Search

Mosquito-borne diseases are a public health concern. Pharmacists are often a patient's first stop for health information and may be asked questions regarding transmission, symptoms, and treatment of mosquito borne viruses (MBVs). The objective of this paper is to review transmission, geographic location, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of MBVs. We discuss the following viruses with cases in the US in recent years: Dengue, West Nile, Chikungunya, LaCrosse Encephalitis, Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus, and Zika. Prevention, including vaccines, and the impact of climate change are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of sub-global participation in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts, this paper investigates the effectiveness of a Canada-U.S. emissions bubble under their existing regional trade agreement. It also explores the potential economic impact of carbon tariff harmonization through the implementation of a common Canada-U.S. external border tariff adjustment as a mean to address competitiveness issues. Using a multi-region, multi-sector computable general equilibrium model the paper finds that the creation of an emission bubble between the two countries could improve efficiency. The findings also suggest that a carbon tariff harmonization policy could give rise to distributional issues among Annex I regions and could fail to mitigate the negative competitiveness impacts of carbon abatement policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings are the dominant driver of daily and seasonal electric load cycles, and account for 40 percent of U.S. final energy use. They account for roughly 10 percent of direct U.S. CO2 emissions and roughly 40 percent once indirect emissions from electricity generation are included. This paper explores possible evolution of this sector over the coming century, its potential role climate action and response to climate policies, and the potential benefits advances in building technologies for addressing climate change. The paper presents a set of scenarios based on a detailed, service-based model of the buildings sector that is embedded within a long-term, global, integrated assessment model, MiniCAM. Eight scenarios are created in total, combining sets of assumptions regarding U.S. building service demand growth, two assumptions regarding the improvements in building energy technologies, two assumptions regarding long-term U.S. climate action --- a no-climate-action assumption and an assumption of market-based policies to reduce U.S. emissions consistent with a 450 ppmv global target. Through these eight scenarios, the paper comments on the implications of continued growth in building service demands, the ability of efficiency measures to reduce emissions, the strong link between decarbonization of electricity generation and building sector emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opposition against greenhouse gas emissions reductions is strong among some conservative Christian groups, especially in the United States. In this paper, we identify five scripture-based arguments against greenhouse gas mitigation put forward by a core group of Christian conservatives (‘the Cornwallists’): the anti-paganism argument, the enrichment argument, the omnipotence argument, the lack of moral relevance argument and the cost-benefit argument. We evaluate to what extent the arguments express positions that can be characterised as climate science denialist and to what degree they are consistent with support for climate adaptation. Using Stefan Rahmstorf’s (2004) taxonomy of climate science denial, we conclude that the Cornwallists could be labelled climate change deniers. However, their opposition is not only based on denial of climate science but often rests on premises that render the science irrelevant, a position we term ‘relevance denialism’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the scientific practices that constitute carbon economies by rendering carbon countable, fungible, and governable. Examining US biofuel governance, I draw on field research and document and policy analyses to consider the roles state, private industry, and civil society actors play in negotiating scientific practice in biofuel governance and to explore the geographically uneven consequences of contrasting science-society configurations. This research illustrates the complex and contradictory roles of nature's quantification and state-supported science in carbon economies. Although nature's quantification as carbon was initially used as a technology of opposition and accountability to limit vested interest power and maintain biofuels' greenhouse gas reduction capacity, it ultimately served industry interests by focusing policy deliberation on technical issues industry deftly navigated and away from policy rationale, value conflict, and biofuels' broader social-ecological consequences. Drawing attention to state-supported environmental risk assessment and place-based approaches to integrating science and agriculture, this research describes multiple, conflicting modes of state scientific practice and emphasizes the importance of considering multiple scientific perspectives in climate change research and intervention. I argue that, rather than focusing on mitigating climate change through universal, carbon-focused science alone, future science-society configurations should include efforts to build institutional capacity for transformation and adaptation to confront uneven and changing social-ecological circumstances using site-specific scientific knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of the study design and the results of the EMF 24 U.S. Technology Scenarios. The EMF 24 U.S. Technology Scenarios engaged nine top energy-environment-economy models to examine the implications of technological improvements and technological availability for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and 80% by 2050. The study confirms that mitigation at the 50% or 80% level will require a dramatic transformation of the energy system over the next 40 years. The study also corroborates the result of previous studies that there is a large variation among models in terms of which energy strategy is considered most cost-effective. Technology assumptions are found to have a large influence on carbon prices and economic costs of mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong scientific evidence supports the potential for serious global impacts due to climate change. While mitigation