down approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing recognition that "human development" frameworks, such as the Capabilities Approach (CA) with its emphasis on the promotion of justice, offer promise for guiding efforts aimed at enhancing mental wellbeing. This article explores challenges that might arise when there is a need to arbitrate among the competing demands of different parties in their efforts to enhance capabilities. Particular tensions can arise when the efforts of particular individuals to enhance their capabilities exert pressure on scarce resources, or threaten the safety and security of people living in precarious environmental contexts. Consideration is given to the need for "an ethos of restraint" to balance the consumption of resources aimed at facilitating human development on the one hand, with the need to promote environmental justice on the other. The paper highlights research that has investigated how environmental factors can impact on mental wellbeing, including rapid urbanization, climate change related issues (such as weather systems, drought, food insecurity and rising sea-levels), and access to "green/blue spaces". As such, the paper explores the important links that can exist between people and the ecosystems in which they live (including the way in which particular cultural beliefs and practices of indigenous groups can be tethered to the land). Elinor Ostrom's "design principles", derived from her work investigating the sustainable use of pooled resources, are presented as a helpful means of assisting members of communities to negotiate and apply "functioning constraints", which can promote environmental justice whilst not compromising efforts aimed at promoting mental wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic geomorphologists, and eolian geomorphologists in particular, have always been interested in studying dunes to understand and construct past climatic conditions. Smith's 1965 paper presents an excellent example of a reconnaissance piece of scientific work that set the foundation for (1) using aerial photo-interpretation to provide chronological information about dune fields; (2) the use of eolian processes and landforms as climate change indicators; and (3) extraterrestrial or planetary geomorphology. This article briefly describes Smith's background, background on Nebraska Sand Hills, and the impact and legacy of Smith's classic paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failure to take climate change seriously enough has resulted in the world now facing a climate emergency, with rising global temperatures, melting polar ice caps, increasingly frequent and severe storms, floods and droughts, and rising sea levels. Despite being the first country in the world to set statutory carbon emissions reduction targets (in the Climate Change Act 2008), the UK government since 2012 has fallen increasingly behind, even by its own standards. This paper details what this has meant in terms of specific policies and identifies some of the reasons for this policy failure: in particular, a negative attitude towards regulation and a return to a reliance on market forces, plus an overriding concern to continue with 'business as usual', in terms of support for fossil-fuel industries and ever-increasing energy demand and supply. Ironically, this has resulted in a situation where radical solutions seem even more necessary and more urgent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is focused on changes in biodiversity, the environment, and human activity in the Uvs Nuur Basin during the last three millennia based on biological and geochemical proxies from the lake Bayan Nuur. Regions with high biodiversity and relatively low anthropogenic pressures are typically the most vulnerable to both climate change and human activities. One such area is the Uvs Nuur Basin located on the north of the Great Lake Depression of Mongolia. The main objective of this study is to assess changes in the past biodiversity of the lake's microflora and microfauna, and surrounding vegetation biodiversity in the Uvs Nuur Basin, and to determine the main drivers of diversity change. Based on the analysis of pollen and chironomids we conclude that the most humid and afforested phase was between 1400 and 1800 CE. We assume that the Little Ice Age in the Uvs Nuur Basin was humid with mean annual precipitation ca. 305 mm/year and mean July temperature about 13°C. Conversely, the warmest and most arid period was between 650 and 1350 CE with mean annual precipitation ca. 280 mm/year and mean July temperature of about 16°C, attributed to the Medieval Warm Period. The biodiversity of terrestrial plants, chironomids, and Cladocera positive react to changes in annual precipitation and July temperature, whereas diatoms do not correlate directly to the climatic factors. The diversity and the evenness of plants are strongly correlated with the change in the leading biomes. The calculated species turnover suggests no significant changes in plant and Cladocera taxa composition, but significant changes in diatom and chironomid communities. This may be explained by the instability of lake ecology due to the fluctuation of the salinity and acidity of the water. An additional aim was to assess if dung fungi in lacustrine sediments reflect changes in human population density around the lake. We found that neither historical sources of human presence nor the influx of coprophilous fungi are correlated with the inferred climate changes. Coprophilous fungi can be used as individual or additional sources of assessment for the peopling and human-related herbivore density including overgrazing of the studied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying the relative influences of anthropogenic activities and climate change on soil erosion and deposition during the Holocene, when both forces have been interacting is a complex problem. Analysis of long-term patterns in soil erosion and lake deposition in a basin can provide the basis for untangling the complexities of climate and anthropogenic forcings. In this paper, sedimentary sequences from Xingyun Lake are compared with simulated soil erosion rates in the basin to explore the relationship between river basin soil erosion and lake deposition during the Holocene in Yunnan, China. Modern soil erosion rates are calculated using RUSLE, while Holocene soil erosion rates are estimated using modern rates with reconstructed precipitation and vegetation cover sequences. Through this investigation, we found the following results. First, Holocene vegetation in the lake basin was mainly affected by climate change, and the vegetation experienced the same pattern of changes as the climate. Soil erosion and lake deposition rates, along with changes to vegetation cover, were synchronous with precipitation trends during the Holocene. Second, soil erosion and lake deposition have been exacerbated by human activities, such as deforestation and land reclamation in the Xingyun Lake basin. Finally, this study provides new insights into the effects by anthropogenic impacts and climate forcing on the processes of soil erosion and lake deposition on the millennium scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decades, the elongated mud belt, 1000 km