Ecological Crisis Research Articles

Visualising entangled Gaia in eco-dystopian graphic narratives Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and The Snake and the Lotus

ABSTRACT The Anthropocene epoch, characterised by human-induced ecological crisis and precarious future, calls for a paradigm shift in our popular narratives to re-evaluate our relationship with the earth (Gaia). Transcending conventional logocentric narratives, the paper aims to theorise eco-dystopias by dissecting the recurrent trope of entanglement prevalent in eco-dystopian graphic narratives, envisaging how it provides an apocalyptic counter-spectacle of nature. The paper focuses on two graphic narratives, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1995) by Hayao Miyazaki and The Snake and the Lotus (2018) by Appupen, to investigate their passionate plea to subvert instrumentalisation of nature and hierarchisation of humans over other species, towards garnering an ontological humility. By highlighting the agential understanding of nature, the narratives show how the porous and corporeal existence of human subjectivity smoothly permeates into the more-than-human world, thereby fostering a more (w)holistic understanding of our interconnectedness amongst various actants of Gaia. Furthermore, the paper showcases how eco-dystopias can best be captured in the framework of visual-verbal narratology and underscores the dialectical relationship between present and future (dystopias), word and picture (graphic narratives), and literature and environment (ecocriticism).

Latour's swan songs: Grappling with the ecological crisis

Latour's swan songs: Grappling with the ecological crisis

Simply the green: Urban refuges

Large refugia and small refuges have always been crucial for species survival, particularly during periods like the Ice Age. When their original habitats became uninhabitable, they provided important shelters in space and time. Drawing from a biological and philosophical perspective, we propose creating and preserving refuges as socio-ecological solutions in an epoch primarily shaped by human activity, the Anthropocene. Our focus lies on green refuges within urban settings, given that urbanization is one of the large drivers of insect decline and has adverse effects on humans, such as increased heat. Refuges can be beneficial for both biodiversity and human well-being.After clarifying the relevant terminology on four levels of abstraction, we conducted a systematic biological literature review - as a case study. Here, we summarize the current state of research on the effects of unmown refuges on insects and spiders. The mere existence of refuges proved beneficial for arthropods, with over 70 % of studies reporting positive responses among these species.While insects and spiders have specific habitat requirements, humans are able to create a habitable environment for themselves. However, ecological crises for humans and arthropods are increasing, as are human populations. Therefore, refuges offer a way to address both ecological and social challenges simultaneously, enhancing biodiversity and human well-being.

Repeated pulses of volcanism drove the end-Permian terrestrial crisis in northwest China

The Permo-Triassic mass extinction was linked to catastrophic environmental changes and large igneous province (LIP) volcanism. In addition to the widespread marine losses, the Permo–Triassic event was the most severe terrestrial ecological crisis in Earth’s history and the only known mass extinction among insects, but the cause of extinction on land remains unclear. In this study, high-resolution Hg concentration records and multiple-archive S-isotope analyses of sediments from the Junggar Basin (China) provide evidence of repeated pulses of volcanic-S (acid rain) and increased Hg loading culminating in a crisis of terrestrial biota in the Junggar Basin coeval with the interval of LIP emplacement. Minor S-isotope analyses are, however, inconsistent with total ozone layer collapse. Our data suggest that LIP volcanism repeatedly stressed end-Permian terrestrial environments in the ~300 kyr preceding the marine extinction locally via S-driven acidification and deposition of Hg, and globally via pulsed addition of CO2.

Considering Responsibilities: The Indonesian Government at the Intersect of Environmental Damage and Sustainable Development Goals

The purpose of this study is to investigate a pressing policy concern for the Indonesian government: environmental degradation. The study will focus on the law and its more advanced principles within the context of contemporary legal theory. Research methodology is known as yuridis normatif, which entails a focused examination of relevant documents to determine the relevant principles, standards, and guidelines, as well as theoretical frameworks and administrative regulations. The findings of this study suggest that governments should integrate environmental principles into environmental programs to avert ecological crises, update development policies to place equal emphasis on economic, social, cultural, and environmental factors, and reconstruct environmental law as a solution to environmental problems. The hope is that the research will contribute to a more thorough understanding of environmental law in the context of contemporary jurisprudence and shed light on pressing issues of government transparency and accountability in Indonesia. It is hoped that this research will provide a solid foundation for improving Indonesia's legal framework and legal practice to be more comprehensive and environmentally conscious.

