Adapting to the health impacts of climate change in a sustainable manner

Supporting each other: Pacific emergency care clinicians navigate COVID-19 pandemic challenges through collaboration

Cancer control in small island nations: too often overlooked.

Climate Change and Children Australian children are uniquely situated in a vast landscape that varies drastically across locations. Spanning multiple climatic zones—from cool temperate Tasmania to the tropical North—Australia is home to flora and fauna specific to diverse regions, including arid desert and rainforests, mountainous woodlands, and unique mangrove estuaries and coastal regions. Many of Australia’s endemic species—about 85%—are found nowhere else in the world, and in 2020 alone, 763 new species of flora and fauna were catalogued in Australia (Creswell et al). As a country, Australia is experiencing the full gamut of climate-related devastation, including rising land and sea temperatures, coral bleaching and loss of marine life, extreme bushfires and prolonged periods of drought, flooding, and relocation of communities. These extreme climate related events threaten human livelihoods and wellbeing in diverse ways, and disproportionately affect children. It is well documented that children around the world are experiencing anxiety, grief, anger, and despair about the damage climate change is causing to the planet, and the lack of action being taken to reverse this damage (Arnot et al.; Antronico et al.; Galway et al.; Hickman et al.; Ojala et al.). Today’s children will inherit a myriad of critical environmental, health, and socio-economic issues that will shape their future. Awareness of these impending challenges can invoke extreme distress from a very young age (Lee et al.; Halstead). Despite their feelings of powerlessness (Hickman et al.; Galway) and the disproportionate impact on their generation, children and young people are effective agents of change (Treichel; Haltstead; Trott). Climate change research is demonstrating that “children are effective communicators”, they “possess unique perceptions of risks” and “have distinctive knowledge and experiences and are capable of identifying and implementing viable, locally appropriate adaptation responses” (Treichel 27). The specific climate-related effects that children face vary based on their geographic location and socioeconomic difference. While global narratives and imagery about climate change and its impacts often utilise widely recognised phenomena such as melting sea-ice, deforestation, coral bleaching, and the great pacific garbage patch, the specific challenges faced by Australian children in their local suburbs look quite different. To explore the specific climate-related experiences and concerns of some Australian youth, creative and participatory workshops were conducted with children and young people in three geographically diverse regions of New South Wales (NSW). During the month of July 2023, 49 children and young people aged between 10 and 18 years participated in climate change workshops run by the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University. The workshops formed part of the research project in partnership with UNICEF Australia, who also co-facilitated some workshops. Participants were recruited from three regions of NSW, including Western Sydney (WS; 34 participants), the Upper Hunter (UH; 2 participants), and the Northern Rivers (NR; 13 participants). The purpose of the workshops was to explore children’s perceptions and experiences of climate change, as well as their aspirations for the future, which were then used to develop a child-centred indicator framework for climate change (Third et al.) During our workshops we discovered that children communicate specific climate-related challenges and fears based on the unique landscape in which they live, and these location-based issues are the subject of this article Children from Three Climate-Affected Areas Most workshop participants (86%) shared feelings of sadness, anger, and worry about climate change. These feelings reflect a state of solastalgia: a sense of loss and pain for the land that they love and call home (Albrecht). Participants expressed feeling a disproportionate “sense of responsibility/burden … to create change and solve [a] climate crisis that they did not start” (F, 15, WS). This responsibility “puts pressure on us to fix the mistakes of the older generation”, asserted one participant (F, 15, WS). And the burden of advocating for climate action, with its ongoing and cumulative impact on mental health, was recognised by another participant as increasing levels of “depression [and] anxiety about the future” (F, 18, WS). Throughout the workshops, one of the greatest fears expressed by participants was the prospect of climate change disrupting access to the natural world. Recognising the many benefits of spending time outdoors, participants expressed concern that climate change induced temperatures and events will trap them indoors, impacting on their wellbeing. They fear a future where “weather conditions will be unfit to go outside” (M, 15, WS), where “air pollution” and “overheating” (F, 15, WS) lead to adverse health