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717 It is apparent that climate change is creating financial risks. These risks are of such a nature that they can be regarded as systemic: they are exogenous shocks which may simultaneously cause or contribute to the failure of multiple significant financial institutions. As a result, regulatory tools available to monitor and manage systemic risk have recently been deployed in the context of climate change risks. Such tools include stress testing and scenario analysis. This article examines international initiatives, such as those of the Network for Greening the Financial System, as well as specific central bank initiatives including those by the Bank of England. After some initial observations around climate data, stress test design, and central banks' mandate, this paper continues to discuss further possible inclusion in the prudential regulatory framework. In particular, the question is raised if capital requirements should be adjusted and if changes should be made to the risk management and governance framework. This paper argues in favour of the latter, but is more cautious as regards the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beech wood, renowned for its diverse applications spanning construction, flooring, furniture, veneer, and plywood, holds a paramount position among industrial wood species. Nevertheless, the myriad of beech species worldwide, coupled with the dynamic impact of climate change, have produced structural variations within beech trees. Extensive research has scrutinized the physical and mechanical attributes of beech wood species across the globe. Findings reveal distinguishable mechanical strength, yet increased density leads to notable rates of shrinkage and swelling, somewhat constraining its utility in select domains. Identifying research gaps can create new efforts aimed at exploiting the potential of these wood resources. This paper outperforms a mere exploration of beech wood properties over the past two decades; it delves into the ramifications of climatic fluctuations, temperature shifts, wind dynamics, and soil composition. Given the lack of a comprehensive compendium documenting the full range of physical, mechanical, and microscopic attributes of the Fagus genus, this paper aims to compile information that integrates this multifaceted information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the most alarming events today, which will very likely have devastating effects on a lot of people worldwide. This paper addresses the question as to how constitutional sustainability clauses can be enforced in the age of the climate crisis. It does so by looking into some difficulties of making the notion of future generations operable. First, the paper will briefly analyze two decisions by the Austrian Constitutional Court and the Norwegian Supreme Court, which have both rejected claims based on constitutional sustainability clauses referring to future generations. This is juxtaposed with a recent decision by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany which invigorated Article 20a of the German Basic Law and thereby also future generations. Second, this paper aims at shedding light on the notion of future generations by looking into philosophical debates on the so-called non-identity problem. The question as to how to include future generations in the social contract and selected philosophical strategies to address it are discussed and introduced to the legal discourse. This seems to be a worthwhile goal as by now several scholars from various disciplines such as geography, political science, and applied ecology have opened up a debate on the role of social contracts concerning climate change. This paper seeks to further the debate by aiming to suggest a connection between philosophical social contract reasoning and constitutional sustainability clauses taking the example of Austria, Norway, and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although political discourse is essentially expected to be fact-based and objective, both practice and research show that literal language in political discourse is very often compounded with figurative language. The paper at hand tackles figurative language use in political interviews. For the purposes of this research, we conducted a critical discourse analysis of a corpus of political interviews given by a former Macedonian female politician – Radmila Shekerinska. The corpus consists of six interviews (with a total duration of about 3 h) in which she answers questions about the political climate and the challenges of North Macedonia in the last couple of decades. The selected interviews are all conducted in English as they are aimed at international audiences and they all fit into the time frame from 2017 to 2021, which practically overlaps with the final years of Shekerinska's long-standing political career. This study uses a descriptive qualitative research design and focuses, first, on ascertaining the presence of different types of figures of speech in her answers (e.g. metaphors, simile, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, rhetorical questions, idiomatic expressions, proverbs, etc.); then, on identifying the pragmatic functions they perform in the context in which they are used, and finally, on establishing an interface between the figurative language use and the political ideology propagated by this politician. The results point to an extraordinarily resourceful use of a wide spectrum of figurative devices, skillfully intertwined with fact-based political discourse, primarily for addressing highly sensitive political issues, but also for driving important political points home; also, for gaining support from both the domestic and international community regarding the political ideology of this political figure as well as for enhancing the criticism addressed to political adversaries with an additional layer of creative flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper derives an efficient allocation rule of adaptation aid from a donor to the recipient nations, which is different from the traditional development aid literature. The design of the allocation rule takes care of the optimum reaction of the nations on receipt of the aid. It suggests that the allocation rule must take care of (i) distributional weight of the recipients on the donor's welfare, (ii) their vulnerability to climate change, (iii) their efficiency in using the aid and (iv) their mitigation response to the aid. It discusses the way these factors can be incorporated in an implementable rule by use of the available data. The score of a nation derived from the first three factors requires an upward/downward adjustment if the adaptation aid leads to an increase/decrease of the mitigation effort of the country. A nation receiving a higher score is rewarded with higher allocation of aid. The paper suggests as a rule of thumb that the aid in the form of technical assistance requires a downward adjustment and the aid in monetary form requires an upward adjustment in the score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, websites promoting a nature reserve on the South Eastern coast of Sicily, Priolo Saltpans, are analysed from an ecolinguistic and narrative perspective. The heuristic device of proximisation is used, connecting it to more traditional concepts of temporal-spatial deixis. More specifically, the paper investigates narratives of contact between the modernist discourse of industrial development and emergent, eco-friendly discourses. In the descriptions and narratives of these sites, the area is represented as caught between a semi-mythical past and industrial/post-industrial futures, between the complexities of human