research paper on the environmental problems

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A review of the global climate change impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures

Kashif abbass.

1 School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094 People’s Republic of China

Muhammad Zeeshan Qasim

2 Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Xiaolingwei 200, Nanjing, 210094 People’s Republic of China

Huaming Song

Muntasir murshed.

3 School of Business and Economics, North South University, Dhaka, 1229 Bangladesh

4 Department of Journalism, Media and Communications, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Haider Mahmood

5 Department of Finance, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, 173, Alkharj, 11942 Saudi Arabia

Ijaz Younis

Associated data.

Data sources and relevant links are provided in the paper to access data.

Climate change is a long-lasting change in the weather arrays across tropics to polls. It is a global threat that has embarked on to put stress on various sectors. This study is aimed to conceptually engineer how climate variability is deteriorating the sustainability of diverse sectors worldwide. Specifically, the agricultural sector’s vulnerability is a globally concerning scenario, as sufficient production and food supplies are threatened due to irreversible weather fluctuations. In turn, it is challenging the global feeding patterns, particularly in countries with agriculture as an integral part of their economy and total productivity. Climate change has also put the integrity and survival of many species at stake due to shifts in optimum temperature ranges, thereby accelerating biodiversity loss by progressively changing the ecosystem structures. Climate variations increase the likelihood of particular food and waterborne and vector-borne diseases, and a recent example is a coronavirus pandemic. Climate change also accelerates the enigma of antimicrobial resistance, another threat to human health due to the increasing incidence of resistant pathogenic infections. Besides, the global tourism industry is devastated as climate change impacts unfavorable tourism spots. The methodology investigates hypothetical scenarios of climate variability and attempts to describe the quality of evidence to facilitate readers’ careful, critical engagement. Secondary data is used to identify sustainability issues such as environmental, social, and economic viability. To better understand the problem, gathered the information in this report from various media outlets, research agencies, policy papers, newspapers, and other sources. This review is a sectorial assessment of climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches worldwide in the aforementioned sectors and the associated economic costs. According to the findings, government involvement is necessary for the country’s long-term development through strict accountability of resources and regulations implemented in the past to generate cutting-edge climate policy. Therefore, mitigating the impacts of climate change must be of the utmost importance, and hence, this global threat requires global commitment to address its dreadful implications to ensure global sustenance.

Introduction

Worldwide observed and anticipated climatic changes for the twenty-first century and global warming are significant global changes that have been encountered during the past 65 years. Climate change (CC) is an inter-governmental complex challenge globally with its influence over various components of the ecological, environmental, socio-political, and socio-economic disciplines (Adger et al.  2005 ; Leal Filho et al.  2021 ; Feliciano et al.  2022 ). Climate change involves heightened temperatures across numerous worlds (Battisti and Naylor  2009 ; Schuurmans  2021 ; Weisheimer and Palmer  2005 ; Yadav et al.  2015 ). With the onset of the industrial revolution, the problem of earth climate was amplified manifold (Leppänen et al.  2014 ). It is reported that the immediate attention and due steps might increase the probability of overcoming its devastating impacts. It is not plausible to interpret the exact consequences of climate change (CC) on a sectoral basis (Izaguirre et al.  2021 ; Jurgilevich et al.  2017 ), which is evident by the emerging level of recognition plus the inclusion of climatic uncertainties at both local and national level of policymaking (Ayers et al.  2014 ).

Climate change is characterized based on the comprehensive long-haul temperature and precipitation trends and other components such as pressure and humidity level in the surrounding environment. Besides, the irregular weather patterns, retreating of global ice sheets, and the corresponding elevated sea level rise are among the most renowned international and domestic effects of climate change (Lipczynska-Kochany  2018 ; Michel et al.  2021 ; Murshed and Dao 2020 ). Before the industrial revolution, natural sources, including volcanoes, forest fires, and seismic activities, were regarded as the distinct sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O, and H 2 O into the atmosphere (Murshed et al. 2020 ; Hussain et al.  2020 ; Sovacool et al.  2021 ; Usman and Balsalobre-Lorente 2022 ; Murshed 2022 ). United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) struck a major agreement to tackle climate change and accelerate and intensify the actions and investments required for a sustainable low-carbon future at Conference of the Parties (COP-21) in Paris on December 12, 2015. The Paris Agreement expands on the Convention by bringing all nations together for the first time in a single cause to undertake ambitious measures to prevent climate change and adapt to its impacts, with increased funding to assist developing countries in doing so. As so, it marks a turning point in the global climate fight. The core goal of the Paris Agreement is to improve the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C over pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5° C (Sharma et al. 2020 ; Sharif et al. 2020 ; Chien et al. 2021 .

Furthermore, the agreement aspires to strengthen nations’ ability to deal with the effects of climate change and align financing flows with low GHG emissions and climate-resilient paths (Shahbaz et al. 2019 ; Anwar et al. 2021 ; Usman et al. 2022a ). To achieve these lofty goals, adequate financial resources must be mobilized and provided, as well as a new technology framework and expanded capacity building, allowing developing countries and the most vulnerable countries to act under their respective national objectives. The agreement also establishes a more transparent action and support mechanism. All Parties are required by the Paris Agreement to do their best through “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the coming years (Balsalobre-Lorente et al. 2020 ). It includes obligations that all Parties regularly report on their emissions and implementation activities. A global stock-take will be conducted every five years to review collective progress toward the agreement’s goal and inform the Parties’ future individual actions. The Paris Agreement became available for signature on April 22, 2016, Earth Day, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. On November 4, 2016, it went into effect 30 days after the so-called double threshold was met (ratification by 55 nations accounting for at least 55% of world emissions). More countries have ratified and continue to ratify the agreement since then, bringing 125 Parties in early 2017. To fully operationalize the Paris Agreement, a work program was initiated in Paris to define mechanisms, processes, and recommendations on a wide range of concerns (Murshed et al. 2021 ). Since 2016, Parties have collaborated in subsidiary bodies (APA, SBSTA, and SBI) and numerous formed entities. The Conference of the Parties functioning as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) convened for the first time in November 2016 in Marrakesh in conjunction with COP22 and made its first two resolutions. The work plan is scheduled to be finished by 2018. Some mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce the emission in the prospective of Paris agreement are following firstly, a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, secondly, to aim to limit the rise to 1.5 °C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change, thirdly, on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognizing that this will take longer for developing countries, lastly, to undertake rapid reductions after that under the best available science, to achieve a balance between emissions and removals in the second half of the century. On the other side, some adaptation strategies are; strengthening societies’ ability to deal with the effects of climate change and to continue & expand international assistance for developing nations’ adaptation.

However, anthropogenic activities are currently regarded as most accountable for CC (Murshed et al. 2022 ). Apart from the industrial revolution, other anthropogenic activities include excessive agricultural operations, which further involve the high use of fuel-based mechanization, burning of agricultural residues, burning fossil fuels, deforestation, national and domestic transportation sectors, etc. (Huang et al.  2016 ). Consequently, these anthropogenic activities lead to climatic catastrophes, damaging local and global infrastructure, human health, and total productivity. Energy consumption has mounted GHGs levels concerning warming temperatures as most of the energy production in developing countries comes from fossil fuels (Balsalobre-Lorente et al. 2022 ; Usman et al. 2022b ; Abbass et al. 2021a ; Ishikawa-Ishiwata and Furuya  2022 ).

This review aims to highlight the effects of climate change in a socio-scientific aspect by analyzing the existing literature on various sectorial pieces of evidence globally that influence the environment. Although this review provides a thorough examination of climate change and its severe affected sectors that pose a grave danger for global agriculture, biodiversity, health, economy, forestry, and tourism, and to purpose some practical prophylactic measures and mitigation strategies to be adapted as sound substitutes to survive from climate change (CC) impacts. The societal implications of irregular weather patterns and other effects of climate changes are discussed in detail. Some numerous sustainable mitigation measures and adaptation practices and techniques at the global level are discussed in this review with an in-depth focus on its economic, social, and environmental aspects. Methods of data collection section are included in the supplementary information.

Review methodology

Related study and its objectives.

Today, we live an ordinary life in the beautiful digital, globalized world where climate change has a decisive role. What happens in one country has a massive influence on geographically far apart countries, which points to the current crisis known as COVID-19 (Sarkar et al.  2021 ). The most dangerous disease like COVID-19 has affected the world’s climate changes and economic conditions (Abbass et al. 2022 ; Pirasteh-Anosheh et al.  2021 ). The purpose of the present study is to review the status of research on the subject, which is based on “Global Climate Change Impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures” by systematically reviewing past published and unpublished research work. Furthermore, the current study seeks to comment on research on the same topic and suggest future research on the same topic. Specifically, the present study aims: The first one is, organize publications to make them easy and quick to find. Secondly, to explore issues in this area, propose an outline of research for future work. The third aim of the study is to synthesize the previous literature on climate change, various sectors, and their mitigation measurement. Lastly , classify the articles according to the different methods and procedures that have been adopted.

Review methodology for reviewers

This review-based article followed systematic literature review techniques that have proved the literature review as a rigorous framework (Benita  2021 ; Tranfield et al.  2003 ). Moreover, we illustrate in Fig.  1 the search method that we have started for this research. First, finalized the research theme to search literature (Cooper et al.  2018 ). Second, used numerous research databases to search related articles and download from the database (Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus Index Journals, Emerald, Elsevier Science Direct, Springer, and Sciverse). We focused on various articles, with research articles, feedback pieces, short notes, debates, and review articles published in scholarly journals. Reports used to search for multiple keywords such as “Climate Change,” “Mitigation and Adaptation,” “Department of Agriculture and Human Health,” “Department of Biodiversity and Forestry,” etc.; in summary, keyword list and full text have been made. Initially, the search for keywords yielded a large amount of literature.

Methodology search for finalized articles for investigations.

Source : constructed by authors

Since 2020, it has been impossible to review all the articles found; some restrictions have been set for the literature exhibition. The study searched 95 articles on a different database mentioned above based on the nature of the study. It excluded 40 irrelevant papers due to copied from a previous search after readings tiles, abstract and full pieces. The criteria for inclusion were: (i) articles focused on “Global Climate Change Impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures,” and (ii) the search key terms related to study requirements. The complete procedure yielded 55 articles for our study. We repeat our search on the “Web of Science and Google Scholars” database to enhance the search results and check the referenced articles.

In this study, 55 articles are reviewed systematically and analyzed for research topics and other aspects, such as the methods, contexts, and theories used in these studies. Furthermore, this study analyzes closely related areas to provide unique research opportunities in the future. The study also discussed future direction opportunities and research questions by understanding the research findings climate changes and other affected sectors. The reviewed paper framework analysis process is outlined in Fig.  2 .

Framework of the analysis Process.

Natural disasters and climate change’s socio-economic consequences

Natural and environmental disasters can be highly variable from year to year; some years pass with very few deaths before a significant disaster event claims many lives (Symanski et al.  2021 ). Approximately 60,000 people globally died from natural disasters each year on average over the past decade (Ritchie and Roser  2014 ; Wiranata and Simbolon  2021 ). So, according to the report, around 0.1% of global deaths. Annual variability in the number and share of deaths from natural disasters in recent decades are shown in Fig.  3 . The number of fatalities can be meager—sometimes less than 10,000, and as few as 0.01% of all deaths. But shock events have a devastating impact: the 1983–1985 famine and drought in Ethiopia; the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami; Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in 2008; and the 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti and now recent example is COVID-19 pandemic (Erman et al.  2021 ). These events pushed global disaster deaths to over 200,000—more than 0.4% of deaths in these years. Low-frequency, high-impact events such as earthquakes and tsunamis are not preventable, but such high losses of human life are. Historical evidence shows that earlier disaster detection, more robust infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and response programmers have substantially reduced disaster deaths worldwide. Low-income is also the most vulnerable to disasters; improving living conditions, facilities, and response services in these areas would be critical in reducing natural disaster deaths in the coming decades.

Global deaths from natural disasters, 1978 to 2020.

Source EMDAT ( 2020 )

The interior regions of the continent are likely to be impacted by rising temperatures (Dimri et al.  2018 ; Goes et al.  2020 ; Mannig et al.  2018 ; Schuurmans  2021 ). Weather patterns change due to the shortage of natural resources (water), increase in glacier melting, and rising mercury are likely to cause extinction to many planted species (Gampe et al.  2016 ; Mihiretu et al.  2021 ; Shaffril et al.  2018 ).On the other hand, the coastal ecosystem is on the verge of devastation (Perera et al.  2018 ; Phillips  2018 ). The temperature rises, insect disease outbreaks, health-related problems, and seasonal and lifestyle changes are persistent, with a strong probability of these patterns continuing in the future (Abbass et al. 2021c ; Hussain et al.  2018 ). At the global level, a shortage of good infrastructure and insufficient adaptive capacity are hammering the most (IPCC  2013 ). In addition to the above concerns, a lack of environmental education and knowledge, outdated consumer behavior, a scarcity of incentives, a lack of legislation, and the government’s lack of commitment to climate change contribute to the general public’s concerns. By 2050, a 2 to 3% rise in mercury and a drastic shift in rainfall patterns may have serious consequences (Huang et al. 2022 ; Gorst et al.  2018 ). Natural and environmental calamities caused huge losses globally, such as decreased agriculture outputs, rehabilitation of the system, and rebuilding necessary technologies (Ali and Erenstein  2017 ; Ramankutty et al.  2018 ; Yu et al.  2021 ) (Table ​ (Table1). 1 ). Furthermore, in the last 3 or 4 years, the world has been plagued by smog-related eye and skin diseases, as well as a rise in road accidents due to poor visibility.

Main natural danger statistics for 1985–2020 at the global level

Source: EM-DAT ( 2020 )

Climate change and agriculture

Global agriculture is the ultimate sector responsible for 30–40% of all greenhouse emissions, which makes it a leading industry predominantly contributing to climate warming and significantly impacted by it (Grieg; Mishra et al.  2021 ; Ortiz et al.  2021 ; Thornton and Lipper  2014 ). Numerous agro-environmental and climatic factors that have a dominant influence on agriculture productivity (Pautasso et al.  2012 ) are significantly impacted in response to precipitation extremes including floods, forest fires, and droughts (Huang  2004 ). Besides, the immense dependency on exhaustible resources also fuels the fire and leads global agriculture to become prone to devastation. Godfray et al. ( 2010 ) mentioned that decline in agriculture challenges the farmer’s quality of life and thus a significant factor to poverty as the food and water supplies are critically impacted by CC (Ortiz et al.  2021 ; Rosenzweig et al.  2014 ). As an essential part of the economic systems, especially in developing countries, agricultural systems affect the overall economy and potentially the well-being of households (Schlenker and Roberts  2009 ). According to the report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, i.e., CH 4, CO 2 , and N 2 O, are increased in the air to extraordinary levels over the last few centuries (Usman and Makhdum 2021 ; Stocker et al.  2013 ). Climate change is the composite outcome of two different factors. The first is the natural causes, and the second is the anthropogenic actions (Karami 2012 ). It is also forecasted that the world may experience a typical rise in temperature stretching from 1 to 3.7 °C at the end of this century (Pachauri et al. 2014 ). The world’s crop production is also highly vulnerable to these global temperature-changing trends as raised temperatures will pose severe negative impacts on crop growth (Reidsma et al. 2009 ). Some of the recent modeling about the fate of global agriculture is briefly described below.

Decline in cereal productivity

Crop productivity will also be affected dramatically in the next few decades due to variations in integral abiotic factors such as temperature, solar radiation, precipitation, and CO 2 . These all factors are included in various regulatory instruments like progress and growth, weather-tempted changes, pest invasions (Cammell and Knight 1992 ), accompanying disease snags (Fand et al. 2012 ), water supplies (Panda et al. 2003 ), high prices of agro-products in world’s agriculture industry, and preeminent quantity of fertilizer consumption. Lobell and field ( 2007 ) claimed that from 1962 to 2002, wheat crop output had condensed significantly due to rising temperatures. Therefore, during 1980–2011, the common wheat productivity trends endorsed extreme temperature events confirmed by Gourdji et al. ( 2013 ) around South Asia, South America, and Central Asia. Various other studies (Asseng, Cao, Zhang, and Ludwig 2009 ; Asseng et al. 2013 ; García et al. 2015 ; Ortiz et al. 2021 ) also proved that wheat output is negatively affected by the rising temperatures and also caused adverse effects on biomass productivity (Calderini et al. 1999 ; Sadras and Slafer 2012 ). Hereafter, the rice crop is also influenced by the high temperatures at night. These difficulties will worsen because the temperature will be rising further in the future owing to CC (Tebaldi et al. 2006 ). Another research conducted in China revealed that a 4.6% of rice production per 1 °C has happened connected with the advancement in night temperatures (Tao et al. 2006 ). Moreover, the average night temperature growth also affected rice indicia cultivar’s output pragmatically during 25 years in the Philippines (Peng et al. 2004 ). It is anticipated that the increase in world average temperature will also cause a substantial reduction in yield (Hatfield et al. 2011 ; Lobell and Gourdji 2012 ). In the southern hemisphere, Parry et al. ( 2007 ) noted a rise of 1–4 °C in average daily temperatures at the end of spring season unti the middle of summers, and this raised temperature reduced crop output by cutting down the time length for phenophases eventually reduce the yield (Hatfield and Prueger 2015 ; R. Ortiz 2008 ). Also, world climate models have recommended that humid and subtropical regions expect to be plentiful prey to the upcoming heat strokes (Battisti and Naylor 2009 ). Grain production is the amalgamation of two constituents: the average weight and the grain output/m 2 , however, in crop production. Crop output is mainly accredited to the grain quantity (Araus et al. 2008 ; Gambín and Borrás 2010 ). In the times of grain set, yield resources are mainly strewn between hitherto defined components, i.e., grain usual weight and grain output, which presents a trade-off between them (Gambín and Borrás 2010 ) beside disparities in per grain integration (B. L. Gambín et al. 2006 ). In addition to this, the maize crop is also susceptible to raised temperatures, principally in the flowering stage (Edreira and Otegui 2013 ). In reality, the lower grain number is associated with insufficient acclimatization due to intense photosynthesis and higher respiration and the high-temperature effect on the reproduction phenomena (Edreira and Otegui 2013 ). During the flowering phase, maize visible to heat (30–36 °C) seemed less anthesis-silking intermissions (Edreira et al. 2011 ). Another research by Dupuis and Dumas ( 1990 ) proved that a drop in spikelet when directly visible to high temperatures above 35 °C in vitro pollination. Abnormalities in kernel number claimed by Vega et al. ( 2001 ) is related to conceded plant development during a flowering phase that is linked with the active ear growth phase and categorized as a critical phase for approximation of kernel number during silking (Otegui and Bonhomme 1998 ).

The retort of rice output to high temperature presents disparities in flowering patterns, and seed set lessens and lessens grain weight (Qasim et al. 2020 ; Qasim, Hammad, Maqsood, Tariq, & Chawla). During the daytime, heat directly impacts flowers which lessens the thesis period and quickens the earlier peak flowering (Tao et al. 2006 ). Antagonistic effect of higher daytime temperature d on pollen sprouting proposed seed set decay, whereas, seed set was lengthily reduced than could be explicated by pollen growing at high temperatures 40◦C (Matsui et al. 2001 ).

The decline in wheat output is linked with higher temperatures, confirmed in numerous studies (Semenov 2009 ; Stone and Nicolas 1994 ). High temperatures fast-track the arrangements of plant expansion (Blum et al. 2001 ), diminution photosynthetic process (Salvucci and Crafts‐Brandner 2004 ), and also considerably affect the reproductive operations (Farooq et al. 2011 ).

The destructive impacts of CC induced weather extremes to deteriorate the integrity of crops (Chaudhary et al. 2011 ), e.g., Spartan cold and extreme fog cause falling and discoloration of betel leaves (Rosenzweig et al. 2001 ), giving them a somehow reddish appearance, squeezing of lemon leaves (Pautasso et al. 2012 ), as well as root rot of pineapple, have reported (Vedwan and Rhoades 2001 ). Henceforth, in tackling the disruptive effects of CC, several short-term and long-term management approaches are the crucial need of time (Fig.  4 ). Moreover, various studies (Chaudhary et al. 2011 ; Patz et al. 2005 ; Pautasso et al. 2012 ) have demonstrated adapting trends such as ameliorating crop diversity can yield better adaptability towards CC.

Schematic description of potential impacts of climate change on the agriculture sector and the appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures to overcome its impact.

Climate change impacts on biodiversity

Global biodiversity is among the severe victims of CC because it is the fastest emerging cause of species loss. Studies demonstrated that the massive scale species dynamics are considerably associated with diverse climatic events (Abraham and Chain 1988 ; Manes et al. 2021 ; A. M. D. Ortiz et al. 2021 ). Both the pace and magnitude of CC are altering the compatible habitat ranges for living entities of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial regions. Alterations in general climate regimes influence the integrity of ecosystems in numerous ways, such as variation in the relative abundance of species, range shifts, changes in activity timing, and microhabitat use (Bates et al. 2014 ). The geographic distribution of any species often depends upon its ability to tolerate environmental stresses, biological interactions, and dispersal constraints. Hence, instead of the CC, the local species must only accept, adapt, move, or face extinction (Berg et al. 2010 ). So, the best performer species have a better survival capacity for adjusting to new ecosystems or a decreased perseverance to survive where they are already situated (Bates et al. 2014 ). An important aspect here is the inadequate habitat connectivity and access to microclimates, also crucial in raising the exposure to climate warming and extreme heatwave episodes. For example, the carbon sequestration rates are undergoing fluctuations due to climate-driven expansion in the range of global mangroves (Cavanaugh et al. 2014 ).

Similarly, the loss of kelp-forest ecosystems in various regions and its occupancy by the seaweed turfs has set the track for elevated herbivory by the high influx of tropical fish populations. Not only this, the increased water temperatures have exacerbated the conditions far away from the physiological tolerance level of the kelp communities (Vergés et al. 2016 ; Wernberg et al. 2016 ). Another pertinent danger is the devastation of keystone species, which even has more pervasive effects on the entire communities in that habitat (Zarnetske et al. 2012 ). It is particularly important as CC does not specify specific populations or communities. Eventually, this CC-induced redistribution of species may deteriorate carbon storage and the net ecosystem productivity (Weed et al. 2013 ). Among the typical disruptions, the prominent ones include impacts on marine and terrestrial productivity, marine community assembly, and the extended invasion of toxic cyanobacteria bloom (Fossheim et al. 2015 ).

