Impact of Social and Cultural Processes on Climate Change - Research Paper Example

Impact of Social and Cultural Processes on Climate Change Introduction Recently, climate change is the greatest environmental and socio-economic challenge. In that manner, increased human activities are causal agents for climate to change. Climate change is a very significant and lasting change in statistical distribution of weather patterns over a long period of time which is usually sometimes millions of years. It may be change in the distribution of weather around the average conditions or the average weather conditions. In the recent years there have been efforts to try and address the issue of climate change. Countries are being advised to adopt anti-climate change policies. In this context, they are actually required to address the key issues in the society that have prevented the adoption of the strategies. The study would discuss on how the social and cultural processes have impacted while addressing this issue of climate change. How values affects the decisions and actions with regard to climate change, what role culture plays in the strategies for adopting to climate change, and in the process overcoming the barriers to change. The study would also highlight the irreversible losses of cultural and natural heritage as a result of climate change, and finally, what cultural practitioners contribute to the search for creative solutions to the negative impacts of climate change. Discussion Climate change is caused by a variety of factors which include oceanic processes like oceanic circulation, variations in solar radiation that is received by Earth, volcanic eruptions, plate tectonics, and lastly, human induced alterations of the natural world; the latter effects are currently resulting in global warming, while climate change is often used to describe the human specific impacts (Rothwell, 2006:56). The factors that shape climate are referred to as climate forcings. They include processes like variations in solar radiation, continental drift, mountain building and, variations in earth orbit, and changes in the concentrations of greenhouse gases. There are arrays of climate change feedbacks that can either diminish or amplify the initial forcing (Barnett & Adger, 2003:134). The human factors that cause climate change include: an increase in the carbon (iv) oxide concentrations as a result of emissions from fossil fuel combustion, followed by the aerosols and then cement manufacture. The other factors include the following: animal agriculture, deforestation, ozone depletion, and lastly, land use. They are also of concern in the roles that they play, both separately or in conjunction with the other factors, in affecting the climate, microclimate, and measurement of climatic variables. On the other hand, according to Jones (2009:101) asserts that culture in the context of climate change, refers to the common manner or way a community of persons make sense of the world. Culture has social, material, ideological, and artistic dimensions, all which have an impact on what people think, believe and value, and how they respond to the call of action The determination of knowledge from the social settings requires social constructivism. The term social constructivism is referred as a sociological theory of knowledge that is usually applied to the general philosophical constructivism into social settings. Whereas groups construct knowledge for one another, they collaboratively create a small culture of shared artefacts with shared meanings (Grant, 2007:167). When one is completely immersed within this culture of this sort, one is all the time learning about how to be part of that culture on various levels (Barab, Dodge, Thomas, Jackson, & Tuzun, 2007: 268). As a consequence, strong social constructivism as a philosophical approach suggests that the natural world has very small and/or non existent role in the construction of scientific knowledge. Recently, scientists have been struggling to comprehend the past and the future climate by utilizing observations and sometimes theoretical models. The ice cores, stable isotopes and other sedimental analysis, floral and fauna records, the borehole temperatures, and the sea level records serve to provide a record on climate that spans the geological past (Barab et al., 2007:299). Moreover, the physically based general circulation models are used in theoretical approaches so as to much the past data on climate, link the causes and effects, and making future projections in climate change. As a consequence, they impact on the availability of rainfall, temperatures, health, bushfire frequency, and biodiversity for the current and future generations. Climate change is seen as a potential human security issue, which might later transform into a global security issue. Therefore, scientists have demonstrated how climate change has threatened the ecosystem and the livelihoods of the people who continuously depend on agriculture. Pursuing this further, culture profoundly relates to the dimensions of climate change. Culture has always played a major role in the formation of human practices connected with global change. It is therefore seen as a cause of climate change. The impact of culture of consumption, but also as something that can in itself affect climate change, for example, demands for changing the