social organisation and the apparent simplicity of the natural world. From a multimodal angle, and a perspective that gives a rich account of context, the paper deals with contemporary themes familiar to the Anthropocenic discourse such as loss of bio-diversity, pollution and industrial damage, as well as possible pathways to ecological recovery and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite there being a well-documented need, as well as opportunity, to enhance foreign direct investment ('FDI') inflow to climate-friendly ('green') economic activities in Bangladesh, the reality portrays a stark contrast. Nowhere is it more obvious than the evolving investment relationship between China and Bangladesh under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Originally under the rubric of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor, and later under the garb of the BRI, Chinese investments in Bangladesh have predominantly ended up in fossil fuel-based sectors. Even after the advent and expansion of the 'green BRI' initiative, reality has not changed much. This article offers an assessment of investment inflows from China to Bangladesh under the BRI umbrella against the backdrop of a growing green investment trend and the existing applicable legal framework. It finds that key legal and policy challenges that prevent leveraging of the BRI for green investment into Bangladesh include: an uncoordinated approach from the government, a disregard for the role of economic policy instruments for climate action, and politically motivated, as well as path-dependent decision-making with respect to investment promotion. This paper suggests that ambitious climate commitments combining economic policy tools, along with a more integrative and holistic domestic approach to climate action and investment promotion, can help shift the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has created existential challenges for current models of natural hazard insurance, and it may be difficult going forward for these models to consistently, fairly and coherently manage the compensation challenges associated with climate change impacts in Europe. This paper analyses the application of a comprehensive no-fault compensation fund framework to the problem of presently uninsured and technically uninsurable losses that are currently inadequately covered by other compensation mechanisms, and for which compensation may be difficult to recover using tort law mechanisms. The proposed structure includes consideration of the purpose and form of the fund, eligibility and categories of loss covered, quantum of compensation, and funding sources. There is also a preliminary consideration of the impact of such a fund on questions of liability. The proposed model illustrates potential ways for a compensation fund to support and complement existing compensation structures such as insurance and civil liability, and provide the necessary stabilisation in European society. Further legal research in this area will require qualitative and quantitative empirical data on how existing compensation frameworks (including innovative insurance instruments like parametric insurance) have so far positively and negatively impacted the ability of victims of climate change to prepare for and recover from loss incidents, in comparison with tort law and existing insurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of climate variability on trust in Vietnamese rural households. I contribute to the existing literature, mainly focused on natural disasters, by studying the impact on trust of smooth climate changes. Climate variations are measured using deviations of the minimum temperature in June from the average. I argue that increases in this variable are relevant for the rice, which is the staple food in Viet Nam. Increases in minimum temperatures may reduce rice yields and this, in turn, may affect individuals' propensity to cooperate. Trust is measured using VARHS survey conducted from 2008 to 2014. Estimation of a linear probability model reveals a significantly positive association between the two variables of interest, which is robust after controlling for several checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on our previous work investigating discourses of climate-induced mobility in the UK and US press, this paper addresses the overarching theme of environmental issues and the anthropocene by looking into representations of migration as adaptation in the context of climate change. In particular, drawing on corpus-assisted discourse analysis methodologies, the paper will focus on, and critically explore, meaning patterns of "risk" and "resilience" in a purpose-built diachronic corpus of quality newspapers from the Global North and the Global South between 2010 and 2017. Risk and resilience may in fact be regarded as the defining – though problematic – terms of our anthropogenic era. The investigation focuses on whether and how any significant discursive shifts may be identified in newspaper discourse across the globe and the extent to which the mainstream press reflects this problematicity. Our main findings show that not only is mention of risk more frequent in the Global North throughout than in the Global South media outlets, whereas the opposite is observed for resilience, but also that distinct meaning patterns emerge over time across the different areas of the world under investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What? Where? and Why? are the principal questions to ask in relation to linguistic typological patterns, in phonology as elsewhere. However, assembling sufficient and reliable information on a large diverse sample of languages presents challenges. Some of these issues are discussed in this paper, based on the practices seen in various database projects, including WALS and LAPSyD and in the wider literature. The challenge of recognizing areal convergence can be aided by simple mapping techniques. The most scientifically challenging issue is explaining 'why' as this requires considering multiple physiological, psychological, social, and other effects. Recent efforts to correlate phonological features with climatic and environmental factors offer a further potentially interesting way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the primary objectives of an education system is to prepare students for their adult lives by imparting them with the requisite knowledge, qualifications, and skills that will enable them to confront future challenges effectively. A whitepaper published by the Israeli Ministry of Education titled "The Graduate's Image" stresses the importance of incorporating specific skills into the school curriculum. However, there is a lack of educational programs that can transform teaching skills into actual practice. In light of this conclusion, we developed the program "Chemistry, Climate & the Numbers in Between" to foster these skills and produce graduates with the ability to adopt a critical approach and a well-informed perspective toward the world. In this paper, we delineated the cognitive skills developed in the program. The results indicate that innovative program can be utilized to integrate several important skills into a chemistry lesson. The program has the potential to equip and empower future citizens to address and tackle global challenges while utilizing cognitive skills using chemistry knowledge. However, it is important to note that learning in this way requires much more time than a regular lesson does and requires a significant commitment and investment from the teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under what circumstances does a flood contribute to political disorder in Sub-Saharan Africa? Why has Accra experienced