A Comprehensive Framework for the Relationship Between Organized Violence and Climate Change

Methane emissions along biomethane and biogas supply chains are underestimated

Close the carbon loophole

Modelling food demand in the 21st century

Over the last decade, Australia has experienced several severe natural disasters which have caused significant disruptions to its agri-food supply chains. Global climate change is driving an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that can lead to natural disasters. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that climate change - and extreme weather events, in particular - pose significant threats to food security. While much food security research focusses on developing nations, contemporary, supermarket-based food systems have a number of characteristics that make them highly vulnerable to disruptions from extreme weather events. The experience of recent disasters and projections of on-going climate change suggest that Australia’s food systems are facing escalating climate risks to which they must adapt. This thesis considers how the agri-food supply chains that underpin Australia’s food system are enabled or constrained to cope with emerging climate risks and, in particular, to a more rapid recurrence of damaging weather events. In this thesis, supply chains are conceptualized as social institutions and identified as a key location in the food system for decision-making regarding the management of climate risks. The empirical focus of the research is national-scale fresh produce supply chains based on vegetables produced in south-east Queensland’s Lockyer and Fassifern Valleys. These supply chains have been affected by a series of severe weather events and natural disasters since 2011. The study applies qualitative methods to draw insights from supply chain actors regarding: the impacts of recent severe weather events; perceptions of these events and future climate risks; the ways in which climate risks are governed in the supply chain; and what responses have occurred following recent events. The analysis is informed by theoretical perspectives from the social sciences, in particular the social construction of risk, risk governance and resilience. The thesis aims to advance recent conceptualisations of food system resilience and proposes a set of attributes that would enable a capacity for resilience to climate risks and natural disasters within agri-food supply chains. The results of the study demonstrate that the impacts of recent natural disasters were unevenly distributed within the supply chain. Upstream segments of the chain (that is, business involved in vegetable production, packing and transport) experienced more significant impacts and longer recovery periods than downstream segments (such as wholesalers and retailers). The study finds that this is strongly linked to an uneven distribution of vulnerability to risks in the chain which, combined with the rapid recurrence of disaster events, has weakened the fresh produce supply system. The study provides important insights into perceptions, and social constructions, of recent weather events and climate risks amongst actors within fresh produce supply chains – addressing a significant gap in the literature. The results suggest that a shared narrative about Australia’s highly variable climate strongly influences a collective construction amongst supply chain actors which normalises and attenuates climate risk. The study finds, however, that recent extreme weather events have unsettled this dominant construct. Perceptions of future climate risks amongst supply chain actors were varied. Those strongly influenced by the climate variability narrative did not expect future risks to be much different from those experienced in the past. A smaller number of research participants, however, were concerned that climate risks may be escalating and that this may require changes to how those risks were managed. The study found two strongly contrasting approaches to the governance of climate risk in fresh produce supply chains. The findings demonstrate that, typically, climate risks are governed in highly individualised ways but that the emergence of new supply chain intermediaries is facilitating a more collective approach to climate risk governance in some chains. The research also shows that recent recurrent floods have catalysed a number of supply chain actors to pursue changes that improve their capacity to more effectively manage climate risks. Those most motivated to make adaptations were found to be involved in supply chains characterised by individualised governance of climate risks. The thesis concludes by considering what the findings suggest about the prospects for cultivating resilience to escalating climate risks in supply chains and the implications for food security in Australia. The study finds that while a collaborative approach to risk governance is emerging in some cases, there are significant constraints to cultivating climate change resilience in fresh produce supply chains in Australia – and that this adds to known threats to our national food security. The research suggests, however, that adopting a risk governance perspective could help to engage a wider set of social actors, particularly governments and consumers, in the process of improving supply chain and food system resilience in the face of climate change.