efforts are essential to slowing the threat of climate change, adaptation practices to build resilience to and protection from environmental impacts should be accelerated. This paper presents a methodology to integrate adaptation efforts into the long range transportation planning (LRTP) process, and describes a tool, Climate Change Adaptation Tool for Transportation (CCATT) to assist planners. Using a decision theoretic approach that recognizes uncertainty, climate change scenarios are evaluated based on the LRTP timeline. Since climate change impacts vary geographically, the methodology is intended to be repeatable, relevant, and regionally applicable. A case study is developed for the Mid-Atlantic region based on a Metropolitan Planning Organization in northern Delaware. The case study results reveal the effectiveness of the methodology to a real world application and the need for transportation adaptation in response to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic analyses of climate change policies frequently focus on reductions of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions via market-based, economy-wide policies. The current course of environment and energy policy debate in the United States, however, suggests an alternative outcome: sector-based and/or inefficiently designed policies. This paper uses a collection of specialized, sector-based models in conjunction with a computable general equilibrium model of the economy to examine and compare these policies at an aggregate level. We examine the relative cost of different policies designed to achieve the same quantity of emission reductions. We find that excluding a limited number of sectors from an economy-wide policy does not significantly raise costs. Focusing policy solely on the electricity and transportation sectors doubles costs, however, and using non-market policies can raise cost by a factor often. These results are driven in part by, and are sensitive to, our modeling of pre-existing tax distortions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The effects of climate change are seen with a rise of extreme weather and climate events (EWCEs) which lead to the closures of many healthcare facilities, such as community pharmacies. Pharmacists in community pharmacies are seen as the most accessible healthcare professional to the public and are responsible for the continued delivery of care to patients. However, amid closures due to EWCEs and the emergence of pharmacy deserts, there is decreased access to pharmacies and a disruption of care. Objective: It is important to address the preparedness and accessibility of pharmacies post-EWCEs to guide future research and policy. Additionally, to tackle health disparities that arise due to pharmacy deserts, the populations most affected by a decreased access to pharmacies should be identified. We conducted a scoping review to assess the preparedness and accessibility of pharmacies post-EWCEs and to identify populations most affected by pharmacy deserts. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science from January 1, 2012 to September 30, 2022 and included all English-language, peer-reviewed primary literature that examined the preparedness and accessibility of community pharmacies in the United States post-EWCEs and addressed disparities within pharmacy deserts. Studies meeting these criteria were screened of their titles and abstracts by the first author and discrepancies were resolved with co-authors. We used Covidence for data extraction. Results: A total of 472 studies were identified (196 duplicates removed) and after screening, 53 studies were assessed for eligibility. The results of included publications (N = 26) showed that pharmacists and pharmacies are not equipped with the necessary emergency protocols which could lead to decreased access of pharmacies in the wake of EWCEs. Pharmacy deserts disproportionately affect residents living in rural, lower income, and Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods. The lack of preparedness of pharmacies post-EWCEs could worsen medication access. Conclusion: This scoping review addresses challenges impacting pharmacies and patients post-EWCEs and within pharmacy deserts. In times of increased need, these challenges implicate the well-being of communities affected by EWCEs by breaking the continuum of care and access to medications. Here we offer suggestions for future research and directions for policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power of finance vis-à-vis the nonfinancial sector is changing. Macroeconomic developments and financial innovations have reduced financial actors' exit options, thus diminishing exit-based structural power. At the same time, shareholdings have become more concentrated in the hands of large asset managers, thus increasing control-based power. This article documents these trends, before examining whether asset managers wield their power and why, despite being universal shareholders, they have not steered corporate behavior toward decarbonization. Rather than assuming orderly, good-faith interactions between shareholders and managers, this article argues that in the United States today, political considerations govern the use of control-based power. Asset managers' corporate governance policies are subservient to the—increasingly inconsistent—goals of maximizing assets under management while avoiding regulatory backlash. Unlike exit-based power, control-based power is constrained by being highly visible and, therefore, easily politicized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy codes set efficiency standards for buildings in the majority of U.S. states. Under most energy codes, builders can comply by demonstrating that the projected private expenditures on energy bills for a proposed building are less than a certain threshold. Using theory and evidence, I show that energy codes would be improved if compliance was instead determined by the projected social damages. Relative to current practice, damage-based codes would likely provide stronger incentives for electricity than natural gas conservation, in most states. Implementation of damage-based codes would lead to substantial welfare gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author reflects on the effect of climate changes on the future of life in urban areas. It mentions that the U.S. is focusing on creating compact cities that will have limited impact on the environment. It also adds that people living in urban areas don't take the issues of climatic imbalance seriously.

