Environment & Climate Change

469 Items

cod held by fisherman

AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File

Magazine Article - Boston Globe Magazine

Iceland’s ‘Silicon Valley of Cod’ Holds Secrets for New England’s Fishing Industry

| Feb. 01, 2024

Innovative "ocean clusters” may help save the fishing industry, clean toxins and plastics from the oceans, save burn victims, improve your energy drink, and much more – by using seafood waste, writes Greg Harris.

delegates to Senior Arctic Official meeting in Salekhard December 2021

Roscongress, Vyacheslav Viktorov via Arctic Council

Journal Article - Arctic Yearbook

What Makes the Arctic and Its Governance Exceptional? Stories of Geopolitics, Environments and Homelands

| Dec. 04, 2023

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent pause of circumpolar cooperation have challenged the Arctic region's designation as "exceptional." This article seeks to see beyond conventional understandings of “Arctic exceptionalism,” acknowledge a broader range of characteristics and features that make the Arctic unique and consider how this expanded view alters perceptions of the region’s governance. 

a seabird's nest containing three eggs and plastic pollution

Adobe Stock/Vladimir Melnik

Journal Article - Polar Record

Managing Plastic Pollution in the Arctic Ocean: An Integrated Quantitative Flux Estimate and Policy Study

| Nov. 10, 2023

Plastic pollution in the Arctic marine system is sparsely quantified, and few enforceable policies are in place to ameliorate the issue. In this paper, Dewey and Mackie estimate the flux of plastic through rivers, sea ice, and ocean, and quantify marine plastic pollution from Arctic shipping and fishing. They also examine how a suite of proposed policy interventions would quantitatively change those concentrations.

China Shipping Line cargo ship

AP Photo/David Goldman

Journal Article - Polar Record

Can China Change the Arctic Regime?

| Oct. 18, 2023

In view of the aggravated conflicts in other regions that include Russia as the largest Arctic state, and China as its strategic partner, an understanding of China’s opportunities to affect Arctic affairs is urgently needed. Kobzeva and Todorov use a regime theory approach to outline the Arctic regime complex (ARC) and determine China’s actual potential for making amendments to the ARC.

volunteers from Baptists On Mission and Home Builders Institute work at the home of Clifton Hall, assisting with ongoing repairs due to damage caused by Hurricane Florence

AP/Gerry Broome

Journal Article - Climate Policy

Economic Incentives for Coastal Homeowner Adaptation to Climate Change

    Authors:
  • Tracy Kijewski-Correa
  • Debra Javeline
  • William Kakenmaster
| 2023

Strategies to encourage adaptation to climate change are urgently needed, particularly to preempt common ineffective and maladaptive responses. The United States provides a notable case study for testing the potential for economic incentives to drive voluntary adaptation in vulnerable coastal communities where mandates through building codes have proven insufficient to limit economic losses. This paper analyzes a novel survey of 662 coastal households in the hurricane-exposed state of North Carolina.

pharmacist administers COVID-19 vaccine to patient

AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

Journal Article - Arctic Yearbook

The State of Research Focused on COVID-19 in the Arctic: A Meta-Analysis

| July 20, 2023

The Arctic region faces unique risks and challenges as a result of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the actions taken to respond to it. Research offers an important opportunity to understand the region’s unique conditions and characteristics for pandemic management. This article contributes to this knowledge building effort by surveying the literature that explicitly focuses on COVID-19 in the Arctic between 2020 and 2022. The authors analyze this emerging body of work with a focus on identifying overarching trends and map the themes and topics considered in this literature with a focus on highlighting topics that are prominent and those that are conspicuously underrepresented.

silhouetted oil rigs against blue background

Harvard Gazette

Newspaper Article - Harvard Gazette

Energy Agency Says Global Thirst for Oil Finally May Be Topping Out

    Author:
  • Alvin Powell
| July 11, 2023

The International Energy Agency predicted last month that demand for global oil for transport will peak around 2026, plateau for all uses by 2028, and possibly hit a zenith by the end of the decade. Harvard experts say the forecasts track with what’s going on in the developed world, but the energy needs of less-wealthy nations pressing to develop their economies could foil expectations for years to come.

Women who have been internally displaced selling charcoal on a market in Al Fashir, capital of the Sudanese state of North Dafur, February 18, 2015.

Wikimedia Commons

Journal Article - International Security

Rise or Recede? How Climate Disasters Affect Armed Conflict Intensity

    Author:
  • Tobias Ide
| Spring 2023

Climate disasters shape the trajectory of internal conflicts in states highly vulnerable to changes in conflict dynamics. Conflict after a climate disaster escalates when the disaster induces shifts in relative power that enable one side to increase its military efforts. But when one actor is weakened by the disaster and the other lacks the capability to exploit that weakness, conflict intensity declines.