Stefan Ouma's Farming As Financial Asset in the Broader Context of Imperialism and Ecological Crises

ABSTRACT: Stefan Ouma's Farming as Financial Asset: Global Finance and the Making of Institutional Landscapes is a valuable contribution to the study of the concrete workings of global finance in agriculture. Through case studies from Tanzania and Aotearoa New Zealand, Ouma's book sheds insight into topics as varied as the colonial history of finance in agriculture, the role of the state, the specific financial actors involved, the difficulties of investigating the specifics of financial investments, and much more. While not addressing the issue of contemporary imperialism, the book touches upon many related topics such as finance's role in furthering inequality, ecological sustainability, and land-driven conflicts. While the author's grasp of the nuances and details of finance-in-farming is commendable, none of the issues brought up by Ouma occur in a political black box but are also arguably parts of the global and complex phenomenon of ecological imperialism with bigger-picture connections that need deeper exploration and theorizing.

Environmental Degradation and its Metaphors in Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road’: A comparative study with other prominent Narratives

This research provides a comparative literary analysis focusing on Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" within the context of post-apocalyptic literature, emphasizing the novel's unique use of environmental degradation as a central theme. By contrasting McCarthy's work with other prominent narratives in the genre, the study explores the nuanced ways post-apocalyptic literature reflects and influences societal views on environmental issues. "The Road" is distinguished by its stark depiction of a desolate, ash-covered world and its profound exploration of survival's psychological and moral dimensions in the aftermath of an unspecified cataclysm. The analysis reveals McCarthy's subtle yet impactful use of environmental metaphors to delve into themes of hope, despair, human resilience, and the ethical dilemmas survivors face. Through this comparative approach, the research highlights McCarthy's contribution to the broader literary and cultural discourse on environmental degradation, positioning "The Road" as a pivotal work that enriches the genre by emphasizing the interplay between humanity and the natural world. The study underscores the importance of literature in fostering a deeper understanding of environmental stewardship and the urgent need for collective action in the face of ecological crises.

Do fintech, natural resources and globalization matter during ecological crises? A step towards ecological sustainability

The rate of biodiversity loss and forest depletion has surged significantly, primarily driven by the substantial increase in worldwide environmental deterioration. This alarming development is nearing the critical temperature limit of 2 °C, necessitating increased scrutiny. This study therefore adopts the Load Capacity Curve framework that amalgamates these concepts, offering a guide for implementing a robust and sustainable adaptation plan in the North African region. The research utilized data spanning from 1991 to 2022 and employed advanced quantitative methods, including quantile regression (QR), augmented mean group (AMG), and the Half-Panel Jackknife (HPJ) Wald-type test, to explore causality. The empirical findings challenge the notion of a U-shaped relationship between per capita GDP and ecological load capacity, revealing instead an inverted U-shaped pattern at the 25th and 50th quantiles. Additionally, the study identifies a negative and significant association between natural resource rents and globalization with the ecological load capacity factor, indicating a detrimental effect. On the other hand, Fintech demonstrates a statistically significant and positive impact on environmental sustainability, indicating a mitigating effect. Causality tests further reveal bidirectional causality between ecological load capacity and per capita GDP, GDP squared, and Fintech, while a unidirectional positive relationship exists between globalization and ecological load capacity. Based on these findings, the study puts forth several policy recommendations to support informed decision-making.

