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Thus far, climate impacts and adaptation initiatives have not realized the added value of climate adaptation. Adaptation often appears as an afterthought, with an emphasis on technological solutions. Lacking is a consideration of the process of adaptation : how adaptations will be implemented, by whom and why. The aim of the paper is to show how climate adaptation can be further developed in Norway through a discourse approach. Three specific discursive strategies – a scientific–economic, communicative–economic , and scientific–communicative discourse – are presented. The paper portrays how specific institutions operating at the local level in Norway can convey or ‘carry’ these discourses and thus how actors, placed within these institutions, can use discourses as resources when planning for climate adaptation. There is clearly a need for further studies that aim to demonstrate how insight from discourse analysis can be used as a tool for planning. The present paper is a step in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the research on understanding local global warming politics. Strategic documents from The Cities for Climate Protection Campaign (CCPC) are analysed to show how CCPC has constructed climate change protection as a local issue. The paper's premise is that the climate change issue must be translated or framed to enable actors to work with this problem in a local context, and that successful framing requires establishing a coherent method of describing social reality. CCPC emphasises that the different elements of local and global sustainable development agendas can be mutually reinforcing, and that climate change protection can be reconciled with local priorities and initiatives that reduce greenhouse gases (GHG). It is argued that this framing of climate change makes it difficult to see why and how climate change should be an important concern for local communities. The modest reductions of GHG in CCPC cities thus far highlights that finding meaningful new ways of linking the global and the local should be a core concern of CCPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a major issue for all levels of government, global, national and local. Local authorities' responses to climate change have tended to concentrate on their role in reducing greenhouse gases. However, the scientific consensus is that we also need to adapt to unavoidable climate change. Spatial planning at a local level has a critical anticipatory role to play in promoting robust adaptation. This paper reviews the shift in local authorities' planning policies for climate change adaptation in the UK since 2000, and provides evidence of underlying attitudes amongst planning professionals to climate change. It shows that, while the issue of climate change is becoming recognized with respect to flood risk, the wider implications (for instance, for biodiversity and water resources) are not yet integrated into plans. The reasons for this lie in lack of political support and lack of engagement of the planning profession with climate change networks. But the paper also argues there are difficulties in acknowledging the need for adaptation at the local level, with the short-term horizons of local plans at odds with perceptions of the long-term implications of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As new forms of governance for climate change emerge in African cities, will they enable emancipatory and socially progressive transformations or will they exacerbate existing inequality, poverty and vulnerability patterns? This paper presents one of the case studies developed by UN-Habitat Cities and Climate Change Initiative in Maputo, Mozambique. The case analyses first, the production of urban vulnerabilities under climate change, and second, the existing governance arrangements for climate change in the city. Building on the lessons of the case study, the paper argues that to ensure that new forms of climate change governance lead to socially and environmentally just outcomes climate change interventions should, at least, meet two conditions: first, they should consider the close interactions between social and ecological elements and, specially, how patterns of urban inequality interact with environmental factors; second, they should recognise the opportunities in African cities through a broad notion of governance that looks beyond the government as the sole agent of urban change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that the ability of women to adapt to climate change pressures will be enhanced by using the 'capabilities approach' to direct development efforts. By using this approach, women will improve their well-being, and act more readily as agents of change within their communities. This argument is supported by previous research on gender and livelihoods, and a study conducted in rural India. Examples are based on the experiences of poor, rural women in India, who are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Their survival is dependent on their being able to obtain many essential resources from their immediate environment. Yet these women lack many of the requirements for well-being, such as access to healthcare, literacy, and control over their own lives. Gaining these would reduce their vulnerability to their changing environmental circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts by assessing the extent to which gender considerations have been taken into account in the international processes concerning the development of climate change policy. Finding that there has been very little attention to gender issues, neither in the protocols and treaties nor in the debates around them, the paper goes on to consider whether there are in fact any meaningful gender considerations as regards (a) emissions of greenhouse gases, (b) vulnerability to climate change, and (c) participation in projects under climate funding. It concludes by suggesting some areas where attention to gender could improve the effectiveness of climate interventions and also benefit women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of global climate change seeks to understand: (1) the components of the Earth's varying environmental system, with a particular focus on climate; (2) how these components interact to determine present conditions; (3) the factors driving these components; (4) the history of global change and the projection of future