Forced Migration,Climate Change,Mitigation and Adaptive Policies in Mexico: Some Functional Relationships

Natural disasters related to hydro-meteorological events have increased during the last few decades, both in frequency and severity. Mexico is heavily exposed to climate change, but has also suffered in the past from climate variability ( Blümel, 2009 ). The new risks oblige the government to develop mitigation processes, while the affected people are implementing strategies of adaptation and resilience-building, mostly at the family and community level. This includes forced migration due to climate change into the slums of megacities or illegal immigration to the United States. The arid, semi-arid and subhumid condition of 49.2 per cent of the territory of Mexico is seriously affected by climate change. In addition, poverty and the lack of jobs have created complex livelihood situations, in which young people leave rural areas, partly due to socio-economic pull factors. In this paper, we address the functional relationships between climate patterns and migration processes in Mexico, highlighting the linkages between the origin of migrants, their economic activity and their vulnerability to extreme events and we discuss long-term climate patterns. Agriculture still uses 78 per cent of the available water in Mexico. In the drylands the competition for water use requires an integrated policy to deal with the new threats from climate change, including mitigation from the top down and adaptation processes from the bottom up to reduce the social vulnerability of the rural population in the highly affected drylands of the central and northern parts of Mexico. The new policy for administering water resources, which promotes the efficient use of an increasingly scarce and polluted resource, still suffers from a lack of participation by the affected rural population. In this paper, we propose an integrated management system from the watershed onwards, involving socio-economic, political, cultural and hydrological variables, to deal with the rising scarcity of water, and the uncertainty and complexity of climate change.     

Tackling Climate Change Through Social Change: A Comparative Analysis

In recent years there has been a widespread perception of climate change as a growing threat to security, both at the individual level and at the international level. This increased attention is mainly due to scientific research, which indicates that climate change is a process already underway, with observable facts and potentially serious consequences. Moreover, according to some scholars, even the immediate implementation of stringent mitigation measures—i.e. reducing greenhouse gas emissions—would not contain the effects of climate change in coming decades, making it necessary to combine the efforts of mitigation policies targeted for the prevention of major threats. Are there any chances for climate stabilization to be sustainable with the economic growth required under a capitalist system? On the one hand, climate environmentalists raise concerns about the risks associated with global warming. On the other hand, leading economists’ main concern is to foster economic growth, thus, a trade off is advocated. In fact, policy-makers are unlikely to impose a burden on the economic growth of their own country in order to meet the targets imposed by the international climate change agreements. This work intends to identify and suggest a framework for climate policies, with the aim to maximize social consensus, through an integration of the issues raised by both disputing fields. A proposed solution is to take into consideration an additional GDP driver, the so-called human capital that would allow a social change.     

Queering Climate Change: Exploring the Influence of LGBTQ+ Identity on Climate Change Belief and Risk Perceptions*

Although researchers have broadly addressed how race, party identification, political ideology, and binary gender categories influence climate change opinions, little attention has been paid to the relationship between sexuality and gender variance (LGBTQ+ identity broadly) and climate change perceptions. Using a quota-based survey from 2022 that approximates the US population on key demographic characteristics and oversamples LGBTQ+ individuals, we assess the degree to which LGBTQ+ individuals' climate change beliefs and risk perceptions are comparable to cisgender, heterosexual (cishet) individuals, specifically examining climate change beliefs, the perceived threat climate change poses, and worry about climate change. We argue that LGBTQ+ individuals' views are likely to be distinct from their cisgender heterosexual (cishet) counterparts for three reasons: climate change is likely to exacerbate existing structural inequalities, create disaster responses that reinforce heteronormative and discriminatory patterns, and activate LGBTQ+ political culture. We find evidence that LGBTQ+ individuals express higher agreement with climate change beliefs, identify climate change as a greater threat, and worry more about climate change when compared to their cishet counterparts.     

Editorial: The Urgent Need for Global Action to Combat Climate Change

Abstract

Within the study of global politics and global political economy there has been an increase in literature within the last few years on the growth of resistance movements geared toward challenging the hegemony of US-inspired neoliberalism. This article questions much of the normative literature that is emerging, particularly from international political economy, on the nature of resistance and the anti-globalization movement. Using the case of Britain as an example, it argues that it is necessary to assess the various parts of the movement before any claim to counter-hegemony or counter-movement can be made. By looking at the various fragmented anti-globalization strategies and struggles that have been articulated within Britain, we also warn that any potential progressive or emancipatory ‘counter’ project is likely to suffer both from potential reactionary forces and from the lack of a clear transformative agenda.     

Beyond Denialism: Think Tank Approaches to Climate Change

Sociologists have done important research documenting the key role that think tanks play in the climate change denialism movement in the United States, which has sought to mislead the American public about the realities of global warming. Sociologists have not, however, assessed the full range of ways that think tanks are responding to – or planning for – global environmental change. This article proposes a typology of elite responses to global warming, which goes beyond denialism to include (i) limited climate mitigation, (ii) climate adaptation/privileged accommodation, and (iii) climate opportunism. Ultimately, this article provides insights on ways to build upon previous research in both environmental and political sociology to study the interface between elite‐driven policy, climate change, and capitalism.     

