Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture

Recent debates on climate mobilities have largely ignored the dynamics of mobility patterns including short-distance and short-duration circular movements to enhance adaptative capacity and resilience of households and individuals, enabling them to remain in place despite facing increasingly severe climatic risks. This paper explores Pacific Islanders' climate-related mobilities with reference to cases from Samoa. It first conceptualizes Samoan mobility, which is rooted in Samoan culture, norms and worldviews, and then uses this as a framework to examine ways in which people shift and diversify their residential locations for climate-associated reasons. The study employs a comparative case study approach using conversational (the Pacific-originated talanoa -style) interviews with 40 participants in two villages in Samoa—one urban and the other rural. Findings suggest that shifting spatially and temporarily between two residences (a practice called fa'a-’āigalua ) occurs not only within the village but across villages. Thereby, villagers reduce the risk of incurring physical harm from climate-related disasters, while minimizing the risk of cultural harm from place detachment. Our study challenges the discourse of ‘vulnerable Pacific Islanders' by demonstrating the adaptability of Samoans to changing socio-ecological and climatic circumstances and their ability to develop a variety of climate resilience strategies, including micro-mobilities and circular migration. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture’.

Section: Discussion: Fa'a-'aigalua As Climate Adaptation Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate micro-mobilities as adaptation practice in the Pacific: the case of Samoa

Latai-Niusulu,

Tsujita,

Neef

2023

“…Consequently, although the replacement of continuous flooding with adaptive intermittent wetting would require an historic change in Balinese agriculture, there is no obvious bar to widespread adoption, and along with the reduction of GHG emissions and increase in harvests, it should also decrease the flow of excess nitrogen fertilizer onto the reefs. With regard to the theme of this special issue, the role of culture in the mitigation of environmental problems [17], we note two implications. First, the adaptive intermittent wetting protocol we developed is based on voluntary adoption by farmers, to be implemented by them as they judge the conditions in their own fields.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With regard to the theme of this special issue, the role of culture in the mitigation of environmental problems [17], we note two implications. First, the adaptive intermittent wetting protocol we developed is based on voluntary adoption by farmers, to be implemented by them as they judge the conditions in their own fields.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive irrigation management by Balinese farmers reduces greenhouse gas emissions and increases rice yields

Lansing,

Kremer,

Suryawan

et al. 2023

Self Cite

The potential for changes in water management regimes to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) in rice paddies has recently become a major topic of research in Asia, with implications for top-down versus bottom-up management strategies. Flooded rice paddies are a major source of anthropogenic GHG emissions and are responsible for approximately 11% of global anthropogenic methane (CH 4 ) emissions. However, rice is also the most important food crop for people in low- and lower-middle-income countries. While CH 4 emissions can be reduced by lessening the time the plants are submerged, this can trigger increased emissions of nitrous oxide (N 2 O), a more potent GHG. Mitigation options for CH 4 and N 2 O are different, and minimizing one gas may increase the emission of the other. Accurate measurement of these gas emissions in rice paddies is difficult, and the results are controversial. We analysed these trade-offs using continuous high-precision measurements in a closed chamber in 2018–2020. Based on the results, we tested a bottom-up adaptive irrigation regime that improves nitrogen uptake by rice plants while reducing combined GHG emissions and nitrogen runoff from paddies to reefs in agricultural drainages. In 2023, we undertook a follow-up study in which farmers obtained higher rice yields with adaptive intermittent irrigation compared to uniformly flooded fields. These results use the polycentric, self-governing capacity of Balinese subaks for continuous adaptation. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture’.

“…The analysis of climate change and its implications needs a science of culture, as advocated in this special issue [1]. This is so because humans rely on culture as their primary means of tackling climate change, and also because they have long influenced climate with their behaviour ([2,3], among others).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and long-term human behaviour in the Neotropics: an archaeological view from the Global South

Scheinsohn,

Muñoz,

Mondini

2023

In this paper, we argue for the inclusion of archaeology in discussions about how humans have contributed to and dealt with climate change, especially in the long term. We suggest Niche Construction Theory as a suitable framework to that end. In order to take into account both human and environmental variability, we also advocate for a situated perspective that includes the Global South as a source of knowledge production, and the Neotropics as a relevant case study to consider. To illustrate this, we review the mid-Holocene Hypsithermal period in the southern Puna and continental Patagonia, both in southern South America, by assessing the challenges posed by this climate period and the archaeological signatures of the time from a Niche Construction Theory perspective. Finally, we emphasize the importance of these considerations for policymaking. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture’.