Hannah Arendt’s turn to the self and environmental responses to climate change paralysis

Environmentalists have struggled with how to mobilize people to act in the face of widespread and now inevitable consequences of climate change. Significant responses to this challenge, such as incentivizing individual Green choices in the market and avoiding the rhetoric of catastrophe, continue the philosophical and political trends, identified by Hannah Arendt, that contribute to world alienation and the decline of politics. Environmental thinkers are invited to use Arendt’s theories of the turn to the self and political action to think critically about contemporary strategies to address climate change.     

Moving targets: Carbon pricing,energy markets,and social movements in Australia

Reporting on the origins and directions of social movement strategy on climate and energy issues in the last decade, the shifts in ‘climate movement’ practice are discussed using a neo-Polanyian account of the political economy of climate change combined with sociological analysis of the strategic decisions campaigners reported making. Since the mid-2000s, Australia’s climate movement has been engaged in three concurrent arenas of political contestation. The longest-standing arena of movement activity has been negotiations over climate policy. More recently, activists and communities are engaged in a struggle over the expansion of fossil fuels. A third contest has been waged over the present and future position of renewable energy technologies in Australia’s electricity market. In the wake of climate policy failure, energy campaigns have been deepened, and it seems that a broader energy justice agenda is being forged. New strategic dilemmas are visible in the field.     

Variability and Trends in Runoff Efficiency in the Conterminous United States

Variability and trends in water‐year runoff efficiency (RE) — computed as the ratio of water‐year runoff (streamflow per unit area) to water‐year precipitation — in the conterminous United States (CONUS) are examined for the 1951 through 2012 period. Changes in RE are analyzed using runoff and precipitation data aggregated to United States Geological Survey 8‐digit hydrologic cataloging units (HUs). Results indicate increases in RE for some regions in the north‐central CONUS and large decreases in RE for the south‐central CONUS. The increases in RE in the north‐central CONUS are explained by trends in climate, whereas the large decreases in RE in the south‐central CONUS likely are related to groundwater withdrawals from the Ogallala aquifer to support irrigated agriculture.     

Aboriginal world views and colonisation: implications for coastal sustainability†

In this paper, we show how the Aboriginal people in the south-west of Australia (the Nyungar) developed systems of knowledge, of caring for country and of family relations that enabled them to survive for tens of thousands of years and continue to have importance today. The impacts of British colonisation on cultural continuity and knowledge in the south-west have been significant and include loss of land, break-up of families and massacre. These practices led to a loss of knowledge of language and culture in some cases. However, Nyungar culture is alive and dynamic, constantly being reclaimed, re-energised and rebuilt through the interaction of contemporary and traditional research praxis. Focusing on Derbal Nara (Cockburn Sound) on the coast in the southern metropolitan area of Perth, we provide case examples of the action-research-learning methodologies used by Whadjuk Nyungar Traditional Owners. We also provide examples of stories about Derbal Nara that are still alive and being recounted up to the present day, including those that account for the recent ice age and the end of the ice age 8000 years BC when sea levels rose, drowning land in the area of Derbal Nara. Finally, we argue that Whadjuk Nyungar experiences and world views based on relationality and reflexivity are central to sustainable coastal management and that in some respects there has already been a convergence of Indigenous and Western coastal management. We present a set of principles that support the development of this “third space” for coastal sustainability.     

多哈气候会议结果分析

本文总结和分析了多哈气候会议的谈判热点和成果,特别介绍涵盖2013至2020年的《京都议定书》第二承诺期的要点;展望了计划于2015年达成新的有法律效力的全面的国际气候协议。     

青藏高原东北部更尕海沉积软体动物壳体同位素初步研究

文章通过建立更尕海湖泊沉积岩芯软体动物化石属种组合,对比分析了软体动物壳体碳氧同位素的种内、种间变化。结果显示,壳体氧同位素种内变化较小,通常小于0.3‰;相同属不同种的壳体氧同位素种间差异约为0.3‰,但较相同属种的波动幅度大:不同属种的壳体氧同位素的种间差异最大,且波动幅度更大一些。壳体碳同位素的种内和种间差异均较氧同位素大,尤其是碳同位素的种间差异更为显著,可能与软体动物的"生命效应"有关。合理评价软体动物壳体同位素种内和种间变化对于理解软体动物壳体同位素所记录的气候变化具有重要的意义。     

