Ecological Crisis Research Articles

Do we Need a ‘New Strategy Paradigm’? No

AbstractBansal et al.'s Point piece, "Strategy's Ecological Fallacy: How strategy scholars have contributed to the ecological crisis and what we can do about it," calls for reforming the strategy field to focus on the natural environment, ecological cycles, and interconnections across natural and social levels, in service of value creation for ‘a defined ecosystem that comprises respect for the natural environment’. We doubt that such new foundations are necessary or useful. We argue that Bansal et al. misconstrue the evolution and content of strategy thinking; downplay the usefulness of existing tools for dealing with their issues of concern; overlook problems of measurement, collective action, government failure, and cronyism encouraged by their preferred policies; embrace an unnecessarily alarmist worldview; and underappreciate the social benefits of the market‐based institutions they criticize. We suggest instead that a market system based on clearly delineated property rights, prices that freely adjust to reflect scarcities, and an institutional environment that encourages entrepreneurship and innovation remains an underappreciated instrument for protection of the natural environment, one that is superior to centralized and regulatory alternatives.

Earth Care: Some Reflections about Our Unsettling Situation

The blame appended to anthropocentric leanings of traditional Christian thought for our ecological woes challenged me to do a reality check of our context and religious education’s offering for an ailing world. I begin by looking at our ecological crises in the Philippines and searching for glimmers of hope from young Filipino environmental attitudes, ecological initiatives of NGOs, and government and academic engagements of Filipino religious educators. I draw inspiration from the growing sentiments and collective anxiety of people relative to our environmental issues. What earth care initiatives can religious education promote in response to the universal call for climate justice?

Optimizing The Karang Mumus River School (SeSuKaMu) as An Innovation to Revitalize the River

The condition of the Karang Mumus River has been decreased from the water quality and physical condition of the river This situation has become the main focus of the government in an effort to restore the function and environment of the river as a source of meeting water needs in East Kalimantan. Community service activities aim to provide examples to the community through activities to restore the area around the river by sowing tree seeds that will be planted along the riverbanks with the Karang Mumus River Trash Pickup Movement Community which initiated the movement to save the river from ecological crisis. The method of approach is observation by discussing and interviewing information from environmental activists about SeSuKaMu, then analyzed descriptively. Community service activities such as the SeSuKaMu reforestation restoration carried out by the Community Service Team of the FISIP UNMUL Bachelor of Public Administration Study Program together with community resulted in outcomes in the form of the formation of environmental awareness and increasing community education on the importance of river conservation through activities to reforest the riverbank area and sowing tree seeds.

Scratches on the wall: racial capitalism, climate finance and Pacific Islands

ABSTRACT Critique surrounding climate finance is mounting against a backdrop of an escalating ecological crisis manifesting unequally across the globe. This paper uses learnings from racial capitalism to unpack the modalities of climate finance, using the Pacific region as an illustrative case. It argues that racial capitalism is enacted through modalities of climate finance, in part, by the erection of walls. One type of wall enacted by climate finance is epistemic: its definitions place it as the inherent object of Northern interventions. Moreover, financial walls are maintained through debt in climate finance, creating borders of deprivation through ongoing practices of indebting already burdened regions. The paper also highlights the way borders can manifest through regulation, in particular, through climate funds delineating arduous benchmarks of already burdened states. These walls contribute to the racialized process of creating ‘sacrifice zones’: places that have borne the cost of benefits accrued elsewhere, left without in a state of depletion. The paper explores the material futures that are being enacted by these modalities of climate finance through the case of climate migration. Yet these dystopian futures must not be taken for granted, rather, the walls which separate climate affected communities from hopeful futures must be dismantled.

Global Governance for Personalized Medicine, Politics of Uncertainty, and Pierre Bourdieu.

How we choose to respond to uncertainty matters for robust and responsible science. New laws and consensus reports are popular instruments for global governance of emerging technology and attendant uncertainty. However, the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu noted that "[t]he judicial situation operates like a neutral space that neutralizes the stakes in any conflict through the de-realization and distancing implicit in the conversion of a direct struggle between parties into a dialogue between mediators." Put in other words, while law and legal modes of reasoning are certainly useful for conflict resolution and closure, their overprivileging in emerging technology and uncertainty governance can potentially bring about depoliticization by transforming the struggles and dissent necessary for democratic governance into a "dialogue between mediators." Hence, the critical sociological gaze offered by Bourdieu is particularly relevant for democratization of global governance of multiomics technologies and timely with the current uptake of personalized medicine. For example, in May 2023, the Romanian government introduced a law to give patients the right to personalized medicine. Personalized medicine is related to the larger umbrella concept and field of theranostics, the fusion of therapeutics and diagnostics. It is therefore timely to reflect on a "right for theranostics in planetary health," considering the potential for future pandemics and ecological crises in the 21st century. Rather than forcing consensus or convergence in an innovation ecosystem, dissent grounded in rigorous political theory, sociology of law and critical legal studies can strengthen democratization and global governance for personalized medicine and multiomics technologies.

