Victims of "adaptation": climate change, sacred mountains, and perverse resilience

Abstract

Resiliency and adaptation are increasingly prevalent in climate change policy as well as scholarship, yet scholars have brought forward several critiques of these concepts along analytical as well as political lines. Pressing questions include: who resiliency is for, what it takes to maintain it, and the scale at which it takes place. The concept of "perverse resilience", for example, proposes that resiliency for one sub-system may threaten the well-being of the overall system. In this article, I propose the related concept of "perverse adaptation", where one actor or institution's adaptation to climate change in fact produces aftershocks and secondary impacts upon other groups. Drawing on ethnographic and sociolinguistic research in northern Arizona regarding artificial snowmaking at a ski resort on a sacred mountain, I elucidate resort supporters' and others' attempts to frame snowmaking as a sustainable adaptation to drought (and, implicitly, climate change). I counterpoise these framings with narratives from local activists as well as Diné (Navajo) individuals regarding the significant impacts of snowmaking on water supply and quality, sacred lands and ceremony, public health, and, ironically, carbon emissions. In so doing, I argue that we must interrogate resilience policies for their unexpected "victims of adaptation."Key words: climate change policy, adaptation, perverse resilience, sacred sites, Diné (Navajo)

Coastal erosion narratives in the Gulf of Mexico: implications for climate change governance

“…This study provides an illustration of the notion of "perverse resilience" as it applies to the fossil fuel industry worldwide, a sector that arguably remains resilient in the context of climate change (Dunstan, 2019). Dunstan (2019) explains that "perverse resilience" identifies the process by which "one sub-component's adaptations can weaken an entire system, but also how the act of maintaining one aspect of society's resilience through adaptation may actively victimize and produce new burdens upon the well-being of other aspects or actors within society" (p. 707). In other words, it illustrates "how resilience policy, and adaptation mechanisms in particular, for one entity might harm another" (Dunstan, 2019: 708).…”

“…A political ecology of adaptation policies implies a focus on the power relations that shape them. Adaptation programs are conceived as sociopolitical processes that are structured within hierarchical political economies and discourses (Dunstan, 2019). Similarly, according to Bennett (2019), a political ecology of ocean and coastal zone governance should help us understand disjunctures and conflicts through the analysis of power and politics, environmental narratives across scales and over time, and with consideration of environmental justice and equity (Bennett, 2019: 68).…”

Climate Change and the Future of Ski Tourism in Canada’s Western Mountains

“…Understanding the range of potential climatic futures and ski industry adaptive capacity is essential to climate adaptation and tourism planning across Canada's Western ski industry, from individual ski area management to mountain community development strategies to regional tourism, water, and energy policy. For example, while there is significant debate on the (mal)adaptation of snowmaking [27][28][29][30], Scott et al [31] find that snowmaking effectiveness and sustainability are highly context-specific. Energy and water sources and costs, existing infrastructure, local microclimates, global emission futures, and even tourist perceptions play a role in determining whether snowmaking is viable or desirable in the future.…”