The CC-impacted species extinction is widely reported in the literature (Beesley et al. 2019 ; Urban 2015 ), and the predictions of demise until the twenty-first century are dreadful (Abbass et al. 2019 ; Pereira et al. 2013 ). In a few cases, northward shifting of species may not be formidable as it allows mountain-dwelling species to find optimum climates. However, the migrant species may be trapped in isolated and incompatible habitats due to losing topography and range (Dullinger et al. 2012 ). For example, a study indicated that the American pika has been extirpated or intensely diminished in some regions, primarily attributed to the CC-impacted extinction or at least local extirpation (Stewart et al. 2015 ). Besides, the anticipation of persistent responses to the impacts of CC often requires data records of several decades to rigorously analyze the critical pre and post CC patterns at species and ecosystem levels (Manes et al. 2021 ; Testa et al. 2018 ).

Nonetheless, the availability of such long-term data records is rare; hence, attempts are needed to focus on these profound aspects. Biodiversity is also vulnerable to the other associated impacts of CC, such as rising temperatures, droughts, and certain invasive pest species. For instance, a study revealed the changes in the composition of plankton communities attributed to rising temperatures. Henceforth, alterations in such aquatic producer communities, i.e., diatoms and calcareous plants, can ultimately lead to variation in the recycling of biological carbon. Moreover, such changes are characterized as a potential contributor to CO 2 differences between the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods (Kohfeld et al. 2005 ).

Climate change implications on human health

It is an understood corporality that human health is a significant victim of CC (Costello et al. 2009 ). According to the WHO, CC might be responsible for 250,000 additional deaths per year during 2030–2050 (Watts et al. 2015 ). These deaths are attributed to extreme weather-induced mortality and morbidity and the global expansion of vector-borne diseases (Lemery et al. 2021; Yang and Usman 2021 ; Meierrieks 2021 ; UNEP 2017 ). Here, some of the emerging health issues pertinent to this global problem are briefly described.

Climate change and antimicrobial resistance with corresponding economic costs

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an up-surging complex global health challenge (Garner et al. 2019 ; Lemery et al. 2021 ). Health professionals across the globe are extremely worried due to this phenomenon that has critical potential to reverse almost all the progress that has been achieved so far in the health discipline (Gosling and Arnell 2016 ). A massive amount of antibiotics is produced by many pharmaceutical industries worldwide, and the pathogenic microorganisms are gradually developing resistance to them, which can be comprehended how strongly this aspect can shake the foundations of national and global economies (UNEP 2017 ). This statement is supported by the fact that AMR is not developing in a particular region or country. Instead, it is flourishing in every continent of the world (WHO 2018 ). This plague is heavily pushing humanity to the post-antibiotic era, in which currently antibiotic-susceptible pathogens will once again lead to certain endemics and pandemics after being resistant(WHO 2018 ). Undesirably, if this statement would become a factuality, there might emerge certain risks in undertaking sophisticated interventions such as chemotherapy, joint replacement cases, and organ transplantation (Su et al. 2018 ). Presently, the amplification of drug resistance cases has made common illnesses like pneumonia, post-surgical infections, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, etc., too difficult and costly to be treated or cure well (WHO 2018 ). From a simple example, it can be assumed how easily antibiotic-resistant strains can be transmitted from one person to another and ultimately travel across the boundaries (Berendonk et al. 2015 ). Talking about the second- and third-generation classes of antibiotics, e.g., most renowned generations of cephalosporin antibiotics that are more expensive, broad-spectrum, more toxic, and usually require more extended periods whenever prescribed to patients (Lemery et al. 2021 ; Pärnänen et al. 2019 ). This scenario has also revealed that the abundance of resistant strains of pathogens was also higher in the Southern part (WHO 2018 ). As southern parts are generally warmer than their counterparts, it is evident from this example how CC-induced global warming can augment the spread of antibiotic-resistant strains within the biosphere, eventually putting additional economic burden in the face of developing new and costlier antibiotics. The ARG exchange to susceptible bacteria through one of the potential mechanisms, transformation, transduction, and conjugation; Selection pressure can be caused by certain antibiotics, metals or pesticides, etc., as shown in Fig.  5 .

A typical interaction between the susceptible and resistant strains.

Source: Elsayed et al. ( 2021 ); Karkman et al. ( 2018 )

Certain studies highlighted that conventional urban wastewater treatment plants are typical hotspots where most bacterial strains exchange genetic material through horizontal gene transfer (Fig.  5 ). Although at present, the extent of risks associated with the antibiotic resistance found in wastewater is complicated; environmental scientists and engineers have particular concerns about the potential impacts of these antibiotic resistance genes on human health (Ashbolt 2015 ). At most undesirable and worst case, these antibiotic-resistant genes containing bacteria can make their way to enter into the environment (Pruden et al. 2013 ), irrigation water used for crops and public water supplies and ultimately become a part of food chains and food webs (Ma et al. 2019 ; D. Wu et al. 2019 ). This problem has been reported manifold in several countries (Hendriksen et al. 2019 ), where wastewater as a means of irrigated water is quite common.

Climate change and vector borne-diseases

Temperature is a fundamental factor for the sustenance of living entities regardless of an ecosystem. So, a specific living being, especially a pathogen, requires a sophisticated temperature range to exist on earth. The second essential component of CC is precipitation, which also impacts numerous infectious agents’ transport and dissemination patterns. Global rising temperature is a significant cause of many species extinction. On the one hand, this changing environmental temperature may be causing species extinction, and on the other, this warming temperature might favor the thriving of some new organisms. Here, it was evident that some pathogens may also upraise once non-evident or reported (Patz et al. 2000 ). This concept can be exemplified through certain pathogenic strains of microorganisms that how the likelihood of various diseases increases in response to climate warming-induced environmental changes (Table ​ (Table2 2 ).

Examples of how various environmental changes affect various infectious diseases in humans

Source: Aron and Patz ( 2001 )

A recent example is an outburst of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Republic of China, causing pneumonia and severe acute respiratory complications (Cui et al. 2021 ; Song et al. 2021 ). The large family of viruses is harbored in numerous animals, bats, and snakes in particular (livescience.com) with the subsequent transfer into human beings. Hence, it is worth noting that the thriving of numerous vectors involved in spreading various diseases is influenced by Climate change (Ogden 2018 ; Santos et al. 2021 ).

Psychological impacts of climate change

Climate change (CC) is responsible for the rapid dissemination and exaggeration of certain epidemics and pandemics. In addition to the vast apparent impacts of climate change on health, forestry, agriculture, etc., it may also have psychological implications on vulnerable societies. It can be exemplified through the recent outburst of (COVID-19) in various countries around the world (Pal 2021 ). Besides, the victims of this viral infection have made healthy beings scarier and terrified. In the wake of such epidemics, people with common colds or fever are also frightened and must pass specific regulatory protocols. Living in such situations continuously terrifies the public and makes the stress familiar, which eventually makes them psychologically weak (npr.org).

CC boosts the extent of anxiety, distress, and other issues in public, pushing them to develop various mental-related problems. Besides, frequent exposure to extreme climatic catastrophes such as geological disasters also imprints post-traumatic disorder, and their ubiquitous occurrence paves the way to developing chronic psychological dysfunction. Moreover, repetitive listening from media also causes an increase in the person’s stress level (Association 2020 ). Similarly, communities living in flood-prone areas constantly live in extreme fear of drowning and die by floods. In addition to human lives, the flood-induced destruction of physical infrastructure is a specific reason for putting pressure on these communities (Ogden 2018 ). For instance, Ogden ( 2018 ) comprehensively denoted that Katrina’s Hurricane augmented the mental health issues in the victim communities.

Climate change impacts on the forestry sector

Forests are the global regulators of the world’s climate (FAO 2018 ) and have an indispensable role in regulating global carbon and nitrogen cycles (Rehman et al. 2021 ; Reichstein and Carvalhais 2019 ). Hence, disturbances in forest ecology affect the micro and macro-climates (Ellison et al. 2017 ). Climate warming, in return, has profound impacts on the growth and productivity of transboundary forests by influencing the temperature and precipitation patterns, etc. As CC induces specific changes in the typical structure and functions of ecosystems (Zhang et al. 2017 ) as well impacts forest health, climate change also has several devastating consequences such as forest fires, droughts, pest outbreaks (EPA 2018 ), and last but not the least is the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. The rising frequency and intensity of another CC product, i.e., droughts, pose plenty of challenges to the well-being of global forests (Diffenbaugh et al. 2017 ), which is further projected to increase soon (Hartmann et al. 2018 ; Lehner et al. 2017 ; Rehman et al. 2021 ). Hence, CC induces storms, with more significant impacts also put extra pressure on the survival of the global forests (Martínez-Alvarado et al. 2018 ), significantly since their influences are augmented during higher winter precipitations with corresponding wetter soils causing weak root anchorage of trees (Brázdil et al. 2018 ). Surging temperature regimes causes alterations in usual precipitation patterns, which is a significant hurdle for the survival of temperate forests (Allen et al. 2010 ; Flannigan et al. 2013 ), letting them encounter severe stress and disturbances which adversely affects the local tree species (Hubbart et al. 2016 ; Millar and Stephenson 2015 ; Rehman et al. 2021 ).

Climate change impacts on forest-dependent communities

Forests are the fundamental livelihood resource for about 1.6 billion people worldwide; out of them, 350 million are distinguished with relatively higher reliance (Bank 2008 ). Agro-forestry-dependent communities comprise 1.2 billion, and 60 million indigenous people solely rely on forests and their products to sustain their lives (Sunderlin et al. 2005 ). For example, in the entire African continent, more than 2/3rd of inhabitants depend on forest resources and woodlands for their alimonies, e.g., food, fuelwood and grazing (Wasiq and Ahmad 2004 ). The livings of these people are more intensely affected by the climatic disruptions making their lives harder (Brown et al. 2014 ). On the one hand, forest communities are incredibly vulnerable to CC due to their livelihoods, cultural and spiritual ties as well as socio-ecological connections, and on the other, they are not familiar with the term “climate change.” (Rahman and Alam 2016 ). Among the destructive impacts of temperature and rainfall, disruption of the agroforestry crops with resultant downscale growth and yield (Macchi et al. 2008 ). Cruz ( 2015 ) ascribed that forest-dependent smallholder farmers in the Philippines face the enigma of delayed fruiting, more severe damages by insect and pest incidences due to unfavorable temperature regimes, and changed rainfall patterns.

Among these series of challenges to forest communities, their well-being is also distinctly vulnerable to CC. Though the detailed climate change impacts on human health have been comprehensively mentioned in the previous section, some studies have listed a few more devastating effects on the prosperity of forest-dependent communities. For instance, the Himalayan people have been experiencing frequent skin-borne diseases such as malaria and other skin diseases due to increasing mosquitoes, wild boar as well, and new wasps species, particularly in higher altitudes that were almost non-existent before last 5–10 years (Xu et al. 2008 ). Similarly, people living at high altitudes in Bangladesh have experienced frequent mosquito-borne calamities (Fardous; Sharma 2012 ). In addition, the pace of other waterborne diseases such as infectious diarrhea, cholera, pathogenic induced abdominal complications and dengue has also been boosted in other distinguished regions of Bangladesh (Cell 2009 ; Gunter et al. 2008 ).

Pest outbreak

Upscaling hotter climate may positively affect the mobile organisms with shorter generation times because they can scurry from harsh conditions than the immobile species (Fettig et al. 2013 ; Schoene and Bernier 2012 ) and are also relatively more capable of adapting to new environments (Jactel et al. 2019 ). It reveals that insects adapt quickly to global warming due to their mobility advantages. Due to past outbreaks, the trees (forests) are relatively more susceptible victims (Kurz et al. 2008 ). Before CC, the influence of factors mentioned earlier, i.e., droughts and storms, was existent and made the forests susceptible to insect pest interventions; however, the global forests remain steadfast, assiduous, and green (Jactel et al. 2019 ). The typical reasons could be the insect herbivores were regulated by several tree defenses and pressures of predation (Wilkinson and Sherratt 2016 ). As climate greatly influences these phenomena, the global forests cannot be so sedulous against such challenges (Jactel et al. 2019 ). Table ​ Table3 3 demonstrates some of the particular considerations with practical examples that are essential while mitigating the impacts of CC in the forestry sector.

Essential considerations while mitigating the climate change impacts on the forestry sector

Source : Fischer ( 2019 )

Climate change impacts on tourism

Tourism is a commercial activity that has roots in multi-dimensions and an efficient tool with adequate job generation potential, revenue creation, earning of spectacular foreign exchange, enhancement in cross-cultural promulgation and cooperation, a business tool for entrepreneurs and eventually for the country’s national development (Arshad et al. 2018 ; Scott 2021 ). Among a plethora of other disciplines, the tourism industry is also a distinct victim of climate warming (Gössling et al. 2012 ; Hall et al. 2015 ) as the climate is among the essential resources that enable tourism in particular regions as most preferred locations. Different places at different times of the year attract tourists both within and across the countries depending upon the feasibility and compatibility of particular weather patterns. Hence, the massive variations in these weather patterns resulting from CC will eventually lead to monumental challenges to the local economy in that specific area’s particular and national economy (Bujosa et al. 2015 ). For instance, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report demonstrated that the global tourism industry had faced a considerable decline in the duration of ski season, including the loss of some ski areas and the dramatic shifts in tourist destinations’ climate warming.

Furthermore, different studies (Neuvonen et al. 2015 ; Scott et al. 2004 ) indicated that various currently perfect tourist spots, e.g., coastal areas, splendid islands, and ski resorts, will suffer consequences of CC. It is also worth noting that the quality and potential of administrative management potential to cope with the influence of CC on the tourism industry is of crucial significance, which renders specific strengths of resiliency to numerous destinations to withstand against it (Füssel and Hildén 2014 ). Similarly, in the partial or complete absence of adequate socio-economic and socio-political capital, the high-demanding tourist sites scurry towards the verge of vulnerability. The susceptibility of tourism is based on different components such as the extent of exposure, sensitivity, life-supporting sectors, and capacity assessment factors (Füssel and Hildén 2014 ). It is obvious corporality that sectors such as health, food, ecosystems, human habitat, infrastructure, water availability, and the accessibility of a particular region are prone to CC. Henceforth, the sensitivity of these critical sectors to CC and, in return, the adaptive measures are a hallmark in determining the composite vulnerability of climate warming (Ionescu et al. 2009 ).

Moreover, the dependence on imported food items, poor hygienic conditions, and inadequate health professionals are dominant aspects affecting the local terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. Meanwhile, the greater dependency on ecosystem services and its products also makes a destination more fragile to become a prey of CC (Rizvi et al. 2015 ). Some significant non-climatic factors are important indicators of a particular ecosystem’s typical health and functioning, e.g., resource richness and abundance portray the picture of ecosystem stability. Similarly, the species abundance is also a productive tool that ensures that the ecosystem has a higher buffering capacity, which is terrific in terms of resiliency (Roscher et al. 2013 ).

Climate change impacts on the economic sector

Climate plays a significant role in overall productivity and economic growth. Due to its increasingly global existence and its effect on economic growth, CC has become one of the major concerns of both local and international environmental policymakers (Ferreira et al. 2020 ; Gleditsch 2021 ; Abbass et al. 2021b ; Lamperti et al. 2021 ). The adverse effects of CC on the overall productivity factor of the agricultural sector are therefore significant for understanding the creation of local adaptation policies and the composition of productive climate policy contracts. Previous studies on CC in the world have already forecasted its effects on the agricultural sector. Researchers have found that global CC will impact the agricultural sector in different world regions. The study of the impacts of CC on various agrarian activities in other demographic areas and the development of relative strategies to respond to effects has become a focal point for researchers (Chandioet al. 2020 ; Gleditsch 2021 ; Mosavi et al. 2020 ).

With the rapid growth of global warming since the 1980s, the temperature has started increasing globally, which resulted in the incredible transformation of rain and evaporation in the countries. The agricultural development of many countries has been reliant, delicate, and susceptible to CC for a long time, and it is on the development of agriculture total factor productivity (ATFP) influence different crops and yields of farmers (Alhassan 2021 ; Wu  2020 ).

Food security and natural disasters are increasing rapidly in the world. Several major climatic/natural disasters have impacted local crop production in the countries concerned. The effects of these natural disasters have been poorly controlled by the development of the economies and populations and may affect human life as well. One example is China, which is among the world’s most affected countries, vulnerable to natural disasters due to its large population, harsh environmental conditions, rapid CC, low environmental stability, and disaster power. According to the January 2016 statistical survey, China experienced an economic loss of 298.3 billion Yuan, and about 137 million Chinese people were severely affected by various natural disasters (Xie et al. 2018 ).

Mitigation and adaptation strategies of climate changes

Adaptation and mitigation are the crucial factors to address the response to CC (Jahanzad et al. 2020 ). Researchers define mitigation on climate changes, and on the other hand, adaptation directly impacts climate changes like floods. To some extent, mitigation reduces or moderates greenhouse gas emission, and it becomes a critical issue both economically and environmentally (Botzen et al. 2021 ; Jahanzad et al. 2020 ; Kongsager 2018 ; Smit et al. 2000 ; Vale et al. 2021 ; Usman et al. 2021 ; Verheyen 2005 ).

Researchers have deep concern about the adaptation and mitigation methodologies in sectoral and geographical contexts. Agriculture, industry, forestry, transport, and land use are the main sectors to adapt and mitigate policies(Kärkkäinen et al. 2020 ; Waheed et al. 2021 ). Adaptation and mitigation require particular concern both at the national and international levels. The world has faced a significant problem of climate change in the last decades, and adaptation to these effects is compulsory for economic and social development. To adapt and mitigate against CC, one should develop policies and strategies at the international level (Hussain et al. 2020 ). Figure  6 depicts the list of current studies on sectoral impacts of CC with adaptation and mitigation measures globally.

Sectoral impacts of climate change with adaptation and mitigation measures.

Conclusion and future perspectives

Specific socio-agricultural, socio-economic, and physical systems are the cornerstone of psychological well-being, and the alteration in these systems by CC will have disastrous impacts. Climate variability, alongside other anthropogenic and natural stressors, influences human and environmental health sustainability. Food security is another concerning scenario that may lead to compromised food quality, higher food prices, and inadequate food distribution systems. Global forests are challenged by different climatic factors such as storms, droughts, flash floods, and intense precipitation. On the other hand, their anthropogenic wiping is aggrandizing their existence. Undoubtedly, the vulnerability scale of the world’s regions differs; however, appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures can aid the decision-making bodies in developing effective policies to tackle its impacts. Presently, modern life on earth has tailored to consistent climatic patterns, and accordingly, adapting to such considerable variations is of paramount importance. Because the faster changes in climate will make it harder to survive and adjust, this globally-raising enigma calls for immediate attention at every scale ranging from elementary community level to international level. Still, much effort, research, and dedication are required, which is the most critical time. Some policy implications can help us to mitigate the consequences of climate change, especially the most affected sectors like the agriculture sector;

Warming might lengthen the season in frost-prone growing regions (temperate and arctic zones), allowing for longer-maturing seasonal cultivars with better yields (Pfadenhauer 2020 ; Bonacci 2019 ). Extending the planting season may allow additional crops each year; when warming leads to frequent warmer months highs over critical thresholds, a split season with a brief summer fallow may be conceivable for short-period crops such as wheat barley, cereals, and many other vegetable crops. The capacity to prolong the planting season in tropical and subtropical places where the harvest season is constrained by precipitation or agriculture farming occurs after the year may be more limited and dependent on how precipitation patterns vary (Wu et al. 2017 ).

The genetic component is comprehensive for many yields, but it is restricted like kiwi fruit for a few. Ali et al. ( 2017 ) investigated how new crops will react to climatic changes (also stated in Mall et al. 2017 ). Hot temperature, drought, insect resistance; salt tolerance; and overall crop production and product quality increases would all be advantageous (Akkari 2016 ). Genetic mapping and engineering can introduce a greater spectrum of features. The adoption of genetically altered cultivars has been slowed, particularly in the early forecasts owing to the complexity in ensuring features are expediently expressed throughout the entire plant, customer concerns, economic profitability, and regulatory impediments (Wirehn 2018 ; Davidson et al. 2016 ).

To get the full benefit of the CO 2 would certainly require additional nitrogen and other fertilizers. Nitrogen not consumed by the plants may be excreted into groundwater, discharged into water surface, or emitted from the land, soil nitrous oxide when large doses of fertilizer are sprayed. Increased nitrogen levels in groundwater sources have been related to human chronic illnesses and impact marine ecosystems. Cultivation, grain drying, and other field activities have all been examined in depth in the studies (Barua et al. 2018 ).

• The technological and socio-economic adaptation

The policy consequence of the causative conclusion is that as a source of alternative energy, biofuel production is one of the routes that explain oil price volatility separate from international macroeconomic factors. Even though biofuel production has just begun in a few sample nations, there is still a tremendous worldwide need for feedstock to satisfy industrial expansion in China and the USA, which explains the food price relationship to the global oil price. Essentially, oil-exporting countries may create incentives in their economies to increase food production. It may accomplish by giving farmers financing, seedlings, fertilizers, and farming equipment. Because of the declining global oil price and, as a result, their earnings from oil export, oil-producing nations may be unable to subsidize food imports even in the near term. As a result, these countries can boost the agricultural value chain for export. It may be accomplished through R&D and adding value to their food products to increase income by correcting exchange rate misalignment and adverse trade terms. These nations may also diversify their economies away from oil, as dependence on oil exports alone is no longer economically viable given the extreme volatility of global oil prices. Finally, resource-rich and oil-exporting countries can convert to non-food renewable energy sources such as solar, hydro, coal, wind, wave, and tidal energy. By doing so, both world food and oil supplies would be maintained rather than harmed.

