Benjamin S. Orlove
Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, Department Member
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Research Interests: Geography and Pastoralism
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We argue that solutions-based research must avoid treating climate change as a merely technical problem, recognizing instead that it is symptomatic of the history of European and North American colonialism. It must therefore be addressed... more
We argue that solutions-based research must avoid treating climate change as a merely technical problem, recognizing instead that it is symptomatic of the history of European and North American colonialism. It must therefore be addressed by decolonizing the research process and transforming relations between scientific expertise and the knowledge systems of Indigenous Peoples and of local communities. Partnership across diverse knowledge systems can be a path to transformative change only if those systems are respected in their entirety, as indivisible cultural wholes of knowledge, practices, values, and worldviews. This argument grounds our specific recommendations for governance at the local, national, and international scales. As concrete mechanisms to guide collaboration across knowledge systems, we propose a set of instruments based on the principles of consent, intellectual and cultural autonomy, and justice. We recommend these instruments as tools to ensure that collaboration...
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The water-food nexus literature examines the synergies and trade-offs of resource use but is dominated by large-scale analyses that do not sufficiently engage the local dimensions of resource management. The research presented here... more
The water-food nexus literature examines the synergies and trade-offs of resource use but is dominated by large-scale analyses that do not sufficiently engage the local dimensions of resource management. The research presented here addresses this gap with a local-scale analysis of integrated water and food management in Burkina Faso. Specifically, we analyse the implementation of a national food security campaign (Opération Bondofa) to boost maize production in a subbasin that exhibits two important trends in Africa: a large increase in small-scale irrigators and the decentralisation of water management. As surface water levels dropped in the region, entities at different scales asserted increased control over water allocation, exposing the contested nature of new decentralised institutions, and powerful actors’ preference for local control. These scalar power struggles intersected with a lack of knowledge of small-scale irrigators’ cultural practices to produce an implementation an...
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The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how the accessibility of greenspace can shift in response to social-ecological disturbance, and generated questions as to how changing dimensions of accessibility affect the ecosystem services of... more
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how the accessibility of greenspace can shift in response to social-ecological disturbance, and generated questions as to how changing dimensions of accessibility affect the ecosystem services of greenspace, such as improved subjective well-being. Amidst the growing consensus of the important role of greenspace in improving and maintaining well-being through times of duress, we examine how access to greenspace is affecting subjective well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the relationship of greenspace to subjective well-being and the barriers to greenspace access are well-established for normal conditions. Much remains to be known, however, about how barriers to access and the effect of greenspace on subjective well-being shift in response to periods of social duress, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from surveys and interviews conducted with 1,200 university students in the United States during the spring of 2020, we a...
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The varied effects of recent extreme weather events around the world exemplify the uneven impacts of climate change on populations, even within relatively small geographic regions. Differential human vulnerability to environmental hazards... more
The varied effects of recent extreme weather events around the world exemplify the uneven impacts of climate change on populations, even within relatively small geographic regions. Differential human vulnerability to environmental hazards results from a range of social, economic, historical, and political factors, all of which operate at multiple scales. While adaptation to climate change has been the dominant focus of policy and research agendas, it is essential to ask as well why some communities and peoples are disproportionately exposed to and affected by climate threats. The cases and synthesis presented here are organized around four key themes (resource access, governance, culture, and knowledge), which we approach from four social science fields (cultural anthropology, archaeology, human geography, and sociology). Social scientific approaches to human vulnerability draw vital attention to the root causes of climate change threats and the reasons that people are forced to ada...
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An analysis of glacier lake outburst floods in the Bhutanese Himalayas in 1994 and 2015 demonstrates the social importance of the temporality of water, understood as the variability in its flow and its capacity to disturb human activity.... more
An analysis of glacier lake outburst floods in the Bhutanese Himalayas in 1994 and 2015 demonstrates the social importance of the temporality of water, understood as the variability in its flow and its capacity to disturb human activity. The ways in which social institutions and cultural meanings change and influence the perception, understanding and modes of interaction with water are examined here, to indicate how the relations between people and a river are neither stables nor in flux, but rather in ongoing reconfiguration. The importance of these social institutions and cultural meanings are demonstrated by a comparison of two types of buildings which are vulnerable to the floods: the traditional temple-fortresses and the new hydroelectric power plants.
