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Coal mining in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, evokes not only struggles on the control of land but also conflicts between different notions of land. Based on ethnographic research in a mining area, I describe a relational attached notion of land which is subdued by a detached, monetary-based understanding in the course of increased mining. In negotiations on the compensation of land with representatives of the mining companies, members of the village elite, which are entangled in patronage networks with the companies, ignore the various notions of land by other villagers and sideline those who are critical. With my article, I contribute to the ontological dimension of environmental conflicts with insights from Southeast Asia thereby giving a diversified picture of the struggles on access and the lacking acknowledgement of different notions of land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea ice, one of the most dominant barriers to Arctic shipping, has decreased dramatically over the past four decades. Arctic maritime transport is hereupon growing in recent years. To produce a long-term assessment of trans-Arctic accessibility, we systematically revisit the daily Arctic navigability with a view to the combined effects of sea ice thickness and concentration throughout the period 1979–2020. The general trends of Navigable Windows (NW) in the Northeast Passage show that the number of navigable days is steadily growing and reached 89±16 days for Open Water (OW) ships and 163±19 days for Polar Class 6 (PC6) ships in the 2010s, despite high interannual and interdecadal variability in the NWs. More consecutive NWs have emerged annually for both OW ships and PC6 ships since 2005 because of the faster sea ice retreat. Since the 1980s, the number of simulated Arctic routes has continuously increased, and optimal navigability exists in these years of record-low sea ice extent (e.g., 2012 and 2020). Summertime navigability in the East Siberian and Laptev Seas, on the other hand, varies dramatically due to changing sea ice conditions. This systematic assessment of Arctic navigability provides a reference for better projecting the future trans-Arctic shipping routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural transition represents an essential component of land use and land cover change in countries across the world, as economic and social factors pressure agriculturalists out of traditional subsistence farming into commodity production. Modernization has altered modes of income, land ownership, and livelihood in Southeast Asia drastically in recent years. The Bình Thuận Province of southern Vietnam experienced a particularly radical transformation with the introduction of dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) cultivation, which has been profoundly encouraged by outside markets in China, Australia, Japan, and the United States. Dragon fruit plantation dynamics and recent expansion are captured via remotely sensed nighttime lights (NTL) data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), revealing a seasonal signal important for differentiating various land uses on the ground. We employed the Breaks for Additive and Seasonal Trend (BFAST) algorithm to reduce and summarize seasonal trends in NTL data and then used the BFAST output combined with a Normalized Difference Lights Index (NDLI) value for each year in the period of 2012 through 2018 in a decision tree classifier to differentiate dragon fruit land use from city lights across the province. The final output was contextualized with a series of semistructured interviews to examine and characterize a changing agricultural landscape associated with dragon fruit cultivation. Dragon fruit plantation in southern Vietnam follows the land system transition pathways of many other agricultural contexts but presents unique physical and social outcomes for further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dramatic sea ice loss makes trans‐Arctic navigation possible. However, navigability assessments at high temporal resolution are still very limited. To bridge this gap, daily sea ice concentration and thickness from CMIP6 projections are applied to evaluate the future potential of Arctic shipping under multiple climate scenarios. The September navigable area will continue to increase through the 2050s for open‐water (OW) ships and the 2040s for Polar Class 6 (PC6) vessels across all scenarios. Quasi‐equilibrium states will then ensue for both OW and PC6 ships under SSP245 and SSP585. The sailing time will be shortened, especially for OW ships, while the navigable days for both types of vessels will increase dramatically. PC6 ships will be able to sail the Arctic shipping routes year‐round starting in the 2070s when the decadal‐averaged global mean surface temperature anomaly hits approximately +3.6°C (under SSP585) compared to pre‐industrial times (1850–1900). Plain Language Summary: Trans‐Arctic shipping activities are increasing with the retreat of Arctic sea ice, thus, a systematic navigability assessment is urgently needed. We carried out this assessment at high temporal resolution. Shipping opportunities will increase substantially even under the sustainable green energy scenario (SSP126). Remarkably, Polar Class 6 ships are expected to sail the trans‐Arctic corridors year‐round starting in the 2070s under SSP585. For open‐water ships, the changes in September navigable area and in navigable days are not much different under SSP126 than under SSP245. The diversity of trends in the September navigable area under SSP126, SSP245, and SSP585 is