effects and more time indoors. They also fear losing “access to education in times of bushfires, droughts, floods” (F, 17, WS), resulting in prolonged periods of remote learning (learning from home). As one child said, “we will be stuck inside or living underground” (M, 15, WS). In addition to losing access to natural spaces, children also fear destruction of the landscape. They fear a future where “waterways and landscapes are covered in rubbish and sewerage” (small group, 13-15, NR), where animals lose their natural “habitats due to deforestation” and become extinct (F, 15, NR). The Australian children and young people who contributed to this research demonstrate an acute awareness that connections with the land mediate connections within and between ourselves. They recognise the critical role that land plays in our construction of identity and community. For tens of thousands of years, Australian lands have been tended in interdependent relationship with Indigenous Australian communities (Malaspinas et al.)—cultures that represent a capacity for deep listening to the rhythms and needs of the land in all its diversity. Our participants fear a separation from land and urge all Australian citizens to act as stewards of our country. One group of children was eager to promote “an equal society that contributes to taking care of the society and land equally” (small group, 12-15, WS), while another emphasised that future action should involve following “First Nation’s environmental practices” (small group, 12-16, WS). The specific location-based experiences, challenges, and fears that emerged in engagement with these young people are explored below. Western Sydney Located in the geographical centre of the Sydney basin, Western Sydney is a dynamic, culturally diverse urban region. It has a rapidly growing population (About GWS) and is currently experiencing significant temperature rises related to its geographical location and urban heat island effects (Bubathi et al). Despite commencing only 30 kilometres from central Sydney, the Greater Western Sydney area experiences summer temperatures that can top Sydney’s maxima by 10°C (Bubathi et al). In early 2020, the city of Penrith in Greater Western Sydney was the hottest place on earth, hitting 48.9°C (Sydney’s Penrith). If carbon emissions are not significantly curbed, recent predictions suggest that, by 2090, Western Sydney could face up to 46 days each year of temperatures over 35°C (Melville-Rea and Verschuer). The economic impacts of rising temperatures—not to mention environmental and wellbeing impacts—will pervade society, from the individual ability to access necessary healthcare, utilities, food, and other necessities, to a whole nation’s capacity to provide for itself and engage meaningfully in the global economy (see Wood et al.; Steffen et al.; Australian Government). The Western Sydney region workshops took place in the suburb of Liverpool, a rapidly growing residential and multicultural area, with a population predicted to double by 2041 (Liverpool City Council). The ever-increasing demand for housing, coupled with rising interest rates and cost-of-living concerns, is putting considerable strain on families across the region, affecting household structures (Shaweesh). Western Sydney features a large culturally and linguistically diverse community, in which large family sizes and intergenerational living are common (Dockery et al.; Shaweesh). Many households in Western Sydney, including in the Liverpool region, are multigenerational or multi-family, reflecting a growing number of such households in the Western world (Lane and Gorman-Murray). Cultural values play an important role in shaping household makeup, but so do issues of housing affordability, rapid population growth, and migration—all of which contribute to housing density in the suburbs surrounding major Australian cities such as Sydney (Daley et al.; Shaweesh). While family structures and household compositions continue to change in response to social and cultural values and economic needs, physical dwellings and suburban structures tend to stay stagnant (Judd). This can lead to overcrowding (Dockery et al.). As Maram Shaweesh writes, “given that housing affordability is an obstacle to accessing adequate housing in Australia, larger nuclear families can end up living in housing that is too small for their needs (in terms of amenities), leading them to experience house crowding (Dockery et al.)” (140). Liverpool participants expressed significant concern about overcrowding in households and local communities. Although one child expressed concern that overpopulation in homes due to the cost-of-living crisis could affect “the upbringing of children” (F, 15, WS), most children were concerned about the impact of overcrowding on their access to essential resources. As one young person wrote, “overcrowding in cities is leading to hardships to access basic facilities such as schools, hospitals, etc.” (F, 18, WS). In addition to the housing affordability crisis in Sydney, participants also fear that “overcrowding in urban sprawls/cities” (M, 15, WS) will decrease their access to essential resources and facilities. One participant explained