Staring out my window: Reflexivity and relationality in research in a Covid-19 world

In March 2020 I faced a research crisis. Like many PhD students, my project quickly fell apart and I was faced with writing a PhD on migration while stood still in London. In this article I explore the techniques I used to try to write about movement through conscious stasis and what this can tell us about the nature of fieldwork. I explore my attempts to answer these problems through experiments in autoethnography and communal storytelling. Both of these methods were attempts on my behalf to think through what it means to do ethical research in the face of a climate crisis and a pandemic. As such, I explore the ways in which using them changed my thinking not only about my project, but about the nature of research itself. I argue that moments of rupture such as COVID shine a light on the structuring of ‘normality’ in research. I write against a return to that normal. A normal that has justified extensive international travel in the face of a deepening ecological crisis, a normal that celebrated knowledge extraction and created material realities which governed ‘who’ the researcher could be.

Barakat Akinsiku’s views in The God of The Sea on Traditional and Modern Beliefs in Marine Ecosystems

This research aims to describe how African people’s traditional and modern beliefs in marine ecosystems as described by the author in The God of the Sea by Barakat Akinsiku (2021). This research uses ecocritical theory with descriptive-qualitative methods. The results show two differences in overcoming the marine ecological crisis: traditional belief is that they use rituals to stop flood disasters, and obtaining blessings such as the death of a baby whale is considered to fulfill people’s living needs. Furthermore, in modern belief, they use methods that educate the public about waste so that people become aware of the plastic waste that is scattered on the beach and sort out what should be recycled and what should not so that the death of a baby whale on the beach is not a blessing, but instead a disaster, the effects of the marine ecological crisis. Based on these two beliefs, the author wants to provide awareness to African governments, primarily to provide free education to African communities who live on coasts with deficient economic levels so that those who live on coasts understand the dangers of rubbish, which can damage marine ecosystems and can protect marine ecosystems for the common good.

James O 'Connor's Ecological Thought and its Practical Enlightenment

James O 'Connor's ecological thought was born in the middle and late 20th century. By using the unique theory of double contradiction and double crisis of capitalism, James O 'Connor revealed the global ecological crisis caused by the development of capitalism, outlined a new model of ecological socialism, and tried to find a feasible path to solve the global ecological crisis. To mitigate the adverse effects of the ecological crisis on the capitalist world. James O 'Connor's ecological thought has been widely discussed by the academic community since it was put forward. Subsequently, many scholars in the field of ecology have analyzed and studied James O 'Connor's thought. Through the organic combination with the current actual situation and practical experience, they began to apply James O 'Connor's ecological thought to the management of ecological problems. The construction of ecological civilization in our country is also developing continuously, and O 'Connor's ecological thought has a very positive enlightening and instructive significance to the construction of ecological civilization in our country.

Forum: At the crossroads – Critical perspectives on the study of climate security

This discussion forum brings together some of the leading voices in the debate on climate change and security to reflect on the possibilities and limits of critical research in the face of global ecological crises. If we – as critical geography, IR, and security scholars – take the ongoing ecological crisis seriously, how must our questions, concepts, and methodologies change? How, if at all, can security be provided in a climate-changed world, for and by whom? How to come to terms with the unequal landscape of climate insecurity? What is left of security, and what comes instead: mere survival, resilience, or navigating through disasters?Seeking answers to these questions, the authors of these short forum pieces discuss and rethink core concepts and themes of human geography and neighboring disciplines. The reflection pieces trouble the racist imaginaries that often underpin existing policy debates on climate change, scarcity, and insecurity. They discuss the implications of climate security for the liberal international order, North-South relations as well as the relationship between humans and the non-human world. They reflect on the complicity of our research – both critical and problem-solving – in the violent transformation of the planet and the repression of the racialized “others” of colonial modernity. And they explore the emancipatory potential of alternative security discourses that center on the complex web of beings, practices, and relations endangered by the unfolding climate crisis.

Reading the Agrarian, National, and Ecological Questions in Contemporary Kisan Politics in Pakistan

In the 2010s, the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) emerged in Punjab as a militant movement that brought together different fractions of agrarian producers against the IMF-proposed removal of electricity subsidies for agricultural tube wells. The article draws on fieldwork with the PKI in 2018–2019 to understand its trajectories since its contestation of one aspect of the agenda of structural reform. I argue that the analytical framework of “agrarian populism,” which has recently come back into use to understand agrarian politics, poses limitations in differentiating agrarian movements from each other. By focusing on how the PKI navigates the intersection between the agrarian, national, and ecological questions, the article shows how the movement has approached agrarian market reform, ecological crisis, and national development. Through this discussion, it undertakes a critical assessment of the PKI and situates it with longer histories of class differentiation, agrarian change, and ecological transformation.

