Military Sustainability – An Essay on Michael Klare’s All Hell Breaking Loose

Behavioral science approaches to promoting sustainable action have mainly focused on cognitive processes, whereas the role of emotions has received comparably little attention. However, emotions have a great but currently not fully exploited potential to contribute to a sustainable behavior change. In this perspective, we summarize recent research emphasizing the central and indispensable role of emotion in human thinking and judgment. We discuss how these insights can promote affective reactivity toward sustainability issues, help leverage the potential of emotion to motivate action, and improve emotional climate change communication and intervention strategies. We outline a research agenda that we see as crucial for obtaining a solid evidence base on how emotions can optimally promote sustainable behavior. This paper is meant to stimulate discussion and a coordinated research effort on how emotions may be better leveraged to promote large-scale sustainable action and to promote a stronger integration of emotional strategies into the toolbox of policy makers.

Chapter Two defines the grounds of climate justice. Defining the grounds of justice is a key task for any climate justice account because it allows readers to understand what must be normatively prioritised. The grounds of justice in this sense represent the moral underpinnings of the climate justice account, a normative subfloor that must not be crossed. The chapter makes the case for using the human right to health as the non-relational moral minimum that grounds the climate justice position. Chapter Two puts forward that the human right to health provides a strong foundation for a climate justice because it captures the threats climate change poses to humans more comprehensively than other key human rights, including the right to food and water, the right to life, and the right to free movement.

Preface

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is charged with missions to provide engineering services to protect more than 12 million acres of public lands, more than 900 ports and harbors, nearly 14,000 miles of levees and 12,000 miles of commercial inland waterways, and 400 miles of coastal shoreline. In addition, USACE provides roughly 3% of the nation's electrical power from hydroelectric plants at its dams, and has a key, first-responder role in times of national emergencies. Nearly all of these missions are at some risk from potential effects of future climate and other global changes. Over the last several years, USACE has been surveying the vulnerability and resilience of its installed infrastructure and of the water and land resources it manages for the Nation to characterize their potential for climate change adaptation measures. The goal of this work is to produce the practical, nationally consistent, and cost-effective measures that will reduce vulnerabilities and enhance resilience for sustaining our ability to meet our mission requirements and objectives under the conditions of future global change. In addition, climate change adaptation measures will be designed, engineered, and implemented while USACE also addresses the additional requirements of increased energy sustainability and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. USACE coordinates and integrates its climate change adaptation work through its Adaptation Steering Committee, having senior leader representation from USACE mission areas and its Major Subordinate Commands, and chaired by the USACE Chief of Engineering and Construction. The approach USACE is taking is to work in close cooperation with other Federal agencies, both directly and through the multi-agency adaptation efforts coordinated by two US White House offices, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). This approach of active cooperation with stakeholders and other Federal agencies having responsibilities for managing water- and land-resources helps ensure that the adaptation policies and guidance USACE produces can be based on the best science and engineering knowledge that can be used to support action on climate change adaptation and mitigation. This approach also gives USACE the capacity for phased implementation, continuing monitoring for surprise, and quick adjustment as knowledge or physical facts on the ground change in the future. This talk highlights several of USACE's climate change adaptation efforts, including, among others:Development of new guidance, produced together with other US Federal agencies including USGS and NOAA, to institute a nationwide, consistent vertical datum and comprehensive evaluations of all relevant USACE project elevations to ensure that heights of projects (levees, dams, jetties, etc.) are known accurately and precisely against current sea levels and for tracking sea level changes.Development of Engineering Circular 1165–2–211 (2009) on sea-level change, and the current development of a new Civil Works Technical Letter based on that Circular for guidance to USACE operations on questions of responses to sea-level change at vulnerable projects.A series of adaptation pilot studies at USACE projects for examining issues and testing methods and techniques for analysis of present and future climate change and possible adaptation strategies and engineering responses; these studies range from coastal and environmental projects to in-land hydrology and reservoir sedimentation questions.Findings from some recent multi-agency reports which USACE co-led, "Climate Change and Water Resources Management: A Federal Perspective" (USGS Circular 1331, produced in 2009), and " Addressing Climate Change in Long-term Water Resou

