Search

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the body of knowledge on the first human occupations predating MIS 21 in the Atapuerca karst system. These occupations are described in terms of their ecological, cultural and technological context based on the Sima del Elefante and Gran Dolina sites. This paper focuses on the lower units of these sedimentary infills, specifically Unit TE9 of Sima del Elefante and Unit TD4 of Gran Dolina. In addition, evidence of the earliest human settlements in Europe is reviewed and hypotheses about the dynamics and intensity of that settlement are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion about local decision making tends to overlook rural and remote youth engagement. Resource extractive industries are, however, fixtures in many rural, remote, northern, and Indigenous communities in settler colonial British Columbia, Canada. These industries shape youths' perceived options for social and economic ventures when they are looking towards their futures. By engaging literature on climate change, settler colonialism, and critical Indigenous studies, and drawing on empirics from workshops conducted with youth from northern British Columbia, this paper explores how rural and remote northern and Indigenous youth engagement and perspectives can transform discussions on climate change and resource extraction. The paper documents how rural and northern youth have been engaged in environmental decision making, particularly in light of resource extraction. The paper also suggests that environmental decision making has at times been extractive itself. The paper concludes that when engaged meaningfully, youth desire to work collectively against social and environmental injustices. Key Messages: How rural, remote, northern, and Indigenous youth have been engaged in environmental decision making has at times been extractive itself.On local and global stages, youth—and particularly Indigenous youth—are demanding action‐oriented and accountable responses to the climate crises.Youth from northern BC communicate desires for the future of their communities to reveal the power of youth voices as they contribute to more just and sustainable communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has advanced the onset of spring and, subsequently, avian nesting activity. Although this advance can have negative consequences such as phenological mismatch, species may be able to increase the annual number of young fledged. Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) can rear 3 broods to fledging, but in this paper we report 3 pairs that reared 4 broods to apparent fledging in 2016 and 2020 in northeastern Arkansas. Nesting attempts began as early as 18 March with the first laid egg and concluded as late as 18 September with the last fledging event; brood sizes ranged from 2 to 5 chicks. Nests were checked daily 15–18 d post-hatching, increasing confidence in our determination of successful fledging. Unlike a previous report of 4 broods reared by a male that mated with 2 females at once, the pairs at our site all remained together through all 4 attempts. These pairs all consisted of after-second-year birds and we discuss why we believe these nests were successful, as well as factors that allowed these pairs to attempt to rear an additional brood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a number of aircraft- and boat-based surveys for seabird breeding colonies in East and North Greenland carried out in the period 2003 to 2018 and gives the first comprehensive overview of the distribution and size of the seabird breeding colonies in this remote and mainly uninhabited region. Seventeen seabird species breed in approximately 800 sites distributed very unevenly along the coasts, with high concentrations at the polynyas and long stretches with very few breeding seabirds. Climate changes are in full progress in East and North Greenland, especially affecting the sea ice regime, and seabirds are expected to respond to these changes in different ways. For example, since the 1980s, Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) have extended their breeding range more than two latitudinal degrees towards the north, now reaching the northernmost land on Earth. Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus) and Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) have immigrated, and Sabine's Gulls (Xema sabini) have increased and extended their range. Besides presenting survey results, this report may also serve as a baseline for future studies of the abundance of breeding seabirds in East and North Greenland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change results from persistent problems, the solving of which calls for innovative approaches. Transition experiments attempt to do just that. The goal of this paper is to present the experimentation project Nos milieux de vie!, carried out in Montreal by the non-profit organization Solon and the UQAM Research Chair on Sustainability Transitions, as well as to elucidate the results obtained during the first phases of the project and the methodological adaptations made over the course of the transition experiments. Our descriptions of the Nos milieux de vie! project alongside a presentation of results achieved one year into the project have allowed us to identify four principal learnings concerning the crucial role of Solon as a mediator; the existence of diverse temporalities within the project; the importance of adapting to the demands and needs of participants; and the existence of social drivers of sustainability transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key Messages: Canadian nationalist rhetoric is still premised on resource extraction despite discussions of climate change by the Liberal government since 2015.Taking earth system science seriously requires rethinking national identity and the conventional geopolitical premises on which it is based.Meeting Paris Agreement on Climate Change commitments requires much more fundamental changes than Canadian Federal government rhetoric so far acknowledges. Considering recent formulations of geopolitical culture in combination with concerns that environmental change be included in contemporary geopolitical analysis, this paper examines the implicit geopolitical formulations