Community Governance and Citizen-Driven Initiatives in Climate Change Mitigation

Community Governance and Citizen-Driven Initiatives in Climate Change Mitigation
Author: Jens Hoff
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2015-08-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317458427

One of the most heartening developments in climate change mitigation in recent years has been the increasing attention paid to the principle of ‘thinking globally and acting locally’. The failure of the international community to reach significant global agreements on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has led local governments, environmental organisations and citizens themselves to focus increasingly on the local possibilities for action on climate change. This book analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the co-production of climate policies that take place where citizen engagement and local initiatives converge with public agencies. Case studies from Northern Europe, Australia/New Zealand and the USA reveal that traditional individualist approaches to promoting environmental behaviour epitomised by information campaigns and economic incentives cannot trigger the deep behavioural changes required to materially improve our response to climate change. Only by marshalling the forces of thousands, and eventually millions of citizens, can we manage to reach environmental sceptics, reinforce political action and create the new social norms that are sorely needed in our local, and global, response to climate change. This book will be of great relevance to scholars and policy makers with an interest in climate change politics and governance, community engagement and sustainable development.

The Climate Report

The Climate Report
Author: U.S. Global Change Research Program
Publisher: Melville House
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2019-01-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1612198031

To hide its dramatic findings, the government quietly released its mandated Climate Assessment Report on Black Friday 2018. Now, this full color reproduction is the definitive edition of ”the most comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change on the United States” (The New York Times), which every citizen should own. The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is mandated by law "at least every four years ... to submit to the president and the Congress an assessment regarding the findings of ... the effects of global change, and current and major long-term trends in global change." The report was released by the Trump administration without fanfare in the wake of a series of some of the most devastating hurricanes in American history, as well as the horrific California wildfires. As the report says, "The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid." Detailing not only the destructive toll of global warming on the environment, but also the related health issues leading to tens of thousands of deaths per year, and economic losses of tens of billions of dollars, the report concludes that "The evidence of human-caused climate change is overwhelming and continues to strengthen, that the impacts of climate change are intensifying across the country, and that climate-related threats ... are rising."

Engaged Research for Community Resilience to Climate Change

Engaged Research for Community Resilience to Climate Change
Author: Shannon Van Zandt
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2020-06-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0128155760

Engaged Research for Community Resilience to Climate Change is a guide to successfully integrating science into urban, regional, and coastal planning activities to build truly sustainable communities that can withstand climate change. It calls for a shift in academic researchers’ traditional thinking by working across disciplines to solve complex societal and environmental problems, focusing on the real-world human impacts of climate change, and providing an overview of how science can be used to advocate for institutional change. Engaged Research for Community Resilience to Climate Change appeals to a wide variety of audiences, including university administrators looking to create and sustain interdisciplinary research groups, community and state officials, non-profit and community advocates, and community organizers seeking guidance for generating and growing meaningful, productive relationships with university researchers to support change in their communities. Focuses on the process of building a successful, active partnership between climate change researchers and climate resilience professionals Provides case studies of university-community partnerships in building climate resilience Includes interviews and contributors from a wide variety of disciplines engaged in climate resilience partnerships

The Lived Experience of Climate Change

The Lived Experience of Climate Change
Author: Dina Abbott
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2015-04-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319179454

This book explores the idea that daily lived experiences of climate change are a crucial missing link in our knowledge that contrasts with scientific understandings of this global problem. It argues that both kinds of knowledge are limiting: the sciences by their disciplines and lived experiences by the boundaries of everyday lives. Therefore each group needs to engage the other in order to enrich and expand understanding of climate change and what to do about it. Complemented by a rich collection of examples and case studies, this book proposes a novel way of generating and analysing knowledge about climate change and how it may be used. The reader is introduced to new insights where the book: • Provides a framework that explains the variety of simultaneous, co-existing and often contradictory perspectives on climate change. • Reclaims everyday experiential knowledge as crucial for meeting global challenges such as climate change. • Overcomes the science-citizen dichotomy and leads to new ways of examining public engagement with science. Scientists are also human beings with lived experiences that filter their scientific findings into knowledge and actions. • Develops a ‘public action theory of knowledge’ as a tool for exploring how decisions on climate policy and intervention are reached and enacted. While scientists (physical and social) seek to explain climate change and its impacts, millions of people throughout the world experience it personally in their daily lives. The experience might be bad, as during extreme weather, engender hostility when governments attempt mitigation, and sometimes it is benign. This book seeks to understand the complex, often contradictory knowledge dynamics that inform the climate change debate, and is written clearly for a broad audience including lecturers, students, practitioners and activists, indeed anyone who wishes to gain further insight into this far-reaching issue.