that “accessibility and cost of facilities would greatly affect young adults and children” because "the costs for these facilities would go up”, making them "less accessible for people in lower class areas” (M, 15, WS). Children in this region fear a future in which “food prices skyrocket due to food insecurity” (M, 15, WS); where families face “higher prices” and risk “losing jobs” (M, 16, WS); where the “cost of travel will increase (petrol and gas)” and “[public] transport costs will rise” (M, 16, WS) to the extent that people lose their mobility, “making it harder for them to travel” for work (M, 15, WS). Children and young people in Western Sydney were particularly sensitive to socio-economic inequality, and the disproportionate effect climate change has on vulnerable members of the community. Climate change “can impact certain communities more (for example, regional/rural, disabled, chronically ill etc.)” (F, 15, WS), one young person explained, while another observed that climate change “impacts people in lower socioeconomic conditions significantly” (F, 17, WS). Children in Western Sydney fear that climate change will worsen the economic prospects of people in their region. “Those who have grown up in a poor household will never be able to escape poverty due to the worsening of the economy [due to climate change]” (F, 15, WS). Some children also expressed concern that the rising cost of living, overcrowding, and limited access to resources will lead to increased levels of crime. There is evidence elsewhere in the world that climate-related events, such as agricultural crop devastation, can lead to famine and local and regional conflict (Akresh). Western Sydney children intuit this in their concerns. They fear that the rising “cost of living” and “food insecurity” (F, 15, WS) will lead to “increases in crime” (M, 15, WS) as well as “riots, fights for rights and action, [and a] lack of safety” (F, 15, WS). Upper Hunter Spanning a large region located 150km north of Sydney, the Hunter Valley comprises a river valley which extends 200km inland from the coast. The region boasts coastal beaches and estuaries, river wetlands, densely forested hills, and rich soils (Geary et al.). Traditionally a mining community, the Hunter Valley is Australia’s largest single source of coal and largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions (Evans). Extensive mining in the region has caused “profound changes to the landscape and long-term impacts on ecosystem and health” (Albrecht et al. 96). Residents of the Hunter frequently face air pollution levels which reportedly breach international standards (Fowler). In 2018, a mining facility in the Hunter was listed as one of the top 5 most polluting facilities in Australia (Australian Conservation Foundation). Families in the region are affected by coal dust and poor air quality due to the proximity of coal mines in the region, and many people have previously expressed distress about the ways this destruction of land threatens their identity and wellbeing (Albrecht; Albrecht et al.). Young people in all workshop locations expressed concerns about air quality and the detrimental effects of pollution on human health and the environment. But responses from the two participants in the Upper Hunter were particularly focussed on this issue, reflecting concerns about, and experiences of, coal mining impacts in their region. These young people hoped for a future where “mining has stopped near heavily populated towns” and where “coal mines [have] moved further away” (F, 12, UH). Coal mining was seen as a matter of environmental ethics. One participant expressed the desire for “a clean and better future”, in which “gasses that can and will pollute the air” are no longer used, and where “we stop cutting down trees” (F, 12, UH). Another asserted that “we need to move away from coal and gas, [and] move towards clean energy” (M, 13, UH). Research conducted by the Australian Conservation Foundation shows that air pollution tends to have a disproportionate effect on low- and middle-income households (Australian Conservation Foundation). While the Upper Hunter is currently undergoing a process of transition—from mining to renewable energy—participants were mindful that this must be a just transition that prioritises “decent work and quality jobs” (UNFCC) for the 14,000 workers employed by coal mines in the region (3 Local Solutions). Northern Rivers The Northern Rivers region of New South Wales is one of the state’s most biologically diverse regions (North Coast). Life is shaped by the lay of the land; but while the geography of the Northern Rivers—its plains and many river catchments—have historically made flooding a regular occurrence, the floods of 2022 were a “catastrophic disaster”, and were some of the worst in Australia’s written history (Royal Far West; McNaught et al.). These floods were preceded by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Summer bushfires of 2019, and by serious floods in 2017 (Royal Far West; McNaught et al.). Over one metre of rain fell in a single week during February and March 2022, and “whole roads and houses were pummelled by hundreds of landslides and boulders” (McNaught