post-flood disorder and Abidjan not? This paper sheds light on the question: Why do some cities in Sub-Saharan Africa experience post-flood disorder while others do not? Given the expected urban population growth across Africa, its implications for the local infrastructure and climate-related changes in precipitation, this paper assumes that patterns of urban political disorder respond to those conditions in times of disasters. This contribution makes the argument that it is the socio-economic and political context that matters in the development of post-flood-related disorder. A conceptual framework is introduced that includes the role of contextual factors on the pathway from disasters to post-flood disorder. Drawing on that model, a Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 26 cases in Sub-Saharan Africa is used to test three scenarios. It suggests that a prompt post-flood response does not prevent the onset of disorder, but indeed proves to be a condition linked to the development of hostilities. The analysis found evidence that disorder occurred in cases that were marked by rapid political response to the flood. The study also unveiled the significant role of the areas that were flooded. If the flood predominantly hit marginalized neighborhoods, the likelihood of disorder increased. In contrast, the mere existence of a youth bulge or rapid urbanization per se seems to have a negligible impact on the development of unrest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the work of Pindyck, R. S. 2012. "Uncertain Outcomes and Climate Change Policy." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 63 (3): 289–303. by taking into consideration a large class of different utility functions of economic agents. As in Pindyck, R. S. 2012. "Uncertain Outcomes and Climate Change Policy." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 63 (3): 289–303, instead of considering a social utility function that is characterized by constant relative risk aversion (C.R.R.A), we use the expo-power utility function of Saha, A. 1993. "Expo-power Utility: A 'Flexible' Form for Absolute and Relative Risk Aversion." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 75 (4): 905–13. In fact, depending on the choice of the expo-power utility function parameters, we cover a diverse range of utility functions. Apart from covering the other utility functions that a C.R.R.A omits, the Expo-power utility function permits us to discern if under the other utility-regimes of economic agents, the willingness to pay remains more affected by uncertain outcomes than certain outcomes when we vary the expectation and standard deviation of the temperature's probability distribution. Our paper has maintained the small-tailed gamma distributions of temperature and economic impact of Pindyck, R. S. 2012. "Uncertain Outcomes and Climate Change Policy." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 63 (3): 289–303. not only because they hinder infinite future welfare losses (for an exponential utility function), but because it is easy to change some moments of the distribution (jointly or holding the others fixed) while studying how uncertainty influences the willingness to pay as explained in Pindyck, R. S. 2012. "Uncertain Outcomes and Climate Change Policy." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 63 (3): 289–303. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While post-disaster rebuilding is an urgent task for affected areas, an approach without consideration for climate protection will probably lead to another disaster of carbon lock-in. Therefore, policymaking and implementation are critically important. This paper takes the Guangyuan prefecture as a case study, where the local government took the lead in low-carbon initiative and made a great contribution to low-carbon development. Based on long-term field investigations and semi-structured interviews, using the theory of multi-level governance, it discusses policy formation and implementation in the Guangyuan prefecture, and how the governance system promoted an environment-and-climate-friendly rebuilding. The results demonstrate the urgency of carbon decoupling in post-disaster-rebuilding and the significance of an effective governance system. This provides insight to the contemporary world that post-disaster rebuilding is not only a revitalization of the affected areas, but a comprehensive undertaking to avoid other possible disasters and ensure a sustainable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By spurring trade, the level of income and consumption and production increase, which consequently causes a more polluted environment. As global economic integration escalates, the possibility of contention becomes more translucent. The foundation of this article is based on the Ricardian model regarding consumption and production pollution function in six scenarios depending on Autarky or trade situation. There is also a difference in the relative labour size of countries. Also, pollution tightness can clarify whether there are any concerns about climate change regarding the production pollution function and consumption pollution function. The theoretical approach proves that unemployment does not occur when we have no concerns about climate change and this tightness of pollution would not impact the level of production and consumption. The emission intensity, relative labour size and tightness of pollution targets are the key elements discussed in both Autarky and trade. The critical point about trade is that it enters specialization, and the home country only produces good 1 and the foreign country only produces good 2. The main finding of this paper, based on a simple theoretical approach, is about the impact of one unit change in relative labour size regarding pollution tightness with respect to the labour force of both home and foreign countries is provided at the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the current issues that involve environmental changes in Nigeria and environmental threats within the country. The fundamental aim of scientific knowledge in environmental studies is to reconcile climate change and environmental sustainability with developmental goals. Therefore, information on impact adaptation to climate change and vulnerability research is required to develop specific, action-oriented, interdisciplinary, successful, sociopolitical and democratic reform for the entire population of a country. This condition requires large inclusion of environmental researchers, institutions, re-inventing of research structures and ideas to dominate the global environmental change research and the critical analysis of present decision making, power, structure and related information structures. This review presents the effect of climate change in Nigeria and encourages adaptation research with challenging innovation, such as the use of energy-efficient renewable energy sources to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This paper also highlighted the need for researchers to become detailed, action oriented and multiscalar and to attend communications structure problems in enhancing the environmental activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most Asian countries exhibit modest income levels and low insurance penetration, while facing rising exposures to natural disasters due to climate change. This paper discusses a strategy for regional collaboration among Asian countries to build resilience through participation in a regional insurance pool. At the core of this strategy is a new type of Climate De-risk Insurance (CDRI) product, where a portion (10–20 %) of the premium is designated for risk assessment and mitigation as compared to conventional loss