IRENA’s modeling work shows that, if a comprehensive policy framework is in place, efforts toward decarbonizing the energy future will benefit economic activity, jobs (outweighing losses in the fossil fuel industry), and welfare. Countries with weak domestic supply chains and a large reliance on fossil fuel income, in particular, must undertake structural reforms to capitalize on the opportunities inherent in the energy transition. Governments continue to give major policy assistance to extract fossil fuels, including tax incentives, financing, direct infrastructure expenditures, exemptions from environmental regulations, and other measures. The majority of major oil and gas producing countries intend to increase output. Some countries intend to cut coal output, while others plan to maintain or expand it. While some nations are beginning to explore and execute policies aimed at a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuel production, these efforts have yet to impact major producing countries’ plans and goals. Verifiable and comparable data on fossil fuel output and assistance from governments and industries are critical to closing the production gap. Governments could increase openness by declaring their production intentions in their climate obligations under the Paris Agreement.

It is firmly believed that achieving the Paris Agreement commitments is doubtlful without undergoing renewable energy transition across the globe (Murshed 2020 ; Zhao et al. 2022 ). Policy instruments play the most important role in determining the degree of investment in renewable energy technology. This study examines the efficacy of various policy strategies in the renewable energy industry of multiple nations. Although its impact is more visible in established renewable energy markets, a renewable portfolio standard is also a useful policy instrument. The cost of producing renewable energy is still greater than other traditional energy sources. Furthermore, government incentives in the R&D sector can foster innovation in this field, resulting in cost reductions in the renewable energy industry. These nations may export their technologies and share their policy experiences by forming networks among their renewable energy-focused organizations. All policy measures aim to reduce production costs while increasing the proportion of renewables to a country’s energy system. Meanwhile, long-term contracts with renewable energy providers, government commitment and control, and the establishment of long-term goals can assist developing nations in deploying renewable energy technology in their energy sector.

Author contribution

KA: Writing the original manuscript, data collection, data analysis, Study design, Formal analysis, Visualization, Revised draft, Writing-review, and editing. MZQ: Writing the original manuscript, data collection, data analysis, Writing-review, and editing. HS: Contribution to the contextualization of the theme, Conceptualization, Validation, Supervision, literature review, Revised drapt, and writing review and editing. MM: Writing review and editing, compiling the literature review, language editing. HM: Writing review and editing, compiling the literature review, language editing. IY: Contribution to the contextualization of the theme, literature review, and writing review and editing.

Availability of data and material

Declarations.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Contributor Information

Kashif Abbass, Email: nc.ude.tsujn@ssabbafihsak .

Muhammad Zeeshan Qasim, Email: moc.kooltuo@888misaqnahseez .

Huaming Song, Email: nc.ude.tsujn@gnimauh .

Muntasir Murshed, Email: [email protected] .

Haider Mahmood, Email: moc.liamtoh@doomhamrediah .

Ijaz Younis, Email: nc.ude.tsujn@sinuoyzaji .

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Addressing Climate Change Through Education  

Tamara shapiro ledley, juliette rooney-varga, and frank niepold, publication history:.

The scientific community has made the urgent need to mitigate climate change clear and, with the ratification of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the international community has formally accepted ambitious mitigation goals. However, a wide gap remains between the aspirational emissions reduction goals of the Paris Agreement and the real-world pledges and actions of nations that are party to it. Closing that emissions gap can only be achieved if a similarly wide gap between scientific and societal understanding of climate change is also closed. Several fundamental aspects of climate change make clear both the need for education and the opportunity it offers. First, addressing climate change will require action at all levels of society, including individuals, organizations, businesses, local, state, and national governments, and international bodies. It cannot be addressed by a few individuals with privileged access to information, but rather requires transfer of knowledge, both intellectually and affectively, to decision-makers and their constituents at all levels. Second, education is needed because, in the case of climate change, learning from experience is learning too late. The delay between decisions that cause climate change and their full societal impact can range from decades to millennia. As a result, learning from education, rather than experience, is necessary to avoid those impacts. Climate change and sustainability represent complex, dynamic systems that demand a systems thinking approach. Systems thinking takes a holistic, long-term perspective that focuses on relationships between interacting parts, and how those relationships generate behavior over time. System dynamics includes formal mapping and modeling of systems, to improve understanding of the behavior of complex systems as well as how they respond to human or other interventions. Systems approaches are increasingly seen as critical to climate change education, as the human and natural systems involved in climate change epitomize a complex, dynamic problem that crosses disciplines and societal sectors. A systems thinking approach can also be used to examine the potential for education to serve as a vehicle for societal change. In particular, education can enable society to benefit from climate change science by transferring scientific knowledge across societal sectors. Education plays a central role in several processes that can accelerate social change and climate change mitigation. Effective climate change education increases the number of informed and engaged citizens, building social will or pressure to shape policy, and building a workforce for a low-carbon economy. Indeed, several climate change education efforts to date have delivered gains in climate and energy knowledge, affect, and/or motivation. However, society still faces challenges in coordinating initiatives across audiences, managing and leveraging resources, and making effective investments at a scale that is commensurate with the climate change challenge. Education is needed to promote informed decision-making at all levels of society.

Air Pollution and Weather Interaction in East Asia  

Aijun ding, xin huang, and congbin fu.

Air pollution is one of the grand environmental challenges in developing countries, especially those with high population density like China. High concentrations of primary and secondary trace gases and particulate matter (PM) are frequently observed in the industrialized and urbanized regions, causing negative effects on the health of humans, plants, and the ecosystem. Meteorological conditions are among the most important factors influencing day-to-day air quality. Synoptic weather and boundary layer dynamics control the dispersion capacity and transport of air pollutants, while the main meteorological parameters, such as air temperature, radiation, and relative humidity, influence the chemical transformation of secondary air pollutants at the same time. Intense air pollution, especially high concentration of radiatively important aerosols, can substantially influence meteorological parameters, boundary layer dynamics, synoptic weather, and even regional climate through their strong radiative effects. As one of the main monsoon regions, with the most intense human activities in the world, East Asia is a region experiencing complex air pollution, with sources from anthropogenic fossil fuel combustion, biomass burning, dust storms, and biogenic emissions. A mixture of these different plumes can cause substantial two-way interactions and feedbacks in the formation of air pollutants under various weather conditions. Improving the understanding of such interactions needs more field measurements using integrated multiprocess measurement platforms, as well as more efforts in developing numerical models, especially for those with online coupled processes. All these efforts are very important for policymaking from the perspectives of environmental protection and mitigation of climate change.

The Allocation of Groundwater: From Superstition to Science  

Burke w. griggs.

Groundwater is a critical natural resource, but the law has always struggled with it. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the common law developed several doctrines to allocate groundwater among competing users. The groundwater revolution of the mid-20th century produced an explosive growth in pumping worldwide—and quickly exposed the flaws of these doctrines. Legal rules predicated on land and on surface waters could not meet the challenges posed by the common-pool groundwater resource: those of understanding groundwater dynamics, quantifying the impacts of pumping on other water rights, and devising satisfactory remedies. Unfettered by received property restraints, pumping on an industrial, aquifer-wide scale depleted and contaminated aquifers, regardless of doctrine. The groundwater revolution motivated significant legal developments. Starting in the 1970s, the Supreme Court of the United States adapted its methods for resolving interstate water disputes to include the effects of groundwater pumping. This jurisprudence has fundamentally influenced international groundwater law, including the negotiation of trans-boundary aquifer agreements. Advances in hydrogeology and computer groundwater modeling have enabled states and parties to evaluate the effects of basin-wide pumping. Nonetheless, difficult legal and governance problems remain. Which level of government—local, state, or national—should exercise jurisdiction over groundwater? What level of pumping qualifies as “safe yield,” especially when the aquifer is overdrawn? How do the demands of modern environmental law and the public trust doctrine affect groundwater rights? How can governments satisfy long-neglected claims to water justice made by Indigenous and minority communities? Innovations in groundwater management provide promising answers. The conjunctive management of surface and groundwater can stabilize water supplies, improve water quality, and protect ecosystems. Integrated water resources management seeks to holistically manage groundwater to achieve social and economic equity. Water markets can reward water conservation, attract new market participants, and encourage the migration of groundwater allocations to more valuable uses, including environmental uses. The modern law of groundwater allocation combines older property doctrines with 21st-century regulatory ideals, but the mixture can be unstable. In nations with long-established water codes such as the United States, common-law Anglophone nations, and various European nations, groundwater law has evolved, if haltingly, to incorporate permitting systems, environmental regulation, and water markets. Elsewhere, the challenges are extreme. Long-standing calls for groundwater reform in India remain unheeded as tens of millions of unregulated tube wells pump away. In China, chronic groundwater mismanagement and aquifer contamination belie the roseate claims of national water law. Sub-Saharan nations have enacted progressive groundwater laws, but poverty, racism, and corruption have maintained grim groundwater realities. Across the field, experts have long identified the central problems and reached a rough consensus about the most effective solutions; there is also a common commitment to secure environmental justice and protect groundwater-dependent ecosystems. The most pressing legal work thus requires building practical pathways to reach these solutions and, most importantly, to connect the public with the groundwater on which it increasingly depends.

Legal Regimes for Sharing Transboundary Water  

Mara tignino.

The law applicable to transboundary waters is a corpus juris that dates back to the 19th century. It originally focused on regulating the uses of transboundary watercourses for navigation and commercial transport. It was crafted primarily on the European and North American continents, and it has gradually become universally applicable, thereby taking a new shape. The regulation of transboundary waters was rooted in a strict dynamic of coexistence between sovereign entities: each acted as it saw fit with respect to “its” portion of the watercourse, which was treated at the same time as the image of the territory to which it is attached. The need for regulation only arose when uses affected the riparian states’ exercise of their “sovereign rights.” Since the 1990s, the law has tried to break away from this “classical” logic to make room for more community-based and even “ecosystem” notions based on aspects of joint management, and sometimes even pool of shared resources. A number of treaties have been negotiated and adopted by states bordering transboundary watercourses in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. They reflect, and sometimes even develop, some of the principles and rules enacted in broader forums, such as the United Nations (UN) or its Economic Commission for Europe, or the European Union. These efforts show the steps taken in the field of transboundary waters management, but they also reveal some of its limits, as they do not always comprehend all facets of water management and protection.

Arid Environments  

Julie laity.

Arid environments cover about one third of the Earth’s surface, comprising the most extensive of the terrestrial biomes. Deserts show considerable individual variation in climate, geomorphic surface expression, and biogeography. Climatically, deserts range from dry interior environments, with large temperature ranges, to humid and relatively cool coastal environments, with small temperature ranges. What all deserts share in common is a consistent deficit of precipitation relative to water loss by evaporation, implying that the biological availability of water is very low. Deserts develop because of climatic (persistent high-pressure cells), topographic (mountain ranges that cause rain shadow effects), and oceanographic (cold currents) factors that limit the amount of rain or snowfall that a region receives. Most global deserts are subtropical in distribution. There is a large range of geomorphic surfaces, including sand sheets and sand seas (ergs), stone pavements, bedrock outcrops, dry lakebeds, and alluvial fans. Vegetation cover is generally sparse, but may be enhanced in areas of groundwater seepage or along river courses. The limited vegetation cover affects fluvial and slope processes and results in an enhanced role for the wind. While the majority of streams in deserts are ephemeral features, both intermittent and perennial rivers develop in response to snowmelt in nearby mountains or runoff from distant, more well-watered regions. Most drainage is endoreic, meaning that it flows internally into closed basins and does not reach the sea, being disposed of by seepage and evaporation. The early study of deserts was largely descriptive. More process-based studies commenced with the study of North American deserts in the mid- to late-1800s. Since the late 20th century, research has expanded into many areas of the world, with notable contributions coming from China, but our knowledge of deserts is still more compete in regions such as North America, Australia, Israel, and southern Africa, where access and funding have been more consistently secure. The widespread availability of high-quality remotely sensed images has contributed to the spread of study into new global field areas. The temporal framework for research has also improved, benefiting from improvements in geochronological techniques. Geochronological controls are vital to desert research because most arid regions have experienced significant climatic changes. Deserts have not only expanded or contracted in size, but have experienced changes in the dominant geomorphic processes and biogeographic environment. Contemporary scientific work has also benefited from improvements in technology, notably in surveying techniques, and from the use of quantitative modeling.

Atmospheric Brown Clouds  

Sumit sharma, liliana nunez, and veerabhadran ramanathan.

Atmospheric brown clouds (ABCs) are widespread pollution clouds that can at times span an entire continent or an ocean basin. ABCs extend vertically from the ground upward to as high as 3 km, and they consist of both aerosols and gases. ABCs consist of anthropogenic aerosols such as sulfates, nitrates, organics, and black carbon and natural dust aerosols. Gaseous pollutants that contribute to the formation of ABCs are NOx (nitrogen oxides), SOx (sulfur oxides), VOCs (volatile organic compounds), CO (carbon monoxide), CH4 (methane), and O3 (ozone). The brownish color of the cloud (which is visible when looking at the horizon) is due to absorption of solar radiation at short wavelengths (green, blue, and UV) by organic and black carbon aerosols as well as by NOx. While the local nature of ABCs around polluted cities has been known since the early 1900s, the widespread transoceanic and transcontinental nature of ABCs as well as their large-scale effects on climate, hydrological cycle, and agriculture were discovered inadvertently by The Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), an international experiment conducted in the 1990s over the Indian Ocean. A major discovery of INDOEX was that ABCs caused drastic dimming at the surface. The magnitude of the dimming was as large as 10–20% (based on a monthly average) over vast areas of land and ocean regions. The dimming was shown to be accompanied by significant atmospheric absorption of solar radiation by black and brown carbon (a form of organic carbon). Black and brown carbon, ozone and methane contribute as much as 40% to anthropogenic radiative forcing. The dimming by sulfates, nitrates, and carbonaceous (black and organic carbon) species has been shown to disrupt and weaken the monsoon circulation over southern Asia. In addition, the ozone in ABCs leads to a significant decrease in agriculture yields (by as much as 20–40%) in the polluted regions. Most significantly, the aerosols (in ABCs) near the ground lead to about 4 million premature mortalities every year. Technological and regulatory measures are available to mitigate most of the pollution resulting from ABCs. The importance of ABCs to global environmental problems led the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to form the international ABC program. This ABC program subsequently led to the identification of short-lived climate pollutants as potent mitigation agents of climate change, and in recognition, UNEP formed the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to deal with these pollutants.

Biodiversity Generation and Loss  

T.h. oliver.

Human activities in the Anthropocene are influencing the twin processes of biodiversity generation and loss in complex ways that threaten the maintenance of biodiversity levels that underpin human well-being. Yet many scientists and practitioners still present a simplistic view of biodiversity as a static stock rather than one determined by a dynamic interplay of feedback processes that are affected by anthropogenic drivers. Biodiversity describes the variety of life on Earth, from the genes within an organism to the ecosystem level. However, this article focuses on variation among living organisms, both within and between species. Within species, biodiversity is reflected in genetic, and consequent phenotypic, variations among individuals. Genetic diversity is generated by germ line mutations, genetic recombination during sexual reproduction, and immigration of new genotypes into populations. Across species, biodiversity is reflected in the number of different species present and also, by some metrics, in the evenness of their relative abundance. At this level, biodiversity is generated by processes of speciation and immigration of new species into an area. Anthropogenic drivers affect all these biodiversity generation processes, while the levels of genetic diversity can feed back and affect the level of species diversity, and vice versa. Therefore, biodiversity maintenance is a complex balance of processes and the biodiversity levels at any point in time may not be at equilibrium. A major concern for humans is that our activities are driving rapid losses of biodiversity, which outweigh by orders of magnitude the processes of biodiversity generation. A wide range of species and genetic diversity could be necessary for the provision of ecosystem functions and services (e.g., in maintaining the nutrient cycling, plant productivity, pollination, and pest control that underpin crop production). The importance of biodiversity becomes particularly marked over longer time periods, and especially under varying environmental conditions. In terms of biodiversity losses, there are natural processes that cause roughly continuous, low-level losses, but there is also strong evidence from fossil records for transient events in which exceptionally large loss of biodiversity has occurred. These major extinction episodes are thought to have been caused by various large-scale environmental perturbations, such as volcanic eruptions, sea-level falls, climatic changes, and asteroid impacts. From all these events, biodiversity has shown recovery over subsequent calmer periods, although the composition of higher-level evolutionary taxa can be significantly altered. In the modern era, biodiversity appears to be undergoing another mass extinction event, driven by large-scale human impacts. The primary mechanisms of biodiversity loss caused by humans vary over time and by geographic region, but they include overexploitation, habitat loss, climate change, pollution (e.g., nitrogen deposition), and the introduction of non-native species. It is worth noting that human activities may also lead to increases in biodiversity in some areas through species introductions and climatic changes, although these overall increases in species richness may come at the cost of loss of native species, and with uncertain effects on ecosystem service delivery. Genetic diversity is also affected by human activities, with many examples of erosion of diversity through crop and livestock breeding or through the decline in abundance of wild species populations. Significant future challenges are to develop better ways to monitor the drivers of biodiversity loss and biodiversity levels themselves, making use of new technologies, and improving coverage across geographic regions and taxonomic scope. Rather than treating biodiversity as a simple stock at equilibrium, developing a deeper understanding of the complex interactions—both between environmental drivers and between genetic and species diversity—is essential to manage and maintain the benefits that biodiversity delivers to humans, as well as to safeguard the intrinsic value of the Earth’s biodiversity for future generations.

Biodiversity Hotspots and Conservation Priorities  

Peter kareiva and isaac kareiva.

The concept of biodiversity hotspots arose as a science-based framework with which to identify high-priority areas for habitat protection and conservation—often in the form of nature reserves. The basic idea is that with limited funds and competition from humans for land, we should use range maps and distributional data to protect areas that harbor the greatest biodiversity and that have experienced the greatest habitat loss. In its early application, much analysis and scientific debate went into asking the following questions: Should all species be treated equally? Do endemic species matter more? Should the magnitude of threat matter? Does evolutionary uniqueness matter? And if one has good data on one broad group of organisms (e.g., plants or birds), does it suffice to focus on hotspots for a few taxonomic groups and then expect to capture all biodiversity broadly? Early applications also recognized that hotspots could be identified at a variety of spatial scales—from global to continental, to national to regional, to even local. Hence, within each scale, it is possible to identify biodiversity hotspots as targets for conservation. In the last 10 years, the concept of hotspots has been enriched to address some key critiques, including the problem of ignoring important areas that might have low biodiversity but that certainly were highly valued because of charismatic wild species or critical ecosystem services. Analyses revealed that although the spatial correlation between high-diversity areas and high-ecosystem-service areas is low, it is possible to use quantitative algorithms that achieve both high protection for biodiversity and high protection for ecosystem services without increasing the required area as much as might be expected. Currently, a great deal of research is aimed at asking about what the impact of climate change on biodiversity hotspots is, as well as to what extent conservation can maintain high biodiversity in the face of climate change. Two important approaches to this are detailed models and statistical assessments that relate species distribution to climate, or alternatively “conserving the stage” for high biodiversity, whereby the stage entails regions with topographies or habitat heterogeneity of the sort that is expected to generate high species richness. Finally, conservation planning has most recently embraced what is in some sense the inverse of biodiversity hotspots—what we might call conservation wastelands. This approach recognizes that in the Anthropocene epoch, human development and infrastructure are so vast that in addition to using data to identify biodiversity hotspots, we should use data to identify highly degraded habitats and ecosystems. These degraded lands can then become priority development areas—for wind farms, solar energy facilities, oil palm plantations, and so forth. By specifying degraded lands, conservation plans commonly pair maps of biodiversity hotspots with maps of degraded lands that highlight areas for development. By putting the two maps together, it should be possible to achieve much more effective conservation because there will be provision of habitat for species and for economic development—something that can obtain broader political support than simply highlighting biodiversity hotspots.

Business Models for Sustainability  

Nancy bocken.

Human activity is increasingly impacting the environment negatively on all scales. There is an urgent need to transform human activity toward sustainable development. Business has a key role to play in this sustainability transition through technological, product and service, and process innovations, as well as innovative business models. Business models can enable new technologies, and vice versa. These models are therefore important in the transition to sustainability. Business models for sustainability, or synonymously, sustainable business models, take holistic views on how business is operated in relation to its stakeholders, including the society and the natural environment. They incorporate economic, environmental, and social aspects in an organization’s purpose and performance measures; consider the needs of all stakeholders rather than giving priority to owner and shareholder expectations; treat “nature” as a stakeholder; and take a system as well as a firm-level perspective on the way business is conducted. The research field of sustainable business models emerged from fields such as service business models, green and social business models, and concepts such as sharing and circular economy. Academics have argued that the most service-oriented business models can achieve a “factor 10” environmental impact improvement if designed the right way. Researchers have developed various conceptualizations, typologies, tools, and methods and reviews on sustainable business models. However, sustainable business models are not yet mainstream. Important research areas include the following: (a) tools, methods, and experimentation; (b) the assessment of sustainability impact and rebounds for different stakeholders; (c) sufficiency and degrowth; and (d) the twin revolution of sustainability and digital transition. First, a plethora of tools and approaches are available for inspiration and for creation of sustainable business model designs. Second, in the field of assessment, methods have been based on life cycle thinking considering the supply chain and how a product is (re)used and eventually disposed of. In the field of sufficiency, authors have recognized the importance of moderating consumption through innovative business models to reduce the total need for products, reducing the impact on the environment. Finally, researchers have started to investigate the important interplay between sustainability and digitalization. Because of the potential to achieve a factor 10 environmental impact improvement, sustainable business models are an important source of inspiration for further work, including the upscaling of sustainable business models in established businesses and in new ventures. Understanding how to design better business models and preempting their usage in practice are essential to achieve a desired positive impact. In the field of sufficiency, the macro-impacts of individual and business behavior would need to be better understood. In the area of digital innovation, environmental, societal, and economic values need scrutinization. Researchers and practitioners can leverage the popularity of this field by addressing these important areas to support the development and roll-out of sustainable business models with significantly improved economic, environmental, and societal impact.

Causes of Soil Salinization, Sodification, and Alkalinization  

Elisabeth n. bui.

