10.13: Glossary

AI generated

Here is an alphabetical glossary of key terms and concepts drawn from the source material:

• Adaptation: The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, it seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.
• Anthropocentric: A human-centered worldview that prioritizes human needs and desires, often viewing nature only for its short-term instrumental value to humans.
• Anthropogenic: Resulting from human action. The source notes that over 90% of the current climate crisis is anthropogenic.
• Bioregionalism: A concept where human society is organized within ecological boundaries (such as familiar environmental surroundings) rather than arbitrary political or national borders.
• Climate Change: An environmental reality defined by physical indicators such as rising surface temperatures, sea level rise, extreme weather events, and changes in precipitation.
• Climate Change Refugees: Populations forced to migrate due to environmental factors, including gradual degradation (like desertification) or natural disasters (like floods and storms).
• Decentralization: The transfer of authority and decision-making from central governments to local bodies. This is often promoted in green theory to increase democratic accountability and local environmental care.
• Ecocentric: An ecology-centered worldview that prioritizes the health of ecosystems as a prerequisite for human well-being and includes human needs within a wider ecological perspective.
• Exposure: The presence of people, species, ecosystems, or assets in places and settings that could be adversely affected by climate events.
• Green Theory: A critical theory that prioritizes nature at the center of analysis, challenging existing political, social, and economic structures to address global ecological relationships.
• Hazard: The potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event or trend that may cause loss of life, injury, or damage to property and ecosystems.
• Human Security: A "people-centered" paradigm that seeks to protect the "vital core" of human lives and fundamental freedoms from seven specific threats: economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political.
• Impacts: The effects of climate change on geophysical, natural, and human systems.
• Permafrost: A permanently frozen soil regime. Its degradation due to global warming threatens infrastructure and traditional ways of life in Arctic regions like Nunavut.
• Realism: A dominant international relations theory that prioritizes national interests and power, often arguing that moral or human rights considerations cannot be applied to the actions of states.
• Resilience: The capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or disturbance while maintaining their essential function and identity.
• Risk: The potential for consequences where something of value is at stake and the outcome is uncertain; often calculated as the probability of a hazard multiplied by its potential impact.
• Sovereignty: The concept of ultimate, self-determining authority within a nation-state. This traditional Westphalian model is often seen as a challenge to solving transboundary environmental problems.
• Tragedy of the Commons: The idea that self-interested individuals, acting rationally in the short term, will overuse and destroy shared resources such as fresh water, land, and fish.
• Vulnerability: The propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected, encompassing sensitivity to harm and a lack of capacity to cope or adapt.