Suchergebnisse

The article "Climate change and the Syrian civil war revisited" by Selby et al., 2017 (henceforth S2017) challenges research exploring the links between anthropogenic climate change, water scarcity and drought, impacts on agricultural production and economic stability, and the initial 2011 unrest in Syria. More broadly, the authors contest any causal link between climate and conflict. This is an important, evolving area of study and we encourage improved, expanded, and updated analysis of these connections. In their criticism, the authors of S2017 single out three papers (Werrell, Femia, & Sternberg, 2015; Gleick, 2014; and Kelley, Mohtadi, Cane, Seager, & Kushnir, 2015; here after K2015). Here we comment directly on our own work in K2015, though the others are equally unscathed by S2017's criticisms. We do so by refuting S2017's claims regarding the role of climate change, summarizing the sizeable evidence of the long-term drying trend in the region, and bolstering the link between the drought, migration and subsequent unrest by providing further supporting evidence. Our response contends overall that S2017 fail to make their case. K2015 (as well as Gleick, 2014; Werrell et al., 2015) claim climate as one of many contributing factors to the unrest. Nothing in S2017 refutes this, and none of their supportable arguments even offer reason for doubting this view. While K2015 can and did make a quantitative estimate of the impact of anthropogenic effects on the drought, we cannot quantify the impact of climate or any other factor, separately, on the conflict.

Protests are one of the most common expressions of modern political conflict, and the wave of demonstrations that marked the onset of the Arab Spring contributed to a global increase in protest activity. Yet few studies have examined the effects of exposure to protests on population well-being even though such exposure may have profound and lasting effects, especially if experienced at critical stages of development over the life course. The aim of our study is to estimate the effects of exposure to political protests on the human capital accumulation and well-being of youth during the tumultuous political transition experienced in Egypt from 2011 - 2014. For a nationally representative panel of youth captured in the 2009 and 2013/2014 waves of the Survey of Young People in Egypt (SYPE), we exploit exogenous geospatial variation in the occurrence of political protests from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) Project, to estimate individual-level changes in social trust, uncertainty, education, and health outcomes for youth exposed to protests. In our panel, 31.1% of the sample lived in districts where riots or protests occurred. Exposure to protests increased overall perceptions of uncertainty about the future. Young men ever exposed to protests were slightly more likely to report good overall health, but experienced sizable worsening in mental health compared to young women ever exposed. Differences by own and family participation in protest events were found for perceptions of uncertainty and mental health. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring and other mass protest movements around the globe, these findings highlight the importance of examining the population-level impacts of different forms of political conflict, particularly as substantial numbers of youth in Middle East and North Africa and elsewhere progress to adulthood under conditions of political instability.

Despite the expanding financial power of the global super-rich and their expansive control over natural resources as proprietors of an increasing number of large agricultural properties, geographers have only just begun to assess the influences of wealthy landowners on systems of environmental management. In this dissertation, I examine a set of ownership dynamics related to the acquisition of ranchland properties by high net worth (HNW) individuals in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, a charismatic conservation area in the Northern Rockies, USA. The dissertation deploys a mixed methods approach informed by social-ecological systems theory and insights from the literature on political ecology of the American West to assess HNW ownership regimes at the landscape and property scales from the perspective of an iconic regional resource institution: state-led elk management. The work follows a central conceptual logic related to the evolution of HNW land management, namely that ranch owners and properties interact with local ecologies, social actors, and resource institutions in ways that influence land use strategies and practices over time and space. At the landscape scale, patterns of land-use intensification (e.g., increased use of irrigation) have converged with growing diversification (e.g., increased residential development), to make elk management more complex, as elk encounter a range of push and pull factors across a shifting and diverse landscape of land-use values and practices. A defining characteristic of the trajectory for ranches of the super-rich is that HNW landowners ranch with, as opposed to for, money, though multiple social-ecological factors (markets, property lines, legal institutions, and unpredictable rangeland socio-ecologies) also shape HNW landowners' abilities to realize management goals and visions. Where HNW ownership regimes intersect with shifts in the political and moral economy, conflicts related to public access to wildlife on private lands have emerged. In this context, the work ...

In the moist heat of a Sydney February a group of concerned scholars gathered on the banks of the Georges River close to the University of Western Sydney, Bankstown. Amongst us there were key thinkers from the fields of Anthropology, Education, Human Geography, Philosophy, Science and Technology Studies, Sociology, Political Theory, Communications and Film. We gathered to consider an ethics for living in this new era of human driven climate change called the "Anthropocene." We wrote the Manifesto above. We think that we can work against singular and global representations of "the problem" in the face of which any small, multiple, place-based action is rendered hopeless. We can choose to read for difference rather than dominance; think connectivity rather than hyper-separation; look for multiplicity—multiple climate changes, multiple ways of living with earth others. We can find ways forward in what is already being done in the here and now; attend to the performative effects of any analysis; tell stories in a hopeful and open way—allowing for the possibility that life is dormant rather than dead. We can use our critical capacities to recover our rich traditions of counter-culture and theorize them outside the mainstream/alternative binary. All these ways of thinking and researching give rise to new strategies for going forward. Think of the chapters of this book as tentative hoverings, as the fluttering of butterfly wings, scattering germs of ideas that can take root and grow.