This research uses a Marxist urban political ecology framework to link processes of urban environmental metabolization explicitly to the consumption fund of the built environment. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I argue in this paper that Marxist notions of metabolism are ideal for investigating urban environmental change and the production of uneven urban environments. In so doing, I argue that despite the embeddedness of Harvey's circuits of capital within urban political economy, these connected notions still have a great deal to offer regarding better understanding relations between consumption and metabolization of urban environments. From this theoretical perspective, I investigate urban socionatural metabolization as a function of the broader socioeconomic processes related to urban restructuring within the USA between 1962 and 1993 in the Indianapolis inner-city urban forest. The research examines the relations between changes in household income and changes in urban forest canopy cover. The results of the research indicate that there was a significant decline over time in the Indianapolis urban forest canopy and that median household was related to these changes, thus demonstrating a concrete example of urban environmental metabolization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth in the United States. While the regime-dependent Granger causality test results for the non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth suggest bi-directional causality in both regimes, we cannot validate any causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth. The US meets its energy demand from non-renewable sources; as such, renewable energy consumption does not seem to affect economic growth. Given the efficiency and productivity of renewable energy investments, we conclude that it is worthwhile to consider renewable energy inputs to replace fossil fuels given potential benefits in terms of global warming and climate change concerns. In this regard, increasing the R&D investments in the renewable energy sectors, increases in productivity and profitability of renewable energy investments are likely to accrue benefits in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines what smartness does on the ground by examining how its anticipatory media visions have been interpreted and acted on in policy decisions and local implementations since the early 2000s. Using a comparative-historical analysis that draws on fieldwork in aspiring smart cities in the United States and Europe, we argue that the visions of smartness are neither singular nor fixed across time and space. Instead, the role of smartness in diffusing new technologies is recruited and reshaped in the present to lend legitimacy to future public and private interventions. We first demonstrate that the narrative of crisis, often associated with smartness, shifted from a pre-2008 emphasis on sustainability and climate change to a post-financial crisis engagement with entrepreneurship and platformization. We then discuss how the development of smart city initiatives has followed divergent paths in the United States and Europe, with big tech companies dominating in the former and the 'living lab' model prevailing in the latter. Our analysis highlights the importance of investigating the complex relationships between anticipatory media visions of smartness and their varying, down-to-earth implementations in the built environment rather than solely focusing on the discursive appeal of techno-idealism. It also explains the enduring appeal of smartness as an urban vision, despite its various shortcomings, by revealing its adaptability to the changing social and political–economic shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this special issue is on the energy transformations taking place in several European countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland) and at the federal and subnational (state) levels in the United States with special attention given to California. The cases examined all have federalist structures, and with the exception of the federal level of the United States, all have relatively ambitious climate and renewable energy targets. We compare these states out of an interest in better understanding how federalism interacts with energy transitions. The comparison is also intriguing as at the federal level the United States presents a stark contrast with the federalist European countries considered in this special issue but at the subnational level many similarities can be found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The objective of this project was to demonstrate and assess approaches of urban local health departments (LHDs) to simultaneously address climate change, health, and equity; incorporate climate change into program practice; and participate in their jurisdiction's climate change work. Methods: From January 2016 through March 2018, the Center for Climate Change and Health created learning activities, networking and relationship-building opportunities, communication platforms, and information sharing for 12 urban LHDs in the United States. We used administrative data and conducted interviews with participants and key informants to assess success in meeting learning collaborative goals. Results: LHDs developed diverse projects that incorporated internal capacity building, climate and health vulnerability assessments, surveillance, and community engagement. Projects fostered greater LHD engagement on climate change, broadened community partnerships, and furthered LHD integration into jurisdictions' climate planning. LHD engagement helped shift the dialogue in the community and jurisdiction about climate change to include public health. Conclusions: LHDs have skills and expertise to rapidly partner with other governmental agencies and community-based organizations and to help communities identify vulnerabilities, take action to reduce the health harms of climate change, and—through Health in All Policies approaches