scholarly journals Corridors of Clarity: Four Principles to Overcome Uncertainty Paralysis in the Anthropocene

BioScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (12) ◽  
pp. 1139-1144
Author(s):  
Stephen Polasky ◽  
Anne-Sophie Crépin ◽  
Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs ◽  
Stephen R Carpenter ◽  
Carl Folke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Direct Path ◽  
Policy Action ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Causal Pathways ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
Evidence For Policy ◽  
Broad Scale

Abstract Global environmental change challenges humanity because of its broad scale, long-lasting, and potentially irreversible consequences. Key to an effective response is to use an appropriate scientific lens to peer through the mist of uncertainty that threatens timely and appropriate decisions surrounding these complex issues. Identifying such corridors of clarity could help understanding critical phenomena or causal pathways sufficiently well to justify taking policy action. To this end, we suggest four principles: Follow the strongest and most direct path between policy decisions on outcomes, focus on finding sufficient evidence for policy purpose, prioritize no-regrets policies by avoiding options with controversial, uncertain, or immeasurable benefits, aim for getting the big picture roughly right rather than focusing on details.

scholarly journals Environmental problems and environmental governance in the context of dynamic economic growth – the case of China

2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Richerzhagen ◽  
Imme Scholz
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Policy Coordination ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Global Environmental

AbstractThe fast growing anchor countries have become key players in mitigating global environmental change. China is a very particular anchor country. The size, scope and quality of the environmental degradation associated with its dramatic economic growth is much larger than that of all the other anchor countries. Despite being regarded as an all-embracing emerging superpower, China is a very heterogeneous country regarding its economic, social and environmental structure. Regional differences require an effective response. However, China’s environmental governance system is characterized by a number of weaknesses, which impede the implementation of targets and objectives set by policies and laws. The most significant weakness refers to the insufficient institutional framework for horizontal and vertical policy coordination. Good environmental governance requires measures that address these deficiencies. Furthermore, the diffusion of public information on the costs of environmental degradation and the rule of law have to be promoted as complementary measures.

Global Environmental Change and Agriculture

jpa ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen L. Rawlins
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental

Political Consumerism for Sustainable Tourism

2018 ◽  
pp. 348-366
Author(s):  
Machiel Lamers ◽  
Jeroen Nawijn ◽  
Eke Eijgelaar
Keyword(s):  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Sustainable Tourism ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
Global Environmental

Over the last decades a substantial and growing societal and academic interest has emerged for the development of sustainable tourism. Scholars have highlighted the contribution of tourism to global environmental change and to local, detrimental social and environmental effects as well as to ways in which tourism contributes to nature conservation. Nevertheless the role of tourist consumers in driving sustainable tourism has remained unconvincing and inconsistent. This chapter reviews the constraints and opportunities of political consumerism for sustainable tourism. The discussion covers stronger pockets and a key weak pocket of political consumerism for sustainable tourism and also highlights inconsistencies in sustainable tourism consumption by drawing on a range of social theory arguments and possible solutions. The chapter concludes with an agenda for future research on this topic.

scholarly journals Implications of global environmental change for the burden of snakebite

Toxicon X ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 100069
Author(s):  
Gerardo Martín ◽  
Carlos Yáñez-Arenas ◽  
Rodrigo Rangel-Camacho ◽  
Kris A. Murray ◽  
Eyal Goldstein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental

Engaging with the science and politics of biodiversity futures: a literature review

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Carina Wyborn ◽  
Elena Louder ◽  
Mike Harfoot ◽  
Samantha Hill
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Science Community ◽  
Impact On Biodiversity ◽  
Made In

Summary Future global environmental change will have a significant impact on biodiversity through the intersecting forces of climate change, urbanization, human population growth, overexploitation, and pollution. This presents a fundamental challenge to conservation approaches, which seek to conserve past or current assemblages of species or ecosystems in situ. This review canvases diverse approaches to biodiversity futures, including social science scholarship on the Anthropocene and futures thinking alongside models and scenarios from the biophysical science community. It argues that charting biodiversity futures requires processes that must include broad sections of academia and the conservation community to ask what desirable futures look like, and for whom. These efforts confront political and philosophical questions about levels of acceptable loss, and how trade-offs can be made in ways that address the injustices in the distribution of costs and benefits across and within human and non-human life forms. As such, this review proposes that charting biodiversity futures is inherently normative and political. Drawing on diverse scholarship united under a banner of ‘futures thinking’ this review presents an array of methods, approaches and concepts that provide a foundation from which to consider research and decision-making that enables action in the context of contested and uncertain biodiversity futures.

Global Environmental Change Symposium

Eos ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 70 (19) ◽  
pp. 580
Author(s):  
Susan M. Bush
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental
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