change; and (5) how knowledge about global environmental variability and change can be applied to present-day and future decision-making. This paper addresses the use of high-performance computing and high-throughput computing for a global change study on the Digital Earth (DE) platform. Two aspects of the use of high-performance computing (HPC)/high-throughput computing (HTC) on the DE platform are the processing of data from all sources, especially Earth observation data, and the simulation of global change models. The HPC/HTC is an essential and efficient tool for the processing of vast amounts of global data, especially Earth observation data. The current trend involves running complex global climate models using potentially millions of personal computers to achieve better climate change predictions than would ever be possible using the supercomputers currently available to scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from the organisational learning and governance literature, this paper assesses four internationally networked governmental and non-governmental organisations in the UK addressing climate change. We analyse how those concerned understand the climate change crisis, what mechanisms are put in place to address information flows, and what evidence there is of learning through sharing information between the organisational headquarters and their regional offices. The most striking finding is the evidence of learning that largely depends on ad-hoc informal processes and shadow networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An international Expert Panel was established in 2007 to undertake an assessment of the impacts of climate change on forests and forest-dependent people as well as on management and policy options for effective adaptation to climate change. This paper summarizes the main findings of the assessment, which has also revealed severe limitations in current knowledge. Much more research is needed, especially on the forest-related social and economic impacts of climate change. Despite the limitations of current knowledge, climate change is progressing too quickly to postpone actions pending the outcomes of future studies. The assessment confirms that the practices associated with sustainable forest management are likely to help reduce environmental, social and economic vulnerabilities under a wide range of potential future climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has already affected and will continue to affect physical and biological systems in many parts of the world. For example, annual snow cover extent in the northern hemisphere has decreased by about 10% since 1966, and in Sweden, the last decade was wetter and warmer than the preceding 30-year period. These changes will affect many aspects of utilisation patterns that are dependent on the physical environment, such as alpine winter tourism. In this paper, we discuss the future development of the downhill skiing industry in Sweden. We first review trends in alpine winter tourism in relation to climate change together with regional projections of climate change. Secondly, we examine trends in climate parameters relevant to alpine winter tourism in Sweden during the last 30 years. Thirdly, we take these parameters, together with regional projections of climate change, and predict effects on the number of skiing days in order to estimate the monetary loss for the skiing industry in Sweden. The analyses show predicted losses that are larger than current ski-ticket sales. Adaptation strategies such as the development of year-round tourist activities should be developed as soon as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses global climate change. Current scientific understanding of global climate change suggests that an increasing frequency of disasters due to extreme weather events will be even more conspicuous feature as the twenty-first century progresses. The climate change we are experiencing is better characterized as increased instability rather than simple "global warming." Recent advances in paleoclimatology have made possible a better analysis of the historical and archaeological record, no longer limited to tree rings, we now have climate records based on deep cores drilled in glacial ice and lake sediments from Antarctica to Greenland.

The “Ricardian” technique for projecting climate change impacts on agriculture has generated an unusual amount of critical attention. Ricardian climate sensitivities are typically viewed as the necessary and static result of exclusively local economic and biophysical conditions. In this paper, six spatial econometric models are estimated to explore how human-environment relationships associated with climate sensitivities have varied over space and time in the Great Plains, 1969–1992. Results indicate that spatial effects, such as extra-local communication processes and proximity to and regulation of Ogallala irrigation water, are important influences on climate sensitivities. Projected climate change impacts also vary significantly with the scale, location, and time of analysis. Under a hypothetical climate change, at the county scale, land values would decline (by up to one-third) in the western counties, but increase (by up to one-half) in the eastern counties. In some cases, the projected impacts for a given county change algebraic sign or order of magnitude during the study period. At the regional scale, impacts are significantly higher in the early years (a projected increase of about 5 percent of regional land values, ∼$7 billion [1992$]) than in the later years (an increase of about one-half of one percent, ∼$0.7 billion). These results suggest that, suitably modified, the Ricardian framework can be used constructively to explore subtle yet important social dimensions of dynamic climate risk, and that on balance the Great Plains system of agricultural production, despite a heterogeneous picture of projected impacts, appears to be increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the capacities of different local institutions to enhance farmers' climate change adaptation (CCA) strategies in Southern Benin. Results are used to reflect on the international support to CCA for developing countries. The study is based on field researches led among farmers' households in Southern Benin, on interviews conducted among governmental and non-governmental institutions, and on analysis of relevant literature. Constraints and opportunities to the