The global politics of climate change (book)

Climate Change in World Politics

A multi-faceted view of climate change from an International Relations, global governance, justice, sustainable development and national identity perspective. John Vogler examines the international politics of climate change, with a focus on the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC). He considers how the international system treats the problem of climate change, analysing the ways in which this has been defined by the international community and the interests and alignments of state governments.

'The Green Economy'; a smokescreen for destruction (online)

The “Green Economy”: giving immunity to criminals

For over a decade, international policy debate has been re-defining forests as providers of “ecosystem services”. Promotional videos, slogans and attractive brochures promoting a “Green Economy”, repeat how forests and biodiversity are essential for the “services” they provide to humanity. This reinforces the colonial understanding of “nature” as a collection of species, undisturbed by human interaction, denying the role of forest peoples in shaping nature, and putting “nature” at the service of the same economy that continues to destroy it. The result is a re-definition that reduces the underlying causes of the destruction of forests and other territories into an issue of numbers. These discourses silence the crucial issues of power relations, including the underlying causes of forest destruction and violation of forest communities’ rights. People, cultures, traditions, interconnections are not even considered as co-existing and inseparable with forests.

A detailed report that provides a damning analysis of one 'biodiversity offset' project can be found here.

International decade of soils announced (news)

The International Decade of Soils (2015-2024)

In the Vienna Soil Declaration of Dec. 7, 2015, the The International Union of Soil Science has identified the key roles played by soils in addressing the major resource, environmental, health and social problems which humanity is facing. In the course of the conference ‘Celebration of International Year of Soils 2015’ the International Decade of Soils 2015-2024 was proclaimed by Rainer Horn, IUSS President. The International Decade of Soils shall  be a continuation of the efforts made during 2015. It will be marked by a number of activities on the national and international levels. Furthermore, a public outreach campaign is envisaged to show the emotional and cultural relevance of soils as well as forging partnerships with other international organisations.

Manifesto for a new economy (book)

What Then Must We Do?

Never before have so many been frustrated with their economic system, more fearful that it is failing, or more open to fresh ideas about a new one. The seeds of a new movement demanding change are forming. But what is this thing called a new economy, and how might it take shape? What Then Must We Do? suggests what the next system might look like: a system that is not corporate capitalism, not state socialism, but something else entirely. The book calls for an evolution, not a revolution, out of the old system and into the new which would democratize the ownership of wealth, strengthen communities, and be governed by institutions sophisticated enough to manage a large-scale, powerful economy. What Then Must We Do? offers an elegant solution for moving from anger to strategy.

What Then Must We Do?

What Then Must We Do?

Moving to sustainable eating habits (report)

Changing what we eat: A call for research & action on widespread adoption of sustainable healthy eating

Government leadership and substantial investment in research are needed to shift global consumption habits towards eating patterns that are both healthy and sustainable, say academics, industry and NGOs representatives in this report. Research is now needed in three key areas, say those involved in the report:

• What are healthy sustainable eating patterns?
• How do we eat now, why, and what are the health and sustainability implications?
• How do we achieve positive change?

The report is based on the discussions of a workshop organised by the Food Climate Research Network, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the UK’s multi-agency Global Food Security programme.

State-facilitated land grabbing in Rwanda (#journal)

‘Control Grabbing’ and small-scale agricultural intensification: emerging patterns of state-facilitated ‘agricultural investment’ in Rwanda

The Rwandan government's ongoing reconfiguration of the agricultural sector seeks to facilitate increased penetration of smallholder farming systems by domestic and international capital, which may include some land acquisition (‘land grabbing’) as well as contract farming arrangements. Such contracts are arranged by the state, which sometimes uses coercive mechanisms and interventionist strategies to encourage agricultural investment. Activities of international development agencies are becoming intertwined with those of the state and foreign capital, so that a variety of actors and objectives are starting to collaboratively change the relations between land and labour. The global ‘land grab’ is only one aspect of broader patterns of reconfiguration of control over land, labour and markets in the Global South. This paper demonstrates the ways in which the state is orienting public resources towards private interests in Rwanda.