<p>Farmers manage 88% of Wales’ land area, maintaining and enhancing the natural environment for aesthetic enjoyment and wellbeing of the wider population. Their provision of ecosystem services ranges from habitat creation and management to water storage to reduce flood impacts and carbon capture. The benefits of sustainable farming in the UK have gained particular relevance as climate change is expected to increase summer storm intensity and temperature, with increased sediment runoff and reduced river water quality. To improve understanding of Welsh farmers’ perspectives on sustainable farming actions and develop targeted information delivery, we discussed decision-making processes towards sustainable farming actions and suggestions for the future of Welsh farming with farmers in three catchments (Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, and Anglesey).  Outputs presenting information on sustainable farming actions were revised following participant feedback, with revisions including watercolour drawings of Welsh farmland with sustainable farming actions, which demonstrated implementation in the Welsh landscape without identifying specific sites. A broader understanding of the tensions experienced by farmers coping with climate change and economic pressures as understood through discussion with farmer-participants was communicated through a mosaic sculpture ‘The Farmer’s Voice,’ which was co-designed with farmers and scientists, together with a professional artist, including incorporation of anonymised phrases from participants in Welsh and English. An initial series of possible designs was created following initial interviews, and the final design was chosen after consultation with farmer-participants. Anonymised feedback on sustainable farming and climate change from further workshops was used to inform more detailed technical drawings. In particular, the role of design and management of tree planting schemes and the historic role of farmers in caring for the environment through coppicing and hedgerow maintenance emerged as significant themes during the project. Technical drawings were approved by farmer-participants, who also suggested inclusion of phrases in Welsh and English. The final sculpture, co-designed in partnership with farmers, scientists, and a professional artist, was created from copper wire, recycled glass, and Welsh slate, representing an abstract tree demonstrating farmer resilience through and need for support and nourishment in the face of climate change. The sculpture will be exhibited at the Royal Welsh Show 2022.</p>

A growing number of policymakers around the world have recognized climate change as an escalating security threat and increasingly point to the climate change—terrorism nexus in particular. This critical literature review provides an analysis of the current state of research on the causal and correlative links between climate change, intermediary factors—such as resource scarcity, loss of economic opportunities, and instability—and terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa. Moving beyond a review of substantive themes within the existing body of scholarly research examining this topic, this article critically evaluates the theories, assumptions, and methods behind the literature. In doing so, the review identifies noteworthy trends, as well as gaps and shortcomings in the current research. Our review finds that the majority of the literature has observed a positive correlation between climate change and terrorism. More precisely, the current body of research overwhelmingly assesses that climate change indirectly leads to terrorism via its impact on conditions often considered to be drivers of terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa. Still, gaps remain in empirically backing up these assertions and examining the relationship between climate change, intermediary factors, and terrorism in more depth. We use our critical review and analysis to guide recommendations for further research into this emerging and timely field of study.

The climate emergency is an existential threat to human health and environmental sustainability. Recent climate-induced events, such as Australia’s catastrophic bushfires of 2019–2020 and floods of 2022, demonstrate the impacts of the climate crisis on physical and mental health of populations. Using a cross-sectional online survey (N = 5483), we examine how Australians are coping with climate change impacts on mental health. The survey included qualitative questions (open-ended comment boxes and ‘other’ spaces throughout the survey) and quantitative questions (e.g., Likert and bipolar scales) on demographics and the mental health impacts of climate change, environmental behaviour engagement (EBE), and mental health help-seeking (MHHS). Australians are using a range of individual and collective coping strategies to help cope with climate change problems, experiences, and anxiety. They have developed a range of coping strategies including contact with nature, taking sustainability actions, practicing problem-focused and meaning-focused coping, and mental health help-seeking, that need to be understood and reinforced by health professionals. Our findings also highlight a link between direct experience of a climate change event and participants’ EBE and MHHS. We recommend assessment processes and green prescribing as a sustainability action intervention framework that health professionals can offer as a response to ongoing community concern about climate change.

Lessons for climate policy from behavioral biases towards COVID-19 and climate change risks