current patterns of energy consumption. Additionally, through its different means of expression, the cultural processes sometimes convey and assist us to understand the nature and impact of climate change on people and the world as a whole, as well as the measures that we may undertake to address the challenges poised by climate change. To be more specific, there are some cultural activities at both community and individual level that can aid us drive positive change for the environment, transform attitudes, as well as promoting positive action. In the same way, exhibition, lectures, films, literary fiction and non-fiction can all be powerful influencers of the public’s opinion with regard to climate change. The cultural issues that are bound up in the climate change debate also draw some the study of anthropology. It focuses on how the adaptation of environmental stresses can typically be influenced by the cultural causes. Consequently, cultural belief systems affect the public debate that surrounds environmental issues. Issues such as the levels of public anxiety, quality of life, public perceptions on environmental sustainability, sense of personal urgency, mistrust government initiatives, and most behavioural responses to problems are cultural phenomenas (Rothwell, 2006). Culture is actually a force within any social changes’ processes that can mobilise collective action by promoting advocacy coalitions, networks, and also other forms of change making decisions. Each and every society has a culturally unique way of thinking about that unites individual in the attitudes and their behaviour. The cultural tools are very powerful tools for conserving the environment, and any study on the native people has demonstrated how native wisdom from the time immemorial has been utilised to protect the environment thus minimising on climate change from human related activities. Such commitments are affected by cultural elements like taboos, beliefs and religion. Therefore, the cultural dimension of environmental issues has been a very strong pillar of environmental management debate for sustainable development. The failure to recognise social barriers can have deleterious consequences to an individual to cope up with climatic hazards, variability, and change. This is specifically relevant for the marginalised groups in the developing nations, where research by Jones (2010:18-20) found out that social barriers influences a person’s adaptive capacity and also entitlement and behaviour, as well as contributing to maladaptation. Restrictions in entitlement are a considerable barrier to adaptation. The ability of a community to ensure equitable entitlement and access to major resources and assets is characteristic of collective adaptive capacity. The social barriers are comprised of various processes that relate to cognitive and normative restrictions that prevent the individuals or groups that seek for the most appropriate form of adaptation. The social barriers to adaptations are categorised as cognitive, normative, and institutional. The cognitive barriers include: having the belief that uncertainty is too great to warrant taking the adoption now, change is not yet seen as a problem, and the lack of accepting the risks associated (Jones & Boyd, 2010: 9-12). Normative: there are some norms that discourage change and innovation, the traditional means of reacting to climate stress and shock may seem no longer to be appropriate given that there is no culturally related memory when it comes to the future of climate change, and lastly, the restrictive religious and traditional norms Institutions: social discrimination and the institutional inequalities restrict access and entitlement for particular groups, and there is also cultural rigidity and/or lack of institutional flexibility. The actions and behaviours of individuals are shaped by the deeply embedded societal and cultural norms and rules. The natural resource management literature maintains that the barriers to community or the individual action primarily do not lie in the lack of information, but in social, cultural, and the institutional factors. Therefore, it is crucial to bear in mind that the logical behaviour in reaction to climate stress and shock will not always follow the development of adaptation policy, even with the adequate awareness and knowledge. The changes to cultural heritages as a result of climate change cannot be seen separately from those changes that occur in people’s behaviour, society, the impact of conflicting societal values, and finally, land use planning. In terms of world heritage, cultural heritage is now being defined to be inclusive of building or structures, individual sites, as well the urban and/or rural landscapes which may comprise of dynamics that not only contribute to climate change but also subject to climate change. The effects of climate have impacted the physical, social and cultural heritage. It has ultimately changed the way people relate to the environment. This relationship is typically characterized by the way people work, live, socialise, and buildings or sites with heritage values. There is need to link the world heritage properties with the corridors and conservations friendly water and/or land uses in the wider seascapes/landscape management and planning. Moreover, the response strategies that have been put in place to enable