Purpose Nowadays, the defense industry is considered a significant part of the manufacturing industries. Military products in the world have a high level of diversity, delivery speed and appropriative operational functionality. Therefore, various producing, high quality and high-speed delivery of military products are of great importance in enhancing Iran’s defensive power. Defense industries’ supply chain agility is a response to how to produce military products with these features. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a model for the agile supply chain of defense industries to show the relationship between agile practices and their hierarchy. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors identify the most important supply chain agility practices by expert’s questionnaire. Then, using factor analysis, practices are categorized and validated based on structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM showed a meaningful relationship between agile supply chain practices. Finally, using interpretative structural modeling, a model is presented to show the logical relationships and hierarchy between these practices. Findings The results show that out of a total of 62 practices introduced in the previous research for the agile supply chain, 37 practices in the agility of the supply chain of defense industries are effective. The 4 new agility practices were identified in this research. These 41 practices were classified into 8 categories including supplier relationship, workshop level management, organizational structure improvement, human resource management, product designing, improve and integrate the process, application of information technology and customer relationship. Improvement of organizational structure was at the highest level of the model. Therefore, managers first should focus on it. Research limitations/implications Given the confidentiality of information in the defense industry, the distribution of questionnaires and their collection was one of the most important limitations. A variety of defense products in land, air and sea areas, and a large number of industries in each sector, forced the authors to select the only land area. Although the results of this research can be used in the air and sea areas, but cannot be said that the implementation of this study presented model will fully lead to the defense industries’ supply chain agility in air and sea sectors. Originality/value This is the first research on the supply chain agility of Iran’s defense industry that bridges the gap between theory and practice. The classification of 41 practices in the form of 8 measures and examining the relationship between them is a new and practical approach for understanding the relationships between different variables that affect supply chain agility. This study introduces four new agility practices including the use of new technology and equipment, human resource balance, the use of expert human resources, training and employee empowerment, which can be considered in many industries of developing or less developed countries. Considering the specific situation of defense industry supply chain in comparison with other industries, the results of this research can be used by other defense industries of similar countries.

The increasing social consciousness about the causes and consequences of climate change has not led to a correspondingly high support for concrete mitigation or adaptation policies. Thus, more research is needed about the factors influencing citizen’s support for such climate change policies. In this study, we explore the effects on Spaniards’ support for one mitigation policy (car policy) and one adaptation policy (water policy) of five attitudinal factors: government response efficacy beliefs, people’s feeling of responsibility to mitigate climate change, personal self-efficacy beliefs, people’s disposition to resist change and psychological distance from climate change. We use data from an online survey implemented in the Netquest opt-in panel in Spain (N = 2290). We use structural equation modelling to control for spurious effects and test the fit of the model. Moreover, estimates are corrected for measurement errors. The results reveal that the most important factor affecting Spaniards’ support for both mitigation and adaptation policies is the perceived government response efficacy. Furthermore, we identified relevant differences regarding the importance of the above-mentioned five attitudinal factors depending on the climate change policy studied. More precisely, while government response efficacy and people’s feeling of responsibility to mitigate climate change have a direct effect on support for both policies, personal self-efficacy and people’s resistance to change only affect support for the mitigation policy directly. On the contrary, psychological distance to climate change only has a direct effect on support for the adaptation policy. Our results provide new insights into the causal mechanisms behind citizens’ support for climate change policies.

Multi-level impacts of climate change and supply disruption events on a potato supply chain: An agent-based modeling approach

Climate variability and change, which intensified since 1970s, are threatening natural resources and livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa where people depend on climate sensitive natural resources, such as agriculture and fisheries, but have limited capacity to adapt. Increasing human and institutional capacity to address threats posed by climate change to natural resources and livelihoods requires building capacity to generate and disseminate information and knowledge on climate change, its impacts, adaptation and mitigation through research, education and raising awareness by tertiary training institutions. Most tertiary training institutions in Africa have curricula covering basic and applied natural resources management but most of them do not include climate change. This paper presents a training curriculum and manual that was developed to fill this gap. The purpose of the paper is to provide in-depth information on how Climate Change can be integrated into the fisheries and aquaculture curricula of tertiary training institutions. It also provides students, scientists, practitioners, and policy makers with an understanding of key concepts and approaches to climate change mitigation measures, adaptation strategies, and policies. The aim is to mainstream climate change in fisheries training. The specific objectives are to facilitate introduction of climate change in fisheries training in Uganda that can be developed further and adopted by other countries in Africa and elsewhere; Equip students with scientific and technical capacity to anticipate and evaluate changes in climate and its influence, communicate information to stakeholders, design, and test adaptation strategies and mitigation measures; and Increase human resource capacity to address climate change issues through reviewing and strengthening of the national education system. The curriculum consists of seven modules covering: Major threats to natural resources; Introduction to climate change; Implications of climate change on aquatic productivity processes and fisheries; Implications of climate change on aquaculture; Livelihoods, impacts, adaptation and mitigation; Aquatic ecosystem modeling in relation to climate change; Principles, policies, regulations and institutions required to address impacts of climate change. The modules will be delivered through lectures, discussions, case studies and field visits. It is recommended that the curriculum and manual be incorporated into training programs of tertiary training institutions to build the capacity required to address climate change challenges particularly for fisheries in Africa.

