ABSTRACT

Environmental change presents a new context and new opportunities for transformational change. This timely book will inspire new ways of understanding the relationship between environmental change and human security. A Changing Environment for Human Security: Transformative Approaches to Research, Policy and Action both supports and informs a call for new, transformative approaches to research, policy and action. The chapters in this book include critical analyses, case studies and reflections on contemporary environmental and social challenges, with a strong emphasis on those related to climate change. Human thoughts and actions have contributed to an environment of insecurity, manifested as multiple interacting threats that now represent a serious challenge to humanity. Yet humans also have the capacity to collectively transform the economic, political, social and cultural systems and structures that perpetuate human insecurities.

These fresh perspectives on global environmental change from an interdisciplinary group of international experts will inspire readers – whether students, researchers, policy makers, or practitioners – to think differently about environmental issues and sustainability. The contributions show that in a changing environment, human security is not only a possibility, but a choice.

part 1|80 pages

Reality check

chapter 2|7 pages

Human security in the Anthropocene

The implications of earth system analysis

chapter 3|12 pages

Climate change and security

chapter 4|10 pages

Lines in the shifting sand

The strategic politics of climate change, human security and national defense

chapter 6|16 pages

Urban risk and vulnerability

Insights and lessons from Latin American cities

chapter 7|8 pages

Uncertainty as insecurity

Lessons on preparing for contingencies in Japan

chapter 8|14 pages

Human security at risk

Development impacts of global environmental change in drylands

part 2|328 pages

Breakthrough conditions

part 2|96 pages

Perspectives

chapter 10|9 pages

Climate change and the global financial crisis

Stresses, synergies, and challenges for human security

chapter 12|12 pages

Fisheries, resource management and climate change

Local perspectives of change in coastal communities in Northern Norway

chapter 13|10 pages

Stuck in the twilight zone or moving towards sustainable climate adaptation?

Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Coastby

chapter 16|10 pages

Suburbia on fire

Human security, climate change and emergency management

part 2|75 pages

Paradigms

chapter 18|13 pages

From poverty to prosperity

Addressing growth, equity and ethics in a changing environment 1

chapter 20|10 pages

Climate change adaptation

Challenging the mainstream

chapter 21|14 pages

Why the discursive environment matters

The UK Climate Impacts Programme and adaptation to climate change

part 2|83 pages

Empowerment

chapter 25|11 pages

Community empowerment

Opportunities and challenges for Bolivia's water sector

chapter 29|12 pages

Disaster risk reduction informing climate change adaptation

Social capital in Agüita de la Perdiz

part 2|72 pages

Integration of knowledge and action

chapter 31|12 pages

Understanding how to respond to climate change in a context of transformational change

The contribution of sustainable adaptation

chapter 32|17 pages

Sustainability and cities

Meeting the grand challenge for the twenty-first century

chapter 34|11 pages

Uncovering the essence of the climate change adaptation agenda

The policy sciences as a problem-oriented approach

chapter 35|11 pages

Changing places

Migration and adaptation to climate change

chapter 36|9 pages

Clumsy solutions to environmental change

Lessons from cultural theory

part 3|26 pages

Transformations: past and future

chapter 37|17 pages

‘Clumsy solutions' and ‘elegant failures'

Lessons on climate change adaptation from the settlement of the North Atlantic islands

chapter 38|7 pages

The future is now

Human security as a choice