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Mediterranean agriculture under climate change: adaptive capacity, adaptation, and ethics

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Abstract

In the coming decades, the Mediterranean region is expected to experience various climate impacts with negative consequences on agricultural systems and which will cause uneven reductions in agricultural production. By and large, the impacts of climate change on Mediterranean agriculture will be heavier for southern areas of the region. This unbalanced distribution of negative impacts underscores the significance and role of ethics in such a context of analysis. Consequently, the aim of this article is to justify and develop an ethical approach to agricultural adaptation in the Mediterranean and to derive the consequent implications for adaptation policy in the region. In particular, we define an index of adaptive capacity for the agricultural systems of the Mediterranean region on whose basis it is possible to group its different sub-regions, and we provide an overview of the suitable adaptation actions and policies for the sub-regions identified. We then vindicate and put forward an ethical approach to agricultural adaptation, highlighting the implications for the Mediterranean region and the limitations of such an ethical framework. Finally, we emphasize the broader potential of ethics for agricultural adaptation policy.

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Notes

  1. These estimates already include the direct positive effects of carbon dioxide (CO2) on crops, the rain-fed and irrigated simulations in each district, changes in crop distribution in the scenario due to modified crop suitability under the warmer climate, and endogenous adaptation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Christian Baatz and two anonymous referees for their comments on previous versions of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy

    Marco Grasso

  2. Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Giuseppe Feola

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  1. Marco Grasso
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  2. Giuseppe Feola
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Correspondence to Marco Grasso.

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Grasso, M., Feola, G. Mediterranean agriculture under climate change: adaptive capacity, adaptation, and ethics. Reg Environ Change 12, 607–618 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-011-0274-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-011-0274-1

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