coverage. CDRI products are offered through commercial insurance companies in participating countries and distributed through a network of dedicated risk management agencies. CDRI insurance needs to be guided by enabling regulation, with greater emphasis on the effectiveness of the use of funds in risk mitigation and claims payments. Moreover, the CDRI development fund can be created in the form of a public-private partnership, as a means of mobilizing financial support for rolling out CDRI insurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three papers joined in this research-cluster issue investigate contemporary works of fiction by focusing on a common formal feature: the inclusion of abstract reflection. While making general statements about contemporary fiction is notoriously difficult, there is nonetheless a clear tendency in a wide range of texts to incorporate short theoretical or essayistic deviations from the narrative sequence. After a brief definition of 'abstraction' and a discussion of its relationship to fictional narration, this introduction outlines the three main axes that shape the overarching research agenda: (1) a concern with the interplay between narrative form, abstract reflection, and cultures of knowledge; (2) a typology of abstract reflections; (3) literary assessments of abstract reasoning. In their respective articles, Ralf Haekel analyses the role of engineering, mathematics, and architecture in three novels by the Irish author Adrian Duncan, Stella Butter investigates mathematical and empathic cultures of knowledge as well as climate change and the Anthropocene in texts by Ted Chiang and Richard Powers, and Jarmila Mildorf examines reflections on music in texts by Julian Barnes, Roger Scruton, and Rose Tremain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economy has seen rapid development ever since its reform and openingup strategy was launched in 1978. Strong economic expansion over the past four decades has taken China from low-income to upper-middle-income status. Looking back at the transformation that China has made, however, we must recognise that the old growth story is coming to an end. The phase of development driven by investment in physical capital will be increasingly supplanted by investment in assets such as knowledge and social capital as well as investment in preservation of natural capital. Recognising the challenges that China is facing, with this paper we aim to offer an approach to growth and development that could spell out a new development strategy for the country as the 21st century progresses. China will focus on the technologies with high-quality growth prospects: modern service sectors, including health, education, transport, communications and IT, artificial intelligence, finance, logistics, sustainable urban infrastructure and new food and land-use systems. With today's technologies, China can help the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries embark on a much more sustainable, more efficient and greener form of development, avoiding historical problems of pollution and congestion, with China itself moving up the value chain at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author argues that the deterioration of the natural environment in China provides a persuasive reason to reorient China's economic growth towards a more sustainable path. Reconciling the development and environment imperatives needs to become an urgent priority for the Chinese government in order to avert the cascading implications that will arise in terms of social unrest, loss of further development opportunities as well as deepening income inequality. This paper thus examines the inter-relationship between the current ecological challenge in China and the need for economic sustainability. It evaluates the extent of environmental damage in China and focuses on the environmental impact on development and social inequality. The paper then examines the recent legislative measures that have been taken by the Chinese government to address the problem of inefficient environmental monitoring. The author suggests that further reform is needed to achieve an economically and ecologically just pathway for China's future. The paper therefore demonstrates that the environment- development challenge in China is mainly a challenge of governance. Resolving it will contribute to better environmental justice and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts justificatory moral pluralism (JMP) – a multilevel framework for justifying the choice by different agents of the most appropriate norms and values to guide their decisions and actions – to climate change. Its main objective is to investigate how ethics may effectively help achieve a better result in deciding how to mitigate, adapt, or compensate by enhancing the moral acceptability of the available policies or actions that are most likely to counter the effects of climate change. JMP presents agents – individuals, nonstate, and state – with a thorough yet flexible process of matching policies and actions with ethical theories, raising the robustness of moral reasons for politically efficient and individually motivating courses of action against climate change. JMP triggers climate responsibility and sensibility in agents, engaging them in discussing and finding out individually and collectively the most acceptable paths for the decarbonisation transition that is fast approaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent discussions of "eco-anxiety" have brought attention to feelings of hopelessness and despair associated with climate change and ecological disaster. When we accept the claims made by science about climate change and realize that our near future is full of unprecedented ecological crisis it is difficult to avoid feelings of anxiety about the future of human life on our planet. While these discussions have largely taken place in the context of psychology and psychoanalysis, there is a need to engage in ethical deliberation about both "eco-anxiety" and "eco-trauma." In this paper, I argue that an environmental virtue of wonder can help to articulate the intersection of environmental ethics and "eco-anxiety" by offering a mean between the excess of anxiety and the deficiency of boredom. I situate this discussion within trauma studies and make connections between the pre-trauma of climate change, wonder, and eco-cinema. More specifically, I argue for a weird environmental ethic that embraces fuzzy boundaries of entangled environments and show that the virtue of wonder allows for flourishing within this context. I use cinema, and specifically Eco-Weird cinema, to argue for a shift in narratives about our present and our future as it relates to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term Anthropocene first appeared in 2000 when scientists Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer attempted to define the environmental effects of anthropic activities. Since then, it has become a widespread, but also controversial, term in the academic community. As environmental discourses increasingly permeate our lives, it has trespassed the borders of scholarly traditions, becoming acknowledged in popular culture. Bearing in mind the pivotal role the press has in the popularization, dissemination and consequent understanding of given topics, the aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it assesses the popularity of the term Anthropocene in online and printed newspapers around the world. Secondly, it examines the degree of scientificity of the articles included in our analysis to understand the type of discourses journalists are relying on in discussing the Anthropocene. Exploring these questions, through a corpus-based discourse analysis, enabled