and community partnerships—to ensure that climate policies are optimized for positive health and equity outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the influence of radical flank actors in shifting field-level debates by increasing the legitimacy of preexisting but peripheral issues. Using network text analysis, we apply this conceptual model to the climate change debate in the United States and the efforts of Bill McKibben and 350.org to pressure major universities to "divest" their fossil fuel assets. What we find is that, as these new actors and issue entered the debate, liberal policy ideas (such as a carbon tax), which had previously been marginalized in the U.S. debate, gained increased attention and legitimacy while the divestment effort itself gained limited traction. This result expands theory on indirect pathways to institutional change through a discursive radical flank mechanism, and suggests that the actual influence of Bill McKibben on the U.S. climate debate goes beyond the precise number of schools that divest to include a shift in the social and political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a Just Transition framework for U.S. workers and communities that are currently dependent on domestic fossil fuel production. Our rough high-end estimate for such a program is a relatively modest $600 million per year. This level of funding would pay for (1) income, retraining, and relocation support for workers facing retrenchments; (2) guaranteeing the pensions for workers in the affected industries; and (3) mounting effective transition programs for what are now fossil fuel–dependent communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the claims of cultural theory using the formation of climate change policies in Sweden, the United States, and Japan as case studies. The theory posits that any social group consists of three main cultural types: the egalitarian, the market-oriented, and thehierarchical. Though all groups contain elements of each type, one cultural type usually prevails, giving the group its unique decision-making character. This paper applies cultural theory at the national level, testing to what extent the theory is able to project how countries will respond in addressing the issue of global warming. The results suggest that cultural theory may be useful to those involved in developing international agreements, enabling them to formulate regimeswhich are compatible with various cultural styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is stimulated by the debate in the US about optimal abatement paths, in particular recent claims that it would be economicallypreferable to defer such abatement action, in favour of measures that support technology development but do not affect emission trends for many years. This paper categorises the various economic issues involved and concludes that for each economic argument that has been advanced to justify deferring emission constraints, there are countervailing economic arguments that could be used in support of rapid near-term emissions abatement. Rational policy lies between these extremes. A policy of deferring all emissions abatement exposes economic systems and industries, as well as the environment, to significantly greater costs and risks than those arising from a more balanced approach. Furthermore the modelling studies that have been used to justify deferring emissions abatement do so because they embody the economic factors favourable to delay and largely neglect the countervailing issues,to the point where they cannot be considered as relevant to a balanced assessment of the issues relating to economically optimal abatement timing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are key sites of action for adaptation to climate change. However, there are a wide variety of responses to hazards at the municipal level. Why do communities take adaptive action in the face of weather- and climate-related risk? We studied what cities are doing in response to existing natural hazards, such as floods, droughts, and blizzards as an analog for understanding the drivers of adaptive behavior toward climate change risks. We conducted a survey of 60 U.S. municipalities followed by six in-depth case studies in the intermountain west states of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah that regularly experience weather and climate extreme events. Our analysis shows that perception of risk and external factors such as planning requirements and availability of funding stand out as important drivers. Nevertheless, political action is rarely driven by a single factor or event. Overall, our results suggest that multiple factors interact or act in combination to produce an enabling environment for action in the face of weather- and climate-related risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In preparing for and responding to natural hazards and disasters, the welfare state establishes a social contract, distributing responsibilities for what will be collectively managed and what will be individually borne. Drawing on archival, interview, and ethnographic data, this article examines the renegotiation of that social contract through the lens of contested efforts to reform the massively indebted US National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) from 2011 to 2014. In the face of a morally charged debate about deservingness and individual choice, Congress passed legislation that committed to incorporating need-based considerations to the NFIP for the first time. The result defined “deservingness” in terms of ability to pay for risk exposure, qualifying an individualization of responsibility for addressing the problem of flood loss—a problem that might instead demand broader risk sharing, particularly as climate change worsens the threat of flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the United States struggles with national solutions to climate change, state and local governments have increasingly taken policy action in this