Search Results for « Climate change »

In the last 5 years, climate change has emerged as a dominant theme in literature and, correspondingly, in literary studies. Its popularity in fiction has given rise to the term cli‐fi, or climate change fiction, and speculation that this constitutes a distinctive literary genre. In theater, the appearance of several big‐name productions from 2009 to 2011 has inspired an increase in climate change plays. There has been a growing trend, too, of climate change poetry, thanks to the rise of ecopoetry (poetry that exhibits ecological awareness and engages with the world's current state of environmental degradation) and the launch of some key climate change poetry initiatives in the media. This prevalence of climate change literature has brought about a greater engagement with climate change in literary studies, notably the environmentally oriented branch of literary studies called ecocriticism. The increasing number of ecocritical analyses of climate change literature, particularly novels, is helping to shape a canon of climate change fiction. In a separate development, there has been greater interest in the phenomenon of climate change in literary or critical theory (the branch of literary studies concerned with literary concepts and philosophies rather than with literary texts). This development—centered on the study of climate change as a philosophical or existentialist problem—is sometimes termed climate change criticism or critical climate change. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:266–282. doi: 10.1002/wcc.385 This article is categorized under: Trans‐Disciplinary Perspectives > Humanities and the Creative Arts

This study reviews the literature on gender relations and climate change. Gender analysis contributes to our understanding of: (1) vulnerability and climate change impacts; (2) adaptations in different contexts; (3) responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions; (4) inequalities in climate governance; and (5) knowledges and social action on climate change. Overall, the literature has established that gender relations are an integral feature of social transformations associated with climate change. This poses a challenge to gender‐blind social research into climate change. Without gender analysis, we omit key aspects of social life in a changing climate. It is vital that the gendered character of climate change is recognized and further explored in the social sciences and humanities. WIREs Clim Change 2017, 8:e451. doi: 10.1002/wcc.451 This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Sociology/Anthropology of Climate Knowledge

Abstract Climate change is a defining element of the current ecological landscape, with consequences ranging from global to local environments. One of the first indices of the ecological impact of the ongoing environmental changes was measurement of their effects on phenology, the seasonal timing of recurring annual events such as the beginning of the growing season, timing of flowering, and breeding seasons of animals. Research has moved beyond simple descriptions of these temporal changes to investigations of their root causes, impacts, and consequences at both ecological and evolutionary time scales. This changing landscape, environmental, ecological, and evolutionary, makes this an exciting, albeit sometimes depressing, time to be a scientist. This article is categorized under: Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Observed Impacts of Climate Change Climate, Ecology, and Conservation > Observed Ecological Changes

Abstract Climate change can be construed as a question of collective responsibility from two different viewpoints: climate change being inherently a collective problem, or collective entities bearing responsibility for climate change. When discussing collective responsibility for climate change, “collective” can thus refer to the problem of climate change itself, or to the entity causing the harm and/or bearing responsibility for it. The first viewpoint focuses on how climate change is a harm that has been caused collectively. Collective action problem refers to an aggregation of individual actions which together produce an outcome that is not intended at the level of an individual action. It cannot be solved by any one agent acting unilaterally. Instead, climate change action must be enacted and supported by numerous agents. The second way to conceptualize climate change as a question of collective responsibility focuses on the collective entities that bear responsibility for climate change. As a global problem, climate change is linked to the realm of international politics, where states, governments, and intergovernmental organizations are the main collective entities. Other important agential collectives in terms of climate responsibility are corporations, including carbon majors who have produced the bulk of emissions. Climate change has also been theorized as a structural injustice , which combines elements from both the viewpoints on what is collective about responsibility for climate change. This article is categorized under: Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Ethics and Climate Change Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Climate Change and Global Justice