et al.). In the town of Lismore, floods rose “more than 2 m higher than the previous [2017] records” and damaged over 10, 000 homes (McNaught et al.; NSW Reconstruction Authority; Headspace). “The broader population”, McNaught et al. explain, “experienced periods of no or limited access to cash, petrol, communications, food, schools, carer services and medical assistance”. These were the sorts of scenarios in their region that young participants were exposed to. The 2022 floods had significant impacts on children's and young people’s education, physical and mental health, and safety (Royal Far West). A 2023 study highlighted the prevalence of eco-anxiety amongst the region’s flood-impacted young people (Headspace). The study found that more than half their participants felt fearful about the future, while one in five said climate change affects their daily lives. Describing the impact of the floods on the local community, one local young adult said, “I think that the general feeling in the community was one of gut-wrenching pain. Not on just a physical and mental level, but also on a spiritual level. It was our whole community—tens of thousands of people—impacted” (Zanuso in Headspace). During the 2022 floods, 331 schools in NSW were forced to temporarily close, and many students had to relocate for extended periods—as did many residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged (Royal Far West). These experiences were powerfully reflected in young people’s input at workshops, where they expressed a very real sense of the imminent threats of climate change. The workshop responses from Northern Rivers young people were “profoundly shaped” by their recent experiences of extreme weather events (Third et al. 25). Many responses were especially focussed on climate-related disruptions to education and resourcing, showing the ways in which participants value their education and the future opportunities it brings. Participants demonstrated concern about the ongoing impacts of climate disasters on their schooling: “schools won’t be useable because of the constant flooding”, one small group of 14–17-year-olds explained; “the school will have to be constantly rebuilt which would cost lots of money”. And, where the over-population of schools due to relocation of displaced students occurred, this could “lead to [a] lack of quality education and opportunities” (small group, 13–15, NR). “[Having a] bigger school affects education equality”, one student observed (15, F, NR), while another explained that in such scenarios, “schools won’t have the right materials to teach” (14, M, NR). The long-term effect of climate-related displacement is a huge concern expressed by Northern Rivers participants, many of whom are still feeling the impact of the 2022 floods in their community. “Even today in 2023, there are houses that are empty, and it plays on your mind. There were people living in those homes once, and there are no longer people there. It hits very close to home” (Zanuso in Headspace). Children and young people demonstrate serious concern about the longevity of their community. “By doing nothing about climate change”, said one group of 14–17-year-olds, “downtown Lismore will be uninhabitable due to regular flooding”. “Twenty years into the future”, another group declared, “[climate change will have] flooded Lismore out of existence” (small group, 13–15, NR). For these young people, the possibility of having to leave their homes and communities permanently because of the impacts of climate change is already a reality. Conclusion The imagery associated with climate change globally—ice caps melting, coral bleaching, the increasing threat to natural flora and fauna, and so on—can often feel distant and removed from everyday life in the suburbs. The reality is, however, that climate change poses a very real threat to our daily lives, and this threat is felt keenly by the young participants of this study. Australian children and young people face the effects of climate change every day in their local suburbs and communities. Importantly, climate change affects them differently according to the landscape in which they live. Within the same state of New South Wales, at three separate locations within a 740km distance, children express specific climate-related challenges and concerns which differ greatly according to location. In Western Sydney, children fear rising temperatures, overcrowding, and losing access to essential resources. In the Hunter Valley, children fear destruction of the natural landscape, poor air quality, and uncertainty at a time of just transition. In the Northern Rivers region, children fear the ongoing impacts of devastating floods, including the destruction of infrastructure and the relocation and loss of their community. Australian children experience climate change differently according to the landscape in which they live, but they share a sense of despair about the destruction of land and loss of wellbeing. In addition to a commitment to global and national climate action, concrete location-based action that addresses specific local challenges will be essential to bolstering resilience to future climate change events.