area. Although existing research addresses why some places adopt climate change policy while others do not, much of this expresses policies as a function of factors in the present period or recent past, leaving the question of whether current climate change policy can be seen as a lagged response to longer term trends largely unaddressed. Examination of climate change policy as a response to longer term changes expands the existing understanding of why locations choose to be active in this area. Pairing unique climate change policy survey data from more than 200 local Great Plains governments with Census and environmental data from 1990 to 2000, this article examines whether changes in local socioeconomic and environmental factors in the 1990s are associated with climate change mitigation and adaptation policy adoption from the following decade, 2000-2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a theoretical framework to explain climate skeptics’ persuasive discursive strategies against anthropogenic global warming. By combining Bourdieu’s notions of political and social fields with discursive articulation the framework explains skeptics’ strategies to politicise climate change, generate debate, and delay political action. To illustrate the framework, we analyze publications of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, an internationally influential organization with strong links to U.S. conservative think tanks. Findings demonstrate strategies for polarization along lines of Left versus Right ideologies by linking climate change issues to prominent social discourses, thus garnering public support and delaying policy action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With every Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the predicted consequences of global warming become increasingly dire. Yet public engagement on the issue, particularly in the United States, lags far behind what is required for collective action. There is therefore an urgent need for vigorous and engaging journalism on climate science and policy-making. Unfortunately, the profession of journalism is currently experiencing an unprecedented period of ferment, as media firms experiment with new ways to expand profits in a rapidly changing media ecosystem. Drawing on in-depth interviews, this article examines how environmental journalists have coped with the challenge of covering climate change in the context of a restructuring news industry. The interviews reveal that, despite the challenges they face – particularly regarding the complexity of the issue and their own economic insecurity – environmental journalists have developed a number of creative strategies for getting climate change stories past editors and in front of audiences. A concluding section draws on a cultural industries approach to studying media institutions in order to evaluate both the promise and limits of these individual acts of creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We applied structural equation modeling to examine how the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model predicts information-seeking intentions in the United States and China. The context for this comparison was climate change. Results indicate that in the Chinese sample, seeking intentions were less influenced by environmental attitudes, risk perceptions, negative affect, information insufficiency, and behavioral beliefs. Across the two samples, subjective norms had similar impacts on seeking intentions. Overall, the model has cross-cultural validity and applicability in accounting for risk communication behaviors in these two nations. Based on prior support for this model outside of the context of climate change, the model is well poised to serve as a framework for a variety of cross-cultural risk information–seeking contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we analyze the ways in which Evangelicals frame a rhetoric of environmental concern and environmental apathy, with a larger focus on the latter. Heeding calls to further explore within-Evangelical differences, we compare environmental narratives of 20 leaders and laity of a predominantly white Southern Baptist congregation and 20 leaders and laity from an African American Baptist church, both located in a Southwestern American city. We find, especially on the topic of climate change, that most Evangelicals in our study readily evince environmental apathy, which we explore in depth. In particular, we find a belief in a rigid hierarchy of God, humans, and then the environment; a belief in the sovereignty of God; and evangelical eschatological beliefs help generate narratives of environmental apathy. There are different environmental narratives, between the two congregations, that are framed in terms of political affiliation and socioeconomic status. But we find little evidence to suggest that religious beliefs foster different environmental attitudes across the two congregations. We conclude with future research directions and implications for those who wish to foster environmental concern among Evangelicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the portrayal of climate change in four national newspapers from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States. The results indicated that leading media in Brazil and the United States highlighted the policy progress being made to mitigate climate change and presented the issue in economic terms, whereas coverage in Argentina and Colombia portrayed the issue as being urgent and emphasized the catastrophic consequences of climate change. The findings are consistent with previous work indicating a lack of focus on scientific controversy from non-U.S. media and present implications for comparative studies examining nuances in international coverage of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nationally representative surveys conducted in 2008 and 2010 found significant declines in Americans’ climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and trust in scientists. Drawing upon the Social Amplification of Risk Framework, this analysis empirically examines the impact of “climategate”—an international scandal resulting from the unauthorized release of emails between climate scientists in England and United States. The results demonstrate that “climategate” had a significant effect on public beliefs in global warming and trust in scientists. The loss of trust in scientists, however, was primarily among individuals with a strongly individualistic worldview or politically conservative ideology. Nonetheless, Americans overall continued to trust scientists more than other sources of information about global warming. Several other explanations for the declines in public understanding are also explored, including the poor state of the economy, a new administration and Congress, diminishing media attention, and abnormal winter weather. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Outlier voices—particularly those views often dubbed climate “skeptics,” “denialists,” or “contrarians”—have gained prominence and traction in mass media over time through a mix of internal workings such as journalistic norms, institutional values and practices, and external political economic, cultural, and social factors. In this context, the article explores how and why these actors—through varied interventions and actions—garner disproportionate visibility in the public arena via mass media. It also examines how media content producers grapple with ways to represent claims makers, as well as their claims, so that they clarify rather than confuse these critical issues. To the extent that mass media misrepresent and/or gratuitously cover these outlier views, they contribute to ongoing illusory, misleading, and counterproductive debates within the public and policy communities, and poorly serve the collective public. Furthermore, working through mass media outlets, these outlier interventions demonstrate themselves to be (at times deliberately) detrimental to efforts seeking to enlarge rather than constrict the spectrum of possibility for varied forms of climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on findings from ethnographic analysis of U.S. climate scientists, this article identifies largely unrecognized sociocultural dimensions underpinning differences in scientists’ perceptions of anthropogenic climate change. It argues that culturally laden tensions among scientists have influenced some to engage with the antienvironmental movement and, as such, influence U.S. climate science politics. The tensions are rooted in broad-based and ongoing changes within U.S. science and society since the 1960s and propelled by specific scientific subgroups’ negative experiences of the rise of environmentalism and of climate modeling, in particular.   Attending to these and other experience-based cultural dynamics can help refine cultural theory and enhance understanding of the deeper battles of meaning that propel climate science politics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The conservative “echo chamber” is a crucial element of the climate change denial machine. Although social scientists have begun to examine the role of conservative media in the denial campaign, this article reports the first examination of conservative newspaper columnists. Syndicated columnists are very influential because they reach a large audience. We analyze 203 opinion editorials (“op-eds”) written by 80 different columnists published from 2007 to 2010, a period that saw a number of crucial events and policy proposals regarding climate change. We focus on the key topics the columnists address and the skeptical arguments they employ. The overall results reveal a highly dismissive view of climate change and critical stance toward climate science among these influential conservative pundits. They play a crucial role in amplifying the denial machine’s messages to a broad segment of the American public. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on the limitations of common federal law related to environment. It provides information on opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Native Village of Kivalina v Exxonmobil Corporation of 2012. It further highlights the efforts of U.S. federal district and appeal courts in using federal common law principles, and public nuisance to seek injunctive relief from energy producers companies.

Since the 1970s, social scientists have argued that general pro-environmental attitudes have diffused throughout American society, rendering socio-demographics largely irrelevant in predicting support for such issues. The public reaction to the issue of climate change, however, is an exception to this narrative. While media bias, ideological framing, and business influence are often invoked to explain public apathy, I argue that ignoring class and culture in determining why climate change is so divisive is a potentially significant oversight. Using the cultural theory of Bourdieu, I examine how the conception of and reaction to climate change varies with economic and cultural capital using data from 40 interviews of Boston-area respondents. The results suggest that climate change may indeed be a 'classed' issue - both in how the respondents conceive of it in the first place, and how they speak of social class in the context of it. The results suggest that social scientists should go beyond rational-choice and media framing explanations, to take two prolific examples, in exploring how disagreements on the importance of climate change persist in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section offers updates on the energy industry from November 2012 to January 2013. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted the U.S. to become the world's biggest oil producer by 2017. The European Court of Justice has ruled that the European Union's permanent rescue fund does not violate its law. The World Bank has expressed concerns over the impact of the climate threat on the world's poorest communities.

