What is Climate Change Policy Now Trying to Achieve?
Almost all advocates of international climate change policy hope and expect that the Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris in November–December 2015 will reach an agreement to reduce global anthropomorphic greenhouse gas emissions. Yet more than 25 years of international climate change policy has failed to reach such an agreement; emissions, far from having been reduced, have greatly increased. In the author's view, no such agreement will be reached in Paris. Anticipating this, Lord Stern, a highly influential figure in international climate change policy, has restated the case for continuing with this policy while relinquishing the objective of reaching such an agreement, though it had previously been claimed that this was essential to ‘save the world’. Advocating the continuation of climate change policy while disavowing a formerly acknowledged condition of its success seems to represent a further stage in the abandonment of rationality in climate change policy formulation.
Climate crisis and the demand for more empiric research in social sciences: emerging topics and challenges in environmental psychology / Crisis climática y demanda de más investigación empírica en Ciencias Sociales: tópicos emergentes y retos en Psicología Ambiental
Abstract Climate change (CC) is one of the challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. The complex nature of the phenomenon requires further empiric research from the field of social sciences in general, and environmental psychology in particular. Clarifying how people and human communities interpret, evaluate and act in relation to climate change, environmental psychology can help to broaden the perspective on this field of study and make significant contributions related to emerging topics. Even more, it can help to elucidate the most appropriate tools that can allow people and communities to tackle and adapt to climate change by generating effective solutions. This article sets out certain pathways to give greater visibility to the research agenda about these topics, based on a review of the contributions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on CC and the explicit demand for empiric research in the sphere of social sciences.
Cambodian refugee health care beliefs and practices.
Since 1975, when refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia first began coming to the United States, many articles have been written about Southeast Asian or Indochinese refugees and health care. A careful review of the literature shows that most of these articles have one thing in common: they are written primarily about Vietnamese and do not address the unique health care beliefs and practices of Lao or Cambodian refugees.1 Although some beliefs and practices are common to most Southeast Asians, many are not. Understanding at least that differences exist, and hopefully what some specific differences are, will allow nurses and others to give better care to the various people commonly grouped together as Southeast Asians. This article will introduce readers to some Cambodian beliefs and practices related to health care. Of the principle refugee groups admitted to the U.S. since 1975, the Cambodians are presenting the greatest challenges to health care providers. Cambodians are usually poorly understood by Americans, their health status statistics are hidden among the broad category of "Asian-Pacific Islanders" or "Indochinese Refugees," and cultural and institutional barriers combine to make access to care an overwhelming problem. The end results, of course, are more problems and more expense for the Cambodians, increased stress placed on an already terribly overstressed people, and ultimately greater demands and expense placed on the health care system. One of the most common misunderstandings about Cambodians is that they (and Lao) are basically the same as the Vietnamese. "They speak the same dialect don't they?" There are some similarities, but there are also very significant differences.