Design of spatial PGIS-MCDA-based land assessment planning for identifying sustainable land-use adaptation priorities for climate change impacts

Climate effects on health in Small Islands Developing States

This review examines the complex relationship between tourism and climate change, focusing on global strategies for sustainable management and adaptation. By synthesizing recent literature, case studies, and policy analyses, the paper provides an in-depth exploration of the effects of climate change on tourism destinations and the methods employed to mitigate these impacts. Findings reveal that climate change is significantly altering tourism patterns, with rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and sea-level rise posing substantial challenges to popular destinations and local communities. Sustainable management practices, such as reducing carbon footprints, integrating sustainability into operations, and adopting renewable energy sources, are essential to addressing these impacts. Successful adaptation strategies include enhancing resilience through robust climate action plans, while mitigation efforts focus on reducing the sector's environmental footprint through innovative technologies and sustainable practices. Policy frameworks and technological innovations are shown to be critical in advancing sustainable tourism, with policies fostering collaborative efforts and technological advancements supporting efficient adaptation measures. This review concludes that a multifaceted approach encompassing sustainable management practices, adaptation strategies, and strong policy support is vital to addressing climate change in tourism. The study highlights the need for ongoing research and innovation to strengthen sustainability and resilience in response to evolving climate challenges.

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.

Christopher Wright and Daniel Nyberg Climate Change, Capitalism, and Corporations. Processes of Creative Self-Destruction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2015; 254 pp. 9781107435131, 21.99 [pounds sterling] (pbk). In December 2015 world leaders gathered to proclaim climate change was a threat that they were (finally) going to do something about. After two weeks of speeches and haggling, the deal was done, the world saved. Never mind that the text was silent on fossil fuels, and that in the following week the UK government expanded fracking, the US rescinded a forty year old ban on oil exports and Australia gave new permits for coal mines. Those are minor pesky details; corporate capitalism has the best interests of everyone--rich, poor, black, white, the unborn generations to come, other species--at heart. I jest, of course. Gallows humour is all one can muster after reading this excellent and alarming book, which clearly lays out the processes of creative self-destruction and the myths we choose to believe and propagate. The authors start as they mean to continue --on page one they state We are destroying ourselves. It is as simple as that. Economic growth and the exploitation of nature have long gone hand--in-hand, but they now constitute the most ill-fated of bedfellows. In line with the work of Naomi Klein (2014) (whom Wright interviewed on her recent Australian tour) they argue that 'the particular neoliberal variant of late capitalism that now dominates the global economy places humanity at a strategic disadvantage in responding to the threat of climate change' (p. 4), given its demand for ever-higher levels consumption. Wright and Nyberg are not however, misty-eyed hippies dreaming for a return to social democracy of the post-war period, but rather business professors with many years of research into the corporate world under their belts. Through nine chapters they set out their case, which involves 'revoking Schumpeter's concept of 'creative destruction' as a source of economic and social dynamism' and instead characterising 'the link between economic growth, corporate innovation, and environmental destruction as a process of 'creative self-destruction' in which economic expansion relies on the continued exploitation of natural resources' (p. 6). They give clear descriptions of climate change, corporate capitalism, the successful incorporation of mainstream environmental critique in the 80s and 90s via the win-win rhetoric of 'ecological modernisation' through the success of corporate political activity (coalition-building and doubt-mongering), to the present impasse. The book has many strengths. Its third chapter, on 'Climate change and the corporate construction of risk' would be a useful reading for undergraduates, as would the fifth chapter on 'justification, compromise and corruption, which uses the work of Boltanski and Thevenot (2006) on 'legitimate orders of worth' around to great effect. The same could be said of the eighth chapter, which skewers three myths--corporate environmentalism, corporate citizenship and corporate omnipotence. The empirical meat of the book, based on extensive interviews with 'sustainability managers' in large Australian corporations, is fascinating. The authors illustrate their main theoretical points, while also letting people speak for themselves. …