length, in the inner shelf of the East China Sea (ECS), has been extensively studied. Previous studies mainly focused on the northern part of the mud belt. There are still many arguments on various issues of the mud belt, including the provenance discrimination, the formation mechanism, and its evolution response to climate and environmental changes. In this paper, a borehole acquired from the distal southern mud belt which penetrated the Holocene strata with the collected data was analyzed. According to the parameters of (La/Sm)UCC versus (Gd/Yb)UCC and the ternary diagram of smectite-illite-(kaolinite + chlorite), sediments from the top section of Core ECS1601 originated from the Yangtze River since 13.7 ka. Sediments from upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River can be clearly distinguished by (Gd/Yb)UCC value. The provenance of the distal mud belt shifted from upper reaches to lower valley since 5 ka and returned to the upper reaches again since 2.5 ka, which was related to the asynchronous evolution of Asian monsoon system and anthropogenic activities. The high sedimentation rates occurring in the distal mud belt between 5 and 2.5 ka were related to the decreased sediment supply of the upper reaches and the strengthened Zhejiang-Fujian Coastal Current (ZFCC) caused by the intensified East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Feasible Generalized Least Squares econometric method, the paper analyzes the impact of climate change on economic growth in Vietnam's coastal South Central region over the period of 2006–2015. The results indicate that, after controlling for the main determinants in the growth model, the climate change with various proxies has a significantly negative impact on provinces' economic growth in the region. In particular, local institutions not only increase economic growth, but also reduce the negative impact of climate change on economic growth as well. These results suggest some policy implications aimed at boosting the process of transforming the economic growth model for the coastal region adapting to climate change. JEL codes: F21, F23, E22 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the negative impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent, many city leaders and policymakers have begun to regard climate action as both a fiscal challenge and strategic economic opportunity. However, addressing the increasingly evident threats of climate change in the neoliberal, post-financial-crisis city raises several questions about its equitable implementation. This paper suggests that the prioritisation of a specific mode of climate resilient urban development represents a departure from the previous decades' movement toward sustainable urbanism. We refer to this new development paradigm as 'climate urbanism', a policy orientation that (1) promotes cities as the most viable and appropriate sites of climate action and (2) prioritises efforts to protect the physical and digital infrastructures of urban economies from the hazards associated with climate change. We argue that the potential social justice impacts of climate urbanism have not been fully interrogated. Certainly, cities are appropriate sites for addressing climate change, but in the current neoliberal context, the transition from policy rhetoric to climate action presents a potentially problematic landscape of inequality and injustice. With that in mind, this paper offers a critical lens to evaluate the merits of climate urbanism and to interrogate its potential outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, humans have negatively altered ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any other time in human history, contributing to gains in well-being and economic development for some, while threatening the security of most, particularly oppressed populations. We comprehensively reviewed recent social work literature (2010–2015) to examine gaps in environmental sustainability themes relevant to social work practice. Peer-reviewed manuscripts, dissertations/theses and white papers were examined. A total of 71 papers (less than 1% of social work literature) met inclusion criteria. Although our call is to protect human health and well-being, recent literature does not account for sustainability even with evidence that environmental issues directly impact clients, hindering practice efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the centrality of policy actors and moral justifications in media debates on Arctic climate change in Finland and Canada from 2011–2015. We take a network approach on the media debates by analysing relations between the actors and justifications, using discourse network analysis on a dataset of 745 statements from four newspapers. We find that in both countries, governments and universities are the most central actors, whereas business actors are the least central. Justifications that value environmental sustainability and scientific knowledge are most central and used across actor types. However, ecological justifications are sometimes in conflict with market justifications. Government actors emphasize new economic possibilities in the Arctic whereas environmental organizations demand greater protection of the vulnerable Arctic. Ecological justifications and justifications that value international cooperation are more central in the Finnish debate, whereas justifications valuing sustainability and science, as well as those valuing national sovereignty, are more central in the Canadian debate. We conclude that in addition to the centrality of specific policy actors in media debates, the use of different types of moral justifications also reflects political power in the media sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying and explaining changes in the prehistoric material and social world is one of the greatest research interests in archaeology, palaeoclimate and environmental science. In the last two decades or so, a considerable number of studies have made significant contributions to the associated disciplines in eastern Asian archaeology. However, due to the more specialised scientific approaches and the rapid accumulation of new excavation materials, it becomes increasingly difficult for scholars to examine and correlate research outputs from different areas and achieve a holistic picture of the past. Using eastern Asian archaeology as an example, this Special Issue aims to break down the disciplinary boundaries and present the current research debate on how to correlate different climate, environmental and social changes and explain human past. One of the fundamental issues is the lack of adequate chronological resolution to order various archaeological events. To tackle this, a large number of radiocarbon dates, primarily derived from short- lived materials, are provided in the Special Issue. A great variety of changes in local environment, agricultural practice, animal husbandry, technologies, migration, demography and social organisations are revealed in the following papers but there are two profound drivers to all of these changes. One is the broad climate change since the start of the Holocene and the other is the communication between the West and the East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]