development of adaptation practices, and their relation to institutional support (or lack of support) are examined. In addition, the impact of farmers' perceptions of institutions is studied. Results highlight that State institutions are currently unable to support adaptive capacities. On the contrary, non-governmental organizations have promoted agricultural adaptive strategies to cope with changing climate patterns. Findings, furthermore, highlight a lack of trust in state institutions among farmers, while traditional chiefs and local organizations are trusted, even when their capacities to provide support are limited. The results question the ability of state institutions to enhance adaptation in the local communities: they, therefore, challenge the significant role given to governmental structures in the international support to CCA in developing countries, for instance, in the National Adaptation Programmes of Action. Suggestions to better support adaptive capacities at the local level are discussed in the concluding section. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article systematically assesses the likelihood of effective implementation of several key options to reduce global biodiversity loss, including ‘conventional’ biodiversity policies, such as expanding protected areas, and policies primarily developed for other purposes but with potential positive side effects for biodiversity, such as ambitious climate change mitigation efforts, forest protection, and sustainable fishing practices. While existing studies highlight the technical feasibility of implementing such policy options, their political feasibility is rarely considered in detail. Political feasibility refers to the constraints that either make agreement on policies difficult in the first place for limit or prohibit the effective implementation of agreed policies. Drawing on a broader research project that models the effectiveness of international environmental regimes based on the robust findings of regime theory, we utilize a novel assessment framework to study the political barriers and opportunities to the implementation of biodiversity policies at the global level. The analysis suggests that focusing on those options that are technically less ambitious is more likely to be implemented in the short term. In conclusion, the article highlights the importance of analyzing the institutional and governance-related aspects of policies to reduce biodiversity loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of a complex array of risks facing the planet and society. It is argued that adaptation to and mitigation of climate change will be required to avert or reduce adverse impacts. Governments are developing climate change adaptation (CCA) strategies. The business community is also stirring to the need to adapt to as well as mitigate climate change, but progress has been slow, particularly in the case of adaptation. This paper explores emerging perceptions of the need for adaptation and some initial adaptation actions within a 'business as usual' economic mode of operation. It also identifies constraints to further action among a cross-section of actors in the business community in South Africa. Data from semi-structured interviews and scrutiny of reports reveals that there are a number of constraints preventing business from engaging more fully in CCA. These findings correspond with findings in other business-sector and CCA studies. They include: issues of terminology (adaptation versus risk management); uncertainty over climate-change projections and scenarios; and concerns about how such information can be used effectively in decision making, particularly long-term business planning. Despite these challenges, some potential synergies between policy, planning and the business community for promoting adaptation are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between environmental change and development through a vulnerability study of a rural village in southwest Bangladesh. Villagers deal with a variety of pressing stresses, and climate change is not considered separately, if at all. Environmental, political and economic conditions and adjustments in resource use systems, particularly shrimp farming, have changed livelihood opportunities and increased the vulnerabilities of poor villagers to future environmental changes, including climate change. Practical adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerabilities to climate-related stresses reflect the dynamics of people's livelihoods and address the conditions they currently face. In this case, planned adaptations were mainstreamed in the sense that they contributed to the livelihoods of people and made some improvement in their capacity to deal with changes in climate, and they were undertaken via established non-government institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon explains why human civilization must make a transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy sources—not just because of climate concerns but also because conventional oil is declining in production and becoming increasingly difficult to extract. He describes the political climate in Canada, where conversation about global warming—and especially about the oil sands in Alberta—is now widely viewed as unpatriotic and pointless. Homer-Dixon envisions a potential wake-up call to humanity in the form of a climate shock to global food-production systems, triggered by extreme weather events, and he sees increasing evidence for a connection between environmental stresses and civil conflicts. He calls for accelerated research on energy technologies, such as ultra-deep geothermal power, and for new research on how to restructure economies and social institutions. According to Homer-Dixon, the climate change problem might ultimately reside as much in our heads as in the external world. His latest work focuses on mapping the “mindscape,” a virtual space within which most of the world’s people are clustered in a few ideologically polarized groups. Vast, unexplored regions of the mindscape, he says, may offer new ways of thinking about problems such as climate change and new ways of living together successfully in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although informal learning environments have been studied extensively, ours is one of the first studies to quantitatively assess the impact of learning in botanical gardens on students' cognitive achievement. We observed