Cities and Water Security in the Anthropocene: Research Challenges and Opportunities for International Relations

Pereira, Joana Castro; Freitas, Mauro

doi:10.1590/s0102-8529.2017390300004

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…As Marielle Papin and her co-authors show in Chapter 6, cities are undergoing persistent turbulence from both local and global sources. The complexity and difficulty of governing city life are steadily increasing, as climate change disrupts basic services (e.g., from housing to sanitation) and as demand for food, energy, and water rises (Bulkeley 2021;Pereira and Freitas 2017). The turbulence from climate change, as Susan Park discusses in Chapter 9, even threatens the very existence of some nation-states (Conversi 2020).…”

Section: Who Experiences Turbulence?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding environmental politics in a turbulent era

Shipton¹,

Dauvergne²

2023

Global Environmental Politics in a Turbulent Era

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Biodiversity is crashing, tropical forests are disappearing, and coral reefs are dying. Seas are filling with plastics and chemicals are leaching into food chains. Fresh water is growing scarcer by the day. And the Earth's climate is warming, causing glaciers to melt, sea levels to rise, and storms to intensify. This escalating environmental crisis is a core reason for growing turbulence within world politics. But other powerful forces are also destabilizing international relations and community life.Inequality is increasing, both within and between countries. Growing numbers of people in conflict-ridden, impoverished lands are desperately trying to cross borders in search of safe, sustainable places to reside. Populists are whipping up nationalism and racism. Scientific knowledge is under attack and online trolls are proliferating. China and Russia are challenging American hegemony, authoritarianism is spreading, and democracies are struggling to cooperate. COVID-19 restrictions since 2020 and Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2022 strained the world economy of cheap labor, global supply chains, and mass tourism-and another global financial crisis could well be around the corner. Meanwhile, corporate power continues to grow, with the leading firms already far more powerful than the vast majority of states. In this context, civil society is under siege as states repress dissent and corporations appease and silence critics. Even the internet is becoming increasingly dangerous, as cybercriminals and high-tech mercenaries multiply, intelligence agencies wage disinformation wars, security forces intensify surveillance of civil society, and social media companies compete for our attention and our data.Turbulence has long been a feature of world politics. This was true during the Middle Ages. It was true as ecological imperialism and European colonialism ravaged the world after the 1500s. And it was true during World War I (1914-1918), World War II (1939-1945), and the Cold War (1947-1991. Back in 1990, it was perfectly reasonable for James Rosenau (1990) to title his ground-breaking analysis of why world politics is in constant turmoil, Turbulence in World Politics.

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Section: Who Experiences Turbulence?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding environmental politics in a turbulent era

Shipton¹,

Dauvergne²

2023

Global Environmental Politics in a Turbulent Era

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“…Climate change is generally considered an external enemy (Methmann and Rothe, 2012). However, one key lesson from the Anthropocene's new geological conditions is that there is an unbreakable link between the natural and social worlds: humans are now geological agents, and threats to security are no longer limited to outside agents of each national society (Fagan, 2016;Pereira, 2017;Pereira and Freitas, 2017). The twenty-first century human development paradigm recognizes only rhetorically the importance of nature.…”

Section: Why Humanity Is Unprepared For Averting Climate Catastrophementioning

confidence: 99%

Catastrophic Climate Change and Forest Tipping Points: Blind Spots in International Politics and Policy

Pereira

Viola

2018

Global Policy

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Scientists believe that humanity has already crossed the core planetary boundary for climate change, and is closer to crossing thresholds that trigger abrupt and irreversible environmental changes. Consequently, academia and the international political community should not disregard the prospect of a catastrophic environmental event. However, discussions about climate change usually assume the resilience of potentially deteriorating terrestrial‐biosphere carbon sinks and rarely acknowledge catastrophic climate risk. Reviewing the latest scientific evidence on anthropogenic climate change, as well as the current and projected threats to the resilience of key large forest biomes, and combining them with the profound political frailties of the Paris Climate Agreement, this article argues that catastrophic climate risk is much more serious and likely than most of humanity is able to perceive and should thus be seriously considered. It emphasizes the massive gap between science and political action and how cognitive, cultural, institutional, and political limitations hinder our capacity to envisage, prevent, and ultimately manage catastrophic climate change. The article concludes by briefly raising awareness regarding the role that academia should play in catastrophic climate risk reduction.

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“…This use of fresh water has brought the environment beyond its recovery capacity. The Worldometers database (2015 apud PEREIRA;FREITAS, 2017) shows another important fact related to this issue: while the demand for fresh water increases by approximately 64 billion cubic meters per year, many countries and regions still face water scarcity. These water-related issues do not only concern underdeveloped or developing countries, but also some of the wealthier states, such as the United States, Portugal and Spain that also face problems associated to access and use of water resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropocene and Water

Espíndola

Bosco

Fetz

2018

REPATS

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The Anthropocene is the new and current geological epoch in which the human being has become an agent of planetary changes. This comes with several endangering consequences for the survival of the human species. This article primarily discusses the increasing environmental impacts of human activity since 1950, as well as issues related to water governance. Considering that such issues are usually integrated in the natural sciences but still largely escape human and social sciences, this article is a contribution to the latter fields of knowledge as it draws on international relations and geopolitics.

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Cities and Water Security in the Anthropocene: Research Challenges and Opportunities for International Relations

Cited by 9 publications

References 43 publications

Understanding environmental politics in a turbulent era

Understanding environmental politics in a turbulent era

Catastrophic Climate Change and Forest Tipping Points: Blind Spots in International Politics and Policy

Anthropocene and Water

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