A crisis of moral ecology: Magar agro-pastoralism in Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, Nepal

Prior political ecology studies have explored the vulnerability of pastoralism and conflicts between protected areas and pastoralist livelihoods. Some conservation regimes regard Indigenous pastoralists’ institutions, knowledge, self-governance and self-determination as incompatible with contemporary conservation on the grounds that the associated practices are unsustainable. Based on critical ethnography, this paper examines the moral ecology of Indigenous Magar agro-pastoralism in the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve of mid-western Nepal. Traditional Magar management is in crisis due to reserve policies and practices. From a political ecology perspective, I show that the traditional moral ecology of agro-pastoralism sustains complex relationships with the rangelands. Traditional institutions uphold a moral ecology that is deeply rooted in spiritual practices and fosters a sense of responsibility for the preservation of biodiversity and nature. Current conservation policies inadequately recognise these Indigenous moral principles and weaken harmonious socio-ecological relations. In order to manage protected areas sustainably in high-altitude regions, it is crucial to manage agro-pastoralism within the framework of traditional moral ecology through Indigenous peoples’ self-governance and self-determination.

To conserve African tropical forests, invest in the protection of its most endangered group of monkeys, red colobus

AbstractForest loss and overhunting are eroding African tropical biodiversity and threatening local human food security, livelihoods, and health. Emblematic of this ecological crisis is Africa's most endangered group of monkeys, the red colobus (genus Piliocolobus). All 17 species, found in forests from Senegal in the west to the Zanzibar archipelago in the east, are threatened with extinction. Red colobus are among the most vulnerable mammals to gun hunting, typically disappearing from heavily hunted forests before most other large‐bodied animals. Despite their conservation status, they are rarely a focus of conservation attention and continue to be understudied. However, red colobus can act as critical barometers of forest health and serve as flagships for catalyzing broader African tropical forest conservation efforts. We offer a plan for conservation of red colobus and their habitats and discuss conservation and policy implications.

Green Infrastructure Fluctuations in Urban Agglomeration of Shanxi Province, China: Implications for Controlling Ecological Crises

The rapid urbanization process means that even moderate-sized cities can quickly become part of larger urban agglomerations, creating new urban zones. Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) plays a crucial role in these clusters, acting as precious green spaces essential for maintaining ecological safety. This study combines fluctuation analysis based on Morphological Spatial Pattern with traditional landscape pattern analysis, comprehensively addressing the evolution of UGI in terms of quantity, characteristics, and morphology. We selected the Taiyuan-Jinzhong agglomeration as our study area, which is currently in an agglomeration process. The results demonstrated the critical role of surrounding mountains as natural ecological barrier zones. During urban agglomeration, management strategies focused on large-scale afforestation to ensure the quantity of UGI. However, this approach also led to a more clustered landscape with reduced connectivity. Additionally, linear or small-scale UGI types such as branch and islet have seen reductions over the past decade. Changes in internal morphological and complex fluctuations within UGI can harm the formation of ecological networks and potentially negatively affect biodiversity and ecological safety. The research highlights how ecological protection and urban planning policies can influence UGI fluctuations. Therefore, urban managers should not just concentrate on maintaining the quantity of UGI, but also give consideration to changes in its internal features and morphology. Before cities further agglomerate into larger urban clusters, it is crucial to address deficiencies in UGI, continuously improving type configurations and functional structures at the landscape scale. Through strategic planning of UGI, cities can mitigate ecological risks and foster sustainable urban development.