us to assess the weight of the term 'Anthropocene' in contemporary popular debates and its future horizons. The findings highlight a lack of a consistent discussion of the Anthropocene stemming not only from a poor scientific understanding of its ecological drives, but also from the lack of political awareness and a general unpreparedness to face the socio-environmental implications of the Age of Humankind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the resources of Ecolinguistics and Positive Discourse Analysis, this paper investigates the interdiscursive practices that lifestyle vloggers engage in to construct their expertise and credibility when performing eco-activism. The analysis of the corpus of 30 YouTube vlogs promoting a sustainable lifestyle reveals the interplay of cross-generic conventions that young adult YouTubers employ to manage their lay expertise. Their mediated activist talk mixes basic text types of narration, argumentation, exposition and instruction with self-disclosure, technical and colloquial talk as well as social and promotional discourses. In this way, the vloggers exploit the affordances of the medium to construct the new stories of consumerism and everyday, 'ordinary' eco-activism based on private, green lifestyle choices. The vloggers' interdiscursive talk and the presence of credibility strategies in the data may have an empowering effect on the audience. For one thing, the vloggers position their audience as actors who are capable of making effective choices on their way to a sustainable life. For another, empowerment is accomplished through the transformation of the vloggers' private experience into public discourse that members of the audience can find relevant and meaningful. Overall, the study points to the potential of interdiscursive practices in the vlog as a 'positive' linguistic resource that can encourage people to protect our ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate science has established human activity as the major cause of climate change. The successive reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have also provided future scenarios of the detrimental effect of rising temperatures. Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, the voices of climate deniers are still given ample space in the media. Moreover, the urgency of the problem and the importance of taking action are difficult to communicate to the public. This paper analyses the communication strategies employed by climate scientists, climate deniers and climate activists to identify similarities and differences, in particular with regard to expressing (un)certainty. The data are media reports from major British and US newspapers, IPCC reports and the speeches of climate activists, in particular Greta Thunberg. The data are analysed by means of qualitative (eco)critical discourse analysis. The aim is to draw conclusions about how climate change could be communicated more effectively to the general public to promote action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social-ecological resilience (SER) is setting a new trend of thinking about environmental issues since it considers climate unpredictability as the norm in the Anthropocene and climate disturbance as offering opportunities for change. This paper argues that SER can be conceptualized as a function of narrative text and talk in the recent practice of online environmental activism. Based on a case study, the investigation explores a TED talk by the US environmentalist, Al Gore, and a web-based text by the Indian activist, Vandana Shiva, seeking how meanings of climate change enhance resilience building. A mixed-method research design is used to perform a discursive frame analysis on the sample discourses, guided by key resilience-building principles, and framed by the methods of critical discourse and frame analyses. The twofold aim is to analyse how micro-linguistic features mediate social-ecological memory and novelty as key SER drivers, and how macro-discursive frames are selected to shape meanings cross-culturally. Based on these findings, the comparative analysis at the socio-discursive level highlights how SER ideologies underpinning these discourses particularly diverge in the context of the Global North/Global South divide. Overall, the study findings shed light on the multiple meanings of SER shaping more constructive responses to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite older adults' vulnerability to climate change, little research has investigated their preferred adaptation strategies. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into their perspective and the potential for participatory adaptation to enhance their resilience. This paper presents the results of a collaborative adaptation planning process conducted with older adults in Bridgeport, Connecticut. During two meetings, older adult participants developed recommendations following adaptation best practices. Recommendations focused on encouraging preparedness through workshops and informational materials tailored for older adults. Additional recommendations focused on enhancing community services to provide effective warning mechanisms, shelter access, ride sharing and transportation assistance, and establishing a telephone based clearinghouse for extreme weather and emergency resources for older adults. A prioritization exercise showed that the participants and city staff believed all recommendations were potentially effective and feasible. A summative evaluation showed that the participatory planning enhanced resilience by raising awareness among the older adult participants and city agencies, enhancing communication, and increasing the older adult participants' ability to self-advocate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil explorations by multinational corporations in Nigeria have grave consequences on the ecosystem. Gas flaring, oil spillage, and other forms of land and water pollution seriously degrade the natural environment as well as displace Nigerians from their homes and traditional occupations. Pollution has caused increased flooding, erosion, and dearth of both food and fishes, leading to poverty and hidden hunger, among other problems. More destructive is the reactionary disposition of the Nigerian state to climate change and ecological disasters. Beside the provision of make-shift structures and relief materials to flood victims, there are hardly any proactive efforts on the ground to check the activities of multinational corporations operating in the country. Greg Mbajiorgu's eco-drama Wake Up Everyone (2011) depicts the challenges of the climate crisis in contemporary Nigeria. A close reading and critical analysis of the play, which is a microcosm of the country, illuminates the ways these challenges affect Nigerians and the need for action. Apart from displacing individuals from their homes, flooding takes a heavy toll on the agricultural sector, as most crops and livestock production systems in Nigeria are not yet fully technology-based and are, therefore, susceptible to environmental degradation. As a result, the flooding of farms and plantations, damaging crops and seedlings, leads to a corresponding degree of food scarcity/insecurity and indeed inflation in the cost of farm produce. This paper concludes that conscious efforts suggested in the play should be made to forestall multinational corporations from further pillaging the environment, and that government functionaries saddled with the task of forging active measures to stem the effects of climate change in the country should rise to their responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present and study highly efficient stochastic methods, including optimal super convergent