Abstract
This chapter describes a process of human geographic issue management, which is based on implementing a grassroots movement, to address climate change. Most climate change adaptation initiatives are driven from the top down. Yet, it is universally agreed that adaptation to climate change is local and place-based. It is essential to honor the local cultural and social norms in any initiative. Knowledge at the local level can be incorporated into a climate change adaptation plan. Such knowledge can be aggregated upwards to higher geographic scales. This process empowers citizens and supports citizen-based stewardship, which is the key for adapting to climate change and achieving sustainability.
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Notes
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Lizza R (2010) “As the World Burns: how the Senate and White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change”. The New Yorker October 11, 2010:70–83.
- 2.
Union of Concerned Scientists (2009) “Climate 2030: A National Blueprint for a Clean Energy Economy.” Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, May, 2009.
- 3.
Although key officials in Virginia dispute climate change information and resist climate change policies, residents in Norfolk, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, routinely struggle with and work against rising tidal streams on three sides (“Front-Line City in Virginia Tackles rise in Sea” New York Times, Science Section, November 26, 2010).
- 4.
Lizza, ibid, p 72.
- 5.
Bohren L (2009) “Car culture and decision-making: choice and climate change,” In: Crate SA, Mark N (eds) Anthropology and climate change: from encounters to actions. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, pp 370–379.
- 6.
McClatchy-Ipsos Poll (2009) “Poll: most Americans support climate change if it creates jobs,” Dallas Morning News, December 10, 2009.
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“Pollution” is a word that the American people have come to understand as dangerous and damaging to one’s health and livability. It is a well-grounded word in almost all geographic language uses, yet it did not find a core use to be built upon by climate change advocates.
- 8.
The “is” theory was first expounded by Ed Ricketts, owner of the Pacific Biological Laboratory in a discussion about “breaking through.” It is documented in the book by John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez, “About Ed Ricketts”, page xii.
- 9.
Farmers and activists lean to a truce on animals’ confinement, The New York Times, Thursday August 12, 2010.
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“Recall expands to more than a billion eggs,” Associated Press, August 20, 2010. The Food Safety Modernization Act’s passing was aided by the serious outbreaks of E. coli and salmonella poisoning in eggs, peanuts and produce in recent years.
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Some examples include: (1) Development of a Social Impact Management System (SIMS) for the City and County of Honolulu, 1979–1983, population approximately 900,000. (2) Human Geographic Issue Management System for natural resource managers in the southern Willamette Valley, Oregon, 2001, population approximately 800,000. (3) A Regional Social Assessment of eastern Washington for the Spokane District of the Bureau of Land Management, 2010, approximate population of 700,000. (4) Building support for the Denver International Airport in Adams County, Colorado through the Discovery Process in a complex permitting environment, 1989. (5) Town of Basalt, Colorado, Governance by Social Capital as operating principle for town government, 2005–09. (6) Washoe County, Nevada, an Issue Management Program, 1990–1991.
- 12.
Preister K, Kent JA (1997) “Social ecology: a new pathway to watershed restoration.” In: Williams JE, Dombeck MP, Wood CA (eds) Watershed restoration: principles and practices. The American Fisheries Society, Bethesda.
- 13.
Kent JA, Preister K (1999) “Methods for the development of human geographic boundaries and their uses”, in partial completion of cooperative agreement No. 1422-P850-A8-0015 between James Kent associates and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Task Order No. 001.
- 14.
Kent JA (1991) “Eco-Mapping: planning and management of bio-social ecosystems.” Thorn Ecological Institute (with Dan Baharav), Boulder. The first Human Geographic Maps (HGMs) came into existence in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of JKA’s work with the US Forest Service, Region 2, Forest Planning process. The USFS was looking for new and creative ways to assist citizens to empower themselves in using forest planning to ensure the health of the lands and their communities. The HGMs were published as an integral part of the Forest Plan implementation. This was followed in 1986 by a contract with the US West (now Quest) Corporation to map the 14 states that made up their service area in order to launch their cell phone business based on cultural word-of-mouth and natural boundary systems. In 1995, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) signed a 30-year license agreement for the use of human geographic maps for planning and management purposes. Subsequently the HGMs have been used by communities, businesses, corporations, governments and citizens to improve relationships, make trend projections, develop market segments, and to understand emerging patterns in order to improve the way government and business is conducted.
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Quinkert AK, Kent JA, Taylor DC (1986) “The technical basis for delineation of human geographic units”, Project working paper for USDA/SBIR Project Grant #85-SBIR-8 – 0069. Available at: http://www.naturalborders.com/Docs/Technical-Basis-for-Delineation-of-Human-Geographic.pdf. This research, supported by the National Science Foundation, sought to find quantitative counterparts such as zip codes or phone calling areas, to the qualitative Cultural Descriptors outlined in this paper but strong correlates were not found. Hence, shortcuts are unlikely, requiring policy makers to employ a descriptive approach in understanding the cultural lifeways of people affected by their policies.
- 16.
Preister K, Kent JA (1984) “Clinical sociological perspectives on social impacts: from assessment to management”. Clin Sociol Rev 2:120–132, p. 125.
- 17.
One of the main reasons Puja Dhyan Parsons and her husband Udgar Parsons started Growing Domes™ 20 years ago was to support others who want to live sustainable, healthy lives. The company’s innovative growing domes demonstrate a solar self-sufficiency that keeps fresh food on the table, even within the challenge of environmental and economic changes. In 1995, the company relocated to Pagosa Springs, Colorado where they remain today. In 2010 they won the Colorado Business Award as one of the top 50 companies to watch.
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Broehl J (ed) (2004) “This is the first time in the Nation’s history that a renewable energy portfolio standard was put directly before the voters rather than processed through a state legislature.” Renewable Energy.com, November 3, 2004, “Colorado Voters Pass Renewable Energy Standard.”
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Human geographic maps provided by Monteverde Associates, Portland, Oregon, tavomonte@gmail.com
- 20.
“Brammo’s bikes go global,” Medford Mail Tribune, September 23, 2010.
- 21.
Kent JA, Preister K, Malone T, Wood D (2009) “Wind energy development and public perception,” Right of Way Magazine, International Right of Way Association, May–June, 2009, pp 32–35.
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Kent, J.A., Preister, K. (2012). Climate Change and the Language of Geographic Place. In: Karl, H., Scarlett, L., Vargas-Moreno, J., Flaxman, M. (eds) Restoring Lands - Coordinating Science, Politics and Action. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2549-2_19
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