Becoming an Active Subject: Women's Art Collective Eco-Artivism for Ecological Sustainability in Indonesia

Becoming an Active Subject: Women's Art Collective Eco-Artivism for Ecological Sustainability in Indonesia

Ian Fleming Introduces Jamaican Plants: Gardens, Plantations, and Natural Threats in <em>Dr. No</em> and <em>The Man with the Golden Gun</em>

Ian Fleming’s Dr. No (1958) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1965) – published before and after Jamaican independence in 1962 – each connect the botanical concerns of the island of Jamaica to its colonial past. This article takes a plant humanities approach to these novels, to reveal that Fleming’s interest in Jamaican flora and fauna is inseparable from his interaction with Jamaica as a colony and his reaction to independence. Fleming’s description of Jamaica in Dr. No opens that novel, focusing on the trees and flowers from the Hope Botanical Gardens bordering the beautiful English lawns of Kingston’s wealthiest homes. The gardens at Hope were just one of the colonial botanic gardens in Jamaica established in the nineteenth century by the British government to exploit the island by improving its agricultural industries. Bond’s encounter with a basket of poisoned, glasshouse-grown tropical fruit in Dr. No is a precursor to another threat disguised by a natural product: guano, a garden fertiliser front for Dr No’s operation at Crab Key, while the scale of the threat posed by Scaramanga’s burning of sugar plantations in The Man with the Golden Gun emphasises the dependence of Jamaica’s economic security on agricultural plants. As this article will argue, Fleming’s interaction with plants demands more attention within Bond scholarship, as a way of engaging a new readership with the breadth of his work in a time of ecological crisis.

When enough is enough: Introducing sufficiency corridors to put techno-economism in its place

Today's ecological crises are entwined with inequality dynamics, yet prevailing techno-economic approaches in climate research and policy fall short in addressing the ecological crisis as distributional crisis. Recognising the limitations of techno-economism, focused on markets (price adjustments) and technology (efficiency gains), this contribution introduces sufficiency corridors as a concept, research field, and policy approach. Sufficiency corridors represent the space between a floor of meeting needs and a ceiling of ungeneralisable excess, i.e. within the sufficiency corridor everyone has enough (to satisfy needs) while no one has too much (to endanger planetary boundaries and need satisfaction). Establishing such corridors entails a process over time that continuously narrows the gap between floors and ceilings, lifting the former and pushing down the latter by strengthening forms of consumption and production that contribute to need satisfaction while shrinking those that do not. The article discusses the profound implications of this approach for how societal reality is reproduced and/or changed, highlighting the need for decisions that eliminate options between and within sectors and in the realms of consumption and production. After addressing questions of decision-making and the potential to realise corridors, the contribution concludes that the growing scientific consensus to complement techno-economic approaches with sufficiency measures remains inadequate. Instead, the possibility of a transformation by design hinges on embedding techno-economism within and subordinating it to a sufficiency framework.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Kritik Islam atas Sekularism Lingkungan

This article aims to understand Islam's critique of environmental secularism using the thoughts of Seyyed Hussein Nasr. This research is based on qualitative methods with library research. The purpose of using this type of research is to be able to more easily map the topic under study based on literature sources. The main argument in this article is that the presence of the secularism paradigm in the modern era not only creates a spiritual crisis, but also an ecological crisis. Islam with the teachings of moral wisdom contained in the Koran makes a value to minimize environmental damage. The results of the research show that the environmental crisis is an urgent problem for the whole world, including Indonesia. The presence of the modern era with its secular paradigm gave birth to an understanding of the environment that has no sacred value and is only an object of domination for humans. With this understanding there are various environmental crises such as deforestation, plastic waste, air pollution, excessive land use by investors and polluted water. So that it is necessary to build awareness of metaphysical understanding that humans and the environment (universe) are one unit.

Influence of channel communication on purchasing sustainable fashion in the Vietnamese market

The fashion industry has been widely recognized as a significant contributor to the ongoing ecological and climate crises, leading to more and more firms realizing the necessity to promote responsible fashion growth. This study builds upon the research outcomes of earlier researchers by combining suitable factors relevant to the Vietnamese market and eliminating inappropriate factors, to investigate the impact of the communication model on choosing and the consumer’s decision on sustainable fashion products in Vietnam. With 330 survey samples combined with the SEM regression method, this study shows that 4 factors have an impact on the attitude of Vietnamese consumers toward sustainable fashion - in order: Receiver Motivation (RM), Receiver Perception (RP), Communication Message (M), and Channel Suitability (C). Therefore, Attitude has a direct impact on the Purchase Intention of Vietnamese consumers towards sustainable fashion products. From these results, the authors have proposed solutions and recommendations to promote factors affecting consumers’ intention to purchase sustainable fashion in Vietnam.