The Climate Report

The Climate Report
Author: U.S. Global Change Research Program
Publisher: Melville House
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2019-01-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1612198023

To hide its dramatic findings, the government quietly released its mandated Climate Assessment Report on Black Friday 2018. Now, this full color reproduction is the definitive edition of ”the most comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change on the United States” (The New York Times), which every citizen should own. The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is mandated by law "at least every four years ... to submit to the president and the Congress an assessment regarding the findings of ... the effects of global change, and current and major long-term trends in global change." The report was released by the Trump administration without fanfare in the wake of a series of some of the most devastating hurricanes in American history, as well as the horrific California wildfires. As the report says, "The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid." Detailing not only the destructive toll of global warming on the environment, but also the related health issues leading to tens of thousands of deaths per year, and economic losses of tens of billions of dollars, the report concludes that "The evidence of human-caused climate change is overwhelming and continues to strengthen, that the impacts of climate change are intensifying across the country, and that climate-related threats ... are rising."

The Citizen's Guide to Climate Success

The Citizen's Guide to Climate Success
Author: Mark Jaccard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2020-02-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108479375

Shows readers how we can all help solve the climate crisis by focusing on a few key, achievable actions.

The Citizen's Guide to Climate Success

The Citizen's Guide to Climate Success
Author: Mark Jaccard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-02-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108788009

Sometimes solving climate change seems impossibly complex, and it is hard to know what changes we all can and should make to help. This book offers hope. Drawing on the latest research, Mark Jaccard shows us how to recognize the absolutely essential actions (decarbonizing electricity and transport) and policies (regulations that phase out coal plants and gasoline vehicles, carbon tariffs). Rather than feeling paralyzed and pursuing ineffective efforts, we can all make a few key changes in our lifestyles to reduce emissions, to contribute to the urgently needed affordable energy transition in developed and developing countries. More importantly, Jaccard shows how to distinguish climate-sincere from insincere politicians and increase the chance of electing and sustaining these leaders in power. In combining the personal and the political, The Citizen's Guide to Climate Success offers a clear and simple strategic path to solving the greatest problem of our times. A PDF version of this title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core at doi.org/10.1017/9781108783453.

Communicating Climate Change

Communicating Climate Change
Author: Susanna Priest
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2016-12-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 113758579X

This book asks and answers the question of what communication research and other social sciences can offer that will help the global community to address climate change by identifying the conditions that can persuade audiences and encourage collective action on climate. While scientists often expect that teaching people the scientific facts will change their minds about climate change, closer analysis suggests this is not always the case. Communication scholars are pursuing other ideas based on what we know about influence and persuasion, but this approach does not provide complete answers either. Some misconceptions can be corrected by education, and some messages will be more powerful than others. The advent of the Internet also makes vast stores of information readily available. But audiences still process this information through different filters, based on their own values and beliefs – including their understanding of how science works. In between momentous events, media coverage of climate tends to recede and individuals turn their attention back to their daily lives. Yet there is a path forward: Climate change is a social justice issue that no individual – and no nation – can solve on their own. A different sort of communication effort can help.

Climate of Ecopolitics

Climate of Ecopolitics
Author: Paul Taylor
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 88
Release: 2008-04
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0595501524

Climate of Ecopolitics is a vital Citizen's Guide that sorts out the millions of bits of information on global climate change. Global warming has been described as both the world's biggest crisis, and the biggest hoax-neither is true. This book explores the history, histrionics, psychology, false prophets and marketers of the environmental movement. A provocative view of global ecopolitics is presented; where governments demand radical and costly action on climate change and global warming. And sadly, where the due diligence of climate science cause-and-effect findings are an inconvenience- ". green group propaganda have distorted climate change far beyond rational scientific discovery or discourse."-LOS ANGELES TIMES ". we spend as much on environmental protection as on national defense and homeland security combined."-THE WALL STREET JOURNAL This book also examines the key government policies for dealing with the issues of global climate change and climate science.