markedly different from that of sea ice area/extent. The opening of shipping routes is strongly determined by the combined effects of sea ice thickness and concentration reductions. Key Points: The Arctic shipping opportunities for open‐water and Polar Class 6 (PC6) ships will increase substantially even under SSP126The changes in September navigable area are markedly different from that of the sea ice area/extent derived from sea ice concentration onlyPC6 ships will sail trans‐Arctic shipping routes year‐round since the 2070s when the decadal‐averaged global mean surface temperature anomaly hits +3.6℃ under SSP585 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have long debated the degree to which Native American land use altered landscapes in the Americas prior to European colonization. Human–environment interactions in southern South America are inferred from new pollen and charcoal data from Laguna El Sosneado and their comparison with high-resolution paleoenvironmental records and archaeological/ethnohistorical information at other sites along the eastern Andes of southern Argentina and Chile (34–52°S). The records indicate that humans, by altering ignition frequency and the availability of fuels, variously muted or amplified the effects of climate on fire regimes. For example, fire activity at the northern and southern sites was low at times when the climate and vegetation were suitable for burning but lacked an ignition source. Conversely, abundant fires set by humans and infrequent lightning ignitions occurred during periods when warm, dry climate conditions coincided with ample vegetation (i.e., fuel) at midlatitude sites. Prior to European arrival, changes in Native American demography and land use influenced vegetation and fire regimes locally, but human influences were not widely evident until the 16th century, with the introduction of nonnative species (e.g., horses), and then in the late 19th century, as Euro-Americans targeted specific resources to support local and national economies. The complex interactions between past climate variability, human activities, and ecosystem dynamics at the local scale are overlooked by approaches that infer levels of land use simply from population size or that rely on regionally composited data to detect drivers of past environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite implications for both humans and the environment, a scant body of research examines fertility in forest frontiers. This study examines the fertility-environment association using empirical data from Ecuadorian Amazon between 1980 and 1999. Fertility dramatically declined during this period, and our empirical models suggest that households' relationship to land partially explains this decline. Controlling for known fertility determinants such as age and education, women in households lacking land titles experienced a 27 % higher birth rate than did women in households with land titles. This suggests insecure land tenure was associated with higher fertility. Furthermore, each additional hectare of new pasture was associated with a 16 % higher birth rate, suggesting the potential role of a more stable and lucrative income source in supporting additional births. Findings from this research can help inform strategic policies to address sustainable development in frontier environments.

In Nepal 'development' (bikas) frames local socio‐cultural practices, including gendered and environmental practices, with lasting gendered and ecological outcomes. This tension is at the heart of everyday life in Ludigaun, a Bahun (high caste Hindu) village in West Nepal. Utilising a framework of a local familiar tension between 'traditional' ideas/practices and those imagined through 'modernity', I draw on ethnographic material describing a year‐long family conflict over keeping buffalo, to allow the tension and contradictions inherent in village life – of gender, generations, and caste – and their articulation with national and global relations – to come into focus. For an older generation of women, their work and relationships with buffalo are at stake, presenting an uncertain future and a possible crisis of identity and of place. I argue that the relationship between these women and their buffalo extends beyond material needs and is a crucial emotional attachment; it is an intimate 'mode of care' that is integral to village social reproduction. Women's work with buffalo (although it has no positive status of its own) demonstrates the older generation of women are not passive but active players in constituting caste, gendered and social status identities. Keeping buffalo is fundamental to the ways in which and older generation of Bahun women exert their influence. Building on the work of Campbell (Animals in Person: Cultural Perspectives on Human–Animal Intimacies, 2005b, pp. 79–100; Living Between Juniper and Palm: Nature, Culture and Power in the Himalayas, 2013), Tsing (The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, 2015), Harraway (Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, 2016) and Govindrajan (Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India's Central Himalayas, 2018), the human–buffalo relationship presented here demonstrates the human–animal relationship as a key relationship of value to Bahun women at a time when the out‐migration phenomenon has taken their children away. I argue that in this way, and at a time when human–environment relationships are increasingly disembedded, human–buffalo relationships in West Nepal emphasise a unity between humans and their environment and remind us that intimacy and becoming are multispecies affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from early modern and contemporary geographic thought, this article explores how the premise of an Anthropocene (Age of Humans) can be used to reinforce enduring modes of human–environment thinking. Anthropocene dialogues build on insights posed by geographers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: unity of nature, humans as nature made conscious, humans as nature's conscience, and time periods as devices for thinking about human–environment relations. Complementing these ideas, contemporary geographers are making compelling statements about the Anthropocene, affirming that interpretations of the proposed geologic time period differ according to socioenvironmental variables, geographic imaginations, local contexts, and critical perspectives. Three forms of human–environment thinking emerge from examining links between early modern geographers and current geographers addressing the Anthropocene: synthesis thinking, epistemological thinking, and ethical thinking. Connections across ideas concerning the Anthropocene and geographic thought will be strengthened by developing systematic chronologies of the human–environment relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palaeoecological research in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Aberdeen can be traced back to pollen-analytical (palynological) and geomorphological collaborations in the early 1970s. The research has generally been nested within Quaternary science and it features strong interdisciplinary links with archaeology, chronostratigraphy, climate change and ecology more generally. The pollen-based emphasis has been augmented by multi-proxy approaches including plant macro- and microfossils, geochemistry and pedology. There has always been techniques- and methodologically-orientated output and the chronological focus has spanned especially the period from the Lateglacial through to the present. With an emphasis upon research since the year 2000, the account is structured around such themes as environmental change in Scotland and the rest of the British Isles, human-environment interactions in the North Atlantic region, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, atmospheric pollution and metals in prehistory, and carbon sequestration and chronologies. A final section looks briefly and selectively at future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the mental constructs underlying people's social responses, decisions and behaviors is crucial to defining the governance challenges faced in dealing with marine anthropogenic litter. Using interactive governance theory, this study provides qualitative insights into how a small group of Arab-Israeli artisanal fishermen perceive marine litter and its impact (system to be governed) in the context of the socio-institutional structures (governing system) which manage waste and aim to protect the surrounding environment. It demonstrates that, until the relationships between local people and the various governing institutions are transformed, there is little hope for citizen cooperation in reducing marine litter long-term in the case-study site. More generally, underlying narratives and politics playing out at a local level need to be understood in order to identify which interventions are likely to be effective and which are not. An intervention checklist to assess the potential effectiveness of a marine litter intervention is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the negative child health impacts of soil zinc (Zn) deficiency in Nepal. Soil Zn deficiency limits both crop yields and the Zn concentration in food crops, leading many to speculate that it underlies human Zn deficiency and child stunting, globally and particularly in South Asia. We find strong evidence that soil Zn deficiency does have a causal impact on child stunting in Nepal's Tarai region, the breadbasket of the country. Using causal bounds, we find that a 1 part per million increase in plant-available soil Zn – achievable with application of Zn-enriched fertilizer – decreases child stunting by between 1 and 7.5 percentage points. Multiple statistical sensitivity tests indicate that this relationship is unlikely to be manufactured by omitted, relevant variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on barriers to climate change adaptation has, hitherto, disproportionately focused on institutional barriers. Despite the critical importance of personal barriers in shaping the adaptive response of humanity to climate change and variability, the literature on the subject is rather nascent. This study is premised on the hypothesis that place-specific characteristics (where you live) and compositional (both biosocial and sociocultural) factors may be salient to differentials in adaptation to climate change in coastal areas of developing countries. This is because adaptation to climate change is inherently local. Using cross-sectional survey data on 1,253 individuals (606 males and 647 females), barriers to adaptation to climate change were observed to vary with place, indicating that there is inequality in barriers to adaptation. In the multivariate models, the place-specific differences in barriers to adaptation were robust and remained statistically significant even when socio-demographic (compositional) variables were controlled. Observed differences in barriers to adaptation to climate change in coastal Tanzania mainly reflect strong place-specific disparities among groups indicating the need for adaptation policies that are responsive to processes of socio-institutional learning in a specific context, involving multiple people that have a