While economic downturns have adverse effects on young people's life chances, empirical studies examining whether and to what extent human values, social attitudes and well-being indicators respond to sudden economic shocks are scarce. To assess the claim that human values are less affected by economic shocks than social attitudes and well-being, two distinct yet related studies based on the European Social Survey (ESS) are conducted. The first employs a fixed effects pseudo-panel analysis of the 2008–2014 ESS-waves to detect whether changes over time in the socio-demographic group's unemployment risk and national youth unemployment affect individual dispositions to varying degrees. The second study captures micro- and cross-national effects in the 2010 ESS cross-section. Unique for this set-up is that we can test whether the findings hold for over-time changes in youth unemployment within countries (pseudo-panel), as well as for cross-country differences in youth unemployment (multilevel). Both studies indicate that political trust, satisfaction with the economy and subjective well-being are lowered by economic risk and hardship, while social trust and self-rated health are less affected by changes in youth unemployment. Secondly, human values are immune to economic risk, underscoring that values transcend specific situations and are therefore resistant against sudden economic shocks.

Environment pollution is a wide-reaching problem and it is likely to influence the health of human populations is great. This paper provides the insight view about the effects of environment pollution in the perspective of air pollution, water and land/ soil waste pollution on human by diseases and problems, animals and trees/ plants. Study finds that these kinds of pollutions are not only seriously affecting the human by diseases and problems but also the animals and trees/ plants. According to author, still time left in the hands of global institutions, governments and local bodies to use the advance resources to balance the environment for living and initiates the breathed intellectuals to live friendly with environment

Trafficking in human beings, also known as slavery in modern times, is a serious crime as well as a violation of fundamental human rights and dignity. The purpose of trafficking is to exploit vulnerable persons for the sole purpose of profit. Every state is affected in some form or form of trafficking in human beings. The term "modern form of slavery" can also be found in the literature and practice of some countries; a term used to raise awareness of what trafficking may look like to people who are uninformed. There are still many myths about trafficking one of them is that trafficking only happens internationally and that the international element of the trafficking offense is qualifying. In fact, although many cases of trafficking in human beings involve an international element, where the victim is taken from one state to another and exploited there, trafficking also occurs within the territory of the same state and is known as "internal trafficking". Trafficking in human beings is a serious crime and above all a violation of dignity and fundamental human rights. Considering it as such, the awareness as well as the attention of the state and the whole society towards the prevention and uncompromising fight against trafficking in human beings has recently increased; hitting on the phenomenon, identifying cases, investigating, prosecuting and bringing to justice all perpetrators of the crime of trafficking in human beings. The UN Protocol to Prevent, Eliminate and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, 2000, known as the Palermo Protocol, Article 3 states that: Trafficking in human beings means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, accommodation or support of persons, through threats or by use of force or various forms of coercion, kidnapping, lying, abuse of power or powerlessness, giving or receiving money or benefits, with the intent to gain the consent of any person who has control to any other person, for the needs of exploitation. A number of international documents and ...

Over the past decade, India has experienced rapid economic growth along with increases in levels of air pollution. Our goal is to examine how alternative policies for air pollution abatement affect well-being there. In particular, we estimate the effects of policies to reduce the levels of ambient fine particulates (PM2.5), which are especially harmful to human health, on well-being, quantified using the United Nations' human development index (HDI). Two of the three dimensions of this index are based on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and life expectancy. Our approach allows reductions in PM2.5 to affect both of them. In particular, economic growth is affected negatively through the costs of the additional pollution control measures and positively through the increased productivity of the population. We consider three scenarios of PM2.5 abatement, corresponding to no further control, current Indian legislation, and current European legislation. The overall effect in both control scenarios is that growth in GDP is virtually unaffected relative to the case of no further controls, life expectancy is higher, and well-being, as measured by the HDI, is improved. In India, air pollution abatement investments clearly improve well-being.

Over the past decade, India has experienced rapid economic growth along with increases in levels of air pollution. Our goal is to examine how alternative policies for air pollution abatement affect well-being there. In particular, we estimate the effects of policies to reduce the levels of ambient fine particulates (PM2.5), which are especially harmful to human health, on well-being, quantified using the United Nations' human development index (HDI). Two of the three dimensions of this index are based on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and life expectancy. Our approach allows reductions in PM2.5 to affect both of them. In particular, economic growth is affected negatively through the costs of the additional pollution control measures and positively through the increased productivity of the population. We consider three scenarios of PM2.5 abatement, corresponding to no further control, current Indian legislation, and current European legislation. The overall effect in both control scenarios is that growth in GDP is virtually unaffected relative to the case of no further controls, life expectancy is higher, and well-being, as measured by the HDI, is improved. In India, air pollution abatement investments clearly improve well-being.