The authors apply Ulrich Beck’s theory of reflexive modernization to examine how farmers in the United States perceive and respond to climate change. Using a case study, the authors identify diversions from Beck’s original theory and explore the importance of social constructionist and political economy perspectives. The article focuses on corn farmers in southwestern Michigan to examine climate risk recognition and reflexive responses, concentrating on the role of nitrogen fertilizer as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Results from interviews, focus groups, and a mail survey indicate that dualistic worldviews and exposure to limited and/or biased information can inhibit farmers from acknowledging climate change as a risk. In addition, structural barriers inhibit farmers from reducing nitrogen fertilizer application in response to climate change. These findings offer insights applicable to climate change mitigation efforts and also demonstrate the importance of both social constructionist and political economy perspectives to identify barriers to reflexive modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Can a conditional commitment by a major actor (for example, the European Union) induce other major actors (such as the USA, China, India, or Japan) to do more to mitigate global climate change? We analyse this question by first estimating the impact of emission reductions by one of these actors on the mitigation costs of the others and, second, by exploring how domestic politics influence the willingness of the European Union and the USA to contribute. We find that an emission cut by any actor will reduce mitigation costs for all the others and thereby expand the settlement range. These cost reductions seem, however, insufficient to induce significant unilateral policy change. Emissions trading can cut aggregate costs further, but also redistribute wealth. Domestic politics tend to add weight to the concerns of powerful actors that stand to lose from more ambitious mitigation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the United States recovers from the worst economic crisis in 80 years, both environmental and economic epidemics are disproportionally affecting communities of color. The U.S. unemployment rate stands near 10%. Yet for African Americans in some areas, it is twice as high. Simultaneously, the world is threatened by the effects of climate change and increasing environmental health issues, whereas communities of color are overburdened by environmental injustices. The Obama administration has invested heavily in policies to “green the economy” as a strategy to preserve the environment while stimulating economic recovery in large part through The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. Although this strategy has yielded tremendous opportunity, resource distribution has been uneven across geographic areas and demographic groups. Unfortunately, some of our nation’s neediest people and communities are being left out of the green revolution. This essay discusses the impact of “greening the economy” for African Americans and suggests possible steps toward addressing inequality in resource access and distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been some growing recognition of the role of private actors in international environmental regimes, little attention has been paid to the role of the private sector at the science–policy interface. Because the automobile industry plays a crucial role in mitigation of greenhouse gases, successful policy requires not just the assent but the active cooperation of this sector. Such cooperation, however, requires some institutional acceptance that climate change is indeed a significant risk. In this article, the authors look at the early stages of the automobile industry’s engagement with the discourse on climate change. The authors focus, in particular, on the role of corporate scientists in two U.S. automobile companies in translating this discourse. Acting as boundary spanners and institutional entrepreneurs, these individuals influenced both corporate perceptions of and responses to climate change science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Agriculture depends on the environment for production of food and fibre, yet agricultural activities may emit harmful pollutants. US law and policy encourage sustainable agriculture. Good agricultural practices, especially those that protect the environment and foster conservation, play a significant role in sustainability. US law imposes relatively few environmental requirements on producers, but offers numerous financial and other incentives for good agricultural practices. Policy discussions about the environmental effects of agricultural production often address two significant issues: the balance between mandatory and voluntary measures to protect the environment and the potential role of agriculture in mitigating climate change and sequestering carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, a contribution to the EMF 25 scenarios on the role of energy efficiency in climate change mitigation, explores the value of technological improvement in the buildings, industry, and transportation sectors in meeting 2050 CO2 emissions mitigation targets in the United States. Six scenarios of future end-use technology evolution are analyzed without any future emissions mitigation policy, and with two linear emissions constraints that begin in 2012 and achieve 50% and 80% reductions from 1990 CO2 emissions levels in 2050. The scenarios show that end-use technologies are important for reducing near-term energy demand and CO2 emissions, and advanced transportation technologies in particular are important for allowing the energy system as a whole to achieve deep emissions reductions in a cost-effective manner Total discounted economic costs of meeting the emissions constraints are reduced by up to 53% by advanced end-use technologies, and