in recent Canadian federal political discourse both in Stephen Harper's Conservative government and the subsequent Liberal administration. Contrasting earth system science ideas about global transformations with Canadian nationalist rhetoric concerning petroleum production and notions of unlimited resource extraction as parts of national identity sharply highlights the contours of Canadian identity. If sustainability is to be taken seriously, the official nationalist formulation will have to be drastically changed, but as the widespread rejection of the LEAP manifesto suggests, such ideas of a sustainable mode of globalization have yet to substantially influence Canadian political discourse, despite the rhetorical support offered to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quebec's forests represent 20% of Canadian forests and 2% of the world forests. Over the entire planet, forests play a major role in habitat preservation and in supplying goods and services to the population. However, climate change will have an impact on the forest through inter alia increased droughts, forest fires, warmer weather, and infestations. In this paper, we analyze the economic impact of climate change on the forest industry in Quebec over a 40-year period using a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model. We find that the climate change effects will be relatively weak on most macroeconomic variables as agents adjust their behavior over time and factors are reallocated across sectors. We find that climate change could generate losses in gross domestic product of up to Can$300 million (0.12% of gross domestic product) at the end of a 40-year period for Quebec's economy. However, we find relatively more important effects within the sectors of the forest industry, with losses ranging from 3% to 7.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper analyses the construction and implementation processes of local climate policies taking environmental policies as an analytical framework. Climate change, currently designated as "the climate problem", is considered as a new object for collective action. The analysis makes a distinction between mitigation actions that aim to reduce identified causes of the problem (control and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptive actions designed to anticipate the consequences and effects of climate change. Based on an analysis of institutional and scientific literature and on observations collected since 2005 via several research projects on the integration of climate issues into regional and local actions (Bertrand et Larrue, 2007; Bertrand et Rocher, 2007; Bertrand et al. 2012), the paper focusses on two characteristic dimensions of local environmental action : first the territorialization of climate action considered through two periods of institutionalization -- the time of pioneers and the time of generalization --, and second the terms of operationalization of local climate policies analysed in terms of co-construction, consultation and evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian Arctic is uniquely sensitive to climate change impacts, including rapidly warming temperatures, sea ice change, and permafrost degradation. Adaptation-including efforts to manage climate change risks, reduce damages, and take advantage of new opportunities-has been identified as a priority for policy action across government levels. However, our understanding of adaptation in the Canadian North is limited: Is adaptation taking place, to what stresses, and what does it look like? In this paper we answer these questions for the Inuit territory of Nunavut, systematically cataloguing and reviewing government-led adaptation programs and policies at community, territorial, and federal levels, drawing on publically available information. We documented a total of 700 discrete adaptation initiatives. The focus on adaptation to-date has primarily been at the groundwork level, aimed at informing and preparing for adaptation through impact assessments, adaptation planning exercises, and stakeholder engagement. Adaptation in Nunavut has been driven by cross-scale coordination and leadership from the territorial and federal government. Our study finds few examples of concrete actions for planned adaptation, such as changes to or creation of policies that enable adaptation, alterations to building codes and infrastructure design with changing geo-hazards, or enhanced disaster planning and emergency preparedness in light of projected impacts. This study indicates a need for formal adaptation plans for the Governments of Canada and Nunavut, emphasis on adaptation monitoring and evaluation, and a greater role of Inuit traditional knowledge and cultural values in adaptation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explains the findings of the MC3 Project (Meeting the Climate Change Challenge). This project brought together over 100 researchers, practitioners, civil-society leaders, and policy-makers, led by researchers from Royal Roads University, Simon Fraser University, and the University of British Columbia, with 12 major research partners from the public and private sectors, including the Union of British Columbia municipalities. Researchers conducted a detailed evaluation of 11 leading, yet different, municipalities across the province to identify the leading innovators and innovations on climate action. The case studies revealed the following key drivers of innovation, in order of prominence: the legislative and policy framework, supported by provincially led incentives and tools, access to partnership funding and intermediary support, and framing the issue as critically important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present approaches to optimize stand-level, short-rotation coppice management planning, taking into account uncertainty in stand growth due to climate change. The focus is on addressing growth uncertainty through a range of climate scenarios so that an adaptive capacity may be possible and the vulnerability of the stand to climate change may be reduced. The optimization encompasses finding both the harvest age in each cycle and the number of coppice cycles within a full rotation that maximize net present revenue. The innovation lies in the combination of the process-based