Driving forces for natural soil salinity and alkalinity are climate, rock weathering, ion exchange, and mineral equilibria reactions that ultimately control the chemical composition of soil and water. The major weathering reactions that produce soluble ions are tabled. Where evapotranspiration is greater than precipitation, downward water movement is insufficient to leach solutes out of the soil profile and salts can precipitate. Microbes involved in organic matter mineralization and thus the carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur biogeochemical cycles are also implicated. Seasonal contrast and evaporative concentration during dry periods accelerate short-term oxidation-reduction reactions and local and regional accumulation of carbonate and sulfur minerals. The presence of salts and alkaline conditions, together with the occurrence of drought and seasonal waterlogging, creates some of the most extreme soil environments where only specially adapted organisms are able to survive. Sodic soils are alkaline, rich in sodium carbonates, with an exchange complex dominated by sodium ions. Such sodic soils, when low in other salts, exhibit dispersive behavior, and they are difficult to manage for cropping. Maintaining the productivity of sodic soils requires control of the flocculation-dispersion behavior of the soil. Poor land management can also lead to anthropogenically induced secondary salinity. New developments in physical chemistry are providing insights into ion exchange and how it controls flocculation-dispersion in soil. New water and solute transport models are enabling better options of remediation of saline and/or sodic soils.

Classification and Mitigation of Soil Salinization  

Soil salinity has been causing problems for agriculturists for millennia, primarily in irrigated lands. The importance of salinity issues is increasing, since large areas are affected by irrigation-induced salt accumulation. A wide knowledge base has been collected to better understand the major processes of salt accumulation and choose the right method of mitigation. There are two major types of soil salinity that are distinguished because of different properties and mitigation requirements. The first is caused mostly by the large salt concentration and is called saline soil, typically corresponding to Solonchak soils. The second is caused mainly by the dominance of sodium in the soil solution or on the soil exchange complex. This latter type is called “sodic” soil, corresponding to Solonetz soils. Saline soils have homogeneous soil profiles with relatively good soil structure, and their appropriate mitigation measure is leaching. Naturally sodic soils have markedly different horizons and unfavorable physical properties, such as low permeability, swelling, plasticity when wet, and hardness when dry, and their limitation for agriculture is mitigated typically by applying gypsum. Salinity and sodicity need to be chemically quantified before deciding on the proper management strategy. The most complex management and mitigation of salinized irrigated lands involves modern engineering including calculations of irrigation water rates and reclamation materials, provisions for drainage, and drainage disposal. Mapping-oriented soil classification was developed for naturally saline and sodic soils and inherited the first soil categories introduced more than a century ago, such as Solonchak and Solonetz in most of the total of 24 soil classification systems used currently. USDA Soil Taxonomy is one exception, which uses names composed of formative elements.

Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture across Africa  

Laura pereira.

Confidence in the projected impacts of climate change on agricultural systems has increased substantially since the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. In Africa, much work has gone into downscaling global climate models to understand regional impacts, but there remains a dearth of local level understanding of impacts and communities’ capacity to adapt. It is well understood that Africa is vulnerable to climate change, not only because of its high exposure to climate change, but also because many African communities lack the capacity to respond or adapt to the impacts of climate change. Warming trends have already become evident across the continent, and it is likely that the continent’s 2000 mean annual temperature change will exceed +2°C by 2100. Added to this warming trend, changes in precipitation patterns are also of concern: Even if rainfall remains constant, due to increasing temperatures, existing water stress will be amplified, putting even more pressure on agricultural systems, especially in semiarid areas. In general, high temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns are likely to reduce cereal crop productivity, and new evidence is emerging that high-value perennial crops will also be negatively impacted by rising temperatures. Pressures from pests, weeds, and diseases are also expected to increase, with detrimental effects on crops and livestock. Much of African agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change lies in the fact that its agricultural systems remain largely rain-fed and underdeveloped, as the majority of Africa’s farmers are small-scale farmers with few financial resources, limited access to infrastructure, and disparate access to information. At the same time, as these systems are highly reliant on their environment, and farmers are dependent on farming for their livelihoods, their diversity, context specificity, and the existence of generations of traditional knowledge offer elements of resilience in the face of climate change. Overall, however, the combination of climatic and nonclimatic drivers and stressors will exacerbate the vulnerability of Africa’s agricultural systems to climate change, but the impacts will not be universally felt. Climate change will impact farmers and their agricultural systems in different ways, and adapting to these impacts will need to be context-specific. Current adaptation efforts on the continent are increasing across the continent, but it is expected that in the long term these will be insufficient in enabling communities to cope with the changes due to longer-term climate change. African famers are increasingly adopting a variety of conservation and agroecological practices such as agroforestry, contouring, terracing, mulching, and no-till. These practices have the twin benefits of lowering carbon emissions while adapting to climate change as well as broadening the sources of livelihoods for poor farmers, but there are constraints to their widespread adoption. These challenges vary from insecure land tenure to difficulties with knowledge-sharing. While African agriculture faces exposure to climate change as well as broader socioeconomic and political challenges, many of its diverse agricultural systems remain resilient. As the continent with the highest population growth rate, rapid urbanization trends, and rising GDP in many countries, Africa’s agricultural systems will need to become adaptive to more than just climate change as the uncertainties of the 21st century unfold.

Containing Carbon Through Cap-and-Trade or a Per-Unit Tax  

John a. sorrentino.

Carbon has been part of the Earth since its beginning, and the carbon cycle is well understood. However, its abundance in the atmosphere has become a problem. Those who propose solutions in decentralized market economies often prefer economic incentives to direct government regulation. Carbon cap-and-trade programs and carbon tax programs are the prime candidates to rein in emissions by altering the economic conditions under which producers and consumers make decisions. Under ideal conditions with full information, they can seamlessly remove the distortion caused by the negative externality and increase a society’s welfare. This distortion is caused by overproduction and underpricing of carbon-related goods and services. The ideal level of emissions would be set under cap-and-trade, or be the outcome of an ideally set carbon tax. The ideal price of carbon permits would result from demand generated by government decree meeting an ideal fixed supply set by the government. The economic benefit of using the ideal carbon tax or the ideal permit price occurs because heterogeneous decision-makers will conceptually reduce emissions to the level that equates their marginal (incremental) emissions-reduction cost to the tax or permit price. When applying the theory to the real world, ideal conditions with full information do not exist. The economically efficient levels of emissions, the carbon tax, and the permit price cannot be categorically determined. The targeted level of emissions is often proposed by non-economists. The spatial extent and time span of the emissions target need to be considered. The carbon tax is bound to be somewhat speculative, which does not bode well for private-sector decision-makers who have to adjust their behavior, and for the achievement of a particular emissions target. The permit price depends on how permits are initially distributed and how well the permit market is designed. The effectiveness of either program is tied to monitoring and enforcement. Social justice considerations in the operation of tax programs often include the condition that they be revenue-neutral. This is more complicated in the permit scheme as much activity after the initial phase is among the emitters themselves. Based on global measurement of greenhouse gases, several models have been created that attempt to explain how emissions transform into concentrations, how concentrations imply radiative forcing and global warming potential, how the latter cause ecological and economic impacts, and how mitigation and/or adaptation can influence these impacts. Scenarios of the uncertain future continue to be generated under myriad assumptions in the quest for the most reliable. Several institutions have worked to engender sustained cooperation among the parties of the “global commons.” The balance of theory and empirical observation is intended to generate normative and positive policy recommendations. Cap-and-trade and carbon tax programs have been designed and/or implemented by various countries and subnational jurisdictions with the hope of reducing carbon-related emissions. Many analysts have declared that the global human society will reach a “tipping point” in the 21st century, with irreversible trends that will alter life on Earth in significant ways.

Deforestation: Drivers, Implications, and Policy Responses  

Christiane w. runyan and jeff stehm.

Over the last 8,000 years, cumulative forest loss amounted to approximately 2.2 billion hectares, reducing forest cover from about 47% of Earth’s land surface to roughly 30% in 2015. These losses mostly occurred in tropical forests (58%), followed by boreal (27%) and temperate forests (8%). The rate of loss has slowed from 7.3 Mha/year between 1990–2000 to 3.3 Mha/year between 2010–2015. Globally since the 1980s, the net loss in the tropics has been outweighed by a net gain in the subtropical, temperate, and boreal climate zones. Deforestation is driven by a number of complex direct and indirect factors. Agricultural expansion (both commercial and subsistence) is the primary driver, followed by mining, infrastructure extension, and urban expansion. In turn, population and economic growth drive the demand for agricultural, mining, and timber products as well as supporting infrastructure. Population growth and changing consumer preferences, for instance, will increase global food demand 50% by 2050, possibly requiring a net increase of approximately 70 million ha of arable land under cultivation. This increase is unlikely to be offset entirely by agricultural intensification due to limits on yield increases and land quality. Deforestation is also affected by other factors such as land tenure uncertainties, poor governance, low capacity of public forestry agencies, and inadequate planning and monitoring. Forest loss has a number of environmental, economic, and social implications. Forests provide an expansive range of environmental benefits across local, regional, and global scales, including: hydrological benefits (e.g., regulating water supply and river discharge), climate benefits (e.g., precipitation recycling, regulating local and global temperature, and carbon sequestration), biogeochemical benefits (e.g., enhancing nutrient availability and reducing nutrient losses), biodiversity benefits, and the support of ecosystem stability and resiliency. The long-term loss of forest resources also negatively affects societies and economies. The forest sector in 2011 contributed roughly 0.9% of global GDP or USD 600 billion. About 850 million people globally live in forest ecosystems, with an estimated 350 million people entirely dependent on forest ecosystems for their livelihoods. Understanding how to best manage remaining forest resources in order to preserve their unique qualities will be a challenge that requires an integrated set of policy responses. Developing and implementing effective policies will require a better understanding of the socio-ecological dynamics of forests, a more accurate and timely ability to measure and monitor forest resources, sound methodologies to assess the effectiveness of policies, and more efficacious methodologies for valuing trade-offs between competing objectives.

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon  

Phillip fearnside.

Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia destroys environmental services that are important for the whole world, and especially for Brazil itself. These services include maintaining biodiversity, avoiding global warming, and recycling water that provides rainfall to Amazonia, to other parts of Brazil, such as São Paulo, and to neighboring countries, such as Argentina. The forest also maintains the human populations and cultures that depend on it. Deforestation rates have gone up and down over the years with major economic cycles. A peak of 27,772 km2/year was reached in 2004, followed by a major decline to 4571 km2/year in 2012, after which the rate trended upward, reaching 7989 km2/year in 2016 (equivalent to about 1.5 hectares per minute). Most (70%) of the decline occurred by 2007, and the slowing in this period is almost entirely explained by declining prices of export commodities such as soy and beef. Government repression measures explain the continued decline from 2008 to 2012, but an important part of the effect of the repression program hinges on a fragile base: a 2008 decision that makes the absence of pending fines a prerequisite for obtaining credit for agriculture and ranching. This could be reversed at the stroke of a pen, and this is a priority for the powerful “ruralist” voting bloc in the National Congress. Massive plans for highways, dams, and other infrastructure in Amazonia, if carried out, will add to forces in the direction of increased deforestation. Deforestation occurs for a wide variety of reasons that vary in different historical periods, in different locations, and in different phases of the process at any given location. Economic cycles, such as recessions and the ups and downs of commodity markets, are one influence. The traditional economic logic, where people deforest to make a profit by producing products from agriculture and ranching, is important but only a part of the story. Ulterior motives also drive deforestation. Land speculation is critical in many circumstances, where the increase in land values (bid up, for example, as a safe haven to protect money from hyperinflation) can yield much higher returns than anything produced by the land. Even without the hyperinflation that came under control in 1994, highway projects can yield speculative fortunes to those who are lucky or shrewd enough to have holdings along the highway route. The practical way to secure land holdings is to deforest for cattle pasture. This is also critical to obtaining and defending legal title to the land. In the past, it has also been the key to large ranches gaining generous fiscal incentives from the government. Money laundering also makes deforestation attractive, allowing funds from drug trafficking, tax evasion, and corruption to be converted to “legal” money. Deforestation receives impulses from logging, mining, and, especially, road construction. Soybeans and cattle ranching are the main replacements for forest, and recently expanded export markets are giving strength to these drivers. Population growth and household dynamics are important for areas dominated by small farmers. Extreme degradation, where tree mortality from logging and successive droughts and forest fires replace forest with open nonforest vegetation, is increasing as a kind of deforestation, and is likely to increase much more in the future. Controlling deforestation requires addressing its multiple causes. Repression through fines and other command-and-control measures is essential to avoid a presumption of impunity, but these controls must be part of a broader program that addresses underlying causes. The many forms of government subsidies for deforestation must be removed or redirected, and the various ulterior motives must be combated. Industry agreements restricting commodity purchases from properties with illegal deforestation (or from areas cleared after a specified cutoff) have a place in efforts to contain forest loss, despite some problems. A “soy moratorium” has been in effect since 2006, and a “cattle agreement” since 2009. Creation and defense of protected areas is an important part of deforestation control, including both indigenous lands and a variety of kinds of “conservation units.” Containing infrastructure projects is essential if deforestation is to be held in check: once roads are built, much of what happens is outside the government’s control. The notion that the 2005–2012 deforestation slowdown means that the process is under control and that infrastructure projects can be built at will is extremely dangerous. One must also abandon myths that divert efforts to contain deforestation; these include “sustainable logging” and the use of “green” funds for expensive programs to reforest degraded lands rather than retain areas of remaining natural forests. Finally, one must provide alternatives to support the rural population of small farmers. Large investors, on the other hand, can fend for themselves. Tapping the value of the environmental services of the forest has been proposed as an alternative basis for sustaining both the rural population and the forest. Despite some progress, a variety of challenges remain. One thing is clear: most of Brazil’s Amazonian deforestation is not “development.” Trading the forest for a vast expanse of extensive cattle pasture does little to secure the well-being of the region’s rural population, is not sustainable, and sacrifices Amazonia’s most valuable resources.

Ecological Effects of Environmental Stressors  

Bill freedman.

Regimes of environmental stress are exceedingly complex. Particular stressors exist within continua of intensity of environmental factors. Those factors interact with each other, and their detrimental effects on organisms are manifest only at relatively high or low strengths of exposure—in fact, many of them are beneficial at intermediate levels of intensity. Although a diversity of environmental factors is manifest at any time and place, only one or a few of them tend to be dominant as stressors. It is useful to distinguish between stressors that occur as severe events (disturbances) and those that are chronic in their exposure, and to aggregate the kinds of stressors into categories (while noting some degree of overlap among them). Climatic stressors are associated with extremes of temperature, solar radiation, wind, moisture, and combinations of these factors. They act as stressors if their condition is either insufficient or excessive, in comparison with the needs and comfort zones of organisms or ecosystem processes. Chemical stressors involve environments in which the availability of certain substances is too low to satisfy biological needs, or high enough to cause toxicity or another physiological detriment to organisms or to higher-level attributes of ecosystems. Wildfire is a disturbance that involves the combustion of much of the biomass of an ecosystem, affecting organisms by heat, physical damage, and toxic substances. Physical stress is a disturbance in which an exposure to kinetic energy is intense enough to damage organisms and ecosystems (such as a volcanic blast, seismic sea wave, ice scouring, or anthropogenic explosion or trampling). Biological stressors are associated with interactions occurring among organisms. They may be directly caused by such trophic interactions as herbivory, predation, and parasitism. They may also indirectly affect the intensity of physical or chemical stressors, as when competition affects the availability of nutrients, moisture, or space. Extreme environments are characterized by severe regimes of stressors, which result in relatively impoverished ecosystem development. This may be a consequence of either natural or anthropogenic stressors. If a regime of environmental stress intensifies, the resulting responses include a degradation of the structure and function of affected ecosystems and of ecological integrity more generally. In contrast, a relaxation of environmental stress allows some degree of ecosystem recovery.

Economics, Agriculture, and Famines  

Noel russell.

There are continuing developments in the analysis of hunger and famines, and the results of theoretical and empirical studies of hunger and food insecurity highlight cases where hunger intensifies sufficiently to be identified as famine. The varying ability of those affected to cope with the shocks and stresses imposed on them are central to the development of food insecurity and the emergence of famine conditions and to explaining the complex interrelationships between agriculture, famine, and economics. There are a number of approaches to understanding how famines develop. The Malthusian approach, which sees population growth as the primary source of hunger and famine, can be contrasted with the free market or Smithian approach, which regards freely operating markets as an essential prerequisite for ensuring that famine can be overcome. A major debate has centered on whether famines primarily emerge from a decline in the availability of food or are a result of failure by households to access sufficient food for consumption, seeking to distinguish between famine as a problem related to food production and availability and famine as a problem of declining income and food consumption among certain groups in the population. These declines arise from the interaction between food markets, labor markets and markets for livestock and other productive farm resources when poor people try to cope with reduced food consumption. Further revisions to famine analysis were introduced from the mid-1990s by authors who interpreted the emergence of famines not as a failure in markets and the economic system, but more as a failure in political accountability and humanitarian response. These approaches have the common characteristic that they seek to narrow the focus of investigation to one or a few key characteristics. Yet most of those involved in famine analysis or famine relief would stress the multi-faceted and broad-based nature of the perceived causes of famine and the mechanisms through which they emerge. In contrast to these approaches, the famine systems approach takes a broader view, exploring insights from systems theory to understand how famines develop and especially how this development might be halted, reversed, or prevented. Economists have contributed to and informed different perspectives on famine analysis while acknowledging key contributions from moral philosophy as well as from biological and physical sciences and from political and social sciences. Malthus, Smith, and John Stuart Mill contributed substantially to early thinking on famine causation and appropriate famine interventions. Increased emphasis on famine prevention and a focus on food production and productivity led to the unarguable success of the Green Revolution. An important shift in thinking in the 1980s was motivated by Amartya Sen’s work on food entitlements and on markets for food and agricultural resources. On the other hand, the famine systems approach considers famine as a process governed by complex relationships and seeks to integrate contributions from economists and other scientists while promoting a systems approach to famine analysis.

Economics of Hazardous Waste Management  

Hilary sigman.

Hazardous waste management involves treatment, disposal, or recycling of a wide range of different waste streams from industry, households, and others. The diversity of wastes and management methods means that many choices affect its environmental harms, which result from possible contamination of groundwater, surface water, soil, and air. Efficient public policies that would fully reflect such varied external costs are unlikely to be feasible. In practice, governments principally apply three policy approaches to hazardous waste: taxes on hazardous waste, liability for environmental damages, and standards-based regulation of waste management facilities. Hazardous waste taxes may help internalize environmental costs but do not reflect all the variability in these costs. By contrast, liability for environmental damage can make waste generators and managers confront environmental costs that vary with their particular choices. However, environmental liability is often linked to programs for cleanup of contaminated sites and may not create efficient incentives for active waste management because this liability does not reflect the social costs of the contamination. Regulation usually takes the form of technology and performance standards applied to treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) and affects generation decisions only indirectly. Research finds that public policies that raise costs of hazardous waste management, such as taxes and regulation, encourage less waste generation, but may also provoke detrimental responses. First, facilities may substitute illegal waste dumping for legal management and thus exacerbate environmental damage. Second, generators may ship waste to jurisdictions with weaker environmental protections, especially developing countries, giving rise to a “waste haven” effect. This effect may create offsetting environmental damage, facilitate destructive policy competition among jurisdictions, and worsen inequities in exposure to environmental harm from hazardous waste.

Economics of Low Carbon Agriculture  

Dominic moran and jorie knook.

Climate change is already having a significant impact on agriculture through greater weather variability and the increasing frequency of extreme events. International policy is rightly focused on adapting and transforming agricultural and food production systems to reduce vulnerability. But agriculture also has a role in terms of climate change mitigation. The agricultural sector accounts for approximately a third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, including related emissions from land-use change and deforestation. Farmers and land managers have a significant role to play because emissions reduction measures can be taken to increase soil carbon sequestration, manage fertilizer application, and improve ruminant nutrition and waste. There is also potential to improve overall productivity in some systems, thereby reducing emissions per unit of product. The global significance of such actions should not be underestimated. Existing research shows that some of these measures are low cost relative to the costs of reducing emissions in other sectors such as energy or heavy industry. Some measures are apparently cost-negative or win–win, in that they have the potential to reduce emissions and save production costs. However, the mitigation potential is also hindered by the biophysical complexity of agricultural systems and institutional and behavioral barriers limiting the adoption of these measures in developed and developing countries. This includes formal agreement on how agricultural mitigation should be treated in national obligations, commitments or targets, and the nature of policy incentives that can be deployed in different farming systems and along food chains beyond the farm gate. These challenges also overlap growing concern about global food security, which highlights additional stressors, including demographic change, natural resource scarcity, and economic convergence in consumption preferences, particularly for livestock products. The focus on reducing emissions through modified food consumption and reduced waste is a recent agenda that is proving more controversial than dealing with emissions related to production.

Economics of the Biodiversity Convention  

Joanne c. burgess.

Biological diversity refers to the variety of life on Earth, in all its forms and interactions. Biological diversity, or biodiversity for short, is being lost at an unprecedented rate. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species estimates that 25% of mammals, 41% of amphibians, 33% of reef building corals, and 13% of birds are threatened with extinction. These biodiversity benefits are being lost due to conversion of natural habitat, overharvesting, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. The loss of biodiversity is important because it provides many critical resources, services, and ecosystem functions, such as foods, medicines, clean air, and storm protection. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse pose a major risk to human societies and economic welfare. The CBD was established in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio “Earth Summit”) and enacted in 1993. The international treaty aims to conserve biodiversity and ensure the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. The CBD has near universal global participation with 196 parties signatory to the treaty. The non-legally binding commitments established in 2010 by the CBD are known as the Aichi Targets. They include the goal of conserving at least 17% of terrestrial and inland water habitats and 10% of coastal and marine areas by 2020. Biodiversity continues to decline at an unprecedented rate and the world faces “biological annihilation” and a sixth mass extinction event. There are several underlying causes of the continuing loss of biodiversity that need to be addressed. First, the CBD Aichi Targets are not ambitious enough and should be extended to protect as much as 50% of the terrestrial realm for biodiversity. Second, it is difficult to place an economic value on the range of direct, indirect, and nonuse values of biodiversity. The failure to take into account the full economic value of biodiversity in prices, projects, and policy decisions means that biodiversity is often misused and overused. Third, biodiversity is a global public good and displays nonrival and nonexcludable characteristics. Because of this, it is difficult to raise sufficient funds for conservation and to channel these funds to cover local conservation costs. In particular, much of the world’s biodiversity is located in (mainly tropical) developing countries, and they do not have the incentive or the funds to spend the money to “save” enough biodiversity on behalf of the rest of the world. The funding for global biodiversity conservation is $4–$10 billion annually, whereas around $100 billion a year is needed to protect the Earth’s broad range of animal and plant species. This funding gap undermines CBD’s conservation efforts. Governments and international organizations have been unable to raise the investments needed to reverse the decline in biological populations and habitats on land and in oceans. There is an important role for private-sector involvement in the CBD to endorse efforts for more sustainable use of biodiversity and to contribute funds to finance conservation and habitat protection efforts.

