Climate change and displacement: multidisciplinary perspectives - Book review

In the small but growing field of research into climate change and migration, there is much debate about terms. Attempts to definitively count the numbers or pinpoint the characteristics of \u27climate refugees\u27 are being discarded in favour of more nuanced descriptors, such as climate-induced migration, that are better attuned to the agency and complexity of populations on the move in a warming world. The choice of the word \u27displacement\u27 in the title of this book, therefore, reveals much about its editor\u27s intent

Gifts, sustainable consumption and giving up green anxieties at Christmas

This paper explores the proposition that gifting is a little recognised yet important practice bound up in the quest for sustainable consumption, which has largely been studied with reference to market rather than gift economies. It draws on gift theories in economic anthropology which explain gifts as engendering social relations of reciprocity and beyond, and shaping social life differently to commodities. Understanding how and why commodities become gifts (and vice versa), we contend, provides a new way of understanding some of the complex ways in which social relations are implicated in sustainable consumption. We use a study of Christmas gifting practices within a group of environmentally engaged households to begin to empirically explore if and how environmental considerations are expressed in the gift economy. We conclude that the fashioning of a particular social identity, namely, the \u27green consumer\u27 can operate very differently in the context of gift-exchange than in the context of non-gifting consumption

Inmovilidad voluntaria: voces indígenas en el Pacífico

En los últimos años, la comunidad internacional ha prestado cada vez más atención al traslado y la reubicación planificada de personas afectadas por el cambio climático. En la región del Pacífico, sin embargo, varios pueblos indígenas señalan su intención de permanecer en sus tierras ancestrales

Envisioning the Archipelago

Certain limitations arise from the persistent consideration of two common relations of islands in the humanities and social sciences: land and sea, and island and continent/mainland. What remains largely absent or silent are ways of being, knowing and doing—ontologies, epistemologies and methods—that illuminate island spaces as inter-related, mutually constituted and co-constructed: as island and island. Therefore, this paper seeks to map out and justify a research agenda proposing a robust and comprehensive exploration of this third and comparatively neglected nexus of relations. In advancing these aims, the paper’s goal is to (re)inscribe the theoretical, metaphorical, real and empirical power and potential of the archipelago: of seas studded with islands; island chains; relations that may embrace equivalence, mutual relation and difference in signification

Climate migration: what the research shows is very different from the alarmist headlines

Predictions of mass climate migration make for attention-grabbing headlines. For more than two decades, commentators have predicted "waves" and "rising tides" of people forced to move by climate change. Recently, a think-tank report warned the climate crisis could displace 1.2 billion people by 2050. Some commentators now even argue that, as the New York Times noted in a recent headline "The Great Climate Migration Has Begun", and that the climate refugees we've been warned about are, in fact, already here. These alarming statements are often well-intentioned. Their aim is to raise awareness of the plight of people vulnerable to climate change and motivate humanitarian action on their behalf. But such headlines aren't always accurate - and rarely achieve their intended effect. Our main concern is that alarming headlines about mass climate migrations risk leading to more walls, not fewer. Indeed, many on the right and far right are now setting aside their climate denialism and linking climate action to ideas of territory and ethnic purity. In this context of growing climate nationalism, even the most well-intentioned narratives risk feeding fear-based stories of invasion when they present climate migration as unprecedented and massive, urgent and destabilising. The risk is only made worse when headlines point to racialised populations from the global south as on their way to the European Union, the US or Australia: places already in the grips of moral panics about migration

Transformative mobilities in the Pacific: Promoting adaptation and development in a changing climate

Climate change is affecting Pacific life in significant and complex ways. Human mobility is shaped by climate change and is increasingly positioned by international agencies, policymakers, and governments as having an important role in both climate change adaptation and human development. We consider the potential for human mobility to promote adaptation and development among Pacific people in a changing climate. We argue that where Pacific people choose mobility, this should be supported and create opportunities that are responsive to the histories and existing patterns of mobility and place attachment among Pacific Islanders; commence from a position of climate and development justice; and advance human rights and socio-political equity. Transformative mobilities are where mobility, adaptation, and development intersect to achieve the best possible outcomes for cultural identity, human rights, adaptation, and human development goals across scales and in origin and destination sites

Transformative mobilities in the Pacific: Promoting adaptation and development in a changing climate

Climate change is affecting Pacific life in significant and complex ways. Human mobility is shaped by climate change and is increasingly positioned by international agencies, policymakers, and governments as having an important role in both climate change adaptation and human development. We consider the potential for human mobility to promote adaptation and development among Pacific people in a changing climate. We argue that where Pacific people choose mobility, this should be supported and create opportunities that are responsive to the histories and existing patterns of mobility and place attachment among Pacific Islanders; commence from a position of climate and development justice; and advance human rights and socio-political equity. Transformative mobilities are where mobility, adaptation, and development intersect to achieve the best possible outcomes for cultural identity, human rights, adaptation, and human development goals across scales and in origin and destination sites

Las distintas movilidades de las comunidades en las islas del Pacífico

Los tipos de movilidad en las islas del Pacífico son varios y distintos. Los estudios de caso en la región nos permiten ver cuáles son las acciones y las voluntades de las personas, los hogares y las comunidades a la luz de una vulnerabilidad por cuestiones climáticas en rápido aumento