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Those concerned with human responses to climate-related impacts increasingly use resilience as a framing concept. This Perspective critiques dominant approaches to resilience building and advocates a human livelihoods-based path. The resilience concept requires greater attention to human livelihoods if it is to address the limits to adaptation strategies and the development needs of the planet's poorest and most vulnerable people. Although the concept of resilience is increasingly informing research and policy, its transfer from ecological theory to social systems leads to weak engagement with normative, social and political dimensions of climate change adaptation. A livelihood perspective helps to strengthen resilience thinking by placing greater emphasis on human needs and their agency, empowerment and human rights, and considering adaptive livelihood systems in the context of wider transformational changes.

Natural hazards and their related impacts can have powerful implications for humanity, particularly communities with deep reliance on natural resources. The development of effective early warning systems(EWS) can contribute to reducing natural hazard impacts on communities by improving risk reduction strategies and activities.However, current shortcomings in the conception and applications of EWS undermine risk reduction at the grassroots level. This article explores various pathways to involve local communities in EWS from top-down to more participatory approaches. Based on a literature review and three case studies that outline various levels of participation in EWS in Kenya, Hawai’i, and Sri Lanka, the article suggests a need to review the way EWS are designed and applied, promoting a shift from the traditional expert-driven approach to one that is embedded at the grassroots level and driven by the vulnerable communities. Such a community-centric approach also raises multiple challenges linked to a necessary shift of conception of EWS and highlights the need for more research on pathways for sustainable community engagement.

In an era of ecological degradation, global climate change, demographic shifts and increasing intensity and frequency of natural hazards, the Pacific Islands including the State of Hawai‘i face heightened risk. Human and environmental well-being are tightly coupled; thus, science-based solutions must marry place-based, culturally relevant processes that link disaster preparedness, relief and recovery with resilience theories and applications. However, these fields remain mired in epistemological silos, and the operationalization of these theories has been slow, particularly at the community level. This paper explores the challenges of bridging these intersecting fields and the application of theory to practice, through a community-based case study in Hanalei, Hawai‘i. We deployed household surveys, key informant interviews and traditional talk-story sessions to gather baseline information on demographic and socio-ecological transformations, perceptions of risk and preparedness, and coping and adaptive capacity measures. Results showed that residents exhibit medium-to-high coping and adaptive capacities, while visitors present high vulnerability and dependence upon locals. Social resilience metrics highlight differential coping and adaptive capacities among households with varying characteristics (e.g., sex of head of household, longevity of residence and household size) offering risk reduction targets. A gap analysis developed from a qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions highlights key sectors, areas and populations with perceived gaps in preparedness and resilience, coupled with ideas for solutions centered around local capacity building and improved knowledge and awareness. Community-based assessments underpin the development of long-term disaster resilience planning initiatives and to addressing gaps in vulnerable sectors and populations.

Much of the ecological degradation, high urban density and hazard vulnerability in the world are found in coastal regions and islands, including the State of Hawai'i and Pacific Islands. Many of these areas are vulnerable to hazard events and climate change impacts, for which engineering solutions and infrastructure measures are not always feasible and may cause further damage to the environment. Issues of poverty and wealth inequalities, poor natural resource management, and human rights abuses further exacerbate physical, social and ecological vulnerabilities to disasters. Moving away from the antiquated reactionary relief model, a movement is underway to engage in disaster resilience, an interdisciplinary approach of proactive prevention, preparation, risk reduction and adaptation. Due to extreme geographic remoteness and high risk to multiple hazards, emergency managers, communities and resource managers in Hawai'i and the Pacific must develop long-term resilience-building strategies that increase environmental stewardship, social well-being, and food and water security, particularly in the face of potential impacts from climate change. The dissertation employed a community-based participatory research and learning approach to address these issues, collaborating with community and multi-sector stakeholders to build capacity for development of place-based, ecologically sound and socially-appropriate integrated disaster resilience plans. The research addressed critical theoretical and practical gaps by utilizing mixed quantitative and qualitative approaches and diverse tools. Adaptable community-based socio-ecological resilience frameworks promoted better linkages between socio-ecological systems, disaster preparedness, relief, recovery and sustainable development, and facilitated social learning and institutionalized resilience planning mechanisms to generate innovative solutions to the complex issues of climate change, socio-ecological vulnerability reduction and sustainable development.

The world’s population recently surpassed 7 billion and is predicted to reach 9.2 billion by 2050. Continued population growth will result in increased resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing the effects of climate change. Synergisms between population growth and climate change will therefore have substantial negative impacts on the environment. However, solutions to population growth are often absent within the context of climate change. To address this absence, we conducted a review of the primary scientific literature published between 1980 and 2011 using ISI Web of Knowledge to determine the major topics that have been discussed, the geographic scale at which these topics were addressed, what types of solutions were proposed, and whether or not these solutions were tractable. In particular, we quantified the portion of the literature that addressed population growth and climate change as synergistic issues. Of 1,438 papers addressing population growth and climate change, only 139 (~10%) included solutions. Among these 139 papers, the most frequent topics and solutions addressed the societal aspects of population growth and climate change. Land use/land cover change and greenhouse gas emissions were also frequently discussed, while changes in policy, economics, and science and technology were the most frequently offered solutions to population growth and climate change. Education, energy, and health, were the least discussed topics and the least mentioned as solutions. In addition, while topics were discussed on a global scale, actionable solutions were often regionally dependent and tailored to address either population growth or climate change as separate, unrelated topics. Importantly, the number of papers offering solutions increased significantly over time, with 46% published since 2008. These results suggest that while solutions to human population growth have seldom been discussed in the context of climate change, they are beginning to be considered in the literature, perhaps indicating an increased awareness of the interrelatedness of these issues.

[...] it would be very advantageous for neighborhood organizations and businesses to advocate for at least one more supermarket in each neighborhood that could be primarily stocked with locally grown produce and fair-trade items, allowing for increased sustainable community access to fresh, safe and affordable products.

Restoring local self-sufficiency, food and water security and community cohesion can be improved through increasing education and capacity-building through water conservation and developing home and community gardens. Starting a vegetable garden is as easy as setting down recycled cardboard, piling up native soil mixed with a nice compost and animal manure from your local garden store, and planting your favorite varieties.