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date: 01 July 2024

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• Published: 18 March 2024

“Maybe you need to do something about it” : challenges in global environmental change research with and within local communities

• Roxana Roos   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6860-7875 1 , 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  429 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Environmental studies

Research on issues such as adapting to rapid environmental change should include indigenous and local people in developing more robust and inclusive diagnoses and responses. Various studies indicate that such projects may face challenges. Researchers touch on these in papers where they reflect on their own work, but to a lesser extent in their empirical papers. Based on interviews with, and articles by, a varied sample of 15 researchers who work with local or indigenous peoples around the globe, I identified the challenges they face and how they deal with them. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts revealed eight themes: (1) external pressure, (2) engaging local people, (3) relevance of projects, (4) prior negative experiences, (5) cultural, historical, and geographical differences, (6) language challenges, (7) payment for participation, and (8) diverging epistemic cultures. Respondents’ statements in all themes contain reflections displaying care, consideration, or responsibility for the projects and the local people they involve. This links the challenges with everyday ethics. Analysis of scientific papers written by the respondents showed that they hardly write about the challenges they face, whereby neither local participants nor other readers of these texts are actively informed by and engaged in critical-reflective discussions about the challenges arising during the research and the strategies used to deal with them. The research community has a responsibility to remedy this shortcoming: in their papers, authors should discuss the main challenges faced and develop, describe, and promulgate strategies for dealing with them.

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Introduction.

It is now widely recognised that it is necessary to include indigenous and local people and their knowledge in projects aimed at developing more robust and inclusive diagnoses and responses to complex societal challenges, such as adapting to rapid environmental change (OECD, 2020 ; UNESCO, 2022 ; Kaiser and Gluckman, 2023 ). More calls for proposals by major research funding organisations therefore expect researchers to propose projects that include community partners and require collaboration with local people.

At the same time, various studies which focus on issues such as climate change impacts and environmental issues show that such projects face a range of challenges: lack of trust in researchers due to negative experiences from previous projects (Macdonald et al., 2023 ), “helicopter/ parachute research” (a practice whereby outsider researchers extract information from communities for their own benefit) (Brown, 2005 ; Howard, 2016 ; Castleden et al., 2012 ), ignoring local people’s methods, analysing data without local collaboration, “cherry picking” indigenous knowledge, misinterpreting indigenous knowledge, treating indigenous people as research subjects rather than equal partners in research, and current funding structures (Doering et al., 2022 ; Macdonald et al., 2023 ). Furthermore, it is mentioned that projects tend to be initiated by researchers rather than local people (Castleden et al., 2012 ; Macdonald et al., 2023 ; Kouritzin and Nakagawa, 2018 ; Anderson and Cidro, 2019 ). Other challenges include the imposition of Western methods, frameworks, and epistemologies (Mena and Hilhorst, 2022 ; Igwe et al., 2022 ; Wilson et al., 2022 ; Klett and Arnulf, 2020 ; Nakagawa, 2017 ); imposition of English in scientific publications; the dominance of English keywords “resilience”, “vulnerability” or “risk” (Chmutina et al., 2021 ; Mena and Hilhorst, 2022 ); the paucity and low status of non-English journals (Mena and Hilhorst, 2022 ); and the failure to communicate results in the local language and the tendency to communicate results in complex scientific language (Hilhorst et al., 2021 ).

Clearly, there is room to improve the practices of research projects involving local people and/or their knowledge and perspectives. The challenges affect both a project’s participants and all parts of a project, from planning to the dissemination of results or knowledge. According to Rossman and Rallis ( 2010 ), the choices made about all parts of the projects have a moral dimension, not least because the projects involve interaction with local/indigenous people and may furthermore impact their and other members of the community’s future lives. Which of the choices can be seen as good or bad can, in many cases, be situation-dependent (Rossman and Rallis, 2010 ). This means that choices that can be seen as ethical can vary from project to project and over time (Manzo and Brightbill, 2007 ). Therefore several studies suggest routinely including the ethics of care or virtue ethics in projects (Schaffer, 2009 ; Held, 2006 ; Rossman and Rallis, 2010 ; Banks et al., 2013 ). Ethics of care focus on the responsibilities associated with relationships (Held, 2006 ) and ensuring that ethical decisions are made in a caring interaction with those affected (Rossman and Rallis, 2010 , p. 384).

Banks et al. ( 2013 ) argue that the ethics of research projects that rely on local people’s participation concern the “relationships,” “ways of being” and “acting” (p.266). Ethics are thus not merely a set of specific principles, established rules, and statements attesting that proposed projects are ethically sound and may go ahead. As Rossman and Rallis ( 2010 ) write, “ethics exist in our actions and in our ways of doing and practicing our research; we perceive ethics to be always in progress, never to be taken for granted, flexible, and responsive to change” (p.383). Manzo and Brightbill ( 2007 ) call the ethics of researchers’ daily practice “conundrums…that emerge throughout the process and are not easily predicted at the outset” (pp. 33–34).

Indeed, Banks et al. ( 2013 ) argue that projects with local people need to be linked to the concept of everyday ethics, “which stresses the situated nature of ethics, with a focus on qualities of character and responsibilities attaching to particular relationships” (p.264), and thus addresses ethical issues and challenges arising in projects from inception to completion. As I see it, key ethical issues in projects involving local people concern epistemological choices, the design of research projects, implementation, and, not least, opportunities for participation in the reporting of results. I find similar thoughts in Mena and Hilhorst ( 2022 ) and O’Sullivan et al. ( 2023 ). In summary, in projects involving local people and/or their knowledge and perspectives, ethics goes beyond specific principles and established rules and touches all parts of such projects that can have an impact on the participants (and other members of the community) both during and after the project.

In connection with ethics in practice, several researchers (e.g., Rossman and Rallis, 2010 ; Von Unger, 2021 ) emphasise the importance of critical reflection on choices and decisions made on the fly because they often have ethical implications for the participants and a particular project’s political and social context. The reflexivity referred to here is called ethical reflexivity and goes beyond methodological reflexivity. It includes reflexive actions aimed at relational aspects, ethical elements that are contextually conditioned (Von Unger, 2021 ), how the results, participants, and communities are represented in scientific texts (Pickering and Kara, 2017 ; Roos, forthcoming ), and implications of research projects (Von Unger, 2021 ). According to Von Unger ( 2021 ), the responsibility for establishing a practice of exercising ethical reflexivity is placed on researchers, in dialogue with co-researchers and other project participants (e.g., indigenous peoples, community partners) and researchers from other fields and disciplines.

It is unclear how such a reflexive practice can be achieved; however, I believe that for the research community to be able to participate in the ethical-reflexive dialogue, scientific articles should be transparent about the challenges the authors faced and how they were addressed. The importance of transparency in dealing with ethical issues is mentioned by Rossman and Rallis ( 2010 ), and some authors (e.g., Ninomiya and Pollock, 2017 ) have also noted that research publications rarely discuss ethical challenges, sub-themes, and solutions encountered during projects. Although information is provided about anonymity and informed consent, such publications place little emphasis on everyday ethics, which are situational and just as important as following abstract principles and rules (Banks et al., 2013 ).

Since all parts of research projects involving local people and/or their knowledge are linked to ethics, it is conceivable that several challenges faced by researchers are primarily ethical challenges. As a reviewer of this paper pointed out, two studies have specifically reviewed ethical challenges in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) (Wilson et al., 2018 ; Kwan & Walsh, 2018 ). Note that these reviews are not focused on issues related to climate change or environmental challenges. Further, the search terms used in these reviews (e.g., ethical considerations, ethical challenges, ethical dilemmas, and ethical issues) may have led to the exclusion of articles on challenges in CBPR that do not use these terms. Still, several of the ethical challenges that these reviews identified, are also mentioned in the studies I discussed above, even though those studies do not have a direct focus on ethics.

As I have shown above, there is a growing focus on improving the practice of research projects involving local people and/or local knowledge and perspectives and on making such research work more attentive to ethical issues. At the same time, there seems to be a lack of empirical studies where researchers who have participated in projects involving local people are interviewed about their experiences, reflections, challenges they have faced and how they have dealt with them, and where they talk about all parts of their project from start to finish. This can contribute to improving the research practice of working with local people and/or their knowledge and perspectives, by eliciting tacit knowledge through interviews with practicing researchers and by enhancing ethical reflexivity.

In my study Footnote 1 , I interviewed a selection of practicing researchers with different professional backgrounds who have worked with local/indigenous peoples around the world and analysed some of their publications. The research questions this paper addresses are: What challenges do researchers who work with local and indigenous peoples face? How do they deal with these challenges? How are these challenges (or others) discussed in their articles ?

Context and method

This study is part of the SeMPER-Arctic international project in which I focused on research reflexivity. The data was collected by me and a colleague Footnote 2 , using semi-structured interviews. Fifteen practicing researchers were interviewed, all of whom worked on issues related to climate change or environmental challenges. The scope of the sample was limited to these fields because of SeMPER-Arctic’s focus. I used snowball sampling, starting with some established names of researchers in the wider network of the project’s consortium that strongly matched above-mentioned criteria or that I knew from the literature. I asked both the ones who rejected and the ones who accepted to recommend other candidates and stopped at the point where 15 agreed to be interviewed. In addition to analysing the interview transcripts, I also analysed scientific texts written and selected by the interviewees. All respondents were informed that their articles would be analysed. Some provided three or four texts, some also provided their doctoral theses. To keep the sample balanced, I opted to analyse one article per interviewee and did not include doctoral theses. I included only those articles that the researchers talked about during the interviews and that were related to relevant topics (climate change and environmental issues).

The researchers have worked on different projects with different local communities, some comprising indigenous people. They have different disciplinary backgrounds, and their experience of working with local people ranges from a few to many years. Over half of them have worked on transdisciplinary projects. During the interviews, the researchers talked about the various projects they were involved in. This concerned both projects where local people were partners and projects where local people were only interviewed. Specifying who only did interviews would lead to some researchers being easily recognisable from their quotes, while I promised all anonymity. Since the analysis did not show specific challenges related to one of these groups, I decided not to separate them in the analysis. Overall, the diversity of the sample helps to illustrate different experiences, opinions, and challenges that researchers encounter and the ways they deal with them. Supplementary Table S1 online provides an overview of the participating researchers and the articles they selected for me. Throughout this paper, I have anonymised the researchers by replacing their names with numbers up to 15.

The respondents worked with the locals (interviewed them, observed them, or had them as partners) in the following countries: Philippines (>1), Mexico (1), Russia [Siberia] (>1), Greenland (>1), Norway (North (1), West (>1) and Svalbard (1)), Canada (>1), Germany (1), Greece (1), Colombia (1), Vietnam (>1), Mongolia (1), Bangladesh (>1), France (>1), New Zealand (1). During the interviews, several researchers chose to link their stories and reflections to various projects they had carried out. In Supplementary Table S2 online (“Selected statements from interviews grouped per theme”) countries that several of the researchers have worked in are mentioned, but countries that only one researcher talked about are not, and the names of the communities or indigenous groups have been anonymised with #. To enhance the researchers’ anonymity, in Supplementary Table S2 online the numbers assigned to them change from theme to theme. Where I draw from several statements from the same researcher under the same theme, I use letters (1a, 1b).

Practical aspects

All respondents were invited by email and were given information about SeMPER-Arctic, my work, and other necessary information such as anonymity and practicalities of the interview. I prepared the interview guide, which comprised 26 questions, drawing on the literature on research reflexivity and collaborative research. The questions focused on the researchers’ preparation for meetings with local people, work with local people, the relevance of projects for local people, the language researchers spoke with local people, whether they used interpreters, how they involved local people, and how they analysed the data and presented their results. The interviews thus focused on all the stages of a research project involving local people. I asked each of the researchers to link their stories to a specific project that resulted in a published article. The interviewees were given the opportunity to add something I did not ask about, but which they thought was important.

The interviews were conducted online via Zoom and lasted on average 60 min: the shortest was 25 min and the longest 90 min. Fourteen of the interviews were conducted in English and one in Norwegian (because I and the respondent both speak Norwegian). The interviews have been transcribed manually by AmberScript (a commercial academic transcription service).

To analyse the data, I used inductive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006 ), and therefore the themes are data-driven and are strongly linked to the data itself. The analysis was conducted using NViVo-12, where the focus was on identifying patterns (themes) in the interviews. First, I coded the data to identify patterns relevant to the research questions. The codes were analysed to ascertain how they could be combined to form a common theme. “A theme captures something important about the data concerning the research question and represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set” (Braun and Clarke, 2006 , p.81). In my study, the themes group statements about challenges and strategies for their handling. I focused on whether the themes appeared in several interview transcripts. After sorting statements from interview transcripts into themes, I discovered that the challenges and strategies for dealing with them were related to five concepts found in the literature on everyday ethics: “responsibility”, “situational choices and actions”, “relationships”, “epistemological dilemmas” and “choices on the fly”. See the discussion section below.

After identifying the challenges and strategies for dealing with them and assigning them to the themes, I reviewed research literature that focused on challenges and solutions in projects with local people (see introduction). Many of the challenges I identified appeared in the research literature but in a fragmented way.

After that I analysed the second part of the corpus (article texts) by means of close reading, to ascertain whether the articles mention or discuss any challenges and how these were dealt with. I then investigated whether these challenges and ways these were dealt with were also mentioned in the interviews.

Results of the interviews with the researchers

During the analysis, I identified eight themes indicating the main challenges that the interviewees faced in projects involving local/indigenous peoples: external pressure , engaging local people in projects, relevance of projects for local people , language challenges, indigenous people’s negative experiences from previous projects, different cultures, history and geographical conditions, payment for participation/interview , and diverging epistemic cultures . Some interviewees also mentioned how they dealt with these challenges. Others mentioned that there were challenges without going into detail, but suggested strategies to deal with them. Supplementary Table S2 online gives examples of statements from the analysed interview transcripts, sorted by theme. I use some statements from this table when presenting the results. To maximise the transparency of the analysis, below I describe how many of my respondents talked about the different challenges related to the themes.

External pressure

Although the interview guide did not include questions about the demands placed on researchers by the institutions they work at or by project-funding organisations, these topics appeared in the stories of 10 of the 15 interviewees. Eight interviewees mentioned challenges related to what can be characterised as external pressure and another two highlighted strategies for dealing with challenges related to this theme without explicitly mentioning specific challenges. Almost all interviewees had participated in local and international projects. The projects usually had deadlines and expected results to be presented in the form of reports or publications. When projects involve interaction with local people, expectations of results and deadlines can lead to what interviewees refer to as pressure (1a, 2, 12). These include pressure to find respondents or partners, pressure to collect data (1b, 8), pressure to involve local people in projects (2, 12), and pressure to publish results (1a). One interviewee recounts what local people told him when he suggested they collaborate on a project: (1b) We [local people] are not interested in working with you. They were very harsh, and I felt completely corrupt because they were right. I only asked them to participate because of the money, because I get paid for that job […] I learned about my own job a lot from the people. I was confronted with my own interest . This statement is part of this researcher’s account of how pressure from the project he participated in led him to try to convince local people that the project was relevant to them. As can be seen from statement 1b, the challenges were not just stated as facts but were presented reflexively: the researcher reflected on what happened, and from statement 1b it appears that he feels responsible for his actions.

Pressure to publish also crops up in interviewees’ reflections on their sense of responsibility towards their collaborators: (3) I still think there is a challenge, as researchers we do, we all have this pressure on us to publish peer-reviewed articles. But the question is, who is benefiting from this peer-reviewed article? Would it actually be better to do something else from that, because they [the locals] are not so interested in reading this material? Here, the interviewee questions the benefit of scientific articles for local people. In the same way as in statement (1b), the statement is linked to the interviewee’s sense of responsibility to the local people in projects. Reflections that show feelings of responsibility for actions taken and towards those researchers collaborate with are prominent in all interviews and apply to all the themes.

Two respondents (4, 13) mentioned challenges related to the lack of opportunities for long-term collaboration with the local people due to fixed timeframes and limited funding. The researchers’ stay in the communities they work with is limited by the project timeframe, and according to my interviewees, this can negatively impact, for example, the implementation of resulting solutions or long-term collaboration. Additionally, this challenge is both situational because it often concerns collaboration with communities far from the researcher’s home, and relational because, according to my interviewees, it affects trust and collaboration.

The solutions that interviewees mentioned regarding the challenges of external pressure did not concern changes in funding practices. Two of the researchers (5, 6) who did not mention clear challenges said that pressure to publish exists and that they try to include indigenous peoples in the writing of articles or give them their texts before publication to get their feedback. This does not reduce the pressure but improves the quality and relevance of the publications. My analysis also shows clear contradictions in terms of the importance of publications for local/indigenous people. Some local communities (especially those highly educated) see the articles as necessary knowledge, while others say that “this is for universities and scientists”, according to one interviewee.

Two respondents (7, 4) talked about handling the challenges researchers face when they must leave the locals they worked with without opportunities for further collaboration or dissemination of new knowledge to improve problems specific to the locality. (4) I try as best I can to avoid projects where I think I’m just going to go in and out and leave again. We have no right, as researchers, to be there. This is especially true when it comes to completely different cultures that have been colonised. As climate researchers, we represent a colonial past, even though we somehow label ourselves as doing something good for society today . This approach can be seen as preventive and future-oriented (avoiding specific projects), and it is also reflexive (about the researcher’s own position, ethical issues, and the history of the discipline that the researcher represents). Like the challenges mentioned above, reflexive action is associated with responsibility.

Engaging local people in projects

Statements about challenges that were grouped under the theme of engaging local people in projects were triggered by the interview question of whether the interviewees had encountered local people declining to participate when they were contacted. The challenges were mentioned by four researchers, and three others only talked about solutions related to this question. Three interviewees (2, 3, 4) answered that they had personal or second-hand experience of local people’s unwillingness to participate in a particular project. One respondent (7) emphasised the challenges of recruiting participants “at a distance”, for example, through social media [contacting one of the Arctic communities from a Western country]. He believed that the associated challenges arise from cultural differences, such as how we communicate with each other [for example, indigenous people more often communicate in person, while Western people more often communicate online], how we solve problems, and what ties we have to each other. The statement shows that this challenge is relational, situational, and cultural in nature.

The solutions interviewees proposed concerned better communication and adapting the project to the individual community (2, 3, 4, 7, 9). These five interviewees mentioned the importance of meeting and talking to the local people in person to establish a good relationship. One interviewee (11) mentioned using a local artist in the project and using art to communicate with local people because they did not speak his language.

All statements related to the theme of engaging local people in projects were reflexive in nature. One interviewee (4) for instance emphasised the importance of creating a fluent dialogue with local communities in order to listen [to] what are the relevant topics for them . And he said that we have to better understand what their main concerns and priorities are and where they think that action has to be taken . Researchers are thus interested in conducting research that is responsible, i.e. relevant to the local community. This mainly applies to projects researchers themselves initiated, but as I showed above, external pressure (e.g., from funded projects) leads to researchers encountering resistance from the local community to which they turn. One interviewee reflected on how researchers present their projects: (3) but maybe it’s not the people, but you, the way you present the research, maybe it’s your position in the context, in the social context of the research. Maybe you need to do something about it . The solution based on this reflection improves the interviewee’s own positioning and way of communicating. How researchers contact local people and the way they present their project affects the locals’ response.

Project’s relevance to the local people

Statements that further formed the basis for the theme project’s relevance to the local people were triggered by the interview question about why it is important to conduct research based on collaboration with the local communities. Several challenges and solutions emerged in the interviews with 10 of the 15 respondents. One of the fundamental challenges is that the funding calls researchers respond to or the researchers’ own interests do not always match local people’s needs (2, 6a, 8, 9, 10). According to interviewees’ statements (2, 6b, 7, 9, 10), local people are more interested in local challenges, such as what ice is going to be in the future (locally), or how the community is changing due to the closure of coal mines or to increasing tourism or to an increase in the population. Another challenge is that local people become distrustful of science and do not see the relevance of scientific knowledge to their lives (6b, 7): (7) People think that science is not relevant to them . One interviewee said the reason local people perceive research as irrelevant is related to researchers’ view of respondents from local communities. He said (6b): We [researchers] essentialise and idealise local communities as if everyone sits and talks to each other all the time and agrees on things, but that’s almost never the case in large communities . Later in the interview, this researcher returned to the same reflection and added: Communities are mixtures of people, and some of them never see or talk to each other. They have very different interests and, very different positions, different levels of knowledge. So, you can’t assume that local communities know what interesting research questions are. We need to reflect on this . The statement shows that the relevance of projects for local communities can depend on which community members the researchers talk to. What is relevant to some residents is unimportant to others. The challenge of the project’s relevance to local people can thus affect the entire project, from the formulation of problem areas to the presentation of results or the implementation of new knowledge. Statement (6b) invites researchers working with local people, and indigenous peoples, to mutual critical reflection that can improve research projects involving local knowledge and concerns.

The last challenge concerns who should conduct research where indigenous peoples live: Western scientists or scientists with an indigenous background (4, 5, 11, 4). One interviewee says: (4) I was at a conference. There were a lot of Inuit presenting their projects . […] I was unsure. And I thought: Is my research useful for the Inuit? Am I the right person to do this research? Maybe I need to let the Inuit do the research . The statement shows the interviewee’s reflexivity in relation to some fundamental questions concerning the Western dominance of those who conduct research on or with indigenous peoples whose cultures and epistemologies differ greatly from Western ones. Statement (4) is directed towards reflections on responsible research, but at the same time does not show what the researcher specifically chooses to do and why.