protected areas networks and protected areas to adapt to climate change, stress the importance for the approaches structured beyond the individual site level. The cultural sites are largely isolated from each other, fall in different political and biogeoraphical entities, and they do not share common management structures and systems. When faced with challenges like climate change, the cultural sites are considered in the context of other land uses and the protected areas. Often, the response strategies for successful adoption that do not recognise this requirement will fail. There are many solutions to climate change. Particularly, the technical solutions are usually available in some cases. On the contrary, they may not be feasible or affordable in all the cases, and in some cases they might also be controversial when it comes to the application to cultural values, with potential impacts on the conditions of integrity. For example, the water levels on the some of the wetlands can actually be controlled by regulating the water inflow or outflow with dams, but the decreasing precipitation and increasing temperatures in many areas result in stiffer competition between nature and people for water (Duedley, 2003:145-). It is also important to integrate equity into climate change mitigation and adaptation policy and planning, it vital to comprehend its dimensions and how they relate to policy making. According to Barnett and Adger (2003:323) asserts that equity in access considers the individuals ability to engage and participate and all the factors involved in mitigating climate change. Equity in procedure considers institutions and decision making, how projects and rules operate, and lastly, the ability of all the stakeholders in participating in reducing climate’s change impacts. The social vulnerability provides a lens to see the potential impacts that climate change may have on communities and other people globally. Social vulnerability is geared towards the types of populations that may be having limited access to information and resources and suffer increased impacts from climate change due to limited capacity. Therefore, countries with greater human capital, skills, experience and knowledge could be less vulnerable to climate change because of their enhanced ability to address climate change. It has also been found out that human and social capital can contribute to a community’s ability to address climate change via responses and coping, whereas lack of capital can leave individuals isolated and at a greater risk of exposure impacts like extreme heat waves. Summarily, local institutions play a major role in the implementation of climate adoption and building the adaptive capacity for populations vulnerable to climate change. The role of institutions include rules, systems, and social norms that guide human behaviour, like past land use development, legal rights and existing environmental laws. Conclusion Social barriers are eminent in the adoption of climate change policies. The social barriers are concerned with the social and cultural processes that govern individuals react to climate change. However, it has been noted there are very scanty literature that is devoted to addressing the social and cultural limits. As a consequence, lack of knowledge, skills and information has impacted negatively on the efforts to mitigate climate change. Populations in particular geographic regions might be more vulnerable to human health and welfare impacts that are associated with climate change; the geographic regions may be vulnerable because of their elevation, climate, nearness to coasts and rivers, availability of natural resources, and the infrastructure connected to these natural resources(Lynn, MacKendrick, & Donoghue, 2011). To sum up, those social barriers are to be eliminated so as to reduce the tremendously rising levels of climate change. They include: awareness, education and empowerment so as to address the institutional restrictions in behaviour and entitlement, altering restrictive and maladaptive perceptions, norms and cultural constraints; mainstreaming the social barriers within wider policy adaptation; combining climate change adaptation and parallel approaches; the role of community based adaptation; Reference List Barab, S., Dodge, T., Thomas, M., Jackson, C., & Tuzun, H. (2007). Our designs and the social agendas they carry. Journal of the Learning Sciences , 16 (2), 263-305. Barnett, J., & Adger, N. (2003). Climate Dnagers and Atoll Countries. Climatic Change , 62 (3), 321-337. Duedley. (2003). No Place to Hide: Effects of Climate Chnage on Protected Areas. Berlin: Vfb Publishers. Grant, C. (2007). Uncertainty and Communication: New Theoretical Investigations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Jones, L. (2009). Caste, Culture, Construct. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jones, L. (2010). Overcoming Social Barriers to Adaptation. Oversees Development Institute: Sage. Jones, L., & Boyd, E. (2010). Exploring Social Barriers to Adaptation: Insight into the Role of Caste in Western Nepal. New York: Sage. Lynn, K., MacKendrick, K., & Donoghue, E. (2011). Social Vulnerability:and Climate Change Synthesis of Literature. New York: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Rothwell, D. (2006). Global Climate Change and the GBR. Vancouver: Greenpeace. Read More