Cimate Change

Los problemas relacionados con el cambio climático, el medio ambiente y las catástrofes provocan situaciones de crisis que podrían considerarse como una amenaza para el ser humano. Por esta razón, el Derecho internacional debe enfrentar estas situaciones. El Bioderecho representa un nuevo enfoque de estudio que se centra en la protección de los seres humanos y sus derechos, junto con el desarrollo normativo
del Derecho internacional de las catástrofes. Este documento es un estudio actualizado sobre los estándares legales de las catástrofes desde el punto de vista del Bioderecho internacional. Para ello, analizamos uno de los instrumentos internacionales más recientes
en esta esfera, el Acuerdo de París. Esta investigación se centrará en cómo el Derecho internacional —y particularmente el Acuerdo de París— enfrenta el desafío de la reducción y mitigación del riesgo de catástrofes relacionados con el clima (prevención de catástrofes).

This Masters Dissertation studies the tropes of contemporary English speaking Western climate fiction. The climate crisis is perhaps the most urgent critical collective issue that the contemporary global population faces today. It is therefore a matter of shared concern to imaginatively address these meteorological and anthropogenic issues through such a means as literature. This dissertation investigates the underlying tropes of Western climate fiction and seeks to understand how they may be better used to create awareness and galvanise action for mitigating climate crisis. Using critical and theoretical analyses of predominantly American contemporary novels, this dissertation examines the influence of different literary tropes that are widely used in climate fiction, such as humanitarian extinction, the child saviour and class discrimination. These are complicated through other themes of interest, which include consumerist culture, legacy, religion and the poetics of remains, authenticity and responsibility. Broad tropes of importance to this discussion include urban, wilderness, pastoral and collapse motifs. The themes are explored in conjunction with existentialism, post-structuralism, idealism and morality. Key critics include Greg Garrard, Astrid Bracke, Ursula Heise, Rebekah Sheldon and Frederic Jameson. Discussion is orientated towards the efficacy of these tropes as literary constructs within any didactic narrative or social activism.

¿Es una utopía absurda? Sólo utópicamente nos salvaremos. La arrogancia de los poderes, el lucro desenfrenado, la prepotencia, las claudicaciones, vienen a desanimarnos; pero nosotros nos negamos al desánimo, a la corrupción, a la resignación. La Pacha Mama y Gaia están vivas, son vivificadoras. Ninguna estructura de muerte le podrá a la Vida.

This paper explores the maintenance of livelihoods under climate, environmental, and economic development pressures, through the case of Thang Binh District in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. Within widespread recognition of the need to link sustainable livelihoods approaches with climate change adaptation, there is growing awareness of the importance of people-centered approaches which keep the diverse experience, capabilities, and knowledges of the most vulnerable at the heart of sustainable livelihoods thinking. In response, this paper explores the conditions for changes in modes of livelihoods in a case study area where top-down strategies for sustainable livelihoods are met with residents’ diverse experiences of vulnerability, and where climate and environmental changes shape residents’ relations with the landscape. The research is undertaken via interviews with residents, farmers/fishers, and local government officials. Our study finds that whilst government-led initiatives for s...

Climate change studies have detected earlier spring arrival of breeding birds. However, first nest dates (date first nests were found), which commonly provide the metric for earlier arrival, can be biased by population size or sampling effort. Our aims were to determine if: 1) first nest dates and median nest date (date when at least 50 % of all females have nested) were equivalent predictors for the spring arrival and 2) first nest date or median nest date were related to nest numbers. We recorded first and median nest dates and nest numbers at the common eider (Somateria mollissima) colony at Rif, Iceland, during 1992–2013. First nest date was advanced by 11 days during the study, but median nest date was advanced by only 4 days. First nest date and median nest date were correlated, but this relationship was only a small improvement over the null model (Nagelkerke R 2 = 30 %). We found a relationship with nest count for both first and median nest dates once the analysis had accounted for inter-annual variability. First nest date may not represent the colony as a whole but rather the physically fittest or the most determined individuals, which may be more prone to nest early than the general population. Nesting birds must decide how much to advance breeding based on nest numbers and other non-temporal cues which necessitate earlier breeding. We argue that nest numbers affect the birds in a biological sense and that the advancement was not explained solely by increased nest numbers.

This paper explores the maintenance of livelihoods under climate, environmental, and economic development pressures, through the case of Thang Binh District in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. Within widespread recognition of the need to link sustainable livelihoods approaches with climate change adaptation, there is growing awareness of the importance of people-centered approaches which keep the diverse experience, capabilities, and knowledges of the most vulnerable at the heart of sustainable livelihoods thinking. In response, this paper explores the conditions for changes in modes of livelihoods in a case study area where top-down strategies for sustainable livelihoods are met with residents’ diverse experiences of vulnerability, and where climate and environmental changes shape residents’ relations with the landscape. The research is undertaken via interviews with residents, farmers/fishers, and local government officials. Our study finds that whilst government-led initiatives for s...