Dealing with the above-mentioned challenges primarily entails focusing on the issues and requests that come directly from local people, organisations or local authorities (6a, 10), (7): include people from the start that they feel involved , (8, 9) redesign your research , adapt our research to their issues and change the research question . This, according to the interviewees, can (6a) help to make projects more rewarding for those concerned .

Indigenous peoples’ negative experiences from previous projects

The theme of indigenous peoples’ negative experiences from previous projects was raised by 10 of the 15 interviewees. One suggested solutions without going into detail about specific challenges. Many mentioned that foreign researchers come to the community for a short period of time , ask questions , collect the data material, and leave again (1, 2, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15), and (13) They came [the researchers] , they talked to them, they took the data, and they went back to their country, and they never heard about them anymore . (…) They’re taking some valuable resources, and they don’t give something back to the community, they don’t use it for the well-being of the community . Seven interviewees reported that distrust is strongly linked to local people’s statements that foreign researchers take away their knowledge without giving anything back . One interviewee mentioned that indigenous people (in the Arctic) read scientific articles, another said that local people in southern countries told him they never read such texts. According to three interviewees, distrust, especially among indigenous communities, also arises from fear of being recolonised. One noted (3) everybody has an interest in this game. We’re in power, we are in power relations, we are not neutral scientists; we are agents of something . This means that even if researchers do not visit indigenous peoples to colonise them, the researchers benefit from research involving local communities (three interviewees mentioned career and salary benefits). The theme of indigenous peoples’ negative experiences from previous projects touches on such relational factors as trust in researchers and in projects. As statement (3) indicates, sometimes only researchers seem to benefit from projects they invite local people to participate in.

The solutions to the above challenges were similar. Collaborative approaches, co-production, and transdisciplinarity were mentioned as approaches that can be seen as preventive and contribute to respect and trust. For example, one interviewee said that knowledge co-production (8) prevents from all these problems . Another mentioned that a solution could be to make visible the concerns and knowledge of local people participating in the projects: (4) getting their voice heard , (…) bringing their voice somewhere . One interviewee (1) suggested allowing some project products (e.g., artworks) to remain with their local creators (1). Another (8) advocated acknowledging local participants in articles, i.e., making them co-authors, saying: I’m the scientist but you [an individual from indigenous communities] are a scientist too! You have knowledge that I don’t have. We are in the project at the same level. The most important thing is to put their names into the paper as co-writers of the articles . The statements regarding solutions show that researchers have a sense of responsibility and care for the local people with whom they conduct research. However, I have no evidence that being a co-author gives local/indigenous peoples any benefits in the same way as it benefits researchers.

Different cultures, history, and geographical conditions

Statements that formed the basis of the theme that I called different cultures, history, and geographical conditions were identified in all 15 interview transcripts. Some of them talked about both challenges and strategies for dealing with them, others only about challenges and several highlighted cultural/historical/geographical challenges and concentrated on how these can be dealt with. Some of the cultural challenges can arise from what one interviewee called (3) power hierarchies with a particular emphasis on gender hierarchies . Another interviewee with experience from southern countries mentioned cultures where female researchers cannot have male informants and the resulting challenges: (1a) in the end, it was easier to talk with women only, and because of cultural considerations, men were not very keen to talk with a woman . In other cultures, according to this interviewee, only older men are seen as authorities, and community members suggest them when researchers ask for participants: (1b) They’re obviously seen as the authorities; they’re the ones who have some kind of knowledge to share . The challenges that researchers face because of cultural power hierarchies apply, as can be seen from the statements on which voices represent communities.

The next challenge concerns what interviewees referred to as understanding . For example: (4) If you don’t know people, their history or culture, then you can’t understand them . Others also mentioned knowledge of geographical conditions, knowledge of the place, historical aspects, and the problems that are relevant there, which can lead to researchers (7) neglecting a very important or key topic for residents or not understanding what local people say: (6b) Sometimes, I ask them a question and don’t understand what they say, not because of the language, but because of the context, and culture . Similar thoughts were expressed by five others (9, 10, 11, 13, 15). These statements show that too little knowledge or lack of knowledge of the culture and context may result in not grasping what local people are referring to or saying. This can lead to researchers misunderstanding what is being said. While too little knowledge of the culture can pose challenges, too much knowledge can also create obstacles: (9a) If we know the culture too well, we will not have these open eyes to be curious and to ask questions to people . The interviewee was referring to researchers who have lived for several years in a particular culture or are themselves part of the culture they are studying. Another challenge, related to knowing the culture too well, is the challenge of obtaining relevant data. One interviewee recounted approaching one citizen in a small community who did not want to be interviewed: (14) Hey , [#], come, I’ll do an interview. I need to ask you your point of view about that, and sometimes when I ask that, they say: no, let’s come to my house to have a cup of tea but I don’t want to have this interview. They say that because they know me quite well. So, I found out that when you are a foreigner, maybe they are more: “Okay, I do it” [i.e. assent to an interview].

The statements indicate that lack of cultural competence affects comprehension of what is said in the context of culture and history. Even though the interviewees did not mention which parts of projects this challenge affects, it seems likely that the analysis of data, interpretation, presentation of results, and implementation may be most affected. Challenges related to a researcher being almost part of the culture in which the research project is carried out affect opportunities to find respondents (14) and to see what has been taken for granted or has become self-evident in a society (6c).

In addition to knowledge of the culture a researcher enters concerning a particular project, mention was made of the need to know how the country to which the indigenous community belongs views ethnicity: (8b, see also 8c) In some countries, having different ethnicities is more accepted than in other countries. Such countries are often proud of their indigenous groups. Researchers should know this before starting their projects because there may be an underlying conflict that creates certain reactions that the researcher is not aware of and may misunderstand what is being said . What the interviewee talked about here concerns the relationship between indigenous communities and the government in their country of residence. During the interview, the researcher explained that in some countries, for example, indigenous peoples have not been given the opportunity to use their own language at school and that their cultural knowledge was seen as superstition.

Finally, I would like to mention an interesting reflection one interviewee made while talking about cultural challenges: (8a) The problem can be that we think that the culture of indigenous people in one place is the same as the culture in another place. But they can be completely different, like from different planets . This reflection concerns a researcher’s assumptions and overgeneralisation, which can affect the preparation for a particular project, its implementation, and, not least, the results.

The solutions the interviewees proposed concern communication, such as the inclusion of artists and art (3, 10) (to be able to understand each other) and asking local people to allow those groups (women and young people) who are not usually seen as knowledgeable or who do not usually participate in important social decisions to participate in the projects (1a,b, 2). In addition, some respondents mentioned that it is important that researchers coming to societies with different cultures follow the rules of those societies. One solution was also to acquire just enough knowledge of the cultural, historical, and contextual aspects before the researcher starts collaboration or fieldwork (4, 5, 6a, 6b, 13). This kind of work starts with reading a lot about the social-cultural, and economic context (6a,b). I think that part of the preparation of research is to be aware of the local context as much as we can, but not too much (9a). One of the solutions to learn more about culture was to let people talk about things other than what the project or interview is primarily about (9b) I let them talk because I’m not from the North. It helps me to understand how they live. And if they have time and I have time, I let them talk because they teach me how they live up there . The final solution interviewees mentioned is to live among indigenous people for a certain time (11, 12, 4, 9), which can help indigenous peoples begin to trust you as a researcher (14) and in certain phases of the project to include researchers familiar with a particular community and culture (15).

The strategies to deal with the challenges touch on several stages of a particular project: preparation (inclusion of artists and art to understand the participants; getting as much knowledge as possible about the culture and history; including researchers with knowledge of local culture); getting varied participants/respondents (involve women and youth as respondents or participants); during the interviews (let people talk freely during the interviews).

Language challenges

Statements that were grouped under the theme of language challenges were triggered by my interview questions, six of which focused on language. All 15 interviewees mentioned challenges they have experienced and solutions they have used. Several said that when speaking with local/indigenous people it is more challenging to have translators than to operate without them. (1) It was more difficult to have interpreters than to speak English directly with the person. Because with the interpreters, there is a personal point of view. You lose something in the translation and the person who translates is also going to translate the way that this person heard the Indigenous speaking . When you understand something, you understand this through your culture, your personality, and your history, and then you are going to translate it to another person. What we heard is like a translation with that interpretation by the translator . The statement shows that translation can distort what is being said and prevent researchers from accessing what indigenous people actually said. Another respondent said: (3) you almost always lose parts of the original speech . Using an interpreter can also lead to challenges that respondents referred to as filtering , which causes parts of what is said to be lost during translation: (8) a person responding to a question goes on and on, and then the interpreter just says one sentence, where seems like the person must have said so much more and (12) I have to trust a translator, and sometimes that doesn’t go well because sometimes we have an interview and the recording would be 40   min long, and the transcript would be two pages. But: “Oh, where’s the rest? That’s all there. It’s obviously not all there” . Other challenges related to interpreters are their knowledge of English, which is described as (9b) not-so-good , and which leads to wrong answers , and the challenge that interviewing with an interpreter disrupts the flow of the conversation because you must wait for something to be translated (12).

Another challenge mentioned is knowing in which contexts different words are used by native speakers. (4) I think that it is quite challenging to find the exact same words that you are using in English, in this case in Russian, and to make sure that they have the same meaning or that they are used in the same context .

Statements about linguistic challenges show that the researchers have reflected on them and see that using an oral or written translator transforms the original speech so that something disappears, something is only the interpreter’s own understanding of what is said (the interpreter’s summary) and something is mistranslated. The interviewees’ reflections are not directed at the possible consequences of language challenges, but it is conceivable that language challenges can affect both results and new knowledge.

Respondents mentioned several different solutions , the most prominent being to use local field assistants (3, 5, 6, 10c, 11, 13) and colleagues (10) who speak English and know the local culture. The researchers who had experience of using art believed that it could significantly improve communication: (7b) because that’s a way of speaking and communicating that isn’t based on words .

Payment for participation/interview

The theme of payment for participation/interview was brought up by seven interviewees. (4) When you are doing some field research, there is always the issue of paying your informants or not paying them. It’s a tricky question . Interviewees explained that the consequence of not paying can lead to indigenous communities declining to participate in interviews (6a). However, paying for the interviews may mean that researchers are unable to collect data because the respondent wants extra payment: (9) He [informant] gave [an] interview, a three-hour interview . We have all the transcripts . And then there was this kind of misunderstanding, we sent the transcript back to him. We paid him for the interview . But he wanted more payment to check the transcript . We offered him some, but not enough . And then he withdrew his transcript. And now we’re in this tense situation , […] we’ve paid for an interview that we don’t have anymore . This suggests that the payment challenge affects aspects of the project, such as the number of respondents recruited and access to the data.

One of the prominent solutions mentioned by interviewees (6a, 8, 9) is to always pay a certain amount both because it is usual practice in some indigenous communities (you pay for access to their knowledge) and because participating in projects and interviews takes up people’s time. (9) It’s important, I’ve never been shy of paying interviewees because some people, especially in [a country in the Global South], if they were talking to us, they weren’t working, and they have to work to get paid, they’re paid on a daily basis . Another solution mentioned (10) is to invite local people to workshops where they can exchange knowledge with others. The interviewees’ reflections demonstrate consideration, care and responsibility for the indigenous people: payment is intended both for the interview and for the time spent with researchers.

Diverging epistemic cultures

The final challenges that emerged during the interviews were assigned to the theme diverging epistemic cultures . Six of the 15 researchers talked about challenges related to this theme. These are related to differences between Western epistemic culture and the epistemic culture of researchers with an indigenous background. (4a) I am doing research in different local contexts. Is there a condition to try to build your interpretations about the data collected using also local references, and local scientists, as references? I have nothing against Western theories, but from a social perspective, these theories were built on different contexts . […] I worked with a local community in [#], and to me, it was very natural to refer to scientists working in the context of [#]. [#] context is very specific, and I used key authors, not very known here , […], and I had one reviewer, who said, “I am not going to review this work because I don’t know those people, they are not legitimate from my eyes. They are not actual scientists to me . ” The statement shows that Western theories, knowledge, and ways of knowing are seen as being dissimilar to other epistemic cultures, such as indigenous cultures, which creates challenges in working with indigenous peoples and colleagues from indigenous communities: (4b) When you work with colleagues from other countries, they feel excluded from the knowledge. It’s not that they cannot build knowledge, but they are not playing in the game, because they are not from a European university or an American university . It emerges that the reason why Western epistemology has more recognition and power has to do with the economics of Western countries. The researchers I interviewed want to decolonise epistemic culture. (5) The programmes of [some indigenous communities #] have no millions to implement projects and it’s the way the science has been constructed in the Western world . The way we read the data, and the way we make sense of the data are quite different, but to me, it’s important to decolonise this view, because we are suffering still the impacts of colonisation at all levels, also scientific and academic . Almost all interviewees mentioned the words colonisation and decolonisation, and by reflecting on the consequences of the colonisation of indigenous communities or knowledge they show responsibility for the research being done and the people it affects.

Lastly, it is interesting to see that interviewees hardly talked about challenges related to the diversity of Western epistemology in projects in which local people are involved, an issue that may also require more ethical reflexivity (cf. Funtowicz and Ravetz, 1993 ). However, one of the interviewees talked about a small interdisciplinary project where four researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds jointly prepared an interview guide. He said that they had very different approaches and different goals, but through discussion, inclusion, and openness, they succeeded in preparing and conducting the interviews.

The solutions interviewees suggested are similar. Decolonisation of knowledge and science can happen through dialogue between different ways of knowing and by including researchers from non-Western backgrounds in projects and in the writing of articles. For example: (4) not excluding the other knowledge , […] and building a dialogue between them .

The above-mentioned results show that all 15 researchers interviewed reflected deeply on the various challenges they face when their projects involve local or indigenous people. The reflections indicate that they are committed to conducting research with responsibility for local people and knowledge developed through projects. In addition, the results show that my respondents have consideration for participating local people in all parts of the projects they carry out together.

Results from the analysis of research articles

The second part of my analysis shows that the challenges interviewees mentioned regarding working with local people do not feature as prominently in their publications. Articles A2, A3, A4, A6, A9, and A11 do not mention or discuss any of the challenges presented above or similar challenges. Three of the articles analysed focused on reflection on a completed project (A5) or on the presentation of a method with its advantages and limitations (A15, A13). These three articles differed in that they mentioned some of the challenges and presented some ways of dealing with these; A5 discussed the challenges mentioned. The six remaining articles only mention what can be understood as dealing with possible challenges.

Challenges related to the theme of external pressure were identified in only one article: A13. Here, the focus is on the pressure to obtain data in the form of narratives (funding organisations expect results): I tried to sell my project and asked: Are you not afraid of climate change? Here, so close to the dike, living beneath a rising sea level? I tried hard, but they did not buy into my narrative of climate change. They said, climate change means nothing and everything . […] And they added that climate change is something for science and administration (p.5). The author also mentions where the pressure comes from: I felt the pressure of a three-year project, the peer pressure, and the pressure to present results (p.5). The statement shows the author’s open conversation with himself and reflection on his experiences. The reflections show that engaging local people in a project developed without contact with local people can present challenges that primarily concern the mismatch between what the researchers think are actual problems for local people and what they consider to be problems. The source article has been published, so the reflection is insightful not only to the author but also to his readers. The strategy for dealing with this challenge comes later in the article, where the researcher writes that he did not try to persuade these people again, but still talked to them about their work and their concerns. He mentions that local people he talked to attended the workshop he organised.

Challenges under my theme engaging local people in projects are mentioned in A5, where the authors describe the challenges of engaging participants in using art to express their own perceptions in the specific project on the conservation of native maize in Mexico: We also found that while some participants were very motivated to create artworks, others were somewhat scared or overwhelmed by the idea, either due to the time it was perceived as requiring or a sense of their own lack of artistic abilities. For some people, the creation of artworks was seen to require particular creative skills that they felt themselves lacking in (p.14). The response to this challenge, as described in A5, was to offer possibilities other than just art as a form of expression and to conduct unoffensive interviews with indigenous people. This shows that the handling of challenges affects whether researchers recruit enough respondents, which affects the number of interested partners. Handling is situated in a specific context, and it depends on relational actions that in this case are two-way between the researchers and local people.

In four articles I identified challenges and/or handling of these related to the relevance of projects for local people . For example, to make the project as relevant as possible to local people, the project described in A8 focused on Northwest Greenland, which is the Nordic region most affected by permafrost. It is where the most pronounced changes are expected to take place (p.63). Similar handling of the challenge of making projects relevant to local people was mentioned in the interviews.

What is relevant to some members of the community may be irrelevant to the rest, as I showed based on the interviewee’s statement (6b). Article A1 clarifies that project participants cannot be seen as representative of the entire community in Svalbard (where the authors conducted interviews) and the authors write that therefore they present only specific views on the topic the project focuses on (p.2). This statement can be linked to the reflective interviewee statement (6b) that researchers often take for granted that local communities are diverse and taking a sample from them does not necessarily mean that their opinions, concerns, and the like apply to the community in general. Article A15 does not mention specific challenges but provides what could be called a response to the challenge: engaging as many members of the indigenous community as possible, especially youth (p.582).

A7 examines what a selected indigenous community thinks about the focus of existing research in terms of credibility and relevance and what issues indigenous peoples are interested in so that future research will be relevant to them. The article also discusses knowledge that local people consider relevant and irrelevant.

The theme of the indigenous people’s negative experiences from previous projects was mentioned by several of my interviewees, but only article A5 explicitly touched on this theme. It mentions this challenge, draws on relevant studies to support the discussion, and explains what the researchers did to create a safe atmosphere in the community they worked with: The use of art in environmental research has been documented to be a powerful tool to decrease the distance between researchers and other stakeholders and empower all participants (p.2). The use of art and collaborative projects was also intended to assure them [indigenous people] that we [researchers] wanted collaboration and not only extraction of their knowledge, as had been previously experienced by the community (p.5). Engaging local artists and the use of art was also mentioned by my interviewees as solutions to challenges related to negative experiences some indigenous communities had from previous research projects.

The next two themes different cultures, history, geographical conditions , and language challenges identified during the analysis of interview transcripts have been merged because they are more intertwined in the articles than in the interviews. Article A14 mentions that the interviews in their project were conducted in Norwegian and English, languages spoken by both the researchers and the informants (p.3). During the interviews with my respondents, several interviewees mentioned the importance of being able to understand history, culture, context, and language to understand what local people say. Article A14 mentions that several of the article’s authors knew the language, history, and culture of the community being researched.

Article A12 highlights key challenges also mentioned by my interviewees: translation and the use of interpreters. The authors write: Linguistic limitations due to live translations could […] lead to a loss of terminological precision (p.2). The solution mentioned in the article is to use an interpreter who knows the local context and language and can clarify terminology with the researcher.

Article A7 does not mention specific language challenges but does emphasise that one of the authors had 10 years of experience as a researcher from the indigenous community the project focused on. This was also mentioned by my interviewees as a solution for understanding what local people talk about in the context of their culture and history. Cultural understanding can additionally be achieved using the CreativeVoice method, as suggested in article A5: We developed CreativeVoice as an integrative method to help us understand the local contexts, cultures, and perspectives from community members of different ages and genders (p.1). However, the authors write that using art and the CreativeVoice method led to some challenges, which they discuss together with how these were handled. Challenges they mention are some community members requesting more art material than necessary, engaging indigenous people and convincing them they are free to create what they want, and, finally, some recruits subsequently withdrawing, which led to fewer participants (p.15). The authors say this required the researchers to be patient, engaged, and encouraging throughout.

Furthermore, one article mentions the importance of using local assistants in projects involving other cultures and languages. A8 mentions that the project’s respondents were briefed about the project in their own language by local field assistants (p. 61). Above, I reported that interviewees suggested using local assistants because of their knowledge of the local culture, context, and language. In A8 this is justified by explaining that local field assistants have knowledge of people living in the two communities (p.61) in the Arctic.

As can be seen from the results, few of the articles mention challenges related to culture and language, even though the same researchers mentioned many different challenges during the interviews. Yet several of the articles contain what could be called strategies for dealing with potential challenges, but since the challenges are not specified, readers must decide what the strategies are a response to.

The theme of payment for participation/interview appeared in one article. A5 discusses payment for participation in the research project: We knew that previous research projects working in the communities had offered money in exchange for participation and that this had provoked divisions and misunderstandings. Wanting to avoid this, we constantly clarified that we would not give or receive money. However, we did offer art materials to those involved in the project since we did not want participation in the project to create a financial burden (p.15). The article thus both describes the challenge and shows how it was handled. This leads to more transparency and enables readers to reflect on the handling of the challenge.

Some of the challenges and their management mentioned in the articles did not fit with the themes identified during the analysis of interview transcripts. I present these below.

A15 presents what the author refers to as a scenario for conducting research with indigenous communities confronting the local effects of global climate change (p.582). Some approaches that can be understood as solutions are presented here, and even though the challenges are not specified, they can be inferred. The author writes: The first step is to be sure the targeted research communities are interested in working on climate issues. It is also important to have longevity in the given field/research communities and a working knowledge of the local language (p.582). The statement emphasises the importance of knowing both the language and culture/context of the community you want to research with and being sure that indigenous people are interested in the issues that researchers consider important. These solutions were also mentioned during the interviews in relation to the challenges concerning the themes of relevance of projects for local people and different cultures, history, geographical conditions, and language. Additionally, the author writes that: It is important from the beginning of […] research process to be sensitive not only to the way our research partners frame global climate change but also to the way we frame global climate change with them (p.582). This was not mentioned by my respondents during the interviews but can be seen as a relevant challenge to consider because if the researchers do not reflect on this, their analysis and results may be affected.

Article A10 mentions the importance of using local artists and art in their project to create a safe and friendly environment for discussion and reflection (p.492). However, the reason for including art mentioned in A10 is not negative experiences from previous projects (a reason mentioned in the interviews), but the fact that art could offer new insight and unsettle what science sometimes takes for granted (p.492).