Tom Philpott is the food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones. In Perilous Bounty he focuses on what he sees as the agricultural sustainability crisis in two essential production areas—California, and Iowa, which stands as a proxy for the Corn Belt as a whole.California's Central, San Joaquin, Imperial, and Salinas Valleys are the country's year-round primary sources of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as almonds and pistachios. The ability of farmers in those valleys to produce for domestic consumption, as well as for export, is increasingly compromised by water shortages. California farmers' dependence on mountain snows to fill the reservoirs that provide their annual allocations has been sorely tested over the past decade, during which the state has been more or less continually in drought conditions. Making matters worse is the shift among some farmers out of row crops and into nuts, especially almonds and pistachios. Both are thirsty crops, especially almonds, which require nearly two thousand gallons of water to produce one pound of nuts.California farmers have coped with the water shortage by improving irrigation technologies and by tapping aquifers when they are available. But drawing aquifers down has brought a new set of problems. One is subsidence. As groundwater is taken, land on the surface slumps away, causing problems with the built environment, including existing aqueducts. The other problem is salinization. As aquifers are depleted the water that remains holds higher concentrations of minerals, including salts. Philpott notes that the increasing popularity of pistachios among farmers is due in large part to that crop's high tolerance for salt. Not that this shift is due solely to farmers' decisions. The Wonderful Company controls half a million acres of nut trees and provides a ready market for smaller farmers' almonds and pistachios.Just when he has you thinking that California is about to dry up and blow away, Philpott raises another—if possible, much more alarming—possibility, that there might be a repeat of the catastrophic 1862 flood. That year, weeks of heavy rains turned the Central Valley into a lake six or more feet deep, driving settlers from their homes and killing tens of thousands of cattle. Today 6.5 million people live in the Central Valley, and the wetlands that helped prevent the 1862 flood from being even worse have been drained. A repeat of that flood would be the most devastating natural disaster in American history.Then there's Iowa and the larger Corn Belt it represents. As Philpott notes, Iowa farmers used to raise a mix of crops, especially corn, and animals, especially hogs. For the first century of Iowa's European-American history they usually included a cover crop, too, such as hay, rye, or oats. The hogs ate the corn, the cover crops held the soil in place, and the manure generated on the farm maintained the fertility of the fields. Now most of this has changed, and the change, Philpott argues, has not been for the better. Today the vast majority of hogs are raised in massive confinement facilities that foul the water and the air. Farmers buy their fertilizers in chemical form from off-farm sources. They now grow little, if anything, but corn and soybeans, becoming what my Iowa friends used to call “CBF” farmers, for “corn, beans, and Florida.”Philpott contends that farmers have not benefited from this change. They are on an agricultural treadmill, producing more and more on bigger and bigger farms to remain in the same place economically. They won't change because of fear, government programs that encourage them to grow the same crops, investment in machinery and skills that are crop specific, and because the processing and marketing structure for alternative crops is not available. Helping them stay in their position are the people who gain most of the benefits—suppliers of inputs like Deere and Monsanto and processors like Cargill and JBS.The farmers' situation is bad enough, but the impact of modern Corn Belt farming on the environment may be even worse. Uncovered fields are vulnerable to erosion when late winter and early spring downpours come, and as valuable topsoil enters ditches and streams it carries agricultural chemicals—especially nitrogen—with it. Nitrogen fouls aquifers and local water systems, creates or exacerbates algae blooms in local lakes and ponds, and, if it enters the Mississippi River drainage system, some of it will end up contributing to the growing “dead zone” of blooming algae in the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the river.When he moves from problems to solutions, Philpott takes a moderate approach, though his cures for the sustainability crisis will be difficult to achieve. For California, Philpott has hopes for the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which will be fully implemented in 2040 and will empower the state to control groundwater exploitation. He urges that production of especially thirsty crops be scaled back, and that growers focus on satisfying local markets. He argues that this would encourage farmers elsewhere to grow fruits and vegetables. Certainly, fresh produce comes from Florida, but not enough to meet consumer demands. There was a time when fruits and vegetables were widely grown in the Upper Midwest and canned there. But we have become accustomed to fresh produce year-round, and changing that would require a reacceptance of seasonality on the part of consumers.There is another possible answer to the problem of water in western agriculture that is being implemented right now—move the water from the countryside to the cities, doing away entirely with agriculture as it is now practiced in much of the West. In Colorado, which, like California, is a “first in time, first in right” state in regard to water, fast-growing municipalities are buying water rights from farmers, who then rent their land out for dryland farming or grazing. The city of Aurora, for example, has been buying water rights from farmers in the Arkansas Valley, nearly two hundred miles away!Philpott's prescription for Iowa agriculture mostly involves a shift away from the exclusive emphasis on corn and soybeans, including ending federal programs encouraging these crops, especially the ethanol program. He thinks that Iowa farmers should include cover crops in their rotation, which would hold soil and water, diminish the need for nitrogen fertilizers, and facilitate carbon capture. He also believes they should return to raising hogs and cattle, thereby reducing the environmental and aesthetic curse of massive confinement facilities while providing natural nitrogen fertilization.These steps would undoubtedly improve the sustainability of Corn Belt agriculture by diversifying it and diminishing erosion while lowering chemical costs. Local nonfarmers would benefit from fewer floods and lakes and rivers less fouled by chemicals. But the execution would be a problem. As the ethanol program demonstrates, the closest thing to eternal life in modern America is the federal farm program, and eliminating any part of it is devilishly difficult. Getting farmers to change their ways is no snap either. Introducing cover crops on land where they have not been grown for a couple of generations will entail a new learning curve for farmers, and perhaps new expenses for equipment. Reintroducing animals would probably be the heaviest lift. Animals require a lot of attention that Iowa farmers, accustomed to less-demanding crops, might not be prepared to give.Ever since I have been involved in this enterprise, the sustainability of the American agricultural regime has been in serious doubt. Some of the factors many believed would doom it—such as running out of petroleum—have disappeared. Some of the suggestions that were offered to reform it, such as organic production and the consumption of local foods, have had effects that we see in our supermarkets and farmers' markets. But the question of the sustainability of most agricultural production in this country remains with us. Indeed, it is probably more immediate now than it has ever been.The increasing immediacy of climate change exacerbates the problem of agricultural sustainability, as the drought in California and the heavier spring rains in Iowa illustrate. The sustainability crisis and the climate change crisis are also linked by the reality that both are slow-moving crises, with no Pearl Harbor or 9/11 moment that would galvanize the public to demand and support action. As I write this review, the western drought is in yet another year, the fire season has started earlier, as seems to happen every year now, heat in the Northwest has been so intense that millions of shellfish have perished along the coast, and Lake Mead is so low that power generation has been compromised. Here in my state a 120-mile stretch of the Colorado River has been closed to fishermen owing to low flows and high temperatures that have stressed the trout.But by the time you read this review, it will be cooler, the fires will be under control, and we will probably have had fall and winter moisture. Climate change will fade as a pressing public concern. We'll be moving on with our lives, hoping that this summer will be wetter and cooler. Likewise, the grocery shelves will be stocked, the meat counter will be full, and the array of fresh fruits and vegetables we expect will be abundant. There will be nothing to lead us to expect that an agricultural sustainability crisis looms. The lack of immediacy of the threats that loom before us prevents us from giving them the sustained attention they demand, and until we are unable to maintain the diet to which we have become accustomed, we are unlikely to make the changes that might sustain us, even changes as mild and commonsensical as Philpott suggests.Tom Philpott is a journalist, and, as one would expect, he writes well, though sometimes more self-referentially than I would prefer. He has a story to tell, not a totally new story, to be sure, but one deserving the attention of readers of Agricultural History. It will repay the time you devote to it.

