FEATURE - A QUESTION OF RESILIENCE
A QUESTION OF RESILIENCE “Climate change is a symptom of the way we are organised. If we are going to beat it then it is very likely we will have to change how we are organised.” Professor Ioan Fazey is not under any illusions about the size or nature of the problems facing humankind. One of the problems, he says, is that we are just not particularly well wired to make the kind of changes that will be needed.
“Humans are great at adapting to overcome problems, very good at adjusting and reforming things. But we are not great at all at transforming things, really changing the way we look at things and what we do. And it is that level of change that is needed.”
sources, the challenge then is to find the political and societal will to implement them. In each case there may be a myriad of vested interests, political shorttermism, pragmatic resistance, communal sentiment and financial shortfalls standing in the way of new solutions being applied.
Professor Fazey is Director of the University’s Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience (CECHR). The Centre’s core mission is to address how societies can increase resilience to environmental change and promote sustainable futures. Inherent in this is recognition that the status quo cannot continue indefinitely without dire consequences, and that a wide range of knowledge, skills and discipline will be essential in finding the solutions.
“It is not just that many people remain in denial of climate change,” said Professor Fazey. “Even when we do things it can create a false sense of safety and protection. We see flood defences being put in and the immediate reaction is, ‘That’s great, we are now protected. Let’s build more houses!’ It is still building on a flood plain, when we might be better served by looking at more suitable locations, rather than adding to one where there is a potential problem.
“Resilience is becoming more prominent in policy and practice – there is more recognition that the world we live in is highly complex and connected,” said Professor Fazey. “Things do not happen in isolation, there are many layers of cause and effect, and we need to take a wide view of how we tackle the big issues. Our approach is to bring people together from many different disciplines, because it will need a wide variety of skills and knowledge to tackle the challenges we face.
“There is a vicious circle at play. The provision of protection leads to the perception the risk has been contained, so we build more, and thereby increase the risk. New Orleans is the classic example of this. There were 300 years of development of the city, encouraged by the fact they thought they had built an effective barrier against flooding.
And in some cases adopting one element of a solution can even make things worse.
“Climate change is as much a social problem as it is a science problem. In fact, science itself can often be part of the problem. The interaction between society, technology and science has brought us great advances and tremendous benefits, but it has also brought us problems. Look at the major issues facing society today, from carbon emissions to obesity, and you can see science as a factor in causing these.” Of course once potential solutions have been for everything from rising water levels to extreme weather to carbon capture and sustainable energy CONTACT - MARCH 16
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Picture Courtesy of Scottish Borders Council
FEATURE - A QUESTION OF RESILIENCE
“The effect was that the land the city was built on dried up and subsided because it was no longer being flooded, and then ended up being below sea level. So when Hurricane Katrina came and the flood defences were overwhelmed, vast tracts of the city were devastated. The city also became a big pond because the remaining flood defences meant the water couldn’t leave.
“Work already done by Joseph Rowntree highlights that there is a triple injustice arising from climate change issues for low income people in the UK, which means that;
“There is a continued failure to learn from past mistakes. Learning is absolutely key, and it can be on many different levels. We do have to learn how we can improve flood defences to protect communities, but we also need to look at what we are going to do to change our approach in fundamental ways. And that applies to how we even think about approaching a problem in academia.
• l ow-income households are those most affected by climate change. If we look just at the Borders, the post-war social housing was often built on flood plains because land was cheap, so those are people that suffer most from flooding
“Aristotle recognised this long ago, when he said there are three different types of knowledge – episteme, techné and phronesis. Epistemic knowledge is the academic, teachable kinds of knowledge, that you might gain from a set of instructions. Techné is the technical or handson ‘know how’ that is built from many years of experience, like that of a doctor or a farmer, and phronesis is the practical wisdom that helps us make good judgments about what we are trying to do. “Academia is very good at the first of these, but not so great at the second and third. And that is very important when it comes to providing practical, sustainable solutions. You can’t learn to ride a bike based only on epistemic knowledge, you need to acquire the practical wisdom and hands-on experience.” That approach is being applied in one of the major projects Professor Fazey is involved in, a Joseph Rowntree Foundation-funded project in the Scottish Borders addressing ‘climate justice’.
eople on low incomes produce the least • p emissions, partly due to a comparative lack of travel
• F inally, those on low incomes are the least likely to be able to capitalise on grants for things like solar panels, because they do not have the initial money needed to take advantage of government subsidies. “Talking about these kind of moral and ethical aspects of climate change is important because they bring people into the picture, and it is always easier to talk about something when there is a personal story involved. “So in the Scottish Borders we are trying to find ways to get people talking about climate change in ways that matter to them, such as by helping communities to think about how climate change relates to issues like rural and urban regeneration, who is likely to be most disadvantaged, and how we can think about ways to try to alleviate this. “A big emphasis on the project is working in collaboration with the council to provide spaces where community members can explore the issues together with the council staff. Ultimately though, the key thing is to get the conversations happening and to help people work through the challenges they face.
“We know climate change is coming, or is already under way, and we cannot avoid it and the impacts it is causing, but it is incredibly hard to think where we can start from, particularly at a local level,” he said. “It can be very tough for communities to see how they can take action, and when they can they are often limited in what they can do.
“This also ties in with the wider academic work I am involved in, including a major ‘Transformations’ conference we are holding in Dundee next year, bringing hundreds of people from around the world to look at innovative ways that society can tackle the big problems we face.”
“Climate change is this big amorphous thing, where individual actions do matter, but it is integrated in so many different things. It needs big, global policy responses, but it also requires local action. The big thing is to get those conversations started, to involve people from the local community level to global leaders, and encourage them to see that they can make a real difference.
There is a continued failure to learn from past mistakes… We need to look at what we are going to do to change our approach in fundamental ways
“We have been developing an example of how this can be done through our work in the Scottish Borders, an area that has been beset by persistent flooding.