Interrogating the Links between Climate Change, Food Crises and Social Stability

IF 1.6 4区 地球科学 Q3 GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Sören Köpke
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引用次数: 3

Abstract

There is a vivid scientific debate on how climate change affects stability, resilience, and conflict dynamics of human societies. Environmental security and collapse theory are theoretical approaches that claim severe negative impacts of climatic disasters on political stability, allegedly through the vector of food insecurity. Yet there is a disconnect between this work and the rich body of knowledge on food insecurity and society. The literature is fairly unanimous that (a) drought does not necessarily lead to famines, since (b) famines have a political context that is often more important than other factors; in addition, (c) famines and the distribution of suffering reflect social hierarchies within afflicted societies, and (d) even large-scale famines do not necessarily cause collapse of a polity’s functioning, as (e) food systems are highly interconnected and complex. As an illustrative case, the paper offers a longitudinal study of Malawi. By combining environmental history and analysis of Malawi’s idiosyncratic (post-)colonial politics, it discusses the possible connections between droughts, food insecurity, and political crises in the African country. The single-case study represents a puzzle for adherents of the “collapse” theory but highlights the complex political ecology of food crises in vulnerable societies. This has implications for a formulation of climate justice claims beyond catastrophism.
探究气候变化、粮食危机和社会稳定之间的联系
关于气候变化如何影响人类社会的稳定性、恢复力和冲突动态,有一场生动的科学辩论。环境安全和崩溃理论是声称气候灾害对政治稳定产生严重负面影响的理论方法,据称是通过粮食不安全的载体。然而,这项工作与有关粮食不安全和社会的丰富知识体系之间存在脱节。文献一致认为:(a)干旱并不一定导致饥荒,因为(b)饥荒的政治背景往往比其他因素更重要;此外,(c)饥荒和苦难的分布反映了受影响社会内部的社会等级,(d)即使是大规模饥荒也不一定会导致政体功能的崩溃,因为(e)粮食系统是高度相互关联和复杂的。作为一个说明性的案例,本文提供了马拉维的纵向研究。通过结合环境历史和对马拉维特殊(后)殖民政治的分析,本书讨论了非洲国家干旱、粮食不安全和政治危机之间可能存在的联系。对于“崩溃”理论的追随者来说,这个单一案例的研究是一个谜,但它突出了脆弱社会中粮食危机的复杂政治生态。这对在灾难论之外制定气候正义主张具有启示意义。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Earth Interactions
Earth Interactions 地学-地球科学综合
CiteScore
2.70
自引率
5.00%
发文量
16
审稿时长
>12 weeks
期刊介绍: Publishes research on the interactions among the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, and lithosphere, including, but not limited to, research on human impacts, such as land cover change, irrigation, dams/reservoirs, urbanization, pollution, and landslides. Earth Interactions is a joint publication of the American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, and American Association of Geographers.
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