Sustaining Nothing: Untranslatable Material in Beckett's <i>Worstward Ho</i>

This study investigates the impact of the Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) model in empowering youth for sustainable climate actions in Tanzania where climate change poses significant threats to vulnerable communities dependent on agriculture and natural resources [1]. To address the impacts of climate changes in the rural communities in Handeni, and Korogwe districts in Tanga region of Tanzania World Vision implemented Sustainable Accountability Uniting Tanzanian and Irish Youth (SAUTI-Youth) project which used the Citizen Voice Action (CVA) model. This study investigates impacts of CVA model in empowering youths for sustainable climate actions examining its effectiveness, sustainability, and application. A qualitative design approach used to conduct Focus Groups Discussions (FGDs) in 2023. Results indicate that the CVA model has proven to be a powerful tool for empowering communities. The study found an increased community awareness and participation in implementation of various climate-friendly projects, including climate smart agriculture, planting of 10,000 trees, restoration of 5 hectares of land, and improved water access for 14,500 households. CVA initiatives improved livelihoods, resilience, and reduced vulnerability to climate change impacts in the project sites. Partnerships between government, civil societies, and NGOs were key. Capacity building and creating enabling environment policy found to be essential for scaling up CVA initiatives and ensuring their long-term sustainability. Unlike traditional top-down approaches, the model empowered communities to take ownership of climate actions, leading to impactful solutions. The model empowered communities in decision-making processes, scaling up capacity building, and implementation. It was found that the CVA model ensured that solutions are tailored to local needs and priorities, increasing relevance and sustainability. Limited resources, capacity constraints, and institutional barriers hindered the full potential of CVA. The study recommends CVA as a valuable tool for tackling climate change in both rural and urban contexts.

This library research aims to: 1) explore the ethical aspects of the environment in climate change events, 2) map the moral values and philosophy of religion in climate change actions, 3) integrate the ethical, moral and philosophical aspects of religion by presenting new knowledge in sustainability actions. In this study, there are three concepts of environmental ethics, namely, the anthropocentric view, ecocentrism view, and religious, moral view. The anthropocentric view makes humans own and control natural resources exploitatively. The ecocentrism view places humans and the universe connected in a web of life. Moral religion sees problems born from human consciousness caused by sin and holiness. The way to solve the problems is to follow the “middle way,” which advocates simplicity in consumption and the fulfillment of basic human needs. This approach builds a new order by combining the application of technology, law, and global ethics from an anthropocentric perspective—the ecocentrism view with everything having an intrinsic value. For example, the practice of intelligence and meditation uses religious, moral values for sustainable actions. Such as with the experience of various Islamic religion-based organizations in Indonesia.