A13 contains several reflections on certain challenges, among them the researchers’ own understanding of the terms they use in the project and which are used in conversations with local people. One concept discussed in the article is climate services (p.3) and its connection to the concept of narrative . The article asks: But what exactly are climate services, and where and how do narratives and climate services intersect? (p.3) The author refers to this as opening a black box (p.3). This challenge was not mentioned by my interviewees. Although the challenge is worthy of reflection, perhaps the interviewees did not perceive it as a challenge that arises when working with local people.

A5 mentions a challenge that could be assigned to the theme of cultural differences, but it differs somewhat from what the respondents talked about during the interviews. It refers to power imbalances among men and women as well as among elders and youth (p.6), which is often part of the culture in indigenous communities. A5 explains that the challenge was dealt with by dividing participants into small focus groups by gender and age (p. 6).

Conclusion and discussion

In this article, I have identified and explored the challenges that researchers face when working with local communities and how they deal with them.

My approach has some limitations. I analysed interviews with 15 researchers from different backgrounds and one article by each, and although I have identified patterns related to challenges and strategies for dealing with these, the results may not be generalisable.

Overall, the results show a wide range of challenges occurring at different stages of research projects. I grouped these into eight themes:

External pressure to find respondents or partners, to collect data, to involve local people in projects, and to publish stems from challenges related to the lack of opportunities for long-term collaboration with the locals because of fixed timeframes and limited funding. The solutions suggested are to try to avoid projects in locations where the researchers cannot stay for a longer period with the locals and to include local people in the writing of articles or involve them in reviewing draft articles.

Engaging local people in projects can be difficult, especially long-range (via email, social media, etc.). The solutions suggested are meeting the locals in person, using art or local artists to establish communication, and improving how projects or issues are presented to local people.

Relevance of projects for local people can be perceived as low if there is a mismatch between the researcher’s own interests and local people’s needs. Recruiting respondents or participants can be hard due to stipulations by project funders and because local people may have little trust in science and do not see it as relevant. The solutions suggested are to include local people from the start in project development and to adapt projects to local people’s problems.

Indigenous people’s negative experiences from previous projects stem from extractive research practices where foreign researchers come to the community for a short period of time, ask questions, collect the data, and leave, giving nothing back to the community. Local people fear recolonisation. They see that the visiting researchers get more benefits (e.g., career and salary) than them. Solutions proposed are collaborative approaches, co-production, and transdisciplinarity for building trust, making local people’s knowledge and concerns visible, making some of the participants co-authors, and if local people have developed or created something (e.g., artwork), leaving it with them.

Different cultures , history, and geographical conditions , which lead to: challenges in getting a balanced sample of participants because of gender hierarchies and age hierarchies in indigenous communities; challenges with understanding because of insufficient cultural competence; researchers’ curiosity being blunted by having too much cultural knowledge; the challenge of obtaining relevant data; misunderstandings due to assuming that different groups of indigenous people have identical cultures; and challenges in understanding what is being said due to a lack of knowledge of an underlying conflict. The solutions suggested are to ask local people to allow women and youth to participate in projects; include art and local artists to improve understanding between participants; acquire as much prior knowledge as possible about the research area; let local people speak freely during interviews even if off-topic (to get to know their culture); and include researchers who know a particular community and culture.

Language challenges occur, for instance, when interpreters have poor English skills, summarise and filter what is said, and when interpreting disrupts the flow of conversation. Solutions include using colleagues who speak the local language and know the local culture and using local field assistants. Including art as a means of communication was also suggested.

Payment for participation/interview is a challenging issue because not paying may result in fewer locals participating. The solution can be to always pay a certain amount or invite local people to workshops where they can exchange knowledge with others.

Divergence between epistemic cultures may lead to misinterpreting local knowledge and local ways of knowing using Western theoretical frameworks and methods. Using indigenous theories and methods or building on, and referring to, work by indigenous researchers (non-Western epistemologies) is not widely accepted by the Western scientific establishment and so colleagues from non-Western countries can feel excluded. A suggested solution is the decolonisation of knowledge and science. That requires dialogue between different ways of knowing and the inclusion of non-Western researchers in projects and article writing.

Many of the challenges mentioned are similar even though they draw on experiences from very different countries. What stands out is that cultural conventions vary from country to country: in some Southern indigenous communities and countries, for example, female researchers cannot interview men and, in some places, only older men are proposed as project respondents or participants. Other differences in challenges are that some local communities are not interested in scientific publications and thus do not read the research articles. However, other communities, particularly in Arctic areas, are mentioned as both reading such articles and participating as co-authors.

In all eight themes, statements from the interviewees contain reflections demonstrating care, consideration, or responsibility for the projects and the local people involved. Several statements concern responsibility for the researcher’s actions: e.g., attempts made to convince local people of the relevance of the project’s topics. The results show that the challenges and strategies for dealing with them have a situational and relational character because they arise in interaction with the local people involved. They touch on trust between scientists and local people and local people’s trust in science.

Although none of the researchers I interviewed mentioned the word ethics, it seems that the projects involving local people and the challenges researchers face there are inseparably linked to ethical issues. Indeed, reflexivity, responsibility, care, and consideration are central issues in the literature on everyday ethics (for example, Banks et al., 2013 ). Everyday ethics is situational, relational, and important in research involving people. It addresses ethical issues and difficulties that arise in projects from inception to completion (Mena and Hilhorst, 2022 ; Banks et al., 2013 ; Manzo and Brightbill, 2007 ; Rossman and Rallis, 2010 ). This is also evident in the statements of my respondents. All eight themes touch all parts of a research project or at least one of them.

Some of the challenges and their handling stand out because they can affect the lives of local people during and after the projects. They comprise cultural, linguistic and epistemological challenges. According to the respondents, indigenous methods and theoretical frameworks are rarely used in research projects because local people’s epistemologies differ too much from Western epistemologies. That can lead to misinterpretation of local knowledge and concerns, which subsequently can misinform policy decisions.

Even though researchers face, deal with, and reflect on many different challenges, results from the analysis of 15 scientific articles written by the researchers I interviewed show that these are hardly mentioned in their articles. Six of the analysed articles do not mention any of the challenges that figured in the interviews. Three of the articles mention or discuss the challenges and strategies for dealing with them. Two of these articles are methodological; in the third, the researcher critically reflects on a completed project. The six remaining articles only mention what can be understood as dealing with possible challenges.

The discrepancy between researchers’ experiences of challenges and strategies for dealing with them and the coverage of these in the resulting scientific articles is clear. This may have to do with the constraints of the research article genre and scientific journals’ requirements. These conventions mean that neither local people who participated in the projects nor the readers of the scientific texts are actively informed by and engaged in critical-reflective discussions about the challenges that arose during the research and the strategies for dealing with them. The fact that all challenges I identified are ethical in nature and may impact the future of local people means that the research community has a responsibility to advance their practice of dealing with the challenges discussed here. This requires that in their articles researchers start discussing the main challenges they faced and develop, describe, and advance strategies for dealing with them.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

This study was conducted within the project “Sense making, place attachment, and extended networks as sources of resilience in the Arctic” (SeMPER-Arctic) in which researchers work closely with local communities and collect local stories of change, crises, and shocks.

The two of us contacted researchers and interviewed them. In total, we contacted 47 researchers, 15 of whom agreed to be interviewed. Five interviews were conducted by my colleague Natalia Doloisio and the rest by me. Doloisio did not help devise the interview questions. Doloisio was also a respondent: the first to be interviewed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was conducted as part of the SeMPER-Arctic project (Sense Making, Place Attachment and Extended Networks as Sources of Resilience in the Arctic), a research project that received a grant as part of the Belmont Forum called “Arctic Resilience” (2019) for which the author’s work was funded by the Dutch Research Council under project number ALWPP.1. I acknowledge the support of the wider international SeMPER-Arctic project team for creating the conditions for writing this article and providing an inspiring and supportive academic environment. I am grateful to Joy Burrough-Boenisch for linguistic and stylistic improvements.

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Roos, R. “Maybe you need to do something about it” : challenges in global environmental change research with and within local communities. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 429 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02942-5

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Challenges and problems of nature conservation: a case study from poland.

1. Introduction

• The natural environment is assessed in a subjective manner, i.e., is viewed through the prism of analyzing one’s immediate surroundings, as a place where people live and operate;
• Although people can become involved in environmental protection through bottom-up initiatives taken by the residents, they require organizational (legal and administrative) support from authorities at different levels and identified financing streams;
• Individual activities require high levels of knowledge and environmental awareness, while also being correlated with gender;
• Individuals show little willingness to bear a part of the environmental protection costs (at a level comparable to them making voluntary tax donations to NGOs).

2. Literature Review

2.1. protecting nature.

• Environmental air and climate.
• Wastewater management.
• Waste management.
• Protection and remediation of soils, groundwater, and surface water.
• Noise and vibration suppression.
• Biodiversity and landscape protection.
• Protection against radiation.
• Research and development.
• Other environmental protection activities.
• Protect at least 30% of the EU’s land and sea areas by expanding current Natura 2000 sites;
• Restore degraded ecosystems through concrete commitments and measures, including a 50% reduction in pesticide use and related risks and planting 3 billion trees across the EU;
• Make EUR 20 billion available each year to protect and promote biodiversity from EU, national, and private funds;
• Create an ambitious global biodiversity framework [ 18 ].

2.2. Sources of Environmental Knowledge and Awareness

3. materials and methods, 5. discussion, 6. conclusions and limitations.

• Poles are aware of problems related to environmental protection in their place of residence, as evidenced by, among others, undertaking bottom-up initiatives, which, however, should be supported and integrated with the activities of local, regional, and even central authorities.
• In the opinion of respondents, cooperation in the field of environmental protection takes place best at the local level, i.e., with the involvement of fellow citizens and local government authorities. Government initiatives that, in respondents’ opinion, do not reach the local level are rated much worse.
• Moreover, respondents emphasize that it is important to reduce waste production, in particular taking initiatives to segregate waste, save energy, increase care for green areas, promote renewable energy sources, and practically implement the zero-waste concept.
• The main motive for taking action to protect the natural environment is the respondents’ belief in the need to preserve the environment for future generations, and, as our research results show, these problems are more important for men than for women.

Author Contributions

Institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Kozera-Kowalska, M.; Jęczmyk, A.; Piekutowska, M.; Uglis, J.; Niedbała, G. Challenges and Problems of Nature Conservation: A Case Study from Poland. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 5572. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135572

Kozera-Kowalska M, Jęczmyk A, Piekutowska M, Uglis J, Niedbała G. Challenges and Problems of Nature Conservation: A Case Study from Poland. Sustainability . 2024; 16(13):5572. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135572

Kozera-Kowalska, Magdalena, Anna Jęczmyk, Magdalena Piekutowska, Jarosław Uglis, and Gniewko Niedbała. 2024. "Challenges and Problems of Nature Conservation: A Case Study from Poland" Sustainability 16, no. 13: 5572. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135572

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Environmental Engineering: Review for the Professional Engineering Examination, 1 st Edition

Springer | 2013 | ISBN-13: 9780387499307

This book will help the reader expand into chemical engineering and become a licensed professional engineer (PE), which can offer a tremendous boost to one’s career as there are certain career opportunities available only to licensed engineers. Licensure demonstrates high standards of professionalism, knowledge, and ability. Because of the work experience requirement, PE examinees generally have been out of school for some time. This book summarizes the theoretical background of topics covered in the exam, which will help examinees refresh their memories on subjects they may not have been exposed to since their undergraduate classes. Another advantage of using this book to prepare for the PE exam is that two or three “logical distractors” (answers that result from common mistakes) are included among the answer choices for each problem. The solutions to the problems also explain why the logical distractors are incorrect. Research has shown that this is an efficient teaching tool. Thus, the inclusion of these logical distractors and their explanations will give individuals a better understanding of the subject matter in a shorter period of time. Although this book is intended primarily to help engineers prepare for the PE environmental engineering examination, it’s also useful in undergraduate engineering courses that cover environmental engineering topics.  

Idiot’s Guides: Environmental Science, 1 st Edition

Alpha Books | 2014 | ISBN-13: 9781615643738

Environmental science is an integrated interdisciplinary field that combines the study of ecology, physics, chemistry, biology, soil science, geology, atmospheric science, and geography. It is among the top 10 most popular Advanced Placement examinations taken by high school seniors to receive postsecondary college credit.  Idiot’s Guide ® to Environmental Science  provides a step-by-step review of the disciplines that comprise environmental science, helping students grasp the basic concepts, internalize the information, and prepare for exams.

Oil Spill Environmental Forensics Case Studies, 1 st Edition

Butterworth-Heinemann | 2018 | ISBN-13: 9780128044353

This book includes 34 chapters presenting various aspects of environmental forensics in relation to “real-world” oil spill cases from around the globe. Authors representing academic, government, and private researcher groups from 14 countries bring a diverse and global perspective to this volume

Science and the Global Environment: Case Studies for Integrating Science and the Global Environment, 1 st Edition

Elsevier Inc. | 2017 | ISBN-13: 9780128018088

This book provides data-rich cases focused on complex global environmental issues in four major content areas: water resources, the atmosphere and air quality, ecosystem alteration, and global resources and human needs. It’s designed to help students of the environment and natural resources make the connections between their training in science and math and today’s complex environmental issues.

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Environmental Issues Research Paper

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Introduction

Cultural beliefs and the environment, social construction and the environment, social construction and social movements, political economy and the environment, environmental issues: method and application, risk perception and environmental health, mobilization around toxic waste sites: love canal.

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Environmental issues can be discussed within a number of different contexts. For anthropology and sociology, culture and society become important factors in understanding environmental issues. By incorporating a perspective that includes environmental history, aspects of environmental change, dialogue and culture, and future concerns, a more complete understanding of the relationship between sociocultural actions and the natural environment can be developed. In an effort to understand the nature of environmental problems, one must develop an understanding of the cultural paradigms that guide human behavior and interaction with the natural environment. Many perspectives seek to explain this relationship. Social scientists look toward dialogue and cultural perspectives to trace the history of environmental concern.

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Historically, humans have understood their role to be one of dominion over nature. This is explained in numerous classic works and referenced in many religious and spiritual texts as well (Bell, 2008; Dunlap & Mertig, 1992). Cultural paradigms exist that serve to guide our interactions with the environment. Most stem from the anthropocentric belief that the world is centered around people and that human society has the right to maintain dominion over nature. Structural beliefs provide the foundation of these understandings.

The belief that a free market system provides the greatest good for the greatest number of people leads us to place economic decision-making processes in private hands. Frequently, private decisions have public consequences, but these public consequences are not accounted for in production costs or covered by market costs. Instead, the costs are passed on to consumers in the form of taxes and higher base prices for goods and services. Esteemed environmentalists Al Gore Jr. and Robert Kennedy Jr. have argued that if the external costs of production were assumed by manufacturers, then the ultimate benefit would be a system that accounted for waste created in the production process. This is evident in their research on global warming. Coal-fired power plants are promoted as one of the cheapest forms of creating energy. This is misleading, because the health effects of pollution caused by coal are not included in the costs of production. Others argue that those costs would have to be passed on to the consumer. However, they are passed on now in the way of pollution and medical expenses for illnesses associated with environmental contaminants. Coal is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases, thus leading to the overall societal costs of global warming.

Another cultural belief is that the natural world is inexhaustible. Extraction of natural resources happens at an incredible rate without a consideration to limits. Society’s constant dependence on nonrenewable energy forces mining and the refining of coal and oil to keep up with these demands. Consumer goods are deliberately planned to become obsolete within a relatively short time, and consumers are pressured to buy replacements. This process has been conceptualized in research focused on the treadmill of production. Production and utility processes, using natural resources, dominate the modes of production. The reliance on the treadmill model provides perpetual extraction and production, increasing the fragility of the natural environment.

Another cultural value resides in a lasting faith in technology. Culturally, we believe that technology can meet any challenge. Humans are seen as ingenious creatures able to devise solutions for any problem. However, technology itself is not sufficiently controlled and can create more problems that contribute to environmental degradation. This can lead to a situation known as culture lag, used here to describe a situation in which technology has outpaced the cultural ability to respond to the consequences of using a given technology.

The philosophy of the growth ethic argues that growth equals progress. Successful cultures are often defined by their levels of progress. Urban sprawl exemplifies the connection between progress and environmental destruction. Urban ecologists argue urban sprawl follows the concentric circle urban planning mode of the early 20th century. Residents were encouraged to develop space for residential purposes further away from city centers. This was culturally promoted as prime real estate, and individuals continued to purchase land as a showing of class standing. Urban sprawl results in the loss of green and open space, increased use of natural resources, and more vehicle miles traveled as commuting distance continues to increase.

Materialism is a cultural value that also contributes to how environmental problems emerge. Americans tend to measure success in terms of the consumption of material things. Globally, the most valued nation is one that can command and use the largest fraction of the world’s resources. Currently, the United States supports 5% of the world’s population and uses 25% of the world’s natural resources. This is evidence that the cultural emphasis on the consumption of material goods is in direct correlation with natural resource use.

Two final cultural values that impact environmental practices are individualism and an anthropocentric worldview. Cultures that emphasize individual rights and personal achievements tend to have a greater environmental impact. We place benefits to the self over what is best for the collective. Subsequently, the anthropocentric worldview is centered around human beings, thus inferring that human begins are superior to other beings and have natural rights to use the environment to ensure the progress of human beings as a species.

Subsequently, these cultural beliefs form the principles that overwhelmingly guide cultural interactions with nature. Theoretically, they serve as paradigms that explain the emergence of environmental issues. The following section provides specific theoretical underpinnings of environmental issues.

Theory and the Environment

Theory addressing environmental issues has been situated in the social constructionist and political economy approaches. Within these approaches, attention has been paid to developments of subfields in social science research, such as social movements and the environment, environmental health, and environmental justice.

Social constructionists focus on the construction of social problems and how this allows individuals to assign meaning and give importance to the social world. Sarbin and Kitsuse argued that “things are not given in the world, but constructed and negotiated by humans to make sense of the world” (1994, p. 3). When interests are at stake, claims are made around an activity in order to define the interests as problems. The process of claims making is more important than the task of assessing whether the claims are true (Hannigan, 1995).

Hannigan provides a three-step process for the construction of environmental problems: assembling, presenting, and contesting. He argues that each step develops the claimsmaking activities of environmental activists and antagonists. Environmental problems are different from other social problems, because claims are often based on physical, chemical, or biological scientific evidence (Hannigan, 1995). In nearly all cases of environmental problems, even though such problems are based on scientific evidence, the burden of proof falls on the claims-makers, the environmental actors.

When a claim about an environmental problem is presented, state and corporate actors emerge most often to challenge the validity of these problems. Although these actors are willing to construct the issue as a “problem,” support to alleviate the problem is often lacking. If it supports the alleviation of the problem, most probably through funding remedial efforts or research, the state or corporation is seen as taking responsibility for the problem. If the state is seen as responsible, its perceived legitimacy decreases, which may lead to decreased trust. On the other hand, if a problem is not acknowledged, then trust in government may also decrease, because the perception arises that the interests of the state are not the best for the people.

The power of individuals in roles and positions to define these claims is ultimately what allows problems to be defined as problems. Claims may be made by others not in a position of power, but they are often not seen as valid because of the lack of power associated with the role. Different claims of environmental problems then lead to different definitions of the problems.

Definitions of problems are framed to illustrate specific viewpoints of what the problem is. Goffman used the term frame in order to explain interpretations of occurrences. Frames can serve as explanations or guideposts to individual or collective action (Snow & Benford, 1988). Snow and Benford describe framing as an activity performed by social movements to express their viewpoints and “to assign meaning to and interpret relevant events and conditions in ways that are intended to mobilize potential adherents and constituents—to garner bystander support and demobilize antagonists” (p. 198).

By framing events in certain ways that assign meaning to them, actors can attempt to mobilize support and delegitimize opposing viewpoints. Because different frames may emerge surrounding the same problem, individuals may choose to adopt one or the other on the basis of the reliability of the frames. One factor in determining reliability is trust in the actors who present the frame. Constituents may mobilize around one frame because trust in that explanation and the organization that presents it is high (Robinson, 2009). This impacts how individuals interpret the seriousness of environmental problems and subsequently whether issues will be acted on and in what manner.

The framing process can serve to mobilize constituents for or against a particular cause. Mobilization against frames that are presented by actors emerges when the audience of the frame has low trust in the source of the frame. Social movement literature has acknowledged the emergence of mobilization over environmental issues where lack of trust is present. Examples include institutional recreancy, lack of trust in government agencies and officials, and the combination of the two (Brown & Mikkelsen, 1990; Cable & Cable, 1997; Freudenburg, 1993; Gaventa, 1980; Gibbs, 1982).

Charles Tilly provides a model for mobilization that bridges some of the ideological views of frame analysis with collective action and resource mobilization theory. Tilly’s (1978) definition of mobilization is “a process by which a group goes from a passive collection of individuals to an active participant in public life” (p. 69). A further extreme of this model is resource mobilization theory, which gives even less importance to ideological factors and, instead, emphasizes the need for available resources. The combination of ideologies, resources, and the power of frame presentation contribute to mobilization. Using this analytical framework, the emergence of environmental problems and mobilization around these problems can be better understood.

Environmental problems in communities provide a setting to further explore this connection. Community organizing around local problems has a long history in the United States. Many forms of community organizing exist. These have included writing and literacy circle newsletters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Saul Alinsky’s model of radical politics to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people (1971), and neighborhood block clubs. The goals to spread awareness, ensure social justice, and understand that city hall can be fought vary in scope and magnitude but have often proved to be effective models for organizing.

Citizen action in response to toxic waste at Love Canal has emerged as the premier example of community organizing over environmental issues. The story of neighborhood organizing and the quest for a clean, healthy environment is acknowledged in most major studies on environmental issues. The specifics of this case follow in a later section where the application of environmental issues is discussed.

Theories of political economy of environmental issues focus on the development of political and economic practices and policies that contribute to environmental problems. Primarily, the focus has been on the creation of the capitalist mode of production that leads to overwhelming environmental destruction. Furthermore, the development of capitalism promotes a political environment that is friendly to more profitable, but less environmentally friendly, practices.