When concrete was considered sustainable: ecological crisis, technological transition and the prefabricated concrete rural houses in Jiangsu Province from 1961 to the 1980s

This paper explores the creation, development, and dissemination of prefabricated concrete rural houses in Jiangsu Province in East China from 1961 to the 1980s, an example of the technological transition provoked by the depletion of forest and timber in China. Through archival research, fieldwork and interviews, the paper examines the two waves of design and dissemination of prefabricated concrete rural houses between 1961 and 1965 and their subsequent ‘vernacularisation’ in the 1970s and the 1980s. This research provides a twofold insight into the current scholarly debates surrounding built heritage and global climate change. On one hand, it addresses a historical context of concrete overuse in contemporary China, a matter of critical importance in relation to carbon emissions and global climate change. On the other hand, it offers a counter-argument to today's call for reintroducing timber structures in many places, as evidenced by the case of East China, where the widespread use of materials like concrete was primarily a consequence of the ecological crisis following decades of deforestation and timber resource depletion. In addition, the ‘vernacularisation’ of concrete structures manifested by this case still provides lessons for today’s efforts to popularise more eco-friendly construction materials and technologies, especially in rural areas, and the prefabricated concrete houses possess potential heritage values as trackers of ecological changes.

Theorizing epidemiology, the stories bodies tell, and embodied truths: a status update on contending 21st c CE epidemiological theories of disease distribution.

This critical review considers the status of 21st-century epidemiological theories of disease distribution, updating to 2024 prior analyses published up through 2014, and discusses the implications of these theories for research, practice, and pedagogy. Three key trends stand out: (a) the continued dominance of individualistic biomedical and lifestyle theories; (b) growth and elaboration of social epidemiological alternatives; and (c) the ongoing inattention to epidemiologic theories of disease distribution in the training of epidemiologists and public health professionals and in current efforts to improve the rigor of epidemiological research and causal inference. In a context of growing global political polarization, climate crisis, broader environmental and ecological crises, and stubbornly persistent health inequities within and between nations, producing actionable knowledge relevant to improving the people's health and advancing health justice will require much greater engagement with social epidemiologic theories of disease distribution in research, pedagogy, and practice. At issue is critically engaging with the embodied truths manifested in the stories bodies tell in population patterns of health, disease, and well-being.

Environmental sustainability, medical waste management, energy and medicine consumption of the surgical intensive care nurses: A qualitative study.

In intensive care units, it is noticeable that there is intensive use of resources in the treatment and care process, leading to a significant amount of waste generation. In addition, the demand for intensive care, increasing life expectancy and surgical interventions, complex comorbidities and ecological crisis make it necessary to make critical care more sustainable. To explore the perspectives of nurses working in surgical intensive care units regarding responsible medical waste management, energy and medication consumption. This qualitative descriptive study was conducted in surgical intensive care units of a university hospital in Turkey in November 2023. Twenty-three nurses filled in an introductory form and participated in a semi-structured interview. Data were analysed using inductive content analysis. Three main themes were determined: environmentally sustainable intensive care, prevention of waste in intensive care; responsible consumption and recycling; suggestions for institutional and individual behavioural change regarding environmental sustainability. The majority of nurses lack knowledge about sustainable development goals. However, in the intensive care unit, they provided effective and creative solutions for medical waste management, energy and medication consumption and individual and institutional behavioural change regarding environmental sustainability. Sustainability strategies should be created in institutions to ensure responsible medical waste management, energy and medicine consumption and reduce carbon footprint. In accordance with this purpose, 'Green teams' including unit-based doctors, nurses and paramedics should be established. Training should be provided and awareness should be raised to reduce energy use resulting from heating, lighting, ventilation and air conditioning.