The role of migration as one potential adaptation to climate change is increasingly recognized, but little is known about whether migration constitutes successful adaptation, under what conditions, and for whom. Based on a review of emerging migration science, we propose that migration is a successful adaptation to climate change if it increases well-being, reduces inequality, and promotes sustainability. Well-being, equity, and sustainability represent entry points for identifying trade-offs within and across different social and temporal scales that could potentially undermine the success of migration as adaptation. We show that assessment of success at various scales requires the incorporation of consequences such as loss of population in migration source areas, climate risk in migration destination, and material and non-material flows and economic synergies between source and destination. These dynamics and evaluation criteria can help make migration visible and tractable to policy as an effective adaptation option.

This paper offers an in-depth sociological analysis of how the interplay of climatic factors, agricultural technologies and markets shapes smallholder livelihoods in Bangladesh to help sketch the outline for a sustainable agricultural adaptation strategy. It intends to question the technological optimism inherent in mainstream climate change policy discourse by highlighting the multiple sources of vulnerabilities of smallholder peasants in Bangladesh. Using findings from a qualitative study, it demonstrates how smallholders in Bangladesh currently experience climate change through their everyday agricultural practices, and how climate change along with the ecosystem destruction from modern farming technologies adversely affects their livelihoods. Drawing on the recent literature on sustainable adaptation, this paper argues that any agricultural adaptation strategy in Bangladesh must analyse the vulnerabilities of farming communities at the intersection of their geographically specific exposure to climatic threats, the extent of their market participation and the socioecological implications of their technology adoption. It concludes that an eventual departure from the current rice monoculture pivoted on chemical dependence and an excessive use of natural resources is the prerequisite for a sustainable agricultural adaptation.

Few regions of the world are at higher risk for environmental disasters than the Pacific Island countries and territories. During 2004 and 2005, the top public health leadership from 19 of 22 Pacific Island countries and territories convened 2 health summits with the goal of developing the world's first comprehensive regional strategy for sustainable disaster risk management as applied to public health emergencies. These summits followed on the objectives of the 1994 Barbados Plan of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and those of the subsequent Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World. The outputs of the 2004 and 2005 Pacific Health Summits for Sustainable Disaster Risk Management provide a detailed description of challenges and accomplishments of the Pacific Island health ministries, establish a Pacific plan of action based upon the principles of disaster risk management, and provide a locally derived, evidence-based approach for many climate change adaptation measures related to extreme weather events in the Pacific region. The declaration and outputs from these summits are offered here as a guide for developmental and humanitarian assistance in the region (and for other small-island developing states) and as a means for reducing the risk of adverse health effects resulting from climate change.

This chapter examines the existing social and health science literature addressing the psychological impacts of the threat of climate change. The exercise reflects a convergent environmental, social, and health psychology perspective, informed by those interdisciplinary bodies of work relating to the social construction and representation of environmental threat; psychosocial environmental impact assessment and monitoring; public and mental health; risk communication and perception; and disaster preparedness and response. Attention is also paid to public understandings of the phenomenon and threat of global climate change, and popular culture discourse and reflections about the psychological and mental health responses to and impacts of ‘climate change’. The chapter indirectly addresses the unfolding physical environmental impacts of climate change and corresponding psychological, social, and societal consequences, but the principal focus is on public exposure and response to the phenomenon of climate change through multimedia representations of this phenomenon and limited direct experience. The larger context of this chapter and the present coverage is the post–Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation, and the continuing neglect of the psychological, social, and cultural in research and policy considerations and initiatives addressing human and environmental quality, sustainability, and health. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of what psychology has contributed and can contribute in addressing psychological adaptation to the threat of climate change.