similar cost reductions are observed when the policies allow intertemporal shifting in the emissions pathways (i.e., banking and borrowing). The scenarios highlight the importance of end-use technologies that facilitate electrification and decrease the direct use of hydrocarbon fuels through efficiency improvement, but we stress that end-use technology advancement should be complementary to technology advancement in energy supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a critique of global carbon markets and trading, with a special focus on the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. It explores problems with the use of tradable permits to address climate change revolving around four areas: homogeneity, justice, gaming, and information. Homogeneity problems arise from the non-linear nature of climate change and sensitivity of emissions, which complicate attempts to calculate carbon offsets. Justice problems involve issues of dependency and the concentration of wealth among the rich, meaning carbon trading often counteracts attempts to reduce poverty. Gaming problems include pressures to promote high-volume, least-cost projects and the consequences of emissions leakage. Information problems encompass transaction costs related to carbon trading and market participation and the comparatively weak institutional capacity of project evaluators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agenda theories suggest that problem indicator, focusing event, and information feedback enhance issue attention. However, few studies have systematically tested this. This study, using time series data and vector autoregression (VAR), examines how climate problem indicator, high-profile international event, and climate science feedback influence media and congressional attention to global warming and climate change. The findings confirm that these attention-grabbing factors indeed generally promote issue salience, but these factors may work differently across agenda venues. Attention inertia, interagenda interaction, and partisan advantage on agenda setting are also included and analyzed in the VAR modeling. Implications of the study and recommendations for future research are discussed in conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the role of conflicting logics in the climate change debate. It suggests prospects for reframing the climate change debate in forming integrative logics. The article also explains that changing the focus of the debate form the costs of action to the costs of inaction are likely to reframe the climate debate via building upon the common ground that climate skeptics and advocates alike share in regard to the pursuit of energy independence, and the creation of green jobs.

In the aftermath of the financial crash of 2008, commentators speculated that the relative buoyancy of China’s economy signaled the onset of an epochal shift of world power from West to East. This article considers the evidence by reviewing the state of the Sino-American economic relationship against the backdrop of the urgency of action on climate change. The lead established by Chinese companies in the clean technology sectors underpins the PRC’s primacy in the alternative fuel economy, but political and social need for a high GDP growth rate is irreconcilable with the demand for decarbonization. By contrast, U.S. efforts to jumpstart a green industrial revolution are stymied by political resistance from oil and gas lobbies, and the longterm recovery of its economic dominance as a trade super power is in doubt. The initiative lies with Beijing, thrust, once again, into the role of making history under conditions not of its own making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Natural resource agencies in the United States have a huge responsibility to protect and manage public lands as well as effectively communicate with diverse publics about land management issues. One of these issues is how best to deal with the impacts of climate change on our nation's treasured landscapes. Fortunately, a recent surge of research and theorizing in the social sciences on communication about climate change can inform natural resource communication efforts. What insights can scholars share with communication practitioners and public land managers? What communication principles will help them create effective strategies for communicating about climate change? How can scholars best communicate the complexity of climate change impacts and nuances of changes at landscape scales? To begin to address these questions, Colorado State University researchers, in partnership with the Office of the Governor of the State of Colorado, hosted a 3-day workshop on the challenges and opportunities associated with communicating about climate change on public lands in the western United States. This commentary summarizes ideas generated from workshop discussions, including 9 key messages and 10 key principles for effective climate change communication in a land management context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Global Social Policy is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article offers information related to energy and environment. The U.S. National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) notes the possible occurrence of a new solar Grand Minimum, which depicts a period wherein the absence of sunspots can be observed making the Earth colder. Gustafsson, a bio-geochemist from Stockholm University, relates that the cloud of brown pollution hanging over Asia comes from wood and cattle dung being burned in millions of home-fires. 42 new reactors are under construction across the globe including the 10 facilities in China and 7 facilities in Russia. Japanese scientists have turned against the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), asserting that climate change is induced by natural cycles and not by human industrial activities.