Every year, new research illustrates how the pace of global emission growth gradually reduces the chance of avoiding ‘dangerous’ climate change. Previous analyses that have taken a territorial emissions framing approach demonstrate how little space there is available for Annex 1 nations’ emissions to continue at current levels because of the pace of growth in industrializing economies. This paper uses a cumulative emissions approach to explore whether a consumption-based framing offers new opportunities and avenues for tackling climate change. Results reveal that there is still scope for emissions to remain within a budget associated with a high probability of remaining below the 2°C temperature rise above pre-industrial levels associated with ‘dangerous’ climate change. However, both territorial and consumption-based approaches require a rethinking of the political orthodoxy for the highest probabilities of not exceeding 2°C. Using the consumption-based framework, mitigation policy in Annex 1 nations can address consumer-related emissions sending mitigation signals along supply chains and across national boundaries, thereby increasing their influence over global CO2. Ultimately, allying the cumulative framing of climate change with the consumption-based approach offers additional potential for achieving a global low-carbon transition compared with policies framed solely using the conventional territorial approach. Nevertheless, cumulative budgets associated with a high probability of not exceeding the 2°C threshold between ‘dangerous’ and ‘acceptable’ climate change demand immediate and urgent emission reductions, irrespective of the accounting approach employed.

Almost 700 people died from heat-related stress during the catastrophic 1995 heat wave in Chicago, Illinois.1 The three-day weather event saw 24-hour mean average temperatures of 87.2°F; the heat reached triple digits on two days, and there was little relief at night.2 Many people succumbed to heart attack and dehydration, while others collapsed during severe episodes of existing respiratory conditions.3 The death toll in the summer of 1995 gave Chicagoans a clear picture of how a surge in hot weather can affect human health. A decade later, Mayor Richard Daley launched an extensive program that brought together city agencies, academics, and scientists to develop a Climate Change Action Plan to help reduce the city’s contribution to climate change.4 Much of the plan focuses on sustainable mitigation actions such as planting trees and training workers to install renewable energy technologies. Within that plan, however, is a climate change adaptation strategy with a goal of preparing the city and its residents for future unusual weather events associated with climate change.5 Chicago is one of several large cities with climate action plans in place—others include New York City, San Francisco, Sydney, and Mexico City.6 Like Chicago’s, these plans promote mitigation and sustainability. Much of the adaptation portion of these initiatives is aimed at the built environment—buildings, highways, and facilities. But officials in these cities are beginning to talk about the public health cobenefits from their action plans, and public health advocates are speaking up and pushing for programs designed to prepare for or prevent climate-sensitive disease and illness.

The supply chain is a unified process and production activity starting from raw materials obtained from suppliers, the process of adding value that converts raw materials into finished goods, and the process of storing an inventory of goods until the process of sending finished goods to consumers. In the defense industry, the supply chain cannot be separated because of its role in regulating how defense products work, from raw materials to finished materials. The method of this journal is a literature review which is then processed using system thinking and SWOT analysis to solve the problem of the weak domestic Defense Industry supply chain. The results of the analysis of the literature review state that the supply chain has a vital role in the development and independence of the domestic defense industry. Problems with the domestic logistics system have contributed greatly to the weak domestic defense industry supply chain. In addition, dependence on imported raw materials for production also creates a potential threat that weakens the flow of the supply chain. Raw materials that are still imported are prone to embargoes so if that happens, the production flow of defense products will stop completely due to the absence of raw materials. Based on this study, good and integrated global supply chain management is recommended to be applied to the defense industry to overcome the weakness of the defense industry's supply chain.