Research Interests: Buddhism, Geography, Water, Natural Disasters, Temporality, and 4 moreBhutan, Floods, Glacier, and Hydroelectricity
Extreme events are the aspects of climate to which human society is most sensitive. Due to both their severity and their rarity, extreme events can challenge the capacity of physical, social, economic and political infrastructures,... more
Extreme events are the aspects of climate to which human society is most sensitive. Due to both their severity and their rarity, extreme events can challenge the capacity of physical, social, economic and political infrastructures, turning natural events into human disasters. Yet, because they are low frequency events, the science of extreme events is very challenging. Among the challenges is the difficulty of connecting extreme events to longer-term, large-scale variability and trends in the climate system, including anthropogenic climate change. How can we best quantify the risks posed by extreme weather events, both in the current climate and in the warmer and different climates to come? How can we better predict them? What can we do to reduce the harm done by such events? In response to these questions, the Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate has been created at Columbia University in New York City (extreme weather.columbia.edu). This Initiative is a University-wide activity focused on understanding the risks to human life, property, infrastructure, communities, institutions, ecosystems, and landscapes from extreme weather events, both in the present and future climates, and on developing solutions to mitigate those risks. In May 2015,the Initiative held its first science workshop, entitled Extreme Weather and Climate: Hazards, Impacts, Actions. The purpose of the workshop was to define the scope of the Initiative and tremendously broad intellectual footprint of the topic indicated by the titles of the presentations (see Table 1). The intent of the workshop was to stimulate thought across disciplinary lines by juxtaposing talks whose subjects differed dramatically. Each session concluded with question and answer panel sessions. Approximately, 150 people were in attendance throughout the day. Below is a brief synopsis of each presentation. The synopses collectively reflect the variety and richness of the emerging extreme event research agenda.
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INTRODUCCIÓN La chaquitaclla, como vimos en el capítulo precedente, es una herramienta concebida para roturar el pastizal luego de varios años de descanso pastoreado, en el barbecho sectorial de altura. La pregunta de “¿por qué los... more
INTRODUCCIÓN La chaquitaclla, como vimos en el capítulo precedente, es una herramienta concebida para roturar el pastizal luego de varios años de descanso pastoreado, en el barbecho sectorial de altura. La pregunta de “¿por qué los campesinos se sirven todavía de esta herramienta?” remite, lógicamente, a estas otras: ¿Porqué el barbecho sectorial? ¿Para qué sirve el largo descanso pastoreado? ¿Por qué no separar en el espacio los terrenos que se cultivan todos los años, donde la labranza sea ..
Research Interests: Area Studies, Agriculture, Bolivia, Soc, Perú, and 5 moreAgricultura, Campesinos, Pérou, Bolivie, and Paysannerie
Tantos esfuerzos empleados para dispersar los riesgos y acondicionar el medio, ¿permiten a los campesinos andinos vivir, y más simplemente alimentarse? ¿Cómo? Para responder —a falta de una película sobre los trabajos y los días, las... more
Tantos esfuerzos empleados para dispersar los riesgos y acondicionar el medio, ¿permiten a los campesinos andinos vivir, y más simplemente alimentarse? ¿Cómo? Para responder —a falta de una película sobre los trabajos y los días, las fiestas y las enfermedades— presentaremos aquí algunas de las familias campesinas con las que hemos trabajado por largo tiempo. 1. DIEZ AÑOS EN LA VIDA DE CAMPESINOS DE LAS RIBERAS DEL TITICACA Beatriz MONTOYA, Pierre MORLON, Sharon CHANNER 1.1. MARCO Y OBJETIVOS..
Research Interests: Area Studies, Political Science, Agriculture, Bolivia, Soc, and 6 morePerú, Agricultura, Campesinos, Pérou, Bolivie, and Paysannerie
This article examines the unfolding of integrated water resource management (IWRM) reforms in southwest Burkina Faso, where water resources are subject to conflicting claims by a diversity of users. We first describe the establishment a... more
This article examines the unfolding of integrated water resource management (IWRM) reforms in southwest Burkina Faso, where water resources are subject to conflicting claims by a diversity of users. We first describe the establishment a local water user committee, showing how choices regarding composition and operations grant varying levels of recognition to different stakeholders. We then discuss the implications for key dimensions of decentralized governance, namely representation and accountability. In particular we focus on: (a) how the interplay of political agendas and policy disconnects shapes the committee's viability and credibility and (b) how tensions between techno‐scientific and local knowledge affect participation and transparency. We argue that in contexts defined by contentious politics and neo‐patrimonial practices, representativeness is better ensured by the direct inclusion of user groups rather than elected officials. Though limited discretionary power, infor...