model (Glob3PG) with two dynamic programming (DP) approaches. The former is able to project growth of eucalypt stands under climate change scenarios. The innovative approaches are thus influential to define the management policy (e.g., stool thinning, number of coppice cycles, and cycle length) that maximizes net present revenue taking into account uncertainty in forest growth due to climate change. In both approaches, the state of the system is defined by the number of years since plantation, whereas DP stages are defined by the cumulative number of harvests. The first approach proposes the optimal policy under each climate change scenario at each state. The second approach addresses further situations when the climate scenario is unknown at the beginning of the planning horizon. Both help address uncertainty in an adaptive framework, as a set of readily available options is proposed for each scenario. Results of an application to a typical Eucalyptus globulus Labill. stand in central Portugal are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian municipalities have direct or indirect control or influence over approximately 52% of greenhouse gas emissions. As early as 1988, some Canadian municipalities embraced the challenge of climate change and through municipal programs recorded emissions reductions. Given the recent publication of the Government of Canada's climate change plan which clearly emphasizes a prominent role for municipalities in meeting greenhouse gas emission reductions, and equally, the federal government's declared intent to provide further financial support to cities and communities through its ‘New Deal for Cities and Communities’, it is important to consider the potential role that Canadian municipalities can take in responding to climate change, and most importantly, the barriers they face in responding. Based on these observations, this paper presents evidence from a survey of 392 Canadian municipalities (all municipalities with populations of more than 10,000 people) conducted between the summer of 1998 and spring of 1999. The survey provides information on a key issue, which despite the date of the survey remains centrally relevant today: barriers to Canadian municipal response. Building on both quantitative and qualitative results from the survey data and updated information on the number of municipalities participating in Federation of Canadian Municipality (FCM) climate change programs, the paper concludes with recommendations as to how municipal capacity to respond to climate change can be increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weather and climate directly influence ski season length, the quality of snow conditions, and skier visits. Inter-annual climate variability, which is expected to become more pronounced under future climate change, poses an increased risk for the ski tourism industry. Using a survey (n=2448), this study examines where and how far skiers in Ontario (Canada) are willing to travel if their ski resort was to temporarily or permanently close due to a lack of snow. The majority of respondents (≥59%) would travel to five key resorts in Ontario, with the largest share (≥27%) selecting Blue Mountain Resort. An additional 11-15% of respondents would leave Ontario, opting to travel to Quebec or the state of New York. Overall, this paper presents the first empirical evidence on the geographical patterns skiers may engage in as a result of marginal snow conditions, in addition to providing information on travel distance and time thresholds. This research is fundamental for assessing contemporary climate risk and can inform how future climate change could alter demand patterns in regional ski marketplaces. Future research needs are identified to further appraise the consequences and future viability of individual ski resorts in Ontario and the ski industry more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A brief history of adaptation: conceptual evolution across the IPCC reports (1990-2014). In the past decade, work on the concepts of vulnerability, resilience and adaptation became central in climate change literature. At the same time a growing number of studies have focussed on the influence of cognitive factors on decision-making processes, such as interpreting elusive concepts such as adaptation. Comprehension of adaptation has evolved considerably since its recognition as a response to climate change in the 90s by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Currently protecting systems from weather events (the "adjustment adaptation" approach) is still the prevailing view in climate policies. Nevertheless, a shift toward a "transformation adaptation" approach is being observed. This position would take better account of the complexity of existing systems and allow reexamining their mechanisms (institutional, technical, financial). This paper aims to analyze conceptual advances on adaptation across the five IPCC reports from 1990 to 2014. This contribution attempts to show that the prominence given to adaptation in the latest report (2014) reflects the cognitive difficulty of conceiving this concept, responds to the growing demand to facilitate its operationalization and confirms its relevance for a better understanding of the underlying complexity of climate change and the global environmental change issue. Pursuing reflection on the adaptation concept should certainly contribute to the emergence of a promising and interdisciplinary field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major achievement in research supported by the Kluane Lake Research Station was the recovery, in 2001 - 02, of a suite of cores from the icefields of the central St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, by teams of researchers from Canada, the United States, and Japan. This project led to the development of parallel, long (103-104 year) ice-core records of climate and atmospheric change over an altitudinal range of more than 2 km, from the Eclipse Icefield (3017 m) to the ice-covered plateau of Mt. Logan (5340 m). These efforts built on earlier work recovering single ice cores in this region. Comparison of these records has allowed for variations in climate and atmospheric composition to be linked with changes in the vertical structure and dynamics of the North Pacific atmosphere, providing a unique perspective on these changes over the Holocene. Owing to their privileged location, cores from the St. Elias Icefields also contain a remarkably detailed record of aerosols from various sources around or across the North Pacific. In this paper we review major scientific findings from the study of St. Elias Mountain ice cores, focusing on five main themes: (1) The record of stable water isotopes (δ18O, δD), which has unique characteristics that differ from those of Greenland, other Arctic ice cores, and even among sites in the St. Elias; (2) the snow accumulation history; (3) the record of pollen, biomass burning aerosol, and desert dust deposition; (4) the record of long-range air pollutant deposition (sulphate and lead); and (5) the record of paleo-volcanism. Our discussion draws on studies published since 2000, but based on older ice cores from the St. Elias Mountains obtained in 1980 and 1996. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vrana Lake in Dalmatia is a karstic kryptodepression connected to the nearby sea through the karstic subsoil and a canal. Due to interactions with the sea, lake water salinity increases greatly during severe dry periods, seriously endangering the ecosystem. Trend analysis (1961–2010) reveals a decrease in precipitation and surface inflow, but an increase in air temperature, and in sea and lake water levels. Lake inflow and water losses are only partially monitored. Average annual inflow from the monitored part of the catchment is 1722 m3 s-1, but total inflow is significantly greater; the average difference between total inflow and cumulative water losses is 3072 m3 s-1. The paper uses modelling to evaluate total inflow into the lake system, taking into consideration projected climate changes/variations till 2100 from the RegCM3 and ALADIN climate models. The analysis indicates marked decrease in discharge values by the end of this century, by as much as 60%. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major achievement in research supported by the Kluane Lake Research Station was the recovery, in 2001 - 02, of a suite of cores from the icefields of the central St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, by teams of researchers from Canada, the United States, and Japan. This project led to the development of parallel, long (10³ - 104 year) ice-core r ecords of climate and atmospheric change over an altitudinal range of more than 2 km, from the Eclipse Icefield (3017 m) to the ice-covered plateau of Mt. Logan (5340 m). These efforts built on earlier work recovering single ice cores in this region. Comparison of these records has allowed for variations in climate and atmospheric composition to be linked with changes in the vertical structure and dynamics of the North Pacific atmosphere, providing a unique perspective on these changes over the Holocene. Owing to their privileged location, cores from the St. Elias Icefields also contain a remarkably detailed record of aerosols from various sources around or across the North Pacific. In this paper we review major scientific findings from the study of St. Elias Mountain ice cores, focusing on five main themes: (1) The record of stable water isotopes (δ18O, δD), which has unique characteristics that differ from those of Greenland, other Arctic ice cores, and even among sites in the St. Elias; (2) the snow accumulation history; (3) the record of pollen, biomass burning aerosol, and desert dust deposition; (4) the record of long-range air pollutant deposition (sulphate and lead); and (5) the record of paleo-volcanism. Our discussion draws on studies published since 2000, but based on older ice cores from the St. Elias Mountains obtained in 1980 and 1996. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large industries the Canadian government proposed using a tradable emissions performance standard approach, where the intensity of emissions, rather than the absolute level, is regulated. Unlike a cap and trade system, an emissions performance standard does not guarantee a certain overall level of emission reductions, a fact that has led to significant criticism. However, because of the dynamics of performance standards, they may reduce concerns over reductions in international competitiveness in cases where a country has climate policies that are more aggressive than those of some of its trade partners. Likewise, a performance standard may mesh more efficiently with existing taxes and therefore cause less overall economic impact than an absolute cap and trade system. This paper considers the theoretical arguments for and against such a performance standard system and evaluates it in comparison to a cap and trade system using a dynamic general equilibrium model applied to Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation refers both to a process and its outcome, leading to much interpretation and debate. The origin of this semantic duality is related to the epistemological rupture occurred during the 19th Century from the collision between an emerging Theory of Evolution and the established Creationism. The temporal scale of Evolution is an abstract concept outside the realm of immediate human perception which makes the adaptation debate more complex. Though, adaptation became a central concept in several major disciplines of social as psychology, anthropology or geography as well as many fields of biology. In each discipline, environment is strongly linked to the concept of adaptation. Environmental sciences are in the intersection of natural and social sciences and have a strong interdisciplinary feature as adaptation does. That's why, because of the acceleration of global environmental and socioeconomic change, there is a growing interest in adaptation in the environmental science. Climate change is one of the major topics concerned by adaptation, since the theme became a priority in research and politic agenda. But implementation of adaptation to climate change faces to barriers, in particular due to its unclear definition. The objective of this paper is to contribute to greater understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of the concept of adaptation in the climate change through a comprehensive and interdisciplinary review of the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]