Pennsylvania State University, USADespite overwhelming consensus among scientists about thereality of anthropogenic climate change (Bray, 2010; Oreskes,2004), there remains significant reluctance on the part ofcitizens and politicians to take the action needed to addressit. This resistance has been repeatedly identified in socialresearch (Leiserowitz & Maibach, 2010; Leviston, Leitch,Greenhill, Leonard, & Walker, 2011; Lorenzoni & Pidgeon,2006; McCright & Dunlap, 2011; Reser, Bradley, Glendon,Ellul, & Callaghan, 2012) and is mirrored by the lack of prog-ress made by salient political summits (Rogelj et al., 2010).Perhaps as a response to this, scholarly journals and articlesthat are focused on climate change are growing. Naturalscientists tell us that we know what needs to be done to avertdangerous climate change (IPCC, 2014), and economists tellus that delaying action in the short term will lead to muchgreater costs in the long term (Stern, 2007). Understandingpublic responses to climate change and developing solutionsto catalyse action is a critical challenge for the social sciences,and we propose that the development and elaboration of asocial psychology of climate change would be a cornerstoneof such an approach.We do not make the claim that social psychology has all theanswers but rather that the theories, models and researchmethods of social psychology can provide a powerful arsenalto complement the approaches of other disciplines. Re-searchers have already begun to apply social psychologicaltheory and methods to the issue of climate change, and wehighlight in the following sections examples of the insightsthat have flowed from this. We cannot assume, though, thatour theories and findings will automatically generalise to theclimate change context. As Moser (2010) has noted, thereare unique dimensions to climate change that make it distinctfrom other environmental, risk and health issues: The causesof climate change are invisible to humans, the impacts are dis-tal and it is complex and riddled with uncertainties. Modernurban humans are to some extent insulated from their physicalenvironment, and the lags between the climate and social sys-tems make it difficult for people to understand their role ininfluencing climate.These factors suggest the importance of developing a socialpsychology of climate change, empirically testing, integratingand refining existing theories and models to develop newframeworks. The notion that psychology can play a role inunderstanding and addressing climate change is not a newone. The American Psychological Association’s Task Forceon the interface between psychology and global climatechange comprehensively detailed the ways in which psycho-logical research can help to understand people’s perceptionsof the risks of climate change, the contribution of human be-haviour to climate change, the psychosocial impacts of climatechange, the ways in which people can adapt and cope withclimate change and the psychological barriers that could limitclimate change action (Swim et al., 2009, 2011).It is also not a new idea that social psychology can play animportant role in understanding and addressing environmentalproblems and solutions (Clayton & Brook, 2005). Social psy-chology, specifically, has a long tradition oftheory andresearchthat is relevant to addressing key climate change questions.Attitudes, social cognition, persuasion and attitude change, so-cial influence, and intragroup and intergroup behaviour, forinstance, are fundamental foci for social psychology and havedirect relevance for understanding the human and social dimen-sionsofclimatechange.Thetimeisripetounderstandtherangeof research that has been developing in social psychology onattitudes, beliefs and actions, to build upon these insights, andintegrate them with knowledge from other sciences to developmodels and theories indigenous to the climate change context.In the following section, we provide a brief overview of re-cent social psychological research that addresses three broadthemes relevant to understanding and responding to climatechange. These themes are as follows: (i) social psychologicalinfluences on climate change attitudes and beliefs; (ii) facilita-tors and barriers to climate change action; and (iii) changingclimate change attitudes and behaviour. Although there issome overlap in these themes, as an organising principle theyintuitively map on to key questions that arise in relation to cli-mate change. Our aim is to highlight recent examples of socialpsychological research that provide interesting and importantinsights in relation to these themes. Swim, Markowitz, andBloodhart (2012) have noted that much of the social psycho-logical research on climate change has emerged since 2006;we focus in on the most recent of this research that has beenpublished since 2010. We also outline how the studies in thespecial issue relate to these themes. We recognise that theseare not the only areas where social psychological researchand theory can make important contributions but they never-theless relate to key questions that need to be addressed. Weconclude the introduction by proposing considerations thatsocial psychologists could take into account in their futureresearch on climate change.European Journal of Social Psychology, Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 44, 413–420 (2014)

Partnerships promote innovation in food supply chains

Collectif Argos: Climate Refugees

Scientific evidence shows that climate change is real and its risky impacts are localized in different parts of the world. A critical analysis of past and current climatic trends from an existentialist lens is equally axiomatic to that effect. Countries all over the world particularly developing countries face manifest extreme weather and other climate-related impacts on asymmetric scales. Therefore, it is now patent that climate change reality is no longer a contested global issue. The problem however remains how to effectively manage it. This concern over the years resulted in two major climate policies: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation has popularly received more focus and emphasis, as all countries are required to put their best efforts in combating climate change. This is true even as adaptation was originally perceived to be an inconsequential concept likely to preposterously impede global mitigation efforts. Nonetheless, there is high uncertainty with regards to detectable and measurable result from global efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. More so, differences in climate variability and its impacts question how mitigation policy in a global context can achieve inclusiveness, bearing in mind that climate impacts are locally felt. This study re-examines the relevance of mitigation and adaptation policies in a need-based context and scale of experience of some countries or regions with regards to climate change variability and its impacts. Specifically, it argues that disparities in climate impacts trigger a growing inevitable need demanding a more prioritized reactive adaptation option over mitigation policy for certain countries or regions that are ever extremely vulnerable to climate change. The study adopts a qualitative analysis approach by building its argument on existing literature.