Cooperation and compassion are forms of intelligence. Their lack is an indication of ongoing stress or toxic stress during development that undermined the usual growth of compassion capacities. Though it is hard to face at first awareness, humans in the dominant culture tend to be pretty unintelligent compared to those from societies that existed sustainably for thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of years. Whereas in sustainable societies everyone must learn to cooperate with earth's systems to survive and thrive, in the dominant culture this is no longer the case. Now due to technological advances that do not take into account the long-term welfare of earth systems, humans have become "free riders" until these systems collapse from abuse or misuse. The dominant human culture, a "weed species," has come to devastate planetary ecosystems in a matter of centuries. What do we do to return ourselves to living as earth creatures, as one species among many in community? Humanity needs to restore lost capacities—relational attunement and communal imagination—whose loss occurs primarily in cultures dominated by child-raising practices and ways of thinking that undermine cooperative companionship and a sense of partnership that otherwise develops from the beginning of life. To plant the seeds of cooperation, democracy, and partnership, we need to provide the evolved nest to children, and facilitate the development of ecological attachment to their landscape. This will take efforts at the individual, policy, and institutional levels.

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY: Donavon Lyngholm, 1927-1993, was a range scientist and active environmentalist. Born January 27, 1927 in Sidney, Nebraska he attended college at Colorado State University and graduated from the Fort Collins school in 1950 with a degree in range science. After a stint in the United States Army, he went to work for the federal government as a range scientist. He began his work with the Forest Service and later transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. His last assignment was to the Joint Use Land office in Flagstaff where he lived and worked until his retirement in 1982. After his retirement Don continued to work as a private range science consultant, Sierra Club trip leader and volunteer researcher for environmental issues. Don Lyngholm passed away May 12, 1993.The Donavon Lyngholm papers consist of reports, newsletter, articles and scientific data concerning issues of wilderness preservation and range management in the southwestern United States. The Range management material includes reports prepared for the Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation Commission and several Northern Arizona ranches.

The present study aims to find out the effect of internet addiction on subjective wellbeing of adolescents studying in and around Mysuru city. A total of 720 adolescents were included in the present study, having equal number of male and female students studying in 10, 11 and 12th standards. They were administered Internet addiction scale (Young, 1998) and satisfaction with life scale (Diener et al, 1995). Two-way ANOVA was employed to find out the effect of internet addiction on subjectivewellbeing, including select demographic variables-school type, area and gender. Results revealed that Internet addiction did not have significant influence over the subjective wellbeing scores. Adolescents studying in government schools had highest subjective wellbeing scores and adolescents studying in unaided schools had least wellbeing scores. Adolescents from rural area had higher subjective wellbeing scores compared to adolescents from urban area. Gender did not have significant influence over subjective wellbeing of the adolescents

During the COVID pandemic governments across the globe put restrictions in place to curb the spread of the virus. During the strict lock-down phase, people were only permitted to leave the house for essential reasons, and visiting of family members living in a different household was not allowed. The aim of the present study was to investigate possible effects of these COVID restrictions on well-being according to different family models. Extending Kağitçibasi's (2007, 2013) postulated family model by Manzi et al.'s (2006) aspects of family cultures (enmeshment, cohesion, autonomy and social support) we first explored, if these family models can be replicated in Luxembourg. We then tested, if lock-down restrictions affected family models differently in terms of well-being. A total of N = 244 (Mage = 35 years, SD = 12.2; 73% female) completed our online questionnaire at the time of the strict lockdown in April-Mai 2020 in Luxembourg. To capture the impact of the pandemic, the questionnaire was divided into two parts. First, participants answered questions about their well-being, family culture and closeness to their parents in general. Participants were then reminded of COVID lockdown restrictions and asked to answer under these restrictions. Using cluster analysis we identified three family models, namely psychologically interdependent families (focus on cohesion and social support), independent families (focus on autonomy), and interdependent families (focus: enmeshment, cohesion and social support). The independent family cluster showed lower well-being before and during the pandemic compared to psychologically interdependent families. Our findings suggest that different family models as postulated by Kağitçibasi are indeed affected differently by the pandemic. Furthermore, there appears to be a particular association between cohesion and well-being. Implications of these findings will be discussed also in the family model framework.

In exploring adult learning and education in connection with migration processes, questions pertaining to societies, individuals and educational institutions are posed. What educational potential is generated by migration for individuals and societies as a whole? What educational policies are developed by societies to deal with the challenge of migration? To what extent do researchers of adult and continuing education and learning study and discuss the phenomenon of migration and its consequences? (DIPF/Orig.)

Although the practices of animal experimentation and intensive rearing involve a considerable amount of animal suffering they continue to be supported. Why is the suffering of animals in these practices so often accepted? This paper will explore some of the reasons given in support of the use of animals for such practices. In particular I will focus on contractarianism as one of the many positions that argues that morally relevant differences between species justify animal experimentation and factory farming. These differences include rationality and moral agency. On this position non-humans are excluded from direct moral concern on the basis that they lack such qualities. I will argue that in order for contractarianism to be coherent it necessarily has to include non-humans in the contract. This has implications for the application of contractarianism to the ethics of factory farming and animal experimentation.