In addition to physical environmental realities that production processes cause, issues of health and economic injustice exist. Bryant and Mohai (1992) asked whether a safe environment is a civil right. They argue that people of color see environmental degradation interrelated with economic and political justice. This is the fundamental idea behind environmental justice in both action and theory. Another issue in environmental justice arises because people of color and lower income are less likely to have access to health insurance; thus, they become more ill if exposed to environmental hazards without means of treatment. Therefore, these populations share more of the negative environmental burden and have fewer resources to resolve the given problems.

The connection between health and economic justice is not a new relationship. Since World War II, there has been an increase in the development of the petrochemical industry. Coinciding with an increased demand for synthetic chemicals was an increased demand for disposal sites for waste byproducts of these chemicals. Many disposal sites were created in vacant plots of land, without the regulated disposal standards in place today. Expensive land used for the disposal sites of the 1940s and 1950s became the residential suburban developments of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. With the post–World War II increase in population, many families were moving into suburban neighborhoods. Families felt safe from the problems of the cities, but they were not aware that many residential properties were built near the abandoned chemical waste sites of prior decades.

The problems of environmental contamination were first addressed publicly in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962). Her warning of chemical contaminants silencing biological life was not heeded at the time her book was published. These issues were not addressed until the 1970s with the first Earth Day in 1970, followed by the passing of numerous pieces of environmental protection legislation and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Through this period of uncertainty, unclear scientific findings overwhelmed policymakers and the public, leading to confusion about how to develop environmental policies and actions.

Environmental problems have manifested most directly in the form of pollution. Evidence of environmental destruction is seen in the form of air, water, and land pollution that has a direct impact on the health of the human population. One of the most direct links between pollution and negative health effects has been identified since the creation of the petrochemical industry in the 1940s. Since this time, we have seen more cases of cancer and respiratory illness in the human population. The rate remains high even when controlling for mitigating factors, such as the effects of advanced medical technology in treating these illnesses, and lifestyle factors, such as diet and smoking. This case was made with the infamous discovery of toxic waste at Love Canal, New York, in 1978.

Literature in this area addresses the possible effects of exposure to toxins on one’s health. However, few studies have provided irrefutable evidence supporting the research hypothesis (association exists) or the null hypothesis (no association exists). Scientists know that chemicals can have adverse effects on the human condition when ingested, but they argue that some indirect exposures through air, soil, water, or residential habitation in proximity to such toxins have not provided similar consequences. The basic disagreement emerges in how one views risk, either through the precautionary principle or through risk assessment and evaluation. Proponents of the precautionary principle argue that if the chance of danger is present, then precaution should be used to avoid exposure. Risk assessment would argue the opposite—that the risk must be known before action is taken to avoid exposure. The difficulty is that science has not provided irrefutable evidence on the dangers of many chemical substances; therefore action for their removal from products and the environment has been slow. Recently, Devra Davis took on this phenomenon in The Secret History of the War on Cancer (2008). She outlined the lack of scientific responsibility in reporting findings connecting cancer and chemical exposure.

Most reports have not described exposures accurately, or they have failed to completely identify a causal factor (National Research Council, 1991). The Committee on Environmental Epidemiology was formed to assess the progress on hazardous waste assessment since the creation of Superfund and the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry. The committee concluded that no conclusive reports could be used to base policy on, because there are no measures in place to accurately depict exposure assessments. Their conclusions continue: There exists no comprehensive inventory of waste sites, no site discovery program, no minimum data set on human exposures, and no policy for immediate action if exposure exists (National Research Council, 1991). The report indicates that “the nation is not adequately identifying, assessing, or ranking hazardous-waste site exposures and their potential effects on human health” (p. 21).

Environmental toxins have long been thought to be causally related to the incidence of disease. Air pollution, specifically with carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, has been studied in association with asthma and pulmonary disorders (Carnow, Lepper, Shekelle, & Stamler, 1969). Water pollution, particularly with trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, sparked a concern about childhood and adult leukemia in Woburn, Massachusetts (Brown & Mikkelsen, 1990). Similarly, numerous studies have been conducted that investigate the exposure-ailment connection (Landrigan, 1990; Neutra, Lipscomb, Satin, & Shusterman, 1991; Paigen, Goldman, Mougnant, Highland, & Steegman, 1987). These studies use descriptive and case-control methods and field investigations consisting of surveys and physical examinations, resulting in quantitative analyses in order to test hypotheses.

Descriptive studies portray disease patterns in populations according to person, place, and time, and they include time-series analyses (National Research Council, 1991). For example, a study performed by the National Cancer Institute used maps of cancer incidences and toxic waste sites, concluding that the high incidence of bladder cancer in northwestern Illinois counties was significant and leading to the implementation of an incidence study using survey methods (National Research Council, 1991).

A cohort study was employed with North Carolina residents who consumed raw polluted river water contaminated by an industrial site from 1947 to 1976. Residents’ rates of all forms of cancer were more than twice those expected in the general population (National Research Council, 1991). Once exposure ceased, rates returned to the expected level, adjusting for latency.

The epidemiologic case-control study carried out in Woburn, Massachusetts, yielded an association between leukemia and drinking from contaminated wells. The EPA could not pinpoint the source of contamination; therefore, it could not infer conclusively that the cases of leukemia were due to the proximity of a hazardous waste site (Lagakos, Wessen, & Lelen, 1986).

Griffith, Duncan, Riggan, and Pellom (1989) analyzed EPA and cancer mortality data from 13 U.S. sites where there were major incidences of cancer between 1970 and 1979. They found evidence that contaminated ground water was used for human consumption at 593 waste sites in 339 U.S. counties in 49 states. Significant associations were found between several cancers and exposure to contaminated water in white males; these included cancers of the lung, bladder, esophagus, stomach, large intestine, and rectum (Griffith et al., 1989). Higher incidences of cancers of the lung, bladder, breast, stomach, large intestine, and rectum were found in white females in these counties (Griffith et al., 1989), when compared with females in counties that did not have hazardous waste sites. However, this study has been criticized based on its use of populationbased incidences of cancer rather than individual-level estimates. Researchers inferred that proximity to hazardous waste sites caused cancer.

Wong, Morgan, Whorton, Gordon, and Kheifets (1989) performed an ecologic and case-control analysis to evaluate whether there was an association between groundwater contamination with dibromochloropropane (DBCP) and mortality from gastric cancer and leukemia. The only positive association that was found was in farm workers. No relationship was found for gastric cancer or leukemia with DBCP contamination of drinking water.

Neutra et al. (1991) found that individuals living near toxic waste sites had one or more bothersome symptoms that those living in control areas did not have. However, rates of cancer and birth defects were not found to be statistically significantly different for these individuals than for those in the control neighborhoods. Symptoms such as worrying, depression, and nervousness were more likely to be the result of knowledge of the site and its contaminants than the result of chemical exposure. Although some practitioners argue that residents near these sites do show higher incidences of asthma and psychological disturbances than individuals in control groups, the findings remain highly controversial (Neutra et al., 1991).

For the most part, these studies consist of survey and field investigation methodologies, relying on self-report methods. One problem with explaining associations that rely on self-report methods is that if residents want to be relocated or have other agendas, then the degree to which symptoms are reported may increase. Many residents felt that this was what some homeowners were hoping for at Love Canal. This remains one of the most critical problems with state and federal agency studies that seek to provide evidence of community risk.

With the increase in studies in this area, the public has been partially reassured by having the knowledge that at least concerns are being recognized. Specifically, cancer rates are still high, but the fear of human-made chemicals has largely been dispelled. Most recently, the organic food movement has been gaining legitimacy. Yet, many still doubt the health benefits behind this movement. Studies concerning environmental racism have been more prevalent, focusing on the incidence of lower-income, nonwhite families living near toxic waste sites. This focus has taken attention away from specific health problems. Instead, the focus has been on issues of political economy and equity. This is not a criticism of environmental justice but rather a call for the convergence of natural science and sociology in order to address both issues. Other variables to be considered in these studies may include racial composition of counties, social class of counties, concentration of low-income occupations in counties, new housing starts in counties, and the percentage of welfare recipients per county.

The uncertainty of science had created cross-discipline dialogue. Social scientists have addressed environmental issues in studies of risk assessment, disaster relief (both natural and technological), toxic exposure, and other datadriven areas. Because of the risk of chemical exposure due to toxic waste, landfills emerged as one of the most imminent public health threats with the discovery of Love Canal. However, even in cases where studies to show an association between illness and exposure to toxic chemicals have been inconclusive, the message has been that these chemicals cause cancer and needed to be eradicated.

An important role of science is to inform the public of findings, usually through the media. Epidemiologic studies deal with human populations and are often questioned based on the legitimacy of the data and the willingness of the agency or corporation funding the research to share findings with the public. These studies are also usually based on relatively small populations and a small number of events; this results in a lack of significant findings, because sample sizes are too small to generate statistically reliable conclusions. Researchers are asked to report conclusions to various interest groups that may have a stake in the research problem. The pressure of the public arena and media, with emerging concerns and consequences for public health and the environment, has led to a decrease in the willingness to share data and be criticized if the data do not fit the public agenda. Politics and public perception surpass what science is able to provide. Science’s inability to prove negatives has led to public policy that tries to control what cannot be established. This uncertainty shapes policy to err on the side of protection; yet in many communities the risks are endured regardless.

Findings often snowball into hard line conclusions and the perception of a problem when one may not exist, or vice versa. Risk perception and the realization of risks are two different things. Risk perception may encompass what one believes might occur or an understanding based on secondary information. Risk realization occurs when one is physically affected by the agent or situation and a decision to act is based on that encounter. The problem arises in this discrepancy. Perception is what people perceive to be happening. With different information from different scientific experts, the public is left to decide on their own who or what is right, based on the health and well-being of themselves and their families.

Freudenburg (1993) discussed the concept of risk and recreancy in public decision making. He argues that an increase in institutional responsibility for risk management has created a system where responsibilities are often overlooked. This concept proposes increased frequency in institutional decision making in risk analysis. Freudenburg (1993) coined the term recreancy to identify the institutional failure to follow through on a duty or responsibility or broadly expected obligations to the collective. Questions are now raised by individuals deciphering scientific studies for themselves, but they now question the role of institutional actors. Without correlational data from an alternative institutional source that they trust, citizens do not know where to turn for clear answers about data regarding environmental toxins.

Community-based studies by community organizers have emerged in an attempt to address the failure of institutions to provide real, understandable answers regarding human health and exposure rates. Specifically, recent literature calls for more involvement of the scientific community in the decision-making process. A resurgence of popular epidemiology, since Lois Gibbs’s attempt in 1978– 1979, has found individuals using lay methods to determine association. Even if they don’t result in strong, scientific evidence, community-based studies at least provide the groundwork and show a need for more in-depth studies. Brown and Mikkelsen’s 1990 study is a strong example of this method. The question of whether there was a connection between childhood leukemia and known contaminated well water divided the community, but it forced epidemiologic studies.

Coinciding with these revelations, other studies were being conducted that attempted to link other contaminated sites with adverse health effects. As Gots (1993) stated, most were laboratory studies in simulated environments. Examples of human studies existed only in the sociological and epidemiological literature (Brown & Mikkelsen, 1990; Gibbs, 1982; Landrigan, 1990; Neutra et al., 1991). Incidences of chemical scares were also prevalent. Headlines concerning the dioxin scare at Times Beach, Missouri; contamination of apple crops with the synthetic growth regulator Alar; and use of Agent Orange created the fear that human-made chemicals cause disease. Evidence existed that these specific chemicals may cause health problems in humans, but data on the incidence of illness relative to exposure and on synergistic effects of these chemicals were missing. Furthermore, there was even less information available about other potential threats to health, such as airborne and waterborne contaminants, environmental sensitivity disorders, and living in proximity to hazardous waste sites. To establish a causal relationship between exposure and chemicals, obtaining valid measures and estimates for exposure is essential.

Environmental Movements

Contaminated Communities; The Challenge of Social Control; Environmental Problems as Conflicts of Interests; Disasters, Collective Behavior, and Social Organization; Love Canal: Science, Politics, People, and Power; and Powerlessness are just a few of the book titles that describe the scope and emergence of the mobilization surrounding environmental problems. Since the publication of Silent Spring, the struggle to define, understand, and resolve environmental problems has inundated environmental literature as well as the agendas of environmental organizations at both the national and local levels.

The environmental movement in the United States can be traced back to the early conservationists at the turn of the 20th century, whose focus was on control of natural resources for technological and societal use. Accompanying this was a movement toward the preservation of the natural environment simply for nature’s sake and separate from any use and/or value that human society had placed upon it.

The contemporary environmental movement embraced both of these traditions while focusing on building a political alliance to ensure the passage of legislation that would protect both nature and human health. As evidenced by the multitude of legislative victories the environmental movement claimed during the 1970s, the environmental movement was gaining prominence as one of the most successful efforts of social movement organizers.

Politically, momentum began to shift back toward the wise-use movement throughout the 1980s. Environmental problems were framed in opposition to capitalist goals. Politicians took an either/or stance: jobs or the environment. With one’s economic livelihood seemingly at stake, it is no wonder that concern for the environment was diminished in the public agenda. The environmental health movement is arguably one area that continued to keep environmental issues in the public’s consciousness. One of the classic and influential cases in environmental organizing, Love Canal, illustrates the interconnectedness of politics, science, and the environment.

To understand the factors contributing to the emergence, awareness, and mobilization around environmental problems, the scope and focus of the problem must be considered. This analysis focuses on the emergence of and mobilization around toxic waste sites found in residential communities. Literature addressing toxic waste sites in communities place Love Canal, New York, as the first community to encounter such a problem that received national media attention. Although community protests were occurring around the toxics issue as early as 1970, no other site received the same degree of national media attention (Szasz, 1994).

In 1978, Love Canal was declared a federal disaster area, but the final homeowner evacuation was voluntary, not mandatory, even though the state had said a health emergency may exist. Given the possibility of ill-health effects, residents were given the choice about whether to stay or move. Because of the lack of strong correlational evidence, public health officials were not able to substantiate a link between exposure to chemicals and disease (Robinson, 2002).

The questionable contaminated area was evacuated and became known as the Emergency Declaration Area (EDA). It was divided into seven sampling areas. Two studies were performed to assess the habitability and safety of the area. The first study was completed in 1982 by the New York State Department of Health (DOH), the EPA, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Problems arose about the study’s conclusion, which was that the EDA was as habitable as comparable control areas. The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment found that the study lacked information to determine whether unsafe levels of contamination existed and that it did not make clear what next steps should be taken. Thereafter, DOH and EPA conducted a second study on habitability; it was released in 1988. Habitability and safety have been studied in regard to numerous hazardous waste sites, but actual rates of illness have not been linked to exposure to toxic substances from nearby chemical waste sites.

The Superfund Act, passed in 1980, was written specifically in response to the known hazardous waste site at Love Canal. Policymakers recognized that industry used land-based disposal methods, that industrial sites were contaminated, and that an increase in clean air and water standards led to a decrease in land-based regulated disposal (Barnett, 1994). The problem was that there was neither an informed way of counting or tracking these sites, nor evidence of an adverse ecosystem and human effects (Barnett, 1994).

Since Love Canal, no other neighborhood has received the same degree of attention, although many have encountered toxic waste contaminants in their communities (Brown & Mikkelsen, 1990; Bryant & Mohai, 1992; Cable, Walsh, & Warland, 1988). No conclusive, significant correlation between chemicals and cancer has been found at Love Canal or at the other identified exposure sites. Nor has any truly verifiable evidence been found that exposure to, and living near, any other toxic waste site causes disease, though disorders have been loosely associated with chemical exposure, such as asthma, respiratory disease, nerve damage, miscarriages, and cancer.

People living near these sites must often decide on how much they want to expose themselves to risk. Once the presence of a waste site is known, they must decide, without data to guide their decisions, whether to stay in their homes or leave. This has historically interfered with the availability and collection of valid data. When a study is conducted, residents request to be informed of the results and progress of the study. Because most epidemiological studies require longitudinal or cohort analysis in order to be reliable and valid, it is advantageous to have a stable, nonmobile population. This begs ethical questions, on behalf of the researchers, to disclose data relating to exposure before the study is completed. Researchers cannot both verify exposure findings and expect residents to remain so that they can carry out the remainder of the study. Thus, individuals, families, and communities are asked to base their decisions on claims that cannot be substantiated one way or the other.

Toxic waste sites continue to be discovered in communities. In many cases, the resulting community struggles are extended battles. The operative phrase in many cases is “once a site is discovered.” The chemicals in Love Canal were buried 30 years before it was known to the community that their houses, school, and playground were built on top of and surrounding a chemical site containing 22,000 tons of waste. This is not to say that the problem didn’t exist before its discovery by residents; it just wasn’t defined as a problem. From the time the chemicals were buried to the discovery of the site by residents 30 years later, residents noticed dogs with burned noses, children with skin rashes, and increased rates of miscarriages, leukemia, and nerve and respiratory disorders. But they were not aware that these rates were out of the ordinary. The effects of the problem did not change, but the way the problem was represented did. The shift was in an awareness of the existence of the problem.

In addition to the chemical disaster at Love Canal, other environmental issues have been the subject of various social movement activities, as well as political legislation. In each instance, public perception influences how and whether the problem is acted on by those with the power to make a difference.

Culturally and socially, environmental problems represent problems of social organization, communication, and socialization. Social scientists can look toward the phenomenon, visible in the reaction to environmental problems, to begin making sense of culture and society at large. Our understanding of environmental issues as primarily social constructions offers insight into how these issues are created, maintained, and resolved.

For example, in many cases where chemical contamination is the focal issue of community groups, the level of risk is perceived by affected individuals rather than established by science. It is the social processes in a community that lead to risk determination, not the natural science interpretations of an issue. Individuals have been socialized to trust science for valid information. When the determination of risk is uncertain, individuals are left to determine the level of risk for themselves by other means. In most cases, this determination is made through contact with state or federal government officials, through collaboration with other community members, or through other sources of information, such as the media. This framework helps to explain disagreements over the seriousness of most environmental issues, from global climate change to mountain-top coal removal.

The subjective reality of environmental problems becomes visible in terms of how the issue is circulated in cultural discourse. Each stakeholder constructs different means of projecting information for public consumption. When presented in the media, the perception is that information is true and accurate. Most often the determination of risk takes place in the form of a public meeting. In this situation, public officials are in control of the meeting, drawing on public anticipation surrounding the specific issue and information to be released. At Love Canal, for example, officials kept the information to be discussed at the meeting private until the meeting in order to build anticipation and increase their power over the dissemination of information.

At both the cultural and social level, power is maintained through these exercises. Often, the state controls the dissemination of information that individuals perceive to be true and accurate. However, different modes of collaboration among community members can create a different means of risk determination. The sharing of common experiences among community residents can lead to a broader sense of mobilization. Once commonalties are recognized, residents begin to determine their own level of risk. Risk perception is based on the potential danger of a problem. The sources that individuals base their information and understanding on are numerous. Each source has developed a frame of events and information on which they base their version of reality. Whether from the media, science, the state, or local knowledge, such frames serve as a means to display a problem in terms of a specific group. Social movement development, in relation to the environment, offers a powerful tool for individuals looking to construct the frame of a given environmental reality.

The ways in which environmental realities have been constructed influences how they will be acted on socially, culturally, and politically. Cultural discourse then circulates in the public sphere and becomes normative. Environmental issues become part of the public dialogue. This dialogue serves to help develop an understanding about the factors that coalesce to create, maintain, and resolve social processes that influence environmental problems.

Community-level interaction is an interesting social space from which to witness environmental understanding. Community-based, environmental problems affect individuals in many ways. Some communities mobilize and form environmental organizations to address a specific problem. Others, with existing community organizations, add environmental problems to their agenda. Environmental problems can vary in scope, size, and duration.

Mobilization in these communities may occur due to individuals’ fear that nothing is being done to ensure the safety of their children and families. It may also occur on the basis of frustration and an inability to understand what and why this is happening in their community. In addition, community groups often mobilize as a result of a lack of trust in government. The mobilization of individuals to resist the state’s discourse challenges the power of the state. The level of trust in government is a key factor in determining the level of power the state can maintain during the presentation of its frame. For example, if trust in government is low, then a stronger frame needs to be developed to legitimize the government’s position. Government often emerges as the key stakeholder, as the actor that will have the power to create change.

Previous research addresses the state’s desire to maintain legitimacy at the same time that community groups seek to resist state discourse. Admitting that there is a problem shows that the state is capable of mistakes, and thus, the state’s legitimacy can be questioned and it is vulnerable. The goal in the rhetoric of the state is not to raise questions, thereby maintaining legitimacy.

Most environmental problems are categorized by place: global, local, or national. These categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, ozone depletion is a global problem because of the total atmospheric effects the ozone layer has on the biosphere from ultraviolet rays. Yet the problem can be seen as being local in an area where heavy smog is causing ozone depletion and high surface area ozone levels, such as in a highly urban area like Los Angeles.

Similarly, the discovery of toxic waste sites across the United States can be seen as a national problem. But in the specific communities where these sites are discovered, it is a local problem affecting individuals directly. The problem is no longer seen as away from them; it is now part of their community. This developing framework of environmental issues has helped individuals become aware of the multitude of impacts that these problems have. Social scientists have been able to develop an understanding of the environment that moves away from the depiction of the earth as something separate from human society, but, instead, the earth is a system with interrelated consequences and realities. One of the most vivid paradigm shifts has been the movement away from an anthropocentric worldview and toward an environmental worldview. This shift can be represented in the movement from the human environmental paradigm (HEP) to the new environmental paradigm (NEP).

Social scientists focus on this shift as a way to explain a cultural movement that has embraced a way of understanding the impact that society has on the environment. Arguably, once the NEP is part of the natural discourse of environmental issues, they become more easily recognized as problems that have risen from a system out of balance. This approach focuses on sustainable development and other modes of development that provide environmentally sensitive growth models. These efforts move toward a culture that is sensitive to a responsibility that ensures less devastating environmental impact in the future. As environmental sociologists and other environmental researchers seek answers for a sustainable society, we must consider the devastating impacts of our current modes of production. New modes of production that take into consideration innovative, green energy solutions will provide a stronger sustainable economy and environment for culture and society.

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