GECHS

Call for papers: Climate change in South Asia: Governance, equity and social justice

Kirsten Ulsrud — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:38:56 +0000

A conference on climate change in South Asia will be organized at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, April 16-17 2009. Climate change presents significant challenges for South Asia. Although the effects of climate change on social and environmental systems are likely to be highly uneven (even between communities within South Asia), impoverished regions and populations may bear the brunt of these changes. Therefore, addressing climate change within the South Asian context will require new types of social institutions, cooperative responses and new forms of governance. Papers are invited that address climate change issues within any country or region of South Asia. Preference will be given in paper selection to those that connect their topic to one or more of the broad conference themes of governance, equity, and social justice. For more information, see the conference website. Abstracts of 250 words or less should be sent to the conference organizers before September 15, 2008.

Coastal Cities Summit

Kirsten Ulsrud — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:38:16 +0000

The International Ocean Institute, USA and the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, are hosting a Coastal Cities Summit on November 17-20 2008, to address the complex challenges that coastal city leaders face as populations increase, resources are depleted, and the impacts of climate change are felt. The Coastal Cities Summit intends to bring together 600-700 coastal city leaders, managers and academics to discuss environmental, social, economic, and public policy challenges and viable solutions. The 3 ½ day conference will focus on three themes: Climate Change, Risk and Vulnerability, and Sustainable Development. The planners are soliciting speakers on areas that are particularly relevant to coastal cities: freshwater, pollution, energy, infrastructure, and port security. All sessions are intended to give a long-needed voice to those who are on the front lines taking leadership on climate change, providing implementation and response plans and continuing to focus on protecting citizens from possible extreme events and human-induced degradation. Full details are available at the conference website.

Resilience 2008: conference podcasts and presentations

Kirsten Ulsrud — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:57:30 +0000

Podcasts and presentations are out for the conference RESILIENCE 2008: Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation in Turbulent Times. GECHS chair Karen O’Brien gave the presentation Rethinking social contracts: building resilience in a changing climate. View her presentation on podcast here. This International Science and Policy Conference was organized in Stockholm, Sweden, 14-18 April, and approached society and nature as interdependent social-ecological systems, which are complex adaptive systems. Furthermore, the focus was on cross scale and dynamic interactions that represent new challenges for governance and management in relation to social-ecological systems and ecosystem services. 9 overall themes helped to shed light on the issues, and the overview can be found on the conference website.

New book on double exposures to environmental change and globalization

Kirsten Ulsrud — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:52:23 +0000

In July 2008, Robin Leichenko and GECHS chair Karen O’Brien will launch the book Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures. The book explores the connections between two of the most transformative processes of the twenty-first century, namely global environmental change and globalization. In the book, Leichenko and O’Brien present a conceptual framework for analyzing the interactions between these two processes, and they illustrate, through case studies, how these interactions create situations of “double exposure.” Drawing upon prominent recent and current environmental events - Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, recurring droughts in India, and the melting of the Arctic sea ice - the case studies each demonstrate a different pathway of interaction between globalization and environmental change. The double exposure framework not only sheds light on the challenges raised by these processes, but also possibilities for using the interactions to generate positive opportunities for action. The book can be ordered here.

Congress: Climate change and urban design

Kirsten Ulsrud — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:01:04 +0000

The third International C.E.U. Congress will be held in Oslo, Norway the 14.-16. September 2008. At this congress, the science, policy, education and best practice in urban design in the context of climate change will be discussed. The congress welcomes government officials, planners, architects, social scientists, ecologists, developers, local community activists, and all other development stakeholders who feel a responsibility to contribute to more sustainable urban development. For more information, please see the conference website.

Workshop: Conflict Prevention and Climate Change

Kirsten Ulsrud — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:49:34 +0000

The workshop on conflict prevention and climate change is an initiative by the Madariaga European Foundation and Folke Bernadotte Academy, and will be held on thursday the 24. April in Brussels. The workshop will focus on the analysis of the main security risks caused by climate change and will address the possible responses of the international community. A multi-stakeholder audience is welcomed, fostering a discussion between actors from different sectors and nations, in order to improve cooperation and partnership. In addition, on the 25. April a Dialogue Forum for senior experts will exchange views on security implications and development needs related to climate change in Africa. These events will launch a two-year programme on “Conflict Prevention in Practice”, composed by workshops, dialogue fora and training sessions. Deadline for registration is 22. April 2008. For more information, visit the Madariaga European Foundation website.

Living with climate change - conference podcasts and presentations

Kirsten Ulsrud — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:49:25 +0000

Podcasts and presentations are now available from the conference Living with climate change: are there limits to adaptation? The very successful conference were held the 7 & 8 February 2008 by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the University of Oslo, and was supported by GECHS. The overall objective of the conference was to consider strategies for adapting to climate change, in particular to explore the potential barriers to adaptation that may limit the ability of societies to adapt to climate change and to identify opportunities for overcoming these barriers. Please find the podcasts and presentations from the conference at the Tyndall Centre website.

Coastal Cities Summit

Kirsten Ulsrud — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:39:12 +0000

The Coastal City Summit will be held 17-20 November 2008 in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. One of the most challenging issues facing the ocean today is rapid coastal urbanization whose implications have yet to be assessed. Today, the majority of the world’s population lives within sixty kilometers of the coast line and this is steadily increasing. This profound demographic shift has significant implications for the coastal environment, inhabitants and ecosystem stability. Combined with increasing birth rate and life expectancy, as well as future climate change, the escalating strain on public resources means that coastal city managers face unprecedented challenges. The summit aims to bring together coastal city leaders, managers, and academics to discuss environmental, social, economic, and public policy challenges and viable solutions. Deadline for proposals is 15 May 2008. Completed research papers, case studies, panels and round table discussion papers will be considered. Please find the guidelines for proposals at the conference website.

A climate of conflict

Kirsten Ulsrud — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:00:00 +0000

The links between climate change, peace and war are analysed in the recent publication “A climate of conflict” from International Alert. International Alert is an independent peacebuilding organisation that has worked for over 20 years to lay the foundations for lasting peace and security in communities affected by violent conflict. In order to understand how the effects of climate change will interact with socio-economic and political problems in poorer countries, the report traces the “consequences of consequences”. This process highlights four key elements of risk - political instability, economic weakness, food insecurity and large-scale migration. Based on the analysis of these elements, the report points out twelve recommendations for addressing climate change in fragile states.

GECHS contribution in the new issue of IHDP Update

Kirsten Ulsrud — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:20:12 +0000

The title of the current IHDP Update is “The Implications of Global Environmental Change for Human Security in Coastal Urban Areas”. The issue is a joint effort by three IHDP core projects: Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC); Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS); and Land-Ocean Interactions in Coastal Zones (LOICZ). It focuses on natural disasters associated with global environmental change in coastal urban areas and sheds light on the main pathways of social and urban vulnerability to natural disasters caused by climate variability and change. The invited authors explore the close links between global environmental change, human security, and urbanization from multidimensional perspectives seeking to provide integrated approaches to those complex interactions. To subscribe to the newsletter, see the IHDP website under Publications.