Youth,climate change and visions of the future in Miami

ABSTRACT

Miami, FL, is one of the most climate-vulnerable cities in the United States. At an average elevation of only 6 feet above sea level, parts of the city could be made uninhabitable by rising oceans within the next 40 years. The effects of climate change are already beginning to be seen, but the subject of climate change is nevertheless modelled, imagined and contested in the future tense. Today's young people are similarly future oriented, but unlike older generations they will live to feel climate change's full future effects. This study investigates knowledge of and experiences with climate change among young adults in Miami, and their visions of the future in light of predicted changes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 long-term residents of the city between the ages of 18 and 30 who were students at Miami-Dade College or Florida International University. I discuss participants’ sense of personal responsibility to inform themselves and the individualised understandings of climate science that emerge, their disillusionment with politics and resulting perception of individual responsibility for climate mitigation, and their negotiation of personal future plans in light of fatalistic visions of the future. These young adults’ perspectives on rising seas in their home city are revealed to be socially structured by ideals of individual agency and self-reliance, which become paradoxically disempowering because of the impossibility of addressing the transformational impacts of climate change through individualised means.     

A qualitative examination of factors shaping high and low exposures to hazardous air pollutants among Hispanic households in Miami

Hispanic residents suffer disproportionately from exposure to toxic pollution hazards, but little is known about why some Hispanic residents live in high-risk neighbourhoods while others are protected from similar risks. This study uses comparative interview-based methods to further understanding of Hispanic people’s residential decision-making and their associated exposures to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in the Miami Metropolitan Statistical Area (Florida), which is home to one of the most diverse Hispanic populations in the U.S. We use 22 in-depth interviews conducted with Hispanic householders living at high and low risk to HAPs, selected from a larger representative phone survey of 650 local residents. For Hispanic households at high risk, economic constraints, family ties, desiring a central location, a sense of community, and comfort in a shared culture contributed to their residences in high risk locations. In contrast, protective factors for Hispanic households living at low risk included the desire to live in an ethnically diverse setting, the ease of finding service work, and preferring environmental amenities and exclusivity. Findings demonstrate that there are considerable differences in factors shaping residential decision-making of low- and high-risk Hispanic residents, but that all were influenced by economic, socio-cultural, and environmental considerations to varying degrees.     

中亚地区气候生产潜力时空变化特征

根据中亚5 国100 个气象站1901-2000 年月平均温度和降水资料,运用Miami、Thornthwaite Memorial 模型对中亚地区气候生产潜力进行了计算,用气候倾向率、Mann-Kendall 法、并结合ArcGIS 和SPSS 对其时空变化特征及驱动力进行了分析。结果表明：①中亚地区100 a 降水气候生产潜力（Yr）和蒸散气候生产潜力（Ye）均呈逐渐增加的趋势,温度气候生产潜力（Yt）趋势相反,Yr 和Ye 均发生了4 次突变,Yt 没有发生突变;②气候生产潜力区域差异明显,其中,Yt 呈从西南向东北减少的趋势,Yr 和Ye 变化比较复杂,大致具有东部大于西部的规律;③增温增湿的气候变化趋势有利于中亚气候生产潜力的提高,中亚气候生产潜力对增湿的响应更敏感。     

1901—2017年藏西南高原气候及其生产潜力时空变化

研究全球变暖背景下藏西南高原气候及气候生产潜力时空分布,对该区农牧业发展、生态保护和可持续发展等具有重要意义。基于1901—2017年的中国气象再分析数据,利用Miami和Thornthwaite Memorial模型对近117年藏西南高原气候变化、气候生产潜力的时空分布及影响因素进行了分析。结果表明：近117年来藏西南高原年均温呈上升趋势,年均降水量呈下降趋势,并存在明显周期和突变点;温度生产潜力呈增加趋势,空间上自东南向西北递减;降水、蒸散和标准生产潜力呈减小趋势,呈现自南向北递减的空间分布特征;标准生产潜力由降水和温度共同决定,降水是主要限制因子。未来气候若持续“暖干化”变化,将导致藏西南高原气候生产潜力下降。为促进畜牧业发展和生态环境的改善,未来应进一步推进退牧还草、人工种草、舍饲养殖等工程,并选用耐寒耐旱高产草种,提高牧草产量,实现草畜平衡,以推动传统畜牧业向现代牧业转变,实现草原生态保护和可持续发展。     

黑河流域生物生产量分布趋势测算研究

黑河流域地处干旱地带,水资源紧缺,天然绿洲植被迅速退化,流域的生态环境状况十分严峻。本文应用迈阿密模型以及作者提出的修正方法,对黑河流域的生物生产量进行了测算及分布趋势分析,所得结果对黑河流域以及西北干旱地区的水土资源利用和生态环境保护具有应用价值     

Spatial patterns of off-the-system traffic crashes in Miami–Dade County,Florida, during 2005–2010

Objective: The objective of this study is to analyze the spatial distribution of the vehicles involved in crashes in Miami–Dade County. In addition, we analyzed the role of time of day, day of the week, seasonality, drivers’ age in the distribution of traffic crashes.

Method: Off-the-system crash data acquired from the Florida Department of Transportation during 2005–2010 were divided into subcategories according to the risk factors age, time of day, day of the week, and travel season. Various spatial statistics methods, including nearest neighbor analysis, Getis-Ord hot spot analysis, and kernel density analysis revealed substantial spatial variations, depending on the subcategory in question.

Results: Downtown Miami and South Beach showed up consistently as hotspots of traffic crashes in all subcategories except fatal crashes. However, fatal crashes were concentrated in residential areas in inland areas.

Conclusion: This understanding of patterns can help the county target high-risk areas and help to reduce crash fatalities to create a safer environment for motorists and pedestrians.