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Castree et al.(2014) are correct that a ‘single, seamless concept of integrated knowledge’ cannot do justice to the diversity of meanings that need to be brought to bear in addressing the challenges of global environmental change. We also... more
Castree et al.(2014) are correct that a ‘single, seamless concept of integrated knowledge’ cannot do justice to the diversity of meanings that need to be brought to bear in addressing the challenges of global environmental change. We also agree with them that environmental social sciences and humanities (ESSH) can make important contributions to global environmental change (GEC) science. However, their charge that we ignore the full range of anthropological contributions to understanding of climate change reflects a misreading of our recent Perspective in this journal (Barnes et al 2013), as we only attempted to discuss a few exemplary strands of the many contributions from anthropology to a richer understanding of climate change (for a more detailed discussion, see our forthcoming edited volume, Barnes and Dove, eds. 2015).
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Research Interests: Sociology, Geography, Anthropology, Climate Change, Environmental Archaeology, and 13 moreClimate Change Adaptation, Political Science, Environmental Ethics, Environmental Sustainability, Multidisciplinary, Nature, Social Science Research Network, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Climate Science, Anthropological Research, Fieldwork Methodology, Gn, and Nature-based Solutions to climate change
... Foreign Cloth in the Lowland Frontier: Commerce and Consumption of Textiles in Bolivia, 1830-1930 93 Erick D Longer 5. Chile in the Belle Epoque: Primitive Producers, Civilized Consumers 113 Benjamin Orlove and Arnold J. Bauer 6.... more
... Foreign Cloth in the Lowland Frontier: Commerce and Consumption of Textiles in Bolivia, 1830-1930 93 Erick D Longer 5. Chile in the Belle Epoque: Primitive Producers, Civilized Consumers 113 Benjamin Orlove and Arnold J. Bauer 6. Imports and Standards of Justice on ...
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Fire is an essential element of the northern Australian ecosystems with extensive areas burnt each year. The basic climate condition of high rainfall during the summer monsoon, followed by an extended warm dry winter, along with highly... more
Fire is an essential element of the northern Australian ecosystems with extensive areas burnt each year. The basic climate condition of high rainfall during the summer monsoon, followed by an extended warm dry winter, along with highly combustible vegetation (much of which grows rapidly during summer and senesces during winter), creates a highly flammable environment. These vegetation conditions change under various naturally occurring climate oscillations such as El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The present paper investigates the link between burnt areas of northern Australia, rainfall, the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and sea surface temperatures (SST) for a 9-year period (1997–2005). The burnt area distribution is compared with the strength and timing of the monthly averaged rainfall, SOI and SST. Results indicate a strong relationship between antecedent rainfall and ENSO indices with area burnt. This is especially strong between the burnt areas of June–October and the pr...
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ABSTRACT This paper explores the role of emotion in understanding why repeated and increasingly urgent warnings about the effects of global warming have failed to motivate significant actions to address it. It draws on a comparative... more
ABSTRACT This paper explores the role of emotion in understanding why repeated and increasingly urgent warnings about the effects of global warming have failed to motivate significant actions to address it. It draws on a comparative anthropological study on perceptions of and responses to glacier retreat in communities in three glaciated mountain regions: the Cordillera Blanca in the Peruvian Andes, the South Tirol in the Italian Alps, and the North Cascades in the U.S. The massive retreat of mountain glaciers during the last half-century is one of the most visible and high confidence level indicators of global warming. Although glacier retreat is well documented scientifically in each of these regions, our study found that the level of concern about it varied widely between the three study sites. The paper begins with an explanation of the ecological model of emotion we are using and a consideration of emotions associated with glaciers historically. Next it describes the three study sites and the ways that residents of each site feel about the loss of glaciers and its effects. Finally, it draws on this comparative perspective and recent research from several social science disciplines on the role of emotion in human beliefs and behaviors to suggest ways that emotion can help explain the observed variation. The paper concludes by extending these suggestions to responses to climate change more generally.
