(Press-News.org) CHICAGO – What role does pre-existing vulnerabilities play for people who experience a climate shock? Does it amplify the effects of the climate shock or is effect negligible? Four Arizona State University archaeologists are looking into this as part of an international team examining how people can be most resilient to climate change when it comes to food security.
The group questioned whether vulnerability to food shortages prior to a climate shock – not the actual experience of the food shortage – is related to the scale of impact of that shock. They found a strong relationship.
The team used long-term archaeological and historical data from the North Atlantic Islands and the U.S. Southwest to form the basis of their understanding of changing dynamics in these areas. Each case in their study included information on evolving social, political and economic conditions over centuries, as well as climate data.
The extended timeframe and global scope allowed them to witness changes in the context of vulnerabilities and climate challenges on a wide scale.
"The pattern is so consistent across different regions of the world experiencing substantially different climate shocks, that the role of vulnerability cannot be ignored," said Margaret Nelson, an ASU President's Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
Nelson made her comments today (Feb. 16) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.
The other ASU archaeologists involved in the study are professors Keith Kintigh, Michelle Hegmon and Kate Spielmann, all of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Their findings support the argument for focusing on reducing vulnerabilities to climate shocks to boost resilience, which will ultimately lead to fewer required recovery efforts when crises occur. Nelson said that most often disaster management does not address vulnerabilities prior to shocks but instead focuses on returning a system to its previous condition following a disaster.
"Exposures to climate challenges and other environmental risks are not the sole causes of disasters," she says. "People have unintentionally built vulnerabilities through decisions and actions in social, political and economic realms."
INFORMATION:
The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and Wenner Gren, and includes collaborators from such diverse institutions as the National Museum of Denmark and the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization.
Source:
Margaret Nelson, (480) 965-9520
Media Contact:
Julie Newberg, (480) 727-3116, julie.newberg@asu.edu
Archaeologists lend long-term perspective to food security and climate shock
2014-02-16
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Cultural foundations of human social behavior
2014-02-16
CHICAGO --- Joan Chiao, assistant professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, will discuss her research "Cultural and Neural Basis of Empathy" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.
Her presentation is part of the symposium "Physiological and Cultural Foundations of Human Social Behavior" to be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15 in Grand Ballroom E of the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
The session will focus on recent findings in social neurosciences and ...
Contemplating the workplace of tomorrow
2014-02-16
CHICAGO --- Robert Gordon, the Stanley G. Harris Professor in the department of economics in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, will present "Long-Term Unemployment, Shrinking Participation and Future Economic Growth" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.
His presentation is part of the symposium "Will the Workplace of Tomorrow Have Any Workers? Computing, Productivity and Jobs" to be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15 in the Water Tower room at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
In ...
Top-down and bottom-up approach needed to conserve potato agrobiodiversity
2014-02-16
Mashed, smashed and fried, Americans love potatoes, but only a few varieties are grown in much of North American agriculture. In South America, where potatoes originated, more than 5,000 varieties continue to exist. A Penn State geographer is gathering all the information he can about the agrobiodiversity of these uniquely adapted tubers with an eye toward sustainability of this fourth largest food crop worldwide.
"In the U.S. we rely primarily on 10 to 12 types of potatoes total," said Karl Zimmerer, department head and professor of geography. "In fact, mostly we use ...
Robotic fish aids understanding of how animals move
2014-02-16
The weakly electric black ghost knifefish of the Amazon basin has inspired Northwestern University's Malcolm MacIver and an interdisciplinary team of researchers to develop agile fish robots that could lead to a vast improvement in underwater vehicles used to study fragile coral reefs, repair damaged deep-sea oil rigs or investigate sunken ships.
MacIver will discuss the research at a press briefing, "Robots from Nature: Making Mechanical Animals," to be held at 1 p.m. CST Saturday, Feb. 15, in Vevey Room 3 of the Swissôtel Chicago. The briefing is part of the American ...
Stanford scientist to unveil 50-state plan to transform US to renewable energy
2014-02-16
Stanford Professor Mark Jacobson and his colleagues recently developed detailed plans to
transform the energy infrastructure of New York, California and Washington states from fossil fuels
to 100 percent renewable resources by 2050. On Feb. 15, Jacobson will present a new roadmap to
renewable energy for all 50 states at the annual meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.
The online interactive roadmap is tailored to maximize the resource potential of each state.
Hovering a cursor over California, for example, reveals ...
Research on urban ghettos must recognize differences among cities
2014-02-16
Research on urban neighborhoods must take into account differences among cities and rely on some techniques that have not been used extensively by sociologists studying neighborhood effects, according to Mario Small, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.
Small, who is also dean of UChicago's Division of the Social Sciences, studies urban neighborhoods and has studied the diversity of experiences for people living in poor neighborhoods in cities across the country.
Studying only a few neighborhoods extensively fails to capture important differences, ...
Making biodiverse agriculture part of a food-secure future
2014-02-16
Is biodiverse agriculture an anachronism? Or is it a vital part of a food-secure future?
Given the need to feed an estimated 2.4 billion more people by the year 2050, the drive toward large-scale, single-crop farming around the world may seem inexorable.
But there's an important downside to this trend, argues Timothy Johns, Professor of Human Nutrition at McGill University in Montreal, in a paper to be presented Saturday, Feb. 15, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.
Diets for most people around the world are becoming ...
LGB individuals living in anti-gay communities die early
2014-02-15
February 12, 2014 -- In the first study to look at the consequences of anti-gay prejudice for mortality, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals who lived in communities with high levels of anti-gay prejudice have a shorter life expectancy of 12 years on average compared with their peers in the least prejudiced communities. "The results of this study suggest a broadening of the consequences of prejudice to include premature death," noted the study's lead author, Mark Hatzenbuehler, PhD, ...
Beat-keeping sea lion shows surprising rhythmic ability
2014-02-15
Ronan, a California sea lion at Long Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz, became an Internet sensation last year when UCSC scientists published a paper describing her ability to bob her head in time with rhythmic sounds and music in a variety of tempos (see video).
Ronan is the first non-human mammal convincingly shown to be able to keep the beat. Her range and versatility in matching different beats is impressive, according to Peter Cook, who began working with Ronan as a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz. Cook, now a postdoctoral fellow at ...
The new Africa -- green shoots in biosciences
2014-02-15
Cambridge UK, Feb 10, 2014: This key session will bring African experts in person to Chicago to report on how agricultural biotechnology is starting to have a real impact on the crucial smallholder farming sector in particular. However, the session will also warn that this fledgling bioscience revolution needs to be carefully nurtured. According to moderator Sir Brian Heap, African economies are now among the fastest growing in the world. "While many of the world's farmers have benefitted from advances in bioscience, African farmers and citizens could possibly benefit the ...