stake in the present and the future of that place. These people are making complex, multifaceted choices about managing and adapting to climate-related risks and opportunities, often in the face of resource constraints and competing agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of “wicked problems”, messy real-world problems that defy resolution, requires thinkers who can transcend disciplinary boundaries, work collaboratively, and handle complexity and obstacles. This paper explores how educators can train undergraduates in these skills through applied community-based research, using the example of an interdisciplinary research program at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Participating students strengthened their abilities to handle setbacks in the research process, improved communication and teamwork skills, and gained familiarity with interdisciplinary investigation. Programmatic elements that could transfer well to other settings include studying local human–environment problems, working in multigenerational, small groups, and using multiple methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Early talk of the Anthropocene has been prompted by material evidence of the incoherence of ontological divisions between humanity and the rest of Earth. Yet, ironically, it has also been dominated by modern narratives about human distinction, autonomy, and dominion. Along with recrimination about the death of nature, the modern Anthropocene carries hope of human redemption through natural evolution or technological progress. The resulting narratives of enlightened planetary stewardship reduce earthly multitudes to a common denominator, shoring up the mirrored horizons within which modern humans encounter only themselves. In response, I explore amodern possibilities for action in an Anthropocene beyond modern referents of nature and culture. These possibilities open up choices within planetary dynamics that are inherently human but not reducible to human agency. This is a politics of sustenance attuned to difference and relation and directed to the multitude of human-other-than-human collectives, to the specific shared projects of existence, in which human interests are composed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial is the product of the Progress in Physical Geography lecture at the April 2013 meeting of the Association of American Geographers. The paper was presented by George Malanson, the North American Editor, and the co-authors presented critiques based on a draft. Subsequently, the manuscript was developed and revised based on discussion at the meeting and additional exchange among the co-authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dawn of the 21st century saw the emergence of the newly declared field of "sustainability science." The new field's research agenda focuses on meeting human needs while simultaneously sustaining the life support systems of the planet. The field works to merge the natural and social sciences with analyses conducted from global to local scales. Sustainability science resembles the long-standing human-environment tradition in geography, yet geography was not widely recognized as a fundamental discipline during the emergence of sustainability science. The failure of geography to exert itself in the birth of sustainability science is the latest failure by geography to take its place as a discipline essential to solving pressing environmental problems. Opportunities remain for geography to take a central role in the advancement of sustainability science by leveraging its diversity of perspectives to provide a needed and uniquely geographical contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of resilience in ecology has been expanded into a framework to analyse human-environment dynamics. The extension of resilience notions to society has important limits, particularly its conceptualization of social change. The paper argues that this stems from the lack of attention to normative and epistemological issues underlying the notion of ‘social resilience’. We suggest that critically examining the role of knowledge at the intersections between social and environmental dynamics helps to address normative questions and to capture how power and competing value systems are not external to, but rather integral to the development and functioning of SES. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ways in which geographers have framed research on human–environment interactions have changed over time. This review emphasizes the limitations of previous ways of framing human–environment research and indicates new opportunities to be pursued by reframing the research questions. It begins with the research and influence of W. M. Davis and follows with research framed as environmental determinism, human ecology, natural hazards, human impacts on the environment, and sustainability. Studies of interactions between people and environments are central to geography, but such studies have dominantly been one-sided as a result of the type of relationship studied or the perspectives (physical or social) brought by the investigators. Awareness of the nature of nature and the dynamic, interactive behavior of biophysical and human systems has the potential to bring new perspectives to the traditional human–environment dichotomy. Because many of the world's important problems involve interactions between people and environments, geographers are encouraged to turn their attention to this core area of the discipline. Research opportunities include studies of the effects of environmental change on human populations, including the complex web of