Climate justice; rooted in historical oppression (#journal)

 Climate justice: the claim of the past

This appraisal of the collection of papers in this issue argues that historical injustice saturates the problem of climate change. Those most vulnerable to climate change today are largely those who already lack resources – who have been on the wrong end of colonial history, or who have been globalization's losers, or who have suffered neglect, or exclusion at the hands of their own governments. They are those who have benefited little or not at all from a carbon-intensive global economy, but who have long suffered its side effects. The paper notes that the particular form taken by law in international and transnational affairs, having largely followed the historical progress of industrialism, colonialism and globalization, is peculiarly ill-suited to the task of addressing this vulnerability.

Climate change and human rights (#journal)

Climate ethics and human rights

Compared to other ethical approaches to climate change, a human rights approach has several advantages: it draws on a widely accepted, coherent and well-developed set of legal norms, it places the human beings most affected by climate change at the centre of its analysis, and it has strong connections to mechanisms of implementation and enforcement. Human rights already provide a sturdy framework for addressing climate change at the micro level of specific projects and national adaptation policies, but face greater challenges at the macro level of global mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, human rights law contains elements that should allow it to address climate change as a global challenge to human rights.

Permaculture activist magazine

Permaculture Activist Magazine

I'm not sure how well known this American magazine is amongst Digest users so I thought I'd give it a little plug. The August issue is on experimentation in permaculture and the copy deadline is 1st June so you still have time to submit an article if this inspires you. 

The magazine aims to supply information that enables people everywhere to provide for their own & their communities' needs for food, energy, shelter, & to design decent lives without exploitation or pollution & from the smallest practical area of land.

Transition as peaceful radicalism (journal)

Radicals without rebellion? A Case Study on four Transition experiments

This paper investigates whether and how social movements can promote radical positions whilst refraining from adopting an oppositional approach. Transition is a movement that is characterised by a markedly non-adversarial approach and that, whilst pursuing radical objectives, refrains from using confrontational means. Through a theoretical analysis and illustrations from four case studies this work investigates what are the implications of pursuing radical objectives through a non-adversarial approach.

A critique of eco-cities (#journal)

Eco-urbanism and the Eco-city, or, Denying the Right to the City?

This paper critically analyses the construction of eco-cities as technological fixes to concerns over climate change, Peak Oil, and other scenarios in the transition towards “green capitalism”. It argues for a critical engagement with new-build eco-city projects, first by highlighting the inequalities which mean that eco-cities will not benefit those who will be most impacted by climate change. Second, the paper investigates the foundation of eco-city projects on notions of crisis and scarcity. Third, there is a need to critically interrogate the mechanisms through which new eco-cities are built, including the land market, reclamation, dispossession and “green grabbing”. Lastly, a sustained focus is needed on workers geographies in and around these “emerald cities”, especially the temporary settlements housing the millions of workers who move from one new project to another.

Transition towns in the majority world (journal)

Jobs versus livelihoods: Sustainable settlements within the transition paradigm

How can the “transition paradigm” be implemented in poor communities in South Africa where most people are dependent on income from government grants? Here, the aim cannot be to have a transition to a lower consumption society; these societies are actually under-consuming. Rather, it is necessary to create settlements which are sustainable in almost every way: in terms of livelihoods, natural resources, energy and water usage, health and education, transport, and waste disposal. In this model, sustainable communities use the skills, assets and resources of their members to generate livelihoods. This paper observes three existing communities in South Africa with the objective of analysing how such models are integrated (or not) into the local economy. Thereafter aspects of a model that envisages ways that poor communities can create sustainable livelihoods, using local skills and resources, are presented. This model requires strategies for creating localised systems, including micro finance, local markets, com-munity exchange networks, cooperative construction, production and distribution systems; and infrastructure and technology systems.

The latest news on climate change (website)

Responding to Climate Change

A great site that carries all the latest news on climate change politics, policy and science from around the world. Dozens of articles, with a good mixture of factual reporting and opinion stating, plus headlines and research reports.