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Findings are reported from two field studies that measured the evolution of coastal residents' risk perceptions and preparation plans as two hurricanes—Isaac and Sandy—were approaching the U.S. coast during the 2012 hurricane season.... more
Findings are reported from two field studies that measured the evolution of coastal residents' risk perceptions and preparation plans as two hurricanes—Isaac and Sandy—were approaching the U.S. coast during the 2012 hurricane season. The data suggest that residents threatened by such storms had a poor understanding of the threat posed by the storms; they overestimated the likelihood that their homes would be subject to hurricane-force wind conditions but underestimated the potential damage that such winds could cause, and they misconstrued the greatest threat as coming from wind rather than water. These misperceptions translated into preparation actions that were not well commensurate with the nature and scale of the threat that they faced, with residents being well prepared for a modest wind event of short duration but not for a significant wind-and-water catastrophe. Possible causes of the biases and policy implications for improving hurricane warning communication are discussed.
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A dispute between government ministries and peasant communities over control of the reed beds in Lake Titicaca, Peru, in the 1970s led to a state of irresolution, with each side believing that the conflict had been resolved in its favor.... more
A dispute between government ministries and peasant communities over control of the reed beds in Lake Titicaca, Peru, in the 1970s led to a state of irresolution, with each side believing that the conflict had been resolved in its favor. In this article, maps drawn by both sides are examined in order to analyze the understandings that each side had of the conflict and to discuss the lack of resolution. The article elaborates a framework for the analysis of maps and other representations, and discusses other theories about the role of representations in political encounters.
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Research Interests: Geography, Earth Sciences, Climate Change, Decision Making, Climate variability, and 15 moreApplied Linguistics, Indigenous Knowledge, Agriculture, Knowledge Systems, Multidisciplinary, Traditional Knowledge, Seasonality, Social Science Research Network, Food supply, Social Context, Climatic Change, Precipitation, Community participation and engagement, Indigenous, and Interannual Variability
Highlights d We present a large-n global assessment of equity in adaptation responses d Paper examines the extent to which marginalized groups are considered in responses d Responses in Africa and Asia are more likely to consider equity... more
Highlights d We present a large-n global assessment of equity in adaptation responses d Paper examines the extent to which marginalized groups are considered in responses d Responses in Africa and Asia are more likely to consider equity than other regions d Increased attention to how equity is integrated into adaptation is urgently needed
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how the accessibility of greenspace can shift in response to social-ecological disturbance, and generated questions as to how changing dimensions of accessibility affect the ecosystem services of... more
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how the accessibility of greenspace can shift in response to social-ecological disturbance, and generated questions as to how changing dimensions of accessibility affect the ecosystem services of greenspace, such as improved subjective well-being. Amidst the growing consensus of the important role of greenspace in improving and maintaining well-being through times of duress, we examine how access to greenspace is affecting subjective well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the relationship of greenspace to subjective well-being and the barriers to greenspace access are well-established for normal conditions. Much remains to be known, however, about how barriers to access and the effect of greenspace on subjective well-being shift in response to periods of social duress, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from surveys and interviews conducted with 1,200 university students in the United States during the spring of 2020, we assess the effect of going outdoors on subjective well-being, commonly experienced barriers to going outside, and how these barriers in turn affected subjective well-being. We find that time spent outside, particularly in greenspace, correlates with higher levels of subjective well-being, and that concern over COVID-19 risk and transmission negatively affects this relationship both in reducing time spent outdoors and the subjective well-being benefits. We also find that type of greenspace (public vs. private) does not have a significant effect on subjective well-being, that while those in areas with lower population density have significantly higher subjective well-being when outdoors, all participants experience a statistically equal benefit to subjective well-being by going outside. Our findings suggest how understanding the ways dimensions of accessibility shift in response to times of social duress can aid public health messaging, the design and management of greenspace, and environmental justice efforts to support the use of greenspace in improving and maintaining subjective well-being during future crisis events.