Mental health during ecological crisis: translating and validating the Hogg Eco-anxiety Scale for Argentinian and Spanish populations

BackgroundEco-anxiety is increasingly recognized as a shared experience by many people internationally, encompassing fear of environmental catastrophe and anxiety about ecological crises. Despite its importance in the context of the changing climate, measures for this construct are still being developed in languages other than English.MethodsTo contribute to global eco-anxiety research, we translated the Hogg Eco-Anxiety Scale (HEAS) into Spanish, creating the HEAS-SP. We validated this measure in samples from both Argentina (n = 990) and Spain (n = 548), performing measurement invariance and confirmatory factor analyses. Internal consistency of the scale and score stability over time were investigated through reliability analyses. Differences in eco-anxiety across sociodemographic variables were explored through Student’s t-tests and Pearson’s r tests.ResultsThe four-factor model of the HEAS-SP comprising affective and behavioural symptoms, rumination, and anxiety about personal impact demonstrated excellent model fit. We found good internal consistency for each subscale, and established measurement invariance between Spanish and Argentine samples, as well as across genders and participants’ age. Spanish participants reported higher scores on the affective symptoms and personal impact anxiety factors compared to the Argentinian sample. Also, men reported lower levels than women on the subscales of affective symptoms, rumination, and personal impact anxiety. It was found that the relationship between both age and personal impact anxiety and age and affective symptoms varies significantly depending on the gender of the individuals. Younger participants tended to report higher scores on most dimensions of eco-anxiety.ConclusionsThese findings enhance the global initiative to investigate, explore and therefore comprehend eco-anxiety by introducing the first valid and reliable Spanish-language version of this psychometric instrument for its use within Spanish and Argentinian populations. This study augments the body of evidence supporting the robust psychometric properties of the HEAS, as demonstrated in prior validations for Australian, Turkish, Portuguese, German, French, and Italian populations.

THE POLITICAL DIMENSION OF AESTHETICS: WHAT CAN PRACTICAL AESTHETICS DO FOR THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD?

The article considers the expediency of using the ideas of contemporary practical aesthetics in the political action necessary for solving the political and ecological crisis of our time. It is postulated that overcoming the exploitative attitude in human relations with the world is impossible without transforming our desires, aesthetic feelings and habits, which determine everyday actions more directly than reason or duty. As an alternative to the model of aesthetic experience accompanying the logic of consumption, it is proposed to actualise the deliberative component inherent in aesthetics itself, as well as to use the groundwork of Yuriko Saito’s “aesthetics of care”, which considers openness and compliance to life as the central aesthetic value. It is concluded that the ideas of contemporary practical aesthetics should form the basis of the grassroots political movement needed to effectively address the problems of our time.

Attributing extreme weather to climate change: State Park employees as institutional actors

AbstractResearchers in environmental psychology celebrate the potential for state and national parks to inspire civic engagement in the issue of climate change. Yet, prevailing conceptions of nature may reflect ongoing colonial concerns, such that parks may represent a space to avoid thinking about—rather than reckon with—escalating ecological crises. In this paper, we approach the topic of climate change in state parks from a perspective informed by decolonial theory. In particular, we report a mixed‐methods study with (N = 51) employees at parks in Kansas and throughout the United States regarding the extra‐individual factors that impact their tendency to subjectively attribute extreme weather to climate change. Findings indicate that park employees were less likely to attribute extreme weather to climate change in parks with (1) less institutional support for climate change mitigation, and (2) increased presence of white conservatives. Responses to a question about the purpose of parks and open‐ended reflections reveal that employees conceive of parks as a space for recreation wherein their primary role in relation to visitors is to supply “fun” and “natural” experiences for consumption. We reflect on conceptions of parks and nature and discuss a conception of parks better suited to confront the escalating ecological crisis.