methods for multidimensional sensitivity analysis of large-scale ecological models and digital twins. The computational efficiency (in terms of relative error and computational time) of the stochastic algorithms for multidimensional numerical integration has been studied to analyze the sensitivity of the digital ecosystem, namely the UNI-DEM model, which is particularly appropriate for connecting and orchestrating the many autonomous systems, infrastructures, platforms and data that constitute the bedrock of predicting and analyzing the consequences of possible climate changes. We deploy the digital twin paradigm in our consideration to study the output to variation of input emissions of the anthropogenic pollutants and to evaluate the rates of several chemical reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany is a rather water-rich country. Nevertheless, climatic changes might make it necessary to use water resources carefully in the future, especially in times of drought. Against this background, this paper estimates the price elasticity of household water consumption, differentiating between households that have a rough knowledge of water prices and households that do not. Based on about 1,100 observations for households living in single-family houses and using the sum of cubic meter prices for water and wastewater as price measure, we find a moderate but statistically significantly non-zero price elasticity of -0.102. Households that have knowledge of water prices tend to exhibit a higher elasticity, while households without price knowledge do not show a statistically significant response in their water consumption. Prices can thus only be used to a limited extent as a means of controlling water consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global climate system poses important challenges for the perception and understanding of its functioning from policymakers and the general public. The aim of the paper is to model through gamification, the evolution of understanding regarding the dynamics of climate change and climate change adaptation. Using a framework with repeated feedback loops, the impact of the rate of carbon dioxide absorption by natural ecosystems, the stochastic nature of economic systems and the stochastic and irreversible nature of global climate are analyzed, with the Dynamic Climate Change Simulator with Stochastic and Irreversible Climate Change. The simulator game models one control variable, carbon dioxide emissions and one stock variable, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. In addition, the rate of carbon dioxide absorption by natural ecosystems is modeled, with business cycle shocks and climate change tipping points. The ability to control carbon dioxide concentrations to a goal level is evaluated and policy insights are provided about how learning about the dynamics of the Earth's climate through gamification can be advanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses Baatz's work (2018) published in a recent issue of this journal. It first considers the proposed framework of justice within which to evaluate instruments for adaptation finance; it then develops the framework's criteria of fairness and feasibility further; finally, it proposes an option for increasing the capacity of Baatz's framework to ensure that instruments for adaptation finance operate in a just way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary political environment of polarized claims about disputed realities, the online fact-check industry was born. These enterprises have received awards and praise but also accusations of bias and error, bringing their methods and conclusions into question. This paper examines the comparative epistemology of the three major fact-check sites: do they examine the same questions and reach the same conclusions? A content analysis of the published fact-checks addressing three disputed realties - the existence of climate change, the influence of racism, and the consequences of the national debt - suggests substantial differences in the questions asked and the answers offered, limiting the usefulness of fact-checking for citizens trying to decide which version of disputed realities to believe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is predicted to make extreme weather events worse and more frequent in many places around the world. In New Zealand, the Earthquake Commission (EQC) was created to provide insurance for earthquakes. In some circumstances, however, homeowners affected by extreme weather events can also make claims to the EQC – for landslip, storm or flood events. In this paper, we explore the impact of this public natural hazard insurance on recovery from weather-related events. We do this by using a proxy for short-term economic recovery: satellite imagery of average monthly night-time radiance. Linking these night-time light data to precipitation data records, we compare areas which experienced damage from extreme rainfall episodes to those that suffered no damage even though they experienced extreme rainfall. Using data from three recent intense storms, we find that areas that experienced property damage, and were paid in a timely manner by EQC, did not fare any worse than areas that suffered no property damage but were exposed to these extreme precipitation events. This finding suggests that EQC insurance is serving its stated purpose by protecting claimants from the adverse impact of extreme weather events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the world's attention is on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change remains a greater existential threat to vulnerable countries that are highly dependent on a weather-sensitive sector like tourism. Using a multidimensional index, this study investigates the long-term impact of climate change vulnerability on international tourism in a panel of 15 Caribbean countries over the period 1995–2017. Empirical results show that climate vulnerability already has a statistically and economically significant negative effect on international tourism revenues across the region. As extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe over time, our findings indicate that the Caribbean countries need to invest more in adaptation and mitigation in order to reduce vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review the literature on the economics of climate change with a focus on the evolution of the literature from some of the early classic papers to the latest contributions. We divide the paper into three main sections: trends in greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation, and adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is becoming an essential element when it comes to climate change greenhouse issues. To aid in reducing the CO2 emission into the environment, numerous governments support individual investments in solar system on their residential rooftop. A set of regulations were established by the local utilities to control and manage the input energy power into the grid from the rooftop-installed solar system. One of the main regulation is the maximum allowable size of the single-phase solar inverter. The solar inverter size has direct impact on the maximum PV panels installed on the house rooftop, which control the house maximum electrical output power. In addition, the solar panels are solidly fixed on the house roof, which doesn’t allow to track the sun energy during the day. This also reduces the house output power during a nominal period throughout the day. The study in this paper introduces the maximum power point box that allow the house owner to maximize the output energy during the morning, midday and afternoon period without the need to upgrade the inverter