Leading green criminologist Rob White asks what can be learned from the problem-solving focus of crime prevention to help face the challenges of climate change in this call to arms for criminology and criminologists.
Industries such as energy, food and tourism and the systematic destruction of the environment through global capitalism are scrutinized for their contribution to global warming. Ideas of ‘state-corporate crime’ and ‘ecocide’ are introduced and explored in this concise overview of criminological writings on climate change. This sound and robust application of theoretical concepts to this ‘new’ area also includes commentary on topical issues such as the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate agreement.
Part of the New Horizons in Criminology series, which draws on the inter-disciplinary nature of criminology and incorporates emerging perspectives like social harm, gender and sexuality, and green criminology.
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Climate change is the main challenge facing developed countries in the 21st century. To what extent does this agenda converge with issues of poverty and social exclusion? Climate change and poverty offers a timely new perspective on the ‘ecosocial’ understanding of the causes and symptoms of, and solutions to, poverty and applies this to recent developments across a number of areas, including fuel poverty, food poverty, housing, transport and air pollution. Unlike any other publication, the book therefore establishes a new agenda for both environmental and social policies which has cross-national relevance. It will appeal to students in social policy, public policy, applied social studies and politics and will also be of interest to those studying international development, economics and geography
79 FIVE Climate change victims Introduction Social division features greatly in any discussion of climate change justice and victimisation. It is the disadvantaged (those living in poverty), the vulnerable (the very young and the very old) and the dispossessed (Indigenous peoples subjected to colonisation) who are most likely to suffer the worst effects of global warming. These divisions are overlaid by entrenched disparities based upon class division, gender differences and inequalities based upon ‘race’ (a social rather than biological construction) and
315 19 Farming and climate change Rob White and Jasmine Yeates Introduction Global temperatures are changing quickly, and it is human activity that is the main cause (IPCC, 2013, 2014). This is part of a longer- term and rapidly acce lerating trend toward even greater warming. Farming practices are implicated in both mitigation (stopping and/or curbing of the drivers of climate change) and adaptation (adjusting to the impacts of climate change) in regards to global warming. Indeed, farming of various kinds (that include non-food purposes) and food
ontologies of climate change – how people see the relationship between themselves, others and the changing climate – play an important role in mitigation, adaptation and willingness to assume responsibility for environmental stewardship. In this chapter, we examine contrasting moral readings of climate change, considering how urban residents’ perceptions of climate change in terms of its remoteness or proximity are interwoven with beliefs about the blameworthiness of local and global actors, individual efficacy and personal agency (Jamieson, 2010 ). The extent to which
139 EIGHT Criminological responses to climate change Introduction This chapter provides a short conclusion to this book by summarising the main propositions and areas of concern for Climate Change Criminology. The chapter emphasises the role of criminologists as public intellectuals and political activists, and the necessity that there be stewards and guardians of the future. This translates into prioritising research, policy and practice around climate change themes – so that we collectively address the key problem of this age, flowing into the future
how urban residents in Jinja, Nanjing and Sheffield understand and narrate their experiences of ‘climate and the ways it might change’ (Brace and Geoghegan, 2010 : 3). Scholars have highlighted a gulf between expert and lay knowledges of climate change, in particular the contrast between the abstract spatialities and timeframes of global geoscience, and local, grounded experiences of living with a changing climate. This suggests a vital role for social science in understanding the kinds of environmental knowledge that is privileged and valued by ordinary citizens
223 TEN Chinese responsibility for climate change Paul G. Harris Is China responsible for climate change? The preceding chapters show that the answer to this question depends on a number of factors, such as the timescale being assessed, China’s capabilities and its level of development, whether we seek answers about practical or ethical- normative issues, and indeed how we define ‘China’ in this context – among other considerations. In this chapter I highlight some these factors before focusing on one that is becoming increasingly important from both
The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development makes climate change and responsible consumption key priorities for both industrialized and emerging economies. Moving beyond the Global North, this book uses innovative cross-national and cross-generational research with urban residents in China and Uganda, as well as the UK, to illuminate international debates about building sustainable societies and to examine how different cultures think about past, present and future responsibility for climate change.
The authors explore to what extent different nations see climate change as a domestic issue, whilst looking at local explanatory and blame narratives to consider profound questions of justice between those nations that are more and less responsible for, and vulnerable to, climate change.
Introduction Developing countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change and seasonal inter-annual climate variability. Societies living in violence and conflict-affected areas are particularly vulnerable to the physical impacts of climate change – although the magnitude and intensity of these impacts vary across geographical and climatological region (Adger et al, 2014 ). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) ( 2017 ), droughts have affected about 363 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past 20 years – 203 million of
