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"Climatology Political aspects South Africa."
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Green lands for white men : desert dystopias and the environmental origins of apartheid
\"A compelling and timely history, Green Lands for White Men explores how white farmers in southern Africa grappled with arid environments and climate change as they sought to consolidate white dominance over the Black majority. In the early twentieth century, white southern Africans engaged in bitter disputes over the reality of climate change and its consequences. Many whites argued that rainfall was declining and that if they did not do something about it, the subcontinent would become a desert and white civilization in the region would collapse. The believers in climate apocalypse found their savior in Ernest Schwarz, a geology professor who promised that diverting rivers into the Kalahari would restore southern Africa's once-rainy climate, creating newly greened lands for the settlement of millions of whites and securing the future of a \"white man's country\" in Africa. Green Lands for White Men uses the story of this popular (though fortunately unrealized) attempt to engineer southern Africa's climate and racial order to examine the agrarian roots of apartheid in the mid-twentieth century. We live in a time of growing climate catastrophe, public mistrust of scientific experts, and emboldened white nationalism. In this book we witness this on another continent and in another century and see how these apparently unrelated factors came together to reinforce a worldview that proved highly resistant to argumentation and challenge by scientists\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Climate change and migration
Climate change is a major source of concern in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and migration is often understood as one of several strategies used by households to respond to changes in climate and environmental conditions, including extreme weather events. This study focuses on the link between climate change and migration. Most micro-level studies measure climate change either by the incidences of extreme weather events or by variation in temperature or rainfall. A few studies have found that formal and informal institutions as well as policies also affect migration. Institutions that make government more responsive to households (for example through public spending) discourage both international and domestic migration in the aftermath of extreme weather events. Migration is often an option of last resort after vulnerable rural populations attempting to cope with new and challenging circumstances have exhausted other options such as eating less, selling assets, or removing children from school. This study is based in large part on new data collected in 2011 in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and the Republic of Yemen. The surveys were administered by in-country partners to a randomly selected set of 800 households per country. It is also important to emphasize that neither the household survey results nor the findings from the qualitative focus groups are meant to be representative of the five countries in which the work was carried, since only a few areas were surveyed in each country. This report is organized as follows: section one gives synthesis. Section two discusses household perceptions about climate change and extreme weather events. Section three focuses on migration as a coping mechanisms and income diversification strategy. Section four examines other coping and adaptation strategies. Section five discusses perceptions about government and community programs.
eBook
Fragments from the history of loss : the nature industry and the postcolony
The Anthropocene's urgent message about imminent disaster invites us to forget about history and to focus on the present as it careens into an unthinkable future. To counter this, Louise Green engages with the theoretical framing of nature in concepts such as the \"Anthropocene,\" \"the great acceleration,\" and \"rewilding\" in order to explore what the philosophy of nature in the era of climate change might look like from postcolonial Africa.
Utilizing a practice of reading developed in the Frankfurt school, Green rearranges narrative fragments from the \"global nature industry,\" which subjugates all aspects of nature to the logic of capitalist production, in order to disrupt preconceived notions and habitual ways of thinking about how we inhabit the Anthropocene. Examining climate change through the details of everyday life, particularly the history of conspicuous consumption and the exploitation of Africa, she surfaces the myths and fantasies that have brought the world to its current ecological crisis and that continue to shape the narratives through which it is understood. Beginning with African rainforest exhibits in New York and Cornwall, Green discusses how these representations of the climate catastrophe fail to acknowledge the unequal pace at which humans consume and continue to replicate imperial narratives about Africa. Examining this history and climate change through the lens of South Africa's entry into capitalist modernity, Green argues that the Anthropocene redirects attention away from the real problem, which is not human's relation with nature, but people's relations with each other.
A sophisticated, carefully argued call to rethink how we approach relationships between and among humans and the world in which we live, Fragments from the History of Loss is a challenge to both the current era and the scholarly conversation about the Anthropocene.
eBook
Adaptation to climate change in Southern Africa: New boundaries for development
Adverse climate impacts are already evident across Southern Africa and pose a serious threat to the development prospects of the region's societies. Sustainable development in this region will depend on the rapid development and implementation of effective adaptation measures.
This volume identifies the new socioeconomic and political boundaries to development that result from ongoing climate change in Southern Africa. The collected papers explore the region's potential for a transition to development strategies that combine meaningful socioeconomic investment and adaptation measures while also improving livelihoods in the region. The chapters are backed up by detailed case studies which underscore the urgent need for national governments and multilateral agencies to develop strategies to support Southern Africa's societies in adapting to climate change.
eBook
Knowledge Systems and Change in Climate Governance
The success of international efforts to manage climate change depends on the participation of emerging economies. This book uses a comparative study of two of the most important, India and South Africa, to reveal new insights into managing climate change on a global scale.
The book provides a unique in-depth analysis of how these two countries are dealing with climate change at both national and province levels, from India's advances in solar and wind energy development to South Africa's efforts to introduce a carbon tax. Using the innovative theoretical framework of climate knowledge systems, it explores how people in India and South Africa engage with one other, learn and act by forming communities of practice. The book identifies the drivers and barriers of climate governance, showing how different forms of scientific, technological, normative and pragmatic knowledge can aid climate governance and analysing how the underlying mind-set that guides climate action in these countries is changing.
This book is a valuable resource for students and scholars of environmental policy, politics and governance, as well as comparative politics, climate change and sustainable development.
eBook