or the single phase system for the house. Also the proposal allows for more efficient building integration between solar panels and building design, which reduces the cost of the proposed system. Case study is also included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the international community repetitively pledged considerable amounts of adaptation finance to the global South, only little has been provided so far. Different instruments have been proposed to generate more funding and this paper aims at identifying those that are most suitable to raise adaptation finance in a just way. The instrument assessment is based on the following main criteria: fairness, effectiveness and feasibility. The criteria are applied to four instruments: contributions from domestic budgets, international carbon taxes collected at the national level, border tax adjustments aswell as selling emissions allowances in domestic trading schemes. Domestic emission trading schemes and border tax adjustments achieve the best-or rather, the least bad-results. Two further findings are that (feasible) instruments are unable make agents pay for past excessive emissions and that all instruments generate rather small amounts of funding. As a consequence of the latter, adaptation finance will continue to be highly insufficient in all likelihood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental crisis that faces the world today is sometimes seen to be the result of making wrong turns on the path to human development. This is especially so in terms of the technologies humans adopt, the way such technologies are powered, and the morality that is at the foundation of societies that develop and utilize such technologies. Humanity has come to the realization that the technologies that were ushered in with a fanfare and that may still enjoy considerable patronage sometimes have a darker side that may exact a costly price. The situation would probably have been different if there had been credible alternatives waiting in the wings, but no such alternatives exist and the path to such alternative technologies will probably be fraught with even more dangers. The view in this paper is that the current environmental crisis is not so much a problem of making wrong choices in technology as it is a problem with the nature of our science: a science which stifles the growth of views that contradict the opinion at the centre. It argues that the discouragement of adventitious ideas is responsible for the lack of credible alternatives to current technologies and therefore the inability to discard technologies that are considered anachronistic. In view of the above, the paper argues for a liberalisation of science through the tolerance of heretical scientific views as well as alternative knowledge systems. It questions the morality of subscribing to a single method of science in an era where alternatives exist to every other human facility and argues, following Mill and Feyerabend, not only for the proliferation of technologies but also for the proliferation of sciences as a safeguard against scientific lethargy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last years, independent central banks were often criticized. Many critics felt that the fatal flaw of the current system lied in its independent nature. Some critics argued that the remedy to such problems was to replace independence with interdependence. Such a drastic measure is completely unnecessary. No more time should be lost discussing further the merits or the weaknesses of central bank independence. But taking central bank independence as a given, one should simply try to equip central bankers with the mandates, the tools, and the values best fitted to help them face future shocks. Deeper checks and balances with other institutions and the fair financing of investment by all economic agents, including startups and SMEs, are urgently necessary to head off financial crises that will inevitably arise in this era of growing wealth inequality, disruptive technologies and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay stems from our growing concern about the carbon intensity of academia, and of conferencing as an epitome of this. Face-to-face conferencing is widely recognised as both unsustainable and inequitable. Against this backdrop, digital conferencing (online only, or in hybrid form) offers a viable alternative. However, shifting to digital forms of conferencing does not automatically bring about equity. Drawing on white papers, academic discussions and results from a PollEverywhere survey, this essay explores issues of sustainability and equity across modes of face-to-face and digital conferencing, with the aim of charting a path towards more sustainable and accessible digital practises for a diverse community of linguists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is an ever-growing problem that requires a network of policy solutions. There exists variation in state-level responses to climate change, firmly placing it within the context of state-level representation. There are various explanations for policy outcomes at the state level, including public opinion, institutional control, interest group activity, among others. With respect to climate change, another potential explanation provided by scholars for the variation in policy responses is the degree of risk posed by climate change to a particular state. However, climate change serves as a somewhat unique policy position as it is highly visible and has been a polarizing issue in American political discourse. This paper analyzes how risk, political control, and opinion affect policy responses to climate change. Employing multiple measures for state-level action on climate change as well as state-level opinion on the existence and perceived threat of climate change, this analysis theorizes that given the polarized nature of the climate change debate in the United States, public opinion on the realities of climate change and partisan control of state government influences policy outcomes more so than any level of quantified threat from climate change. The causal reasoning for this dual effect is the impact of citizen demands and overarching party ideologies. Even when controlling for wealth, energy industry activity, and political lobbying within states, findings indicate a strong relationship between citizen opinion and partisan control on state-level action on climate change, posing a challenge for combatting long-term impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues the relevance of the internet for scientific communication. It is not only an immense source of information, it also empowers laypeople to interact by commenting, rating, and sharing online content. Previous studies have found that users' contributions to online content affect the reception processes. However, research on who actually uses these participatory possibilities is scarce. This paper characterizes engaged (and non-engaged) online users by analyzing online engagement (using search engines and different participatory forms) with a representative German online survey ( n = 1,463). Different groups of climate change perceptions (such as uncertainty of scientific evidence), attitudes, knowledge, and online engagement are identified with hierarchical cluster analyses. Interest and knowledge are main drivers of online engagement, although a group of uninterested, unknowing and doubtful users participates in SNSs. The most active group, participating experts, knows most about scientific processes in climate sciences. No distinct group of skeptical participants was identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how linguistic and image elements in a text may work at cross-purposes, so that, despite