Reducing the imperviousness of urban soils to enhance the quality of surface water: obstacles and levers to implementing ecological runoff management in the south of France

Urban pavements, which help to maintain clean and secure streets, generate large amounts of runoff that aggravate flooding and degrade the quality of surface water. In the context of ecological and climatic crisis, they also contribute to the creation of heat islands in cities, as well as hindering biodiversity. So greening cities must be encouraged.Our article highlights the case of Montpellier – Mediterranean Metropolis (Montpellier 3M, Southern France), which is undergoing one of the highest rates of demographic and urban growth in France. It asks questions around the impact of increased construction on the quality of water in small and fragile coastal catchment areas by the Mediterranean. It also examines local collective action in an attempt to identify the brakes and levers on greening initiatives for the effective management of runoff water, encouraged by legislation: de-paving, setting up rain gardens and returning to permeable urban soils.We use empirical material collected during sociological research in addition to hydrological and chemical measurements. Our aim was to elucidate the perspectives of a wide range of stakeholders, since an understanding of these is crucial in adapting blue-green infrastructure to the local context so that it is both efficient and accepted as a legitimate solution. Our examination suggests ways to think democratically about the dismantling of bitumen road paving to slow down urban water flows and thus improve the habitability of Southern European cities in a context of climatic and ecological crisis.

Thinking with traces: A posthumanist reading of human and nonhuman agencies in Zhu Yingchun’s The Language of Bugs

The Language of Bugs by Zhu Yingchun (2018) is an art book wavering between the linguistic and the bodily, visual arts and literature. Consisting of thousands of traces left on paper by real-life insects and their bodily movements, it does not contain any text traditionally readable for humans, but claims to be a book written entirely in the language of insects. The traces indicate nonhuman agency for the insects and present writing and literature as subjects of nonhuman actions and messy interspecies collaboration. At the same time, the book rises questions on insect “language” and the possibility of ethical representation originating from a very human point-of-experience. In this article, I reflectively explore different crossings of human and nonhuman agencies in The Language of Bugs, as well as how the book engages with questions of representation and materiality, writing and literature in the framework of posthumanist reading. I analyse the book as participating in the attempt to notice more-than-human ways of being in literature and culture, which are traditionally only perceived through human agency. The context of my reading is threat posed by ecological crises and especially the decline in insect populations for the future of the planet. I argue that Zhu Yingchun’s book represents a wider shift in thinking about the natural world and humans’ place in it. Ultimately, the book articulates one very basic question: can literature widen to include traces of nonhuman movements?

The silent scream of nature: Ecocide and environmental crisis in Ice Candy Man

This ecocritical study investigates the profound ecological themes embedded in Bapsi Sidhwa's "Ice Candy Man" exploring the intricate layers of environmental degradation and the looming threat of ecocide within the narrative. The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of the partition of India in 1947 providing a poignant portrayal of the silent but pervasive scream of nature as it undergoes destruction and degradation. The aim of this research is to reveal the nuanced interplay between characters and their deteriorating environment shedding light on the threads of ecological crisis interwoven into the novel's fabric. The study uses a qualitative analysis approach and ecocritical perspectives to determine the direct impact on people's lives as well as the subtle degradation of environments. The analysis delves into the intricate relationships between human actions, political turmoil and the resultant ecological devastation illustrating how the characters' lives and the natural environment intertwine. The results highlight the poignant reflection of a global environmental predicament, emphasizing the powerful narrative discourse that urges readers to confront the harsh reality of a planet in peril. By drawing attention to the silent scream of nature reverberating throughout the narrative, the research prompts a heightened environmental consciousness and encourages reflection on the urgent need for collective action. The conclusion emphasizes the narrative's role in prompting reflection on the silent scream of nature, urging a collective recognition of the urgent need for environmental awareness in the face of ecological challenges.

Indigenous environmentalism: For a political economy where people (and planet) matter

This article investigates how well E. F. Schumacher’s ideas travel beyond his own time and place. To do so, I contrast the environmental critique offered by Schumacher in Small is Beautiful with contemporary forms of everyday environmentalism provided by Indigenous communities in Latin America that form part of a response to processes of ongoing territorial dispossession. In exploring how well Schumacher’s ideas travel to Latin America, I argue that there are seemingly a significant number of similarities between these forms of environmental politics. However, they can be understood in two different registers. I submit that Schumacher’s environmental critique and political project remains at the level of idealism and contains a variety of elements that remain contradictory for a progressive praxis. By contrast, Indigenous environmentalism in Latin America offers a materially-grounded, structural critique of colonialism that concomitantly offers a new notion of a community-based revolutionary subject. It therefore provides a stronger basis for realising many of the goals Schumacher had in mind. Nevertheless, I conclude that whilst important and necessary, this mode of resistance remains insufficient on its own to achieve an alternative political economy where people and planet matter. For this to be realised, a more encompassing counter movement remains vital. The mantra of ‘small is beautiful’, therefore, still needs to grasp the scale of the ecological crisis.