a group of 10th graders participating in a one-day educational intervention on climate change implemented in a botanical garden. The students completed multiple-choice questionnaires in a pre-post-retention test design. Comparing the test scores revealed a significant short-term knowledge gain as well as a long-term knowledge gain. Consequently, our results show the potentials of botanical gardens as effective learning environments, and for complementing formal school-based learning settings regarding climate change education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's five Mediterranean-climate regions are typified by similarities in climate reflected in structural vegetation patterns. We developed a methodology to define high-rainfall (annual precipitation ≥800 mm) Mediterranean climates and contrast patterns of between- and within-region climatic heterogeneity. Climatic indices describing the seasonality of the climate were computed in Geographic Information Systems and included in a numerical analysis, in addition to selected bioclimatic variables, using the pattern analysis program PATN. Selected locations from high-rainfall Mediterranean-climate regions were grouped according to climatic similarity, and within-region climatic heterogeneity was compared between regions. Areas traditionally not considered as Mediterranean-climate regions emerged in the classification. Only the Mediterranean-type systems within the Pacific north-west of North America and south-central Chile comprised a substantial extent of high-rainfall Mediterranean climate. Both of these regions were characterized by a high climatic diversity and steep topographic gradients. The numerical analysis demonstrated the high diversity of the high-rainfall Mediterranean-climate type and differences in within-region climatic heterogeneity between the world's high-rainfall Mediterranean-climate regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent extreme weather events in eastern Australia have again raised questions in the public sphere about the nature of links between anthropogenic climate change and extreme weather events. Demonstrating that anthropogenic climate change was wholly responsible for any extreme weather event may never be possible in a system as complex as the Earth's. Yet the extent to which anthropogenic climate change increased the likelihood of some specific extreme weather events occurring can be quantified. However, this article argues that unmitigated climate change threatens not just measurable, increased likelihoods of extreme events, but over time, wholly unpredictable frequencies for extreme weather events. This article asks what the prospects might be for continued provision of insurance in a climate-changed world, for the insurance sector as well as the societies dependent on insurance as a primary tool to manage financial risks. The article argues that ultimately, the only viable way to insure against climate risks will be through effective mitigation of climate change: deep and rapid cuts in emissions now as a ‘premium’ to avoid uninsurable climate risks in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This response article written from 'outside' the Swedish-Danish contexts of this special issue considers how we might highlight and make additional ecocentric meaning of some of the terms most frequently used in this collection. In the first instance my focus is on 'meaning' but this is expanded to include other terms such as valuing, values, ethics and democracy. The way we value meaning demands elaboration because 'meaning-making' is pedagogically central to the ecological experience of learning, crucial to fulfilling the not always clear aims of environmental and sustainability education and their regional variations (including education for sustainable development), important for their research, and, indeed, underpins the philosophical quest more generally. Thus in this article, I introduce an ecology of the meaning of meaning, meaning levels, valuing and values, as they might inform stronger notions of democracy in critical approaches to learning, education, sustainability and development. This existentially focused introduction to 'meaning' and its 'making' is set against the politics of 'climate change' where political leaders have recently made grand declarations about the globalized moral challenge induced by human-induced climate change. How might pedagogues and researchers imagine the place of meaning and role of value in learning and in an education for sustainable development when the crisis of meaning lies at the intersections of the intensely personal and moral and the globally abstracted political? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In present-day knowledge societies, readers cannot understand complex issues without constructing meaning across multiple information sources. To what extent they are able to do so may depend on both characteristics of reading tasks and characteristics of readers themselves. In this study, 184 undergraduates read multiple texts about the complex issue of climate change in 3 task conditions: argument, summary, and global understanding. Results showed that readers given the tasks of constructing arguments and summarizing information were more able to build deep-level, integrated understandings from the texts than readers given the task of producing a general overview. However, effects of task were moderated by readers' beliefs concerning the certainty of knowledge about climate change. Specifically, readers who considered knowledge about climate change to be tentative and evolving were more able to profit from the argument task and more constrained by the global understanding task than were readers who considered knowledge about climate change to be certain. These findings provide new insight into task and reader characteristics that underlie deep-level, integrated understanding of multiple texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is conventionally recognised as a large-scale issue resolved through regional or national policy initiatives. However, little research has been done to directly evaluate local climate change action plans. This study examines 40 recently adopted local climate change action plans in the US and analyses how well they recognise the concepts of climate change and prepare for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The results indicate that local climate change action plans have a high