Climate change is widely recognized as a major risk to societies and natural ecosystems but the high end of the risk, i.e., where risks become existential, is poorly framed, defined, and analyzed in the scientific literature. This gap is... more
Climate change is widely recognized as a major risk to societies and natural ecosystems but the high end of the risk, i.e., where risks become existential, is poorly framed, defined, and analyzed in the scientific literature. This gap is at odds with the fundamental relevance of existential risks for humanity, and it also limits the ability of scientific communities to engage with emerging debates and narratives about the existential dimension of climate change that have recently gained considerable traction. This paper intends to address this gap by scoping and defining existential risks related to climate change. We first review the context of existential risks and climate change, drawing on research in fields on global catastrophic risks, and on key risks and the so-called Reasons for Concern in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We also consider how existential risks are framed in the civil society climate movement as well as what can be learned in this respect from the COVID-19 crisis. To better frame existential risks in the context of climate change, we propose to define them as those risks that threaten the existence of a subject, where this subject can be an individual person, a community, or nation state or humanity. The threat to their existence is defined by two levels of severity: conditions that threaten (1) survival and (2) basic human needs. A third level, well-being, is commonly not part of the space of existential risks. Our definition covers a range of different scales, which leads us into further defining six analytical dimensions: physical and social processes involved, systems affected, magnitude, spatial scale, timing, and probability of occurrence. In conclusion, we suggest that a clearer and more precise definition and framing of existential risks of climate change such as we offer here facilitates scientific analysis as well societal and political discourse and action.
Adaptation (i.e., actions that reduce the harms caused by climate change) is widely recognized as one of two pillars of climate action, along with mitigation (i.e., actions that reduce the concentrations of greenhouse gases which cause... more
Adaptation (i.e., actions that reduce the harms caused by climate change) is widely recognized as one of two pillars of climate action, along with mitigation (i.e., actions that reduce the concentrations of greenhouse gases which cause climate change). Action to date in both pillars is widely recognized as insufficient. This article argues that a major source of this deficiency of adaptation is ambiguity in the concept of adaptation, which hinders planning and implementation of action. The review traces the origins and consequences of this ambiguity and examines three major conceptual obstacles: the unclear relationship between adaptation and mitigation, the tendency to define adaptation by listing distinct types that are not directly comparable and hence difficult to measure, and a persistent separation of short-term and long-term perspectives that limits the ability to build from current action to transformation. The article identifies recent efforts that have addressed these obstacles, although new areas of concern have emerged, particularly maladaptation and Loss and Damage.
Climate change poses a threat to heritage globally. Decolonial approaches to climate change-heritage research and practice can begin to address systemic inequities, recognize the breadth of heritage and strengthen adaptation action... more
Climate change poses a threat to heritage globally. Decolonial approaches to climate change-heritage research and practice can begin to address systemic inequities, recognize the breadth of heritage and strengthen adaptation action globally.
Climate change decision-making has emerged in recent decades as an area
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We examine the unfolding of a planetary climate event, the 1997–98 El Nino, in a single country, Peru. Rather than seeing the worldwide attention to the event as an instance of globalization, we look at the actors who, in our terms,... more
We examine the unfolding of a planetary climate event, the 1997–98 El Nino, in a single country, Peru. Rather than seeing the worldwide attention to the event as an instance of globalization, we look at the actors who, in our terms, channeled globality by evoking a worldwide scale to build connections between disparate elements in cultural and political projects. We document how participants in Peruvian media and in everyday conversations attended selectively to certain international images and ideas as they related to the El Nino event and reworked them in distinctively Peruvian fashion. We also examine the specific context and tactics that allowed the state to succeed in channeling globality to further its ends.
Research Interests: History, Anthropology, Globalization, Climatology, Attention, and 8 morePeru, Climate, Media, Public, State, Event, American Ethnologist, and Globalisation
Climate change is confronting African farmers with growing uncertainties. Advances in seasonal climate predictions offer potential for assisting farmers in dealing with climate risk. Experimental cases of forecast dissemination to African... more
Climate change is confronting African farmers with growing uncertainties. Advances in seasonal climate predictions offer potential for assisting farmers in dealing with climate risk. Experimental cases of forecast dissemination to African rural communities suggest that participatory approaches can facilitate understanding and use of uncertain climate information. But few of these studies integrate critical reflections on participation that have emerged in