Refugees across the globe face serious food and livelihood constraints. This chapter presents and discusses characteristics of the refugee population who may benefit most from the introduction of climate-smart agriculture technologies in Lebanon and Jordan. This chapter shows that refugees are in all contexts among the poorest and their livelihoods are vulnerable. It also shows that frontier agriculture technologies (FAT) provides an opportunity to promote entrepreneurship and can improve well-being, including nutritional status for people that are less integrated into the labor market. FAT is sustainable and can leverage scarce resources, such as water (FAT use less water than traditional agriculture) and arable land (FAT does not require arable land), and promote economic activities that increase access to nutritious food, improve livelihoods, create jobs, promote entrepreneurship, enhance skills, and build social cohesion.
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Dorte Verner and Edinaldo Tebaldi
Handbook Chapter
In Handbook of Security and the Environment
Edited by Ashok Swain, Joakim Öjendal and Anders Jägerskog
- Published:
- 21 May 2021
Larry A. Swatuk
How humans have used and misused water is the story of civilization itself. Water is paradoxical - it is ever-renewable but often scarce - and humanity's relationship to it is often contradictory. Although water is essential and non-substitutable it is often taken for granted. While it is finite and fugitive, humans flock to cities and expand agricultural enterprises as if the water will always be there in abundance. The challenges for water security are many and varied, and go to the heart of social organization. The chapter argues that seeing 'security' through different lenses reveals different sets of threats and vulnerabilities. Changing the referent object - the state, individuals, the environment - changes the context for action. Given water's central role in building political and economic power, 'water security' is generally tied to the security of the sovereign state. Actions taken in support of securing water for the state generally involve a confluence of political, economic and technical power. Over the last several decades, numerous attempts have been made to structure action in support of the greater social and environmental good. A variety of discursive framings have emerged to drive collective action. Yet, the legal and institutional frameworks for action remain state-centric, not only in terms of the primary beneficiary of water security, but in terms of the ontological framework for seeing security and insecurity. As shown in the chapter, limited formal space has been created for civil society participation, and for alternative perspectives and approaches to water security to emerge. The chapter concludes that despite numerous attempts to draw the world toward new ways of seeing water, deeply embedded interests, practices and processes ensure that efforts in support of 'water security' will continue to yield highly uneven outcomes: security for some, insecurity for many.
Handbook Chapter
In Handbook of Security and the Environment
Edited by Ashok Swain, Joakim Öjendal and Anders Jägerskog
- Published:
- 21 May 2021
Edited by Ashok Swain, Joakim Öjendal and Anders Jägerskog
Handbook Chapter
In Research Handbook on Law, Governance and Planetary Boundaries
Edited by Duncan French and Louis J. Kotzé
- Published:
- 23 April 2021
The Global Rise of the Modern Plug-In Electric Vehicle
Public Policy, Innovation and Strategy
John D. Graham
Monograph Chapter
In The Global Rise of the Modern Plug-In Electric Vehicle
John D. Graham
- Published:
- 23 April 2021
Handbook Chapter
In Research Handbook on Law, Governance and Planetary Boundaries
Edited by Duncan French and Louis J. Kotzé
- Published:
- 23 April 2021
Edited by Duncan French and Louis J. Kotzé
Louis J. Kotzé and Duncan French
Humans only seem able to function well if our actions are limited by boundaries. History seems to teach us that unconstrained free will is a recipe for disaster; if left to our own devices, we will do whatever we want without much consideration of actual or potential future consequences. This truism - always characterised with noble exceptions - seems to be as accurate at the community level as it is (often) for the individual. And that is why we need boundaries: boundaries set limits, and these limits are meant to achieve, maintain and/or return us to what is perceived to be a desired condition.
Handbook Chapter
In Research Handbook on Law, Governance and Planetary Boundaries
Edited by Duncan French and Louis J. Kotzé
- Published:
- 23 April 2021
Claire O'Manique, James K Rowe and Karena Shaw
Endless economic growth on a finite planet is impossible. This is the premise behind the degrowth movement. Despite this sound rationale, the degrowth movement has struggled to gain political acceptability. We have sought to understand this limited uptake of degrowth discourse in the English-speaking world by interviewing Canadian activists. Activists have a proximity to the political realm – both with its barriers and openings – that scholars working primarily in academic institutions sometimes lack. Our interviews reveal that class interests – particularly those of fossil fuel companies – are a substantial barrier to realizing degrowth goals. Interviewees highlighted the importance of centring class-conscious environmentalism, ‘anti-purity’ politics, and decolonization as essential parts of a degrowth agenda capable of overcoming these class interests. We conclude by unpacking how the Green New Deal – a discourse and movement that gained considerable traction after we completed our interviews – addresses the obstacles shared by our interviewees, thus making it a promising ‘non-reformist reform’ for the degrowth movement to pursue.