The conventions and ratifications made by the United Nations (UN) have a long history. They were well respected for their ability to unite the world’s countries on some issues. The paradigm transformation of UN ratifications to combine both business models and social justice has received both positive and negative responses. While adherents argue that such a transformation is fundamental to boost economic development, opponents assert that the ‘so-called paradigm transformation’ has benefited the West by victimising the East, which has essentially complicated the global ‘sustainability crisis’. This also hinders executing the ESD (education for sustainable development) concept, especially in developing countries. The concept of ‘sustainable development’ is now the main agenda item of UN conventions. COP21 (United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015, otherwise known as the 21st Conference of the Parties), is an example of the UN’s seriousness in addressing the ‘global sustainability crisis’. GATT and GATS are the international policies that are, respectively, the ‘causer’ and ‘developer’ of the private university sector in emerging market economies. Critics claim that this expanding sector generates an urban sustainability crisis. This study examined the effect of private universities’ expansion on urban sustainability, using a qualitative method for assessing primary and secondary data. The indices for night light intensity, heat and greenery served as the essential parameters to calculate the sustainability crisis. Results indicate that while the greenery index has fallen significantly, night light and heat indices have unexpectedly increased, which correlate with the development and expansion of the private university sector. To respond to COP21, a ‘carbon neutrality’ policy framework for the sector is suggested in an effort to control the sustainability crisis.

Societal Impact StatementPlanting trees is considered an effective method for climate change adaptation and mitigation. This framework provides a replicable blueprint to improve health, urban heat, flooding, and air pollution via a multisectoral, collaborative, environmental data‐driven approach. Native tree species with targeted ecosystem services are selected, and sites are strategically identified based on environmental and health benefits, with the intent of engaging community involvement through education and large‐scale tree plantings. Including non‐traditional partners in the framework provides heightened awareness of the relationship between climate change and health, thus catalyzing decision‐making regarding sustainable actions that reduce effects of climate change. This native tree planting framework is highly adaptable in other cities.Summary A multidisciplinary framework is presented for a data‐driven, climate change adaptation and climate change and air pollution mitigation project. This framework leverages heightened awareness of the connections between climate change, air pollution, and health to expand the cadre and societal impacts of those working to intervene in resilience planning and implementation. The framework, implemented in Houston, Texas, USA, beginning in 2019, consists of three parts: (1) identification of optimal native tree species for climate change adaptations and air pollution mitigation around variables important locally; (2) selection of large‐scale native tree planting locations where populations are already disproportionately experiencing flooding, increased heat, and air pollution‐related health effects that could be further exacerbated from climate change; and (3) engagement of multisectoral leadership broadened beyond those traditionally working on climate change resilience through heightening awareness of the link to human health. Native tree species were identified that had the highest combination of absorption of carbon dioxide, other air pollutants, and water absorption (aiding in flood adaptation and air pollution/heat mitigation). Thousands of the top tree species were planted in locations that experience substantial flooding during large rain events, have high rates of health effects exacerbated by air pollution (e.g., cardiac arrest and asthma attacks), and experience multiple days of elevated heat and air pollution. This multidisciplinary framework addresses a critical need to provide interventions accessible to the community; educate on the connection between climate change adaptation, air pollution mitigation, and health; and foster multisectoral leadership to accelerate local resilience actions.

Education, including school education, is integral to just responses to global climate change and sustainability crises. Increasingly, national and international surveys seek to assess the ‘climate literacy' of young people, including as a mechanism to measure the effectiveness of national education systems for preparing young people. However, these surveys generally ask young people to identify accurate knowledge from a series of definitions, rather than exploring their understanding through open questions. This research analyses 2051 survey responses from students aged 11-14 years in England to the question ‘What is climate change? Climate change is …’. Just over half (52.5%) provided responses which broadly included ideas of change or harm to the environment and/or Earth systems, all with reference to temperature. We argue that for young people to develop a lasting and multi-dimensional understanding of climate change, climate change education must extend beyond a narrow focus on geography and science to include a greater range of disciplinary perspectives. Further, we consider whether the global movement towards the measurement of climate literacy through surveys risks underscoring a narrow, predominantly science-based understanding of climate literacy, and away from holistic conceptualisations which attend to affective dimensions, and ideas of justice and equity.