level of 'awareness', moderate 'analysis capabilities' for climate change, and relatively limited 'action approaches' for climate change mitigation. The study also identifies specific factors influencing the quality of these local jurisdictional plans. Finally, it provides policy recommendations to improve planning for climate change at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate seventh grade students' conceptions of global warming and climate change. The study was descriptive in nature and involved the collection of qualitative data from 91 seventh grade students from three different schools in the Midwest, USA. An open response and draw and explain assessment instrument was administered to students. These data were analyzed for content in an inductive manner to identify students' concepts. The categories that emerged from the students' responses reflected different degrees of sophistication or conceptualization about global warming and climate change. The students' conceptions of global warming and climate change in this study were similar to previous studies in that they lacked a rich conceptualization of the issue, especially as it pertains to the greenhouse effect and its connection to global warming. At the same time, this study expanded on previous studies by further elucidating students' conceptions of the impact of global warming on the Earth's oceans, weather, and plants and animals. Here too, students lacked a rich conceptualization. Based on these findings we make curricular recommendations that build on the students' conceptions and the NRC (1996) science education standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate model, United Kingdom Meteorological Organization model (UKMO) and multivariate statistics, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were employed to determine the climate diversity and agroclimatic indicators in future climate change. Monthly weather data from 1968 to 2000 at 36 weather stations in Iran were used to generate climate change scenarios for years 2025 and 2050. The UKMO model predicted a temperature rise of 2.7°C and a rainfall decrease of 12% by 2050. By 2050, length of the growth period is predicted to increase by 16 days, length of the dry period will increase by 22 days because of a delay in the first freezing day and an advance in the last freezing day, and the subsequent increase in temperature and decrease in rainfall. Cluster analysis of weather station data shows that 10 currently defined agroenvironment zones will be reduced to 8 by 2025 and to 7 by 2050. Climate change will decrease geographic differences in temperature and precipitation in Iran, and precipitation will be increasingly a determining indicator in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulatory agencies use many chemical standards to help protect human health and the environment. Some of these standards could potentially be adversely influenced by climate change, so it is important to scope the likelihood of such changes, and develop a plan for addressing them. A review of the literature showed that many complex interactions could occur between climate change factors, chemicals, and receptors. However, the way in which chemical standards are currently set is already likely to take into account predicted climate changes in temperate regions, at least implicitly. In contrast, compliance monitoring to ensure that chemical standards are not breached may be compromised if climate change leads to more variability in measured parameters, with a consequent reduction in the statistical power of monitoring programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the importance of communicating the urgency and challenge of global climate change. Trend for Americans to be preoccupied with many issues other than climate change; Findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regarding the potential impacts and emissions reductions needed in order to avoid drastic consequences; Consideration of how many scientists have issued publicized warnings to alert the public of the need for action; Hurdles encountered by the U.S. public in a national dialogue on climate change; Impact of the release of emissions of heat-trapping gases and subsequent impacts on the climate; Ways to increase the persuasiveness of the climate change message without appealing to fear. INSETS: FLIPPING THE "SWITCH ON ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE";UNDERMING URGENCY: DEALING MORE EFFECTIVELY WITH ALARMISTS.

Discusses the key requirements for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). Reference to how the Russian ratification of the treaty approved it along with the participation of 126 other countries; Indications that the U.S. and Australia will not take actions to ratify the agreement; Reference to how the rules of the agreement were rewritten at the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) of the Framework Convention in order to lower the costs for Canada, Japan, and Russia; Goals of a post-Kyoto framework which will focus on fundamental aspects of the science and economics of global climate change policy; Suggestion for industrialized to take initial steps to make emissions reductions on their own.

The global climate is subject to increasing change, and this has become more evident over recent years. The latest climate projection models of the United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, a high-level, independent, scientific advisory body, suggest that if no action is taken now to reduce greenhouse gases, air surface temperatures could rise to levels that will significantly alter ecosystems. No one will be immune from the overall impacts of climate change, but it will have a disproportionate effect on the lives of poor people in developing countries, where poverty increases people's vulnerability to its harmful effects. Poor people in overcrowded temporary settlements erected on unsuitable land will be at risk of flooding and land slides. Those eking out an existence from subsistence farming will have no savings or assets to insure them against external shocks. Lack of sanitation and limited access to clean water, poor diet, and inadequate healthcare provision will undermine resistance to disease.

Presents news briefs pertaining to the environment as of November 1997. Expansion of research activity in world and applied climatology; Program for improving the land by irrigation, drainage and other projects in Russia.