an apparent overall visual-verbal coherence, one semiotic resource undermines the message of another. This effect has implications for the study of intersemiosis and the making of meaning that occurs when semiotic resources, such as language, image, and sound combine in multimodal discourse, and also indicates that a multimodal approach, involving the study of language with other resources, is necessary to fully analyze contemporary discourse practices. In addition, the analysis in this paper aims to situate the competing discourses of science and the media at work in the analyzed text within the context of existing research findings on the communication of information relevant to the climate change debate. Our argument is illustrated by an analysis of an article appearing in New Scientist magazine and its Web site, and makes use of three established semiotic frameworks of analysis: Halliday and Matthiessen's (An introduction to functional grammar, Arnold, 2004) systemic functional theory, Martin and White's (The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) appraisal theory, and Kress and van Leeuwen's (Reading images: The grammar of visual design, Routledge, 2006) visual grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on international environmental agreements (IEA) considers the case of identical countries. There is a much smaller literature concerning the more complex but more realistic case of country heterogeneity. This paper involves modifying the standard static homogeneous country model of international environmental agreements. In particular, we consider two types of countries, differing in size as well as in marginal damage from pollution. Although the IEA does not have a unique size in this case, we do introduce two equilibrium refinements and explore the implications for coalition size. The two refinements include one based on efficiency and one based on equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interesting relatively new development in the field of corporate climate change disclosures is the Task force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The TCFD aims to help identify the information needed by financial stakeholders to appropriately assess and price climate change related risks and opportunities. In its first Report (2016), the TCFD recommends that companies provide climate change related disclosures specifying the impact thereof on their financial performance through mainstream (i. e. public) financial filings. In this paper, we look at the financial accounting standards as an institutional framework, and in particular pose the question to what extent this framework supports companies to disclose how climate change impacts their operations and the value of the production assets. To test to what extent companies make disclosures in relation to climate change, we selected four energy companies and conducted a comparative case study analysis. Our focus is on the valuation of production assets, more specifically, drilling platforms, windmill platforms, heavy equipment and transport means used to support the production, and pipes and cables to transport the energy units produced. Interesting findings were: (i) in all four cases, potential future changes (caused by climate change) concerning the valuation of the production assets are not (yet) accounted for in their Balance Sheet Annex. This is remarkable because climate change is likely to have an effect on the future value of the production assets employed in the two types of industries, among others caused by the development that renewable energy demand increases at the expense of non-renewable energy demand; and (ii) the current financial reporting system does not support renewable energy companies to provide meaningful and quantitative insights in expected increases of their future cash inflows and their financial and innovation potential. This impedes financiers and investors to accurately and meaningfully assess the value of a renewable energy company's business compared with a non-renewable company's business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on climate change and sustainability have been gaining interest within the global preservation and conservation communities. However, studies related to sustainability in library preservation and conservation, especially in academic libraries, are still limited. This study aims to determine current practices of sustainable library preservation and conservation in academic libraries. The findings of this study will serve as a starting point to obtaining a comprehensive understanding of how academic libraries are implementing climate change–responsible preservation and conservation programs. This study applies quantitative and descriptive approaches to collect data. A questionnaire was distributed to the top 200 universities in the Universitas Indonesia (UI) GreenMetric World University Rankings 2021. The results show that current practices of sustainable library preservation and conservation implemented at the majority of academic libraries relate to sustainable energy use. Although some areas still need to be developed (e.g., policy and regulation toward sustainable library preservation and conservation practices, alternative eco-friendly preservation and conservation materials, and waste management practices), the fact that academic libraries have implemented sustainable practices in preservation and conservation is noted as a positive finding, since it represents success in universities' efforts to address the climate change issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased flooding is expected to be one of the greatest threats caused by climate change. Flood insurance helps to cope with the risk of flooding, but take‐up rates are relatively low in many places. Mainly in developing countries, index‐based flood insurance – where the insurer's payout is based on pre‐agreed weather indices instead of actual loss – has been marketed recently. In this paper, we investigate whether the introduction of index‐based flood insurance with relatively low premiums is likely to attract new customers in a high‐income country, namely Germany. We use data from a discrete choice experiment combined with damage data for a major flood in 2013. We find index‐based flood insurance to attract similar customers as traditional damage‐based, while the latter is preferred on average. Our results suggest that not many new customers would enter the market, once index‐based flood insurance were available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of digital tools and interactive technologies for farming systems has increased rapidly in recent years and is likely to continue to play a significant role in meeting future challenges. Particularly games and gaming are promising new and innovative communication strategies to inform and engage public and stakeholders with scientific research. This study offers an analysis of how a research based game on climate change maladaptation can support, but also hinder players' sense-making processes. Through the analysis of eight gaming workshops, this study identifies challenges and support for the players' sense-making. While it concludes that conceptual thinking of game content sometimes clashes with players' everyday experiences and practice, possibly resulting in loss of credibility, this study also concludes that gaming may function as an eye-opener to new ways of thinking. Overall, this paper suggests that the communication of (social) science and agricultural practices through serious gaming has great potential but at the same time poses challenges due to different knowledge systems and interpretive frameworks among researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]