Since the mid-2000s, there have been debates on the issue of whether Defence should be involved in the fight against climate change. Many reports were issued by various actors among the American defence and security community (See CNA (2007) National Security and the threat of climate change. CNA Corporation, Alexandria). The CNA Military Advisory Board has issued three other reports on the link between energy and national security), eventually leading the US and the UK to identify climate change as a security issue in their respective security doctrines (US Department of Defence (2010) Quadriennal defence review (QDR) 2010. DOD, Washington, DC); UK Cabinet Office (2008) The national security strategy of the United Kingdom: security in an interdependent world; UK Government (2010) Securing Britain in an age of uncertainty: the strategic defence and security review). There was and still remains much defiance and mistrust from traditional actors in the climate change debate towards the defence and security community. Even after the subject was discussed within the UN (UN Secretary-General’s report on “Climate change and its possible security implications” (A/64/350), prepared in response to the request of member States, in UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 63/281 (2009)) and the European Union (2008 Paper from the High Representative and the European Commission to the European Council on climate change and international security (S133/08)), under the broad topic of the links between climate change and international security, the path for action and the possible role of Defence is not yet agreed upon. Climate negotiations are progressing slower than ever while the negative effects of climate change are already being felt around the world.

Purpose – This paper reviews published English literature on tourism adaptation to climate change. Climate change remains a challenge in the 21st centaury and beyond. Climate sensitive industries like tourism are vulnerable to climate change. It is for this reason that tourism researchers have continued to explore the relationship between tourism and climate change and further explored response strategies among tourism stakeholders. Tourism research on climate change adaptation may be traces way back in the 1960s. However, focused research on climate change and tourism has emerged in the last 15 years. Design – This review maps tourism adaptation knowledge domains between early 1960s and 2014. Methodology – This paper rely on secondary English published tourism literature to aid the review Findings – Findings indicate that tourism adaptation literature have advanced under five thematic areas prior 2010 to include: Business adaptation; Consumer adaptation, Destination Adaptation; adaptation Policy and; Frameworks for adaptation. However, after 2010 a new theme on ‘sustainable adaptation’ is tourism has emerged and it is gaining attention among tourism researchers Originality – The originality of this paper is that the paper is the first paper in tourism that has identified sustainable adaptation as a new emerging thematic area in tourism and climate change adaptation research. The paper notes an emergence of interest on sustainable adaptation knowledge domain despite lack of clarity on what is sustainable adaptation within tourism research. It is therefore important for researchers to amicably define the term sustainable adaptation to enable comparative studies and discourse in the area.

The ongoing threat of climate change poses an increasing risk to biodiversity, especially for currently threatened species. Climate change can both directly impact species and interact with other pre‐existing threats, such as habitat loss, to further amplify species' risk of extinction. Recognizing the threat of climate change in extinction risk assessments and recovery planning for imperilled species is essential for tailoring and prioritizing recovery actions for climate‐threatened species. Using species legally listed in Canada we show that 44.1% of species' risk assessments identify the threat of climate change, nonetheless, 43.5% of assessments completely omit climate change. Species assessed more recently were more likely to be identified as climate‐threatened, however, the strength of this relationship varied across taxonomic groups. The likelihood that climate change was identified as a threat was also strongly affected by the use of a standardized threat assessment process. Of the climate‐threatened species, less than half (46.0%) of species' recovery plans specified actions aimed explicitly at minimizing climate impacts and only 3.8% of recovery plans recommended habitat or population management actions. Climate‐targeted recovery actions were more likely to be included in more recent plans, and were marginally more likely for species where climate change was considered a major threat. Our findings highlight the urgent need for consistent and standardized assessments of the threat of climate change, including the consideration of potential synergies between climate change and other existing threats. Performing species‐specific climate change vulnerability assessments may serve to complement existing assessment and recovery planning processes. We provide additional recommendations aimed at threatened species recovery planners for improving the integration of the threat of climate change into species extinction risk assessments and recovery planning processes for listed species.