interactions and feedbacks involved; studies of how environmental services are valued and managed; and other studies that provide knowledge to support more sustainable human–environment interactions, especially in an urbanizing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of the work Guns, germs and steel (GGS) has served to bring the question of human–environment connections once again to the forefront of popular thought. We assert that the recent success of GGS represents both a persistence of environmental determinist logic and a contemporary trend that privileges the environment as the primary influence on human–environment relationships. The historical development of the human–environment field is reviewed from the cultural and political ecology (CAPE) perspective, with particular attention to illustrating the varying emphasis between humans and their environment. GGS is situated within this developing field through a critical analysis of the arguments and methods forwarded by Jared Diamond. The book is found to mirror earlier environmental determinism by failing to take into account many of the advances in human–environmental thought since the early twentieth century. Its popular success suggests the pitfalls of failures to acknowledge the complex, intertwined and indivisible relationship that exists among humans and their environment. Furthermore, there is evidence that the environmental determinism espoused in GGS has caught the attention of international development policymakers potentially influencing future outlays of aid and assistance to the developing world. These conclusions raise cautionary flags against repeating past theoretical mistakes by accepting simplistic, causal explanations based largely on a deterministic conception of the natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Motivating collective action is important to address environmental change. • We analyze the impact of space and time on collective invasive species management. • Spatial patterns influence collective action with relevance to institutional design. • Social and biophysical factors also influence collective action in different ways. Environmental governance research has discovered much about what drives collective action to address human-environment issues, including factors such as risk perceptions and self-efficacy. Yet the design of many studies limits our ability to draw conclusions about collective action under conditions of environmental change, especially across spatial or temporal scales. In this study, we integrate social and biophysical data—assessing data over time and examining the influence of space—to analyze efforts by community members to manage rapid environmental change in the form of an invasive plant (Mikania micrantha) in community forests in Chitwan, Nepal. Invasive species are an increasingly complex ethical, cultural, and ecological issue that is becoming more pressing with global environmental and social changes. We combine household surveys, ecological surveys, and spatial data in Bayesian hierarchical linear models to explore changes in the drivers of collective action since initial household surveys in 2014. We find that risk perceptions, reliance on forest resources, perceptions of forest safety, and M. micrantha abundance were the most influential factors in our models. Additionally, our findings suggest that the influence of M. micrantha abundance on collective action varies across spatial scales, indicating important interactions between social and biophysical drivers of collective action. Ultimately, our results highlight the importance of considering social and biophysical factors across space and time to inform the design of institutions that will be effective in addressing collection action problems tied to environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the impact of flooding in Pakistan on child health using satellite data and two household datasets. Flooding may influence child health, as measured by weight-for-height z-score, through two key channels. First, excessive flood waters can catalyze the spread of diarrheal disease, negatively impacting child health. Second, excessive flood waters — even when damaging in some areas — provide water to rice paddies and other agriculture, increasing food availability in the post-flood period. This may positively influence child health. In Pakistan, we find evidence of both channels: floods increase incidence of morbidity (diarrhea and fever) as well as meal frequency in the post flood season. We also find that floods increase dietary diversity, but only in districts with high rice harvesting intensity where flooding may predict favorable growing conditions. Because these mechanisms (disease incidence and dietary adequacy) act against one another, we find weak overall impact of floods on child health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses human-environment interactions, and previews the articles about the application of mental models published within the issue.

With regard to philosophical anthropology, a human ecological framework for the human-environment relationship as an "ecology of the person" is outlined, which focuses on the term "relationship" and aims to be scientifically sound. It also provides theoretical orientations for multiprofessional clinical work. For this purpose, a multi-dimensional basic grid for the characterization of the individual human being is proposed. The necessity and meaningfulness of a differentiation and systematization of the terms "environment", and above all "relationship", are demonstrated, and practical examples and links to similar framework models are given.