Representations of Climate Change in Canadian National Print Media: The Banalization of Global Warming

L'article ausculte des tendances longitudinales dans la couverture médiatique d'enjeux reliés aux changements climatiques au sein des journaux canadiens à distribution nationale. Nous constatons que cette couverture est devenu moins nuancée et davantage restreinte sur le plan thématique au fil du temps malgré le fait que les changements climatiques constituent aujourd'hui un enjeu scientifique et politique à polyvalence marquée. Bien que le contexte contemporain témoigne d'une intensité de couverture sans précédents, nous soutenons que les journaux canadiens à distribution nationale ont pris part d'un processus de «décontextualisation» des changements climatiques. Ainsi, nous notons un traitement infréquent de sujets reliés aux causes et impacts potentiels du phénomène ainsi qu'aux débats scientifiques pertinents. Simultanément, l'agencement superficielle de cet enjeu aux tiraillements politiques quotidiens et aux occurrences au sein du monde des d'affaires représente la tendance discursive dominante. This article examines longitudinal trends in media coverage of global climate change issues in Canada's national print media. While climate change is a multilayered scientific and political issue, we find that media coverage has become less nuanced and thematically narrower over time. Despite unprecedented levels of coverage in recent years, we argue that the Canadian national print media has been complicit in the “decontextualization” of climate change, whereby less attention is paid to issues of causation, scientific claims, and potential impacts, while more attention is granted to how climate change superficially intersects with everyday politicking and business issues.     

Climate Change Policies in the Transitional Economies of Europe and Eurasia: The Role of NGOs

This article examines ratification of the Kyoto Protocol across 26 transitional economies of Europe and Eurasia for the period of 1998–2009; the period between the Kyoto Protocol and the 2009 Copenhagen meeting. The dependent variable measures whether or not the country has ratified the Kyoto Protocol in a given year. The key variable of interest is the strength of domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs). To account for the nascent stage of the NGO sector, I measure NGO strength as a “stock” and as a “flow” variable. Using an event-history model, I examine the impact of the NGO strength while controlling for other domestic-based and international drivers of treaty ratification. All time-variant independent variables are lagged by a year. My analysis suggests that the stock of domestic NGO strength is a significant predictor of the timing of ratification. Further, EU accession pressures, ratification levels in contiguous countries, and domestic economic cycle impact the timing of ratification of the treaty.     

Solar Festivals and Climate Bills: Comparing NGO Climate Change Campaigns in the UK and Australia

This paper compares climate change campaigns conducted by environmental nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia. The NGOs represent a diversity of political access, financial resources, and international connections. Three campaign activities common to both countries undertaken between 2004 and 2006 are analyzed for their effectiveness via interviews and document review. This examination is embedded within an analysis of the political, economic, policy, and social contexts of each country. It is shown that in the UK climate change has been used as a pivotal leadership issue, that the fossil fuel industry’s influence is not predominant, and that NGOs enjoy political legitimacy. Whereas, in Australia climate change has only recently emerged as a political priority, the fossil fuel industry has had significant political and financial influence, and NGO advocacy has been marginalized. It is argued that NGOs are embedded in the political and policy contexts of their country, and the greatest campaign traction and NGO influence can only be achieved when these contexts provide favorable conditions.

The Family,The Statutory Worker and the Therapist Working Together for Change

Myths have developed for some therapists and statutory workers that have prevented or interfered with their forming a satisfactory working relationship. In such a climate, families tend to remain confused and disempowered and become more dependent on the authority of the legal and statutory system. This paper describes work with one particular family and a local Community Services, Victoria social worker, where these issues were addressed in a way that allowed the workers to be clear about their roles and enabled the parents to resume their responsibility for parenting. The emphasis in this article is on practice issues.     

气候变化政治对海湾国家的影响

海湾地区气候炎热,淡水资源缺乏。长期以来,海湾国家主要依靠能源出口获取大量资金,借此修建海水淡化工厂等各种设施以适应和改善气候环境的影响。近年来,国际社会在应对全球变暖问题的协调合作中,已形成一种处理全球气候变化的政治。气候变化政治要求各国减少能源消耗和降低二氧化碳排放量以缓解全球变暖趋势,从而对海湾国家以能源出口收益来维护生存环境和社会稳定的基本经济模式构成冲击。面对气候变化政治带来的冲击,海湾国家目前的权宜选择只能是继续扩大能源出口,并尽量拖延实施气候变化协议来进行应对。然而,这种做法虽可以暂时保持海湾国家改善环境的努力和维护其经济政治结构稳定,但却难以消除全球气候变化政治今后长期推动能源结构调整和节能减排所带来的压力。     

The Road Through Paris: Climate Change,Carbon, and the Political Dynamics of Convergence

Abstract

This article tracks the key events that set the stage for the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris, particularly as they relate to politics of convergence. One side of this coming together is an intersection of issues, where new terrestrial and aquatic carbon sequestration programs have blurred the margins of climate change mitigation and resource grabbing. These programs, enclosing forests, farmlands, and oceans, are likewise fused together in what can be described as an emerging ‘carbon complex’ that is part of the wider blue/green economy. On the reverse side, the clear intersection of issues as witnessed by radical, and historically sectoral, agrarian/social justice movements is causing them to intertwine in resistance. The realm of climate change has proven to be an exceptional space of struggle and countermovement building. Political interactions between movements have become increasingly sophisticated—requiring frameworks that address environmental, agrarian, and oceanic issues at once, as the issues have become ever more complex. Agrarian/social justice movements maintain that their agendas for food sovereignty and climate justice hinge upon exposing fault lines in the system and advocate overall system change. COP21 and its parallel side events were together a landmark moment, but part of a much more involved process, ‘the road through Paris’, along which movements had carved out transnational and local spaces of convergence against the backdrop of a global carbon complex.     

Drama and Social Change: Working with Young People in Sarajevo

This is a brief article about my work with young people in Sarajevo. As part of a larger educational project, initiated by the Anne Frank House, I conducted drama workshops with teenagers in the Hrasno neighborhood, located on the front line during the recent conflict in Bosnia. In addition to using the play, Dreams of Anne Frank, / also conducted a workshop with teachers on bullying, using the same teenage actors.