HSPF水文水质模型应用研究综述

HSPF(Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran)模型采用FORTRAN语言编写,以Stanford水文模型为基础,能够综合模拟径流、土壤流失、污染物传输、河道水力等过程,并大量应用于气候变化与土地利用变化的流域水环境效应情景模拟.该模型是半分布式水文水质模型的优秀代表,在国外得到广泛的应用.HSPF模型包括PERLND、IMPLND与RCHRES等3个主要模块,分别实现对透水地段、不透水地段与地表水体的水文水质模拟.总体来看,HSPF模型在国外水文、水质过程模拟,以及涉及气候变化和土地利用影响的情景分析中发挥重要作用,但是国内该模型的应用非常有限.HSPF模型存在的主要问题包括:①模型中某些方案和算法还有改进和完善的空间;②模型对数据输入要求较高,模拟的精度受到空间和属性等数据的限制;③模型只限于均匀混合的河流、水库和一维水体模拟,对于复杂流域或水体的模拟研究,需要与其它模型整合以解决更加综合的问题.目前,针对发展与完善HSPF模型的研究仍在继续,包括模型平台开发、模型功能扩展、模型校正方法研究、参数敏感性研究等方面.随着我国基础数据的积累及共享程度的提高,HSPF模型在我国的应用也将更加广泛.     

1961-2012 年西藏极端降水事件的变化

利用18 个气象站点1961-2012 年逐日降水量资料,计算了10 个极端降水指数,采用滑动平均、线性回归、Mann-Kendall 非参数检验和Morlet 小波分析等方法,分析了西藏极端降水事件的变化规律。结果表明：西藏近52 a 连续干旱日数（CDD）呈显著减少趋势,最大5 d 降水量也趋于减少但不显著,大雨日数和强降水量的线性趋势不明显,其他6 个极端降水指数都表现为增加趋势且不显著。与全球、青藏高原及其周边地区比较,西藏CDD和连续湿日的变幅明显偏大,最大1 日降水量、强降水量和极强降水量的变幅明显偏小。除CDD外,极端降水指数的变化趋势与海拔高度呈显著的二次曲线关系,仅有中雨日数的变化趋势与经度呈显著的正相关。在近52 a 的时间尺度上各项极端降水指数都存在3～4 a 显著周期,多数指数也存在12a、15 a 和16 a 的周期。在时间转折上,CDD的突变点时间较早,从1974 年开始;中雨日数、连续湿日和年总降水量的突变点发生在20 世纪80 年代末。从空间分布来看,那曲地区西部是极端降水指数变化最为显著的区域,雅鲁藏布江中游大部的多数极端降水指标趋于下降,而山南地区南部、林芝地区东南部的降水极值和降水强度都在增加。     

阿勒泰地区雾的气候特征与变化趋势及其对人体的影响研究

利用1961年-2012年阿勒泰地区气象观测资料,对雾的时空分布特征和变化趋势进行分析。结果表明:阿勒泰地区雾日数在时间分布上,初春的3月出现最多;冬季(12月-翌年2月)雾出现的比例最高,占37.6%。20世纪80年代年雾出现日数最多,2000年至今最少。阿勒泰地区雾日数在空间分布上也不是很均匀,区域性为西部的吉木乃、哈巴河县最多,东部的富蕴、青河县最少。阿勒泰地区雾出现日数年变化率与各县站的变化趋势一致,均呈明显的下降趋势,在1966年出现了减少的突变现象。R/S方法分析表明,各县站未来的年雾出现日数仍会呈减少趋势,雾天对人体有一定的影响。     

Sensitivity of Precipitation Statistics to Urban Growth in a Subtropical Coastal Megacity Cluster

This short paper presents an investigation on how human activities may or may not affect precipitation based on numerical simulations of precipitation in a benchmark case with modified lower boundary conditions, representing different stages of urban development in the model. The results indicate that certain degrees of urbanization affect the likelihood of heavy precipitation significantly, while less urbanized or smaller cities are much less prone to these effects. Such a result can be explained based on our previous work where the sensitivity of precipitation statistics to surface anthropogenic heat sources lies in the generation of buoyancy and turbulence in the planetary boundary layer and dissipation through triggering of convection. Thus only mega cities of sufficient size, and hence human-activity-related anthropogenic heat emission, can expect to experience such effects. In other words, as cities grow, their effects upon precipitation appear to grow as well.