6.3 Local and global resiliance Flashcards
faced with so many potential risks from globalisation, what, if anything, can diffrent stakeholdres do to protect themselves?
1) Managed retreat, this option is mirrored in the populist movemneets that have strung up around the world.
the other options 2) and 3) are adaption and mitigation. These involve accepting that globlisation is here to stay. However, efforts can be taken to protect outslefs from negative externlties.
Mitigation efforts to reduce international migration could inlove greater efforts to end poverty and conflic in those places which generate the largest volumes of migrants. We can adpapt to the global threat of comptor viruses by installing anti-virus somftwear.
what do the diffrent things stakeholders can do to protect themselfs (managed retreat, adaption and mitigation) become when put all together?
Together, these stratagies are budiling resilience. Resilient systems have an ability to ‘bounce back’ if a shock does ocur, such as the globl finaical crisis or the 2011 Japanese tsunami.
who is responsible for the management of risk to society?
The managemnt of risk to socity is, in large part, the responsibility of the sate. This is certainly true of natural hazard risks: the USA’s federal emergancy managemnet agency (FEMA) is funded with billion of dollars by the state to help protect people from the impacs and after0effects of hurricanes and earthquakes.
why do some people disagree on the answer you gave for who is responsible for the managemnet of risk for society?
In the view of many people, however, governments have often been slow to recognise and mitigate many of the risks to global systems. This is because of laissez-faire attitudes towards economic globalisation favourited by neoliberal governments and financial institutions.
Freedoms have been engineered for TNCs to invest worldwide and build extensive supply chains, using free trade zones and tariff-free MGOs. Companies have been allowed to build the necessary global architecture to construct a shrinking world using fibre optic cables and satellites.
Yet the problem with leaving so much of this work to Market forces is that the new risks and problems that multiply these systems are not always recognised by governments until it is far too late: the GFC is the ultimate example of this.
International civil society organisations can have vital role to play, citzen-led campaigning groups have often played a critical role in..?
Uncovering new environmental and social risks associated with global interactions
raising awareness about, and proposing solutions for these risks.
taking action to pressure powerful state governments, MGOs and TNCs into acting to mitigate these risks through the adoption of new rules, agreements, frameworks and legislation.
what is a wicked problem?
A challenge that can not be delt with easily owing to its scale and/or complexity. Wicked problems arise from the interactions of many different places, people, issues, ideas and perspectives within complext and interacted systems.
talk about a wicked problem on a global scale?
at a global scale, wicked problems include climate change, the world’s fossil fule dependency and new forms of political extremism.
While it may seem like common sense for more governments to ban fossil fuels – in order to reduce carbon emissions – there are a huge number of variables at play. This leads to inertia by governments as there is not clear path to take. A wicked problem by definition has no clear solution.
talk about a wicked problem at a local scale?
wicked problems arise in more localized contexts too: attempts to introduce simple changes – such as improved safty in Bangladesh factories – require citizens, goverments, TNCs and outsocuring comanies to act; but if safer facotries bring higher costs, TNCS may need to take their business elsewhere.
This is nother hallmark of the wicked problem: complex interdependancy among the diffrent elements of the challage may even mean that the ‘solution’ acutally exacerbates the orgninal problem or creates new ones.
what is your big case study for this sub unit?
taking action to tackle plastic pollution in the oceans
what is the issue in your taking action to tackle platic pollution in the oceans case study?
The enviromental hazard created by worldwide use of throwaway platic are enormous. Plastic pollution is an achetypal wicked problem insofar as it appears to be an insurmountable challange: the issue seems too big in scale for any single action or organisation to make a diffrence.
how was awarness raised in uou taking action to tackle plastic pollution in the oceans case study?
Various CSOs have attempted to raise awarness of the issue:
Campaigning group Adventure Ecology built a boat called ‘plastiki’ made from 12,500 platic bottles. They sailed it across the Pacific Ocean and through the garbage patch. This cught the eye of media, raising awarness of the pollution problem.
talk about arriving at the solution for your taking action to tackle plastic pollution in the oceans?
We are a long way from arriving at a solution to this wicked problem, however, the raising of awarness by CSOs ha reulted in a number of actions being taken whcih represent fist steps
Various goverments have taken action to ban platic bags or microbeads. Goverment restrictions on throwaway platic bags exist in china and bangladesh, where the ue of thin (less than 0.025 mm thickness) plastic bags has been prohibited. By law, lastic bags can not be given away freely in the UK anymore in larger stores.
The Ocean Cleanup CSO has raised money from its global network of supporters – using an online crowdfunding platform – to build US$1.5 million prototype floating barrier made of rubber and polyester, which and catch and concentrate debris. It Ncknamed ‘Boomy McBoomface’, it was lanched off the coat near The Hauge in 2016. The aim is to upscale the model to produce 100 kilometre V-shaped barriers positioned in the pacific gyre.
evaluate the action in you taking action to tackle plastic pollution in the oceans case study?
The size and scale of this problem makes it an enormous global challange. However, it also means that there are an enourmou number of global stakeholders who want to fix it.
Several key unanswered questions make this an enduring wicked problem:
Even if plastic flows are reduced what can be done about the big existing stores of plastic that have collected already in the gyres. Even if the ‘Boomy McBoom face’ solution works, what will be done with all the plastic once it is collected? Can all this be done without harming marine wildlife?
what is reciliance here?
it means having the caacity to leap baack or rebound, following a disruption or disaster.
The words roots lie principally in ecology, analysing the self-restorative power of damged ecosystems.
Acadmeics, business leader and politians now embrance the word as an umbrella way of chracterising the capacity of socities, economies and envirment to cope with the diverse risk bought by global i teractions and human development.
what is somthing really vital you need to know about the narue of resilience?
Approching resilience from a governance perspective, capacity-buidling is increangly seen as a central plank of risk management by global and national goverment agencies and business.
Some threats cannot be fully mitigated, for example Pacific tsunamies or economic boom and bust cycles. In such cases, residual risk remains.
