Cities change and conflict 3rd edition pdf

8 editions of this work

Current Climate Change Reports. The aim of this paper is to explore the nexus of climate change, land use, and conflict. A particular focus is placed on the human security risks associated with the three elements. In addition to climate change—related environmental risks, such as droughts and floods, land and land use can be affected by climate mitigation and adaptation measures. These include, for instance, large-scale renewable energy plants and relocation efforts. It is not only important for decision-makers to take climate change impacts into account but also to assess the indirect risks associated with climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.

An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more contending ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political , social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within society. This final criterion differentiates ethnic conflict from other forms of struggle. Academic explanations of ethnic conflict generally fall into one of three schools of thought: primordialist , instrumentalist or constructivist. Recently, several political scientists have argued for either top-down or bottom-up explanations for ethnic conflict. Intellectual debate has also focused on whether ethnic conflict has become more prevalent since the end of the Cold War , and on devising ways of managing conflicts, through instruments such as consociationalism and federalisation. The causes of ethnic conflict are debated by political scientists and sociologists.

Responding to natural disasters has traditionally been seen as a compassionate response to people in need. While compassion remains at the core of humanitarian action, relief agencies are increasingly conscious of the fact that assistance is rarely neutral and that their actions can have long-term consequences, as evidenced by the tsunamis in Asia, Hurricane Katrina in and the earthquake this year in Haiti. In particular, I argue that incorporating a human rights perspective into natural disaster response is important not only because it affirms the rights and dignity of vulnerable people, but also because it can prevent conflicts in the aftermath of disasters. Nor is it a natural disaster when municipal authorities are able to respond effectively to flooding in their community. For example, the devastating toll on Haiti of 4 hurricanes in was obviously the result of the storms themselves, but certainly exacerbated by the long-term deforestation in that country and inadequate public response. In fact, in that year, deadly hurricanes hit both Haiti and Cuba, but while people died in Haiti, only four fatalities in Cuba were reported.