West Virginians Struggle Without Water

AssociatedPress

Published on Jan 11, 2014

Several hundred thousand people in West Virginia remained without clean tap water for a third day Saturday following a chemical spill and a water company executive said it could be days before uncontaminated water is flowing again. (Jan. 11)

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

W. Va Officials: Water May Be Out for Days

AssociatedPress

Published on Jan 11, 2014

State officials say it could be days before clean tap water is flowing again to several hundred thousand people in West Virginia following a chemical spill. (Jan. 11)

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Poverty rates surge in American suburbs

PBS NewsHour

Published on Jan 11, 2014

When President Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” fifty years ago, images of American poverty focused on the inner-city and rural poor. What is the state of American poverty today? Megan Thompson reports on the less visible but growing number of poor in America’s suburbs.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Climate Resilient Cities – TERI – Webinar

http://www.teriin.org/webinars/webinar_reg.php

TERI is pleased to invite you to join their webinar on ‘Climate Resilient Cities’.

Date: 22 January 2014
Time: 3:00-4:00 PM IST
Register here: http://www.teriin.org/webinars/webinar_reg.php
Key Takeaways
•    Key issues pertaining to the challenges of the modern urban world and need for cities to be climate resilient
•    Integration points between regular urban development planning, planning for sustainability climate resilience
•    Case studies from cities in India and beyond
•    Key enablers for urban resilience planning and essential components of resilient city plans
•    Context specific strategies to address climate change
•    Policy-governance issues in implementation and sustainability of resilience planning efforts in cities

Presenter: Dr Divya Sharma
Profile: Fellow in the Centre for Research on Sustainable Urban Development and Transport Systems in the Sustainable Habitat Division at TERI. She is trained as an architect and urban planner and holds a PhD in the area of climate change and urban development.

Regards,
Rozita Singh
Research Associate
Centre for Research on Sustainable Urban Development & Transport Systems
Sustainable Habitat Division
TERI
rozita.singh@teri.res.in

 

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Cyprus International Institute (CII) (Harvard School of Public Health) http://Cyprus-Institute.us
Food-Matters http://Food-Matters.TV

On the move: Migration policy and climate change

http://www.trust.org/spotlight/climate-migration

Updated: Thu, 9 Jan 2014

Join a live online debate: Wednesday, January 15, 2014, 14:00-15:00 GMT (London time)

Hosted by Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN)

Please contribute your comments and questions at the live blog or via Twitter hashtag #climatemigration for our expert panel:

• Dominic Kniveton – professor of climate science and society, University of Sussex
• Koko Warner – head of environmental migration, social vulnerability and adaptation section, United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
• Sam Bickersteth – chief executive, CDKN
• Tamer Afifi – research director, Where the Rain Falls project, UNU-EHS
• Guillermo Llinas – Colombia country project manager, CDKN

Climate change is already pushing people in the developing world to leave their homes – and they are doing so in many different ways. Some find they can no longer farm their land due to extreme weather or rising seas, and are moving their whole families. Others are sending relatives to cities to look for seasonal work to boost dwindling incomes. Climate-related disasters are also making large numbers homeless.

How is the world responding to this challenge? CDKN, for example, is supporting research and film-making on the effects of climate change on migration in Bangladesh, and how decision makers there can help the poorest. And the Nansen Initiative, launched in 2012, is developing a protection agenda for people displaced across borders by natural disasters. But it is widely recognised that both national and international policy responses lag behind the growing pace and scale of climate-linked migration.

This debate will explore the ways in which climate stresses are triggering migration and displacement, and what policy makers can do to assist those who are on the move.

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Cyprus International Institute (CII) (Harvard School of Public Health) http://Cyprus-Institute.us

Climate Change Management Series

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?series_id=618899

9783642263910 p0 v2 s260x420

9783642147753 p0 v2 s260x420

9783642222658 p0 v2 s260x420

 

The “Climate Change Management Series”, published with Springer:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?series_id=618899

This is a leading book series on climate change management. Since its launching in 2009, the series has published some ground-breaking books such as “Universities and Climate Change”, “The Economic, Social and Political Aspects of Climate Change”, “Climate Change and the Sustainable Use of Water Resources” and others.

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Environment Editorial: Appreciating the Acquired Knowledge of Living with Nature | Magazine

http://www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/2014/January-February%202014/editorial_full.html

Editorial: Appreciating the Acquired Knowledge of Living with Nature

This issue inaugurates a series we have begun to commission regarding sustainability politics in Alaska. Here we publish two articles, one by Henry Huntington on conservation and abundance, and the other by Sam Weis on coal mining and wildlife preservation. Both authors begin by referring to a state of seeming abundance where exploitation is still not seen as cavalier, but as a vital feature of shared prosperity for all Alaskans. Yet in both cases the traditions and values of native Alaskans are not incorporated into official impact assessments.

Maybe the theme for this Alaskan compilation of articles is that of abundance, cultural values, and sustainability. In conventional natural resources decision making there is both pragmatism and a mechanical approach to exploitation and to making choices. The people and official environmental regulatory agencies involved in such decision making prefer the organized logic of assessment matrices and programmed consultation (hearing but not listening). They are uncomfortable with, and possibly unaware of, the topics offered by the other two articles in this issue, namely, those addressing traditional ecological knowledge and ecosystem-based adaptation. To tackle these more subtle and less easily measurable components requires a very different approach to defining “problems” and analyzing “solutions.”

In the Alaskan cases the overriding decision framework is how to reach a level of resources extraction (coal, oil, copper, and fish) without either unduly compromising the rights and accustomed ways of livelihoods of the local native Alaskans or destroying the natural fabric. It is assumed, probably by most of those involved, that there is a way to resolve this without leaving potentially valuable copper and coal in the ground and retaining more than sufficient salmon for the seas and rivers.

But what are “valuable natural resources” in these cases? Sustainability conflicts are more a product of incomprehensible morals than weaving a way through perceptions of abundance and scarcity. The introduction of traditional ecological knowledge brings with it a world of values and practices long fashioned and carefully calibrated which do not sit easily in environmental impact assessment matrices. They are not convertible to numbers on a spreadsheet. They need to be understood through staged processes of empathetic conversation, not quasi-formal consultation by way of public meetings or attachments to e-mails.

Ecosystem-based adaptation, which lies between traditional ecological knowledge and conventional resource decision procedures in terms of custom and ethics, also requires unusual forms of dialogue to arrive at a common understanding. Both begin from a position of respect of host cultures and of attentiveness to values that are not always collectively appreciated, let alone agreed upon. Both seek forms of conversation where the measures for giving weight to outcomes, especially for the longer term and for future generations, are neither immediately understood nor fully appreciated.

…(read more).

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Future-Matters

Time to kick coal ash in Charlotte! – Charlotte Environmental Action CEA

http://vimeo.com/81738761

from Shift The Climate Plus 4 weeks ago Not Yet Rated

Charlotte Environmental Action [CEA] chains themselves to toxic water today at an action at Duke Headquarters in Charlotte, NC. Duke Energy is ignoring over 400,000 gallons of highly toxic coal ash mixed with water seeping into the drinking water supply for over 860,000 residents of the Charlotte, North Carolina region EVERY DAY. We demand that Duke clean up their mess, and stop chaining us to poisoned water.

Learn more at CLTEnvironmentalAction.Wordpress.com

Film by Sam Fulbright, Shift The Climate, ShiftTheClimate.org

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

WaterPressures.Org

http://www.waterpressures.org/

and: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/storyteller/Ann_Feldman#/myFilms

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Food-Matters http://Food-Matters.TV

Gap between wages and consumer prices imperils security

E120, e145,