Can 'resilience' mean radical change? (#journal)

‘Bouncing back’ to capitalism? Grass-roots autonomous activism in shaping discourses of resilience and transformation following disaster

Resilience has been criticised for focusing on attempts to maintain the status quo following a disturbance, upholding the hegemony of stability and being unhelpful to groups seeking radical change. Despite this, the concept is fast subsuming sustainability for community organisations wishing to address social and environmental injustices. This paper examines the potential for a radical notion of resilience that can challenge hegemonic understandings of everyday capitalist life, and thus contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the radical potential for what is often expressed as an inherently non-radical concept.

An international movement for urban agriculture? (#journal)

Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture: Part 4

This article introduces, synthesises, and discusses four articles from four issues of the Journal 'City'. The author argues that while urban and peri-urban agriculture is emerging in almost every city in the world, seeing it as a coherent 'movement' is problematic as it varies so widely in its form, its motivation and its aims between countries and continents. It is also often unable to stop the increasing control of urban land by wealthy urban elites. Nevertheless, urban agriculture has a major role to play in achieving food security for the world's poor, and needs to be recognised as an international trend of rapidly growing importance. The author argues that the Transition Movement has played a key role in supporting some of these initiatives.

The Transition Movement and contemporary protest (#journal)

Readjusting to reality 2: Transition?

This paper focuses on the Transition Movement that is growing rapidly around the world, aimed at responding more broadly to the emerging energy and climate change problematic, ahead of what otherwise can be expected to be the collapse of our globalised economy. The Transition Movement, by contrast, is concerned to develop positive responses that reintegrate local communities, living in harmony within their local worlds. The heart of the paper focuses on the current tumult of protest movements and demonstrations around the world, enquiring as to what these are trying to achieve, how effective they are in achieving their ostensible aims and whether the inchoate aspirations are in practice realisable. The paper suggests that the Transition Movement presents a realistic resolution to the problematic of revolution as well as addressing the emergent energy and climate change problematic.

Neoanarchism and emancipatory politics; a critique (#journal)

From alterglobalization to Occupy Wall Street: Neoanarchism and the new spirit of the left

Neoanarchist politics have become increasingly hegemonic on the North American left. Tracing its emergence during the Seattle WTO demonstrations in 1999 to its recent incarnation in the Occupy Wall Street movement, this article argues that neoanarchism's attempts to “change the world without taking power” pose serious theoretical and practical problems for emancipatory politics today. The text also examines recuperation as a factor in social movement decline, arguing that the incorporation of social movement themes is constructing a “new spirit of capitalism” that both addresses widespread demand for a more ethical world while simultaneously insulating itself from critique – a process facilitated by significant ideological resonance between neoanarchism and neoliberalism

The truth about biofuels (book)

Food versus Fuel: An Informed Introduction to Biofuels

 

'Food versus Fuel' presents a high-level introduction to the science and economics behind a well-worn debate, that will debunk myths and provide quality facts and figures for academics and practitioners in development studies, environment studies, and agricultural studies. Compiled by an internationally renowned scientist and authority, and to include perspectives from 'pro' and 'anti' biofuels experts and activists, from the North and South, the book brings a balanced approach to the current debate on the major issues affecting the development of biofuels in a concise and clear manner.

Food production beyond scarcity thinking (#journal)

Beyond the scarcity scare: reframing the discourse of hunger with an eco-mind

Solutions to world hunger continue to be impeded by a frame that keeps much of humanity focusing narrowly on quantitative growth. The result is greater food production and greater hunger. Yet, across the world another way of seeing, one grounded in the relational insights of ecology, is transforming food systems in ways that both enhance flora and fauna and strengthen human relationships, enabling farmers to gain a greater voice in food production and fairer access to the food produced.

Alternative food networks (book)

Alternative Food Networks: Knowledge, Practice and Politics

This book reviews the growth of alternative food networks and their struggle to defend their ethical and aesthetic values against the standardizing pressures of the corporate mainstream. It explores how these movements are "making a difference" and their possible role as fears of global climate change and food insecurity intensify. It assesses the different experiences of these networks in three major arenas: Britain and Western Europe, the United States, and the global Fair Trade economy. This comparative perspective runs throughout the book to fully explore the erosion of the interface between alternative and mainstream food provisioning. As the era of "cheap food" draws to a close, analysis of the limitations of market-based social change and the future of alternative food economies place this book at the cutting-edge.