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Climate change. A beginner's guide
No full textClimate change is the greatest single problem we face as a planet. This important introduction skilfully guides us through the complex mix of scientific, political, social, and environmental issues to examine the manifold threats it poses and explore the possible futures for our world. Focusing on the fact that the "point of no return" may in fact have already been passed, Boyd and Tompkins highlight the urgent need to start actively adapting to our changing climate if we want to avoid complete catastroph
Development Pressures and Management Considerations in Small Caribbean Islands' Coastal Zones
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to examine the management of coastal zones in island states in the Caribbean; to highlight the developmental and environmental pressures that are experienced; and to discuss some of the constraints to management. Caribbean island states face a number of development constraints due to the small sizes of their economies, populations, resource bases and land areas. With limited potential for economic diversification and few development options many small Caribbean islands have pursued tourism to generate income and employment. Human-induced changes resulting from tourism-oriented development generate a host of impacts in the coastal zone such as increased sedimentation rates from land clearance for development, and nutrient enrichment of coastal waters from inadequately treated waste. Small Caribbean islands which rely on their coastal zones for economic, social and ecological benefits and services therefore require effective management tools that can resolve existing use-conflicts and find a balance between conservation and development objectives.Several confounding constraints to coastal zone management exist, namely the trans-boundary nature of coastal zones, unclear property rights and management institutions, limited information about the costs and benefits of different uses and management approaches, uneven dissemination of that information, and diverse and often disorganised stakeholder groups. Achieving management goals therefore depends on these constraints being addressed. The paper supports the recent re-thinking that management approaches need to focus on the delineation of rights and responsibilities of coastal zone stakeholders, the range of possible institutional arrangements for management, the role of coastal stakeholders in management, the evolution of stakeholder preferences for management options, and the use and treatment of information, how information is presented, to whom it is disseminated and how it is disseminated
Planning for climate change in small islands: insights from national hurricane preparedness in the Cayman Islands
No full textThis paper examines contemporary national scale responses to tropical storm risk in a small island in the Caribbean to derive lessons for adapting to climate change. There is little empirical evidence to guide national planners on how to adapt to climate change, and less still on how to build on past adaptation experiences. The paper investigates the construction of institutional resilience and the process of adaptation to tropical storm risk by the Cayman Islands’ Government from 1988 to 2002. It explains the roles of persuasion, exposure and collective action as key components in developing the ability to buffer external disturbance using models of institutional economics and social resilience concepts. The study finds that self-efficacy, strong local and international support networks, combined with a willingness to act collectively and to learn from mistakes appear to have increased the resilience of the Cayman Islands’ Government to tropical storm risk. The lessons learned from building resilience to storm risk can contribute to the creation of national level adaptive capacity to climate change, but climate change has to be prioritised before these lessons can be transferre
Binaural masking-level difference with bone conduction: Implications for bilateral BAHAs
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Perceptions of the effectiveness of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in advancing national action on climate change
No full textThis paper aims to characterise the ways in which the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is trickling down to affect national level action on climate change. State and non-state actors were interviewed at the 8th UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP8) during October and November 2002. The interviews revealed that, among interviewees, climate change was already perceived to be, or was becoming a priority issue. In a number of countries substantial legislation is already in place to facilitate climate change preparedness (both adaptation and mitigation), although respondents suggest that in the majority of cases these changes are not being developed in response to the UNFCCC, but to other drivers. While all respondents saw change occurring at the national level, mostly through planning and research, few saw climate change response actions at the local level. Respondents agreed that climate risks must be managed through various mechanisms, from finding ways to participate in the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms to managing the impacts of foreign direct investments. The majority of respondents focussed on in-country actions such as identifying the most vulnerable groups, but few identified the need for greater global cooperation.To conclude, the Convention plays a role in shaping the discourse of climate change and in generating national level responses. These responses are played out differently according to the geographic, environmental, economic, social and cultural conditions of each country. The Convention is clearly important, but perhaps it is not adequate to inspire national action to resolve the problems of climate change. There is scope for many additional initiatives, through collaboration, trade or aid, and through bilateral agreements
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