Introduction Energy is an essential input for industries. At the moment fossil fuels (Coal, petroleum and natural gas) are the main source of energy. Reliable data on global reserve of fossil fuel is yet to be arrived at. Global reserve especially that of coal is depleting at a faster rate than that was visualised a few decades back. India's coal reserve depletes faster than that of the global rate. An effort is being made to see the overall picture of global coal reserve and India's reserve. The study starts with origin of coal and ends with ways to conserve it. The Movement for 'conservation of energy' is basically for conservation of 'energy reserve'-fossil fuel reserve, an archived solar energy. Prompted to proceed from a recent statement 1 of Sri R.K.Singh, Minister of Electricity that "The present per capita electricity consumption of about 1100 units in the country is expected to double in five years." and from the document (2013) of TERI titled " India's coal reserves are vastly overstated-Is anyone listening 2 ? " Media have been highlighting the true picture of coal reserve.
Tag Renewable energy, India coal, India solar, energy conservation, coal reserve

This paper explores the maintenance of livelihoods under climate, environmental, and economic development pressures, through the case of Thang Binh District in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. Within widespread recognition of the need to link sustainable livelihoods approaches with climate change adaptation, there is growing awareness of the importance of people-centered approaches which keep the diverse experience, capabilities, and knowledges of the most vulnerable at the heart of sustainable livelihoods thinking. In response, this paper explores the conditions for changes in modes of livelihoods in a case study area where top-down strategies for sustainable livelihoods are met with residents’ diverse experiences of vulnerability, and where climate and environmental changes shape residents’ relations with the landscape. The research is undertaken via interviews with residents, farmers/fishers, and local government officials. Our study finds that whilst government-led initiatives for s...

This paper explores the maintenance of livelihoods under climate, environmental, and economic development pressures, through the case of Thang Binh District in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. Within widespread recognition of the need to link sustainable livelihoods approaches with climate change adaptation, there is growing awareness of the importance of people-centered approaches which keep the diverse experience, capabilities, and knowledges of the most vulnerable at the heart of sustainable livelihoods thinking. In response, this paper explores the conditions for changes in modes of livelihoods in a case study area where top-down strategies for sustainable livelihoods are met with residents’ diverse experiences of vulnerability, and where climate and environmental changes shape residents’ relations with the landscape. The research is undertaken via interviews with residents, farmers/fishers, and local government officials. Our study finds that whilst government-led initiatives for s...

Climate change which is the ultimate outcome of global warming is now universally recognised as the fundamental human development challenge of the 21st century. Impact of climate change include extremes in weather events and increase in the ambient temperatures. Among many adverse consequences, health impacts are also very significant. The impact of climate change had been studied using dengue incidence as an indicator in the present study since the vector of the dengue fever, the Aedes mosquito is highly sensitive to climatic variations. Seven out of 25 administrative districts of Sri Lanka were randomly selected representing all climatic zones; wet zone, intermediate zone, dry zone for this study. The districts thus selected were Colombo, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Ratnapura, Batticaloa, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya. Monthly dengue incidence data for selected seven districts were collected over a 10 years period from 2006 to 2015 from the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health. Monthly minimum and maximum temperature and mean rainfall data for the selected seven districts were collected from the Department of Meteorology. The significance of the impact of climatic parameters such as rainfall, temperature were tested on the incidence of dengue across years, across months in each year and across the districts. Poisson regression model was tested for all the 7 districts and the best model was fitted using the parameters; number of dengue cases in the previous month, number of dengue cases in the same month of the previous year, rainfall of the given month of the given year, minimum temperature of the given month of the given year, average temperature of the given month of the given year, difference of the maximum and minimum temperature of the given month of the given year. The results revealed that the incidence of dengue is at the highest in Colombo District, followed by Gampaha and then Kurunegala. Nuwara-Eliya District showed the lowest. In all the districts, the incidence showed a leap from 2009. There was a significant difference between the years and the districts in dengue cases. The incident rate of number of dengue cases of all the 7 districts in the given month of the given year increased by 0.03% for every unit increase in the rainfall of the given month of the given year. Similarly, the incident rate of the number of dengue cases of all the 7 districts in the given month of the given year increased by 4% for every unit increase in the difference of the temperature of the given month of the given year. This study concludes that the incidence of dengue is related to the climatic variations such as rainfall and temperature which are used as indictors of climatic change impact.

The period leading to and immediately after the release of the IPCC’s fifth series of climate change assessments saw substantial efforts by climate change denial interests to portray anthropogenic climate change (ACC) as either unproven theory or a negligible contribution to natural climate variability, including the relationship between tourism and climate change. This paper responds to those claims by stressing that the extent of scientific consensus suggests that human-induced warming of the climate system is unequivocal. Secondly, it responds in the context of tourism research and ACC, highlighting tourism’s significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as climate change’s potential impacts on tourism at different scales. The paper exposes the tactics used in ACC denial papers to question climate change science by referring to non-peer reviewed literature, outlier studies and misinterpretation of research, as well as potential links to think-tanks and interest groups. The paper concludes that climate change science does need to improve its communication strategies but that the world-view of some individuals and interests likely precludes acceptance. The connection between ACC and sustainability illustrates the need for debate on adaptation and mitigation strategies, but that debate needs to be grounded in scientific principles not unsupported skepticism.

Keywords: climate change denial; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); climate change consensus; climate models; climate change mitigation; greenhouse gas emissions