Habits of affluence: unfeeling, enactivism and the ecological crisis of capitalism

AbstractIn this text, I discuss the role that a range of habits in affluent societies play in upholding as well as masking an unsustainable status quo. I show that enactivism, as a philosophical approach to the embodied and embedded mind, offers resources for bringing into focus and critically interrogating such habits of affluence and the environments enabling them. I do this in the context of a critical theory of the unfelt in society: the systematic production of lacunae of emotive concern in social collectives. The lack of proportionate affective and practical responses to the ecological crisis epitomizes this. The article starts with considerations on societal unfeeling, then reviews key elements of enactive approaches to habit, before a fuller picture of habits of affluence is developed, informed by Brand’s and Wissen’s concept of the imperial mode of living. Finally, two dimensions of habits of affluence are discussed in some detail, which will help flesh out a thematically expanded, politically engaged version of enactivism.

Hydro-Rugging as Reparative Caring Encounter: Re-Membering Southern Oceanic Hauntologies

ABSTRACT Expanding beach clean-ups to more than just removing plastic from the shoreline, citizens are invited to dwell with the ecological crisis and its intersectional entanglements of historical injustices related to the ocean, through a tactile mending practice using collected rubbish. Public story-doing (Rodricks, 2024) [Towards a (strategic) sensibility of unbelonging: Full participation revisited. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1–15] is initiated by generative dialogue enabled through the material call of the collected plastic which is re-membered and mended into the Mother Hydro-rug. This making-with thinking/theorising (Haraway, 2016 [Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press]; Manning, 2016 [The minor gesture. Duke University Press]) involves re-membering erased narratives that entangle people with the ocean. Hydro-rugging fosters reparative care practices within vulnerable communities through convivial organised events that bring together people, particularly Black and Brown bodies, together to share their memories of and with the ocean. Hydro-rugging embodies the importance of active listening and acknowledging emotions (Ahmed, 2004) [The cultural politics of emotion. University Press], engaging in a call and response with the very fabric of beach surroundings, be it the plastic or other more-than-human elements.

Epistemic Root of Ecological Crisis: Towards an Ecological Epistemology

Epistemic Root of Ecological Crisis: Towards an Ecological Epistemology

Interrelations between iron content and immune dysfunctions in frequently ill children of the Aral Sea Region

The widespread occurrence of immune-dependent diseases and disturbances in iron metabolism, as well as their co-occurrence and the impact of iron deficiency on the immune system, underscore the relevance of this study. Modern data also indicate the involvement of iron in regulating cytokine production and protein synthesis by lymphocytes. In addition to the age-related characteristics of the child’s immune system, a significant factor in the development of inadequate course of the infectious process is the disruption of immune system adaptation, which can be caused by frequent infections, other somatic diseases such as anemia, and environmental factors. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between iron levels and immune dysfunction in children with frequent acute respiratory diseases living in the Aral Sea region. A total of 127 children, who are native residents living at the epicenter of the ecological crisis, were examined. The children’s ages ranged from 1 to 5 years old. Among them, there were 105 frequently ill children (with 6 or more episodes of acute respiratory infections per year) with iron-deficiency anemia (IDA), and 22 healthy children of the same age. All children underwent clinical examination and standard laboratory tests, including complete blood count, relative content and ratio of T and B lymphocytes, as well as the levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-2 and 4) and ferritin in the serum. According to the results of the conducted research, it was found that among frequently ill children with iron-deficiency anemia (IDA), there is a moderate positive correlation between the relative quantity of T lymphocytes and the hemoglobin level (r = +0.62), as well as a strong positive correlation with the serum iron level (r = +0.78). This indicates a significant influence of iron deficiency on the level of cellular immunity. Clinical data also indicate a higher risk of respiratory infections development in children with IDA compared to the control group. Ferritin, hemoglobin, lymphocytes, and cytokines act as positive regulators of hematopoiesis in IDA conditions and contribute to the compensation of anemia during iron deficiency replenishment.