Climate Change and Conservation Biology as it Relates to Urban Environments

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: May 15, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/Recerca.2020.25.2.4
Keywords:
Philosophy of the City, Climate Change, Conservation Biology, Environmental Philosophy, Restoration

Main Article Content

Samantha Noll
Washington State University
Michael Goldsby
Washington State University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6150-0098

Abstract

Climate change continues to have recognizable impacts across the globe, as weather patterns shift and impacts accumulate and intensify. In this wider context, urban areas face significant challenges as they attempt to mitigate dynamic changes at the local level — changes such as those caused by intensifying weather events, the disruption of critical supplies, and the deterioration of local ecosystems. One field that could help urban areas address these challenges is conservation biology. However, this paper presents the argument that work in urban contexts may be especially difficult for conservation biologists. In light of current climate change predictions, conservation biology may need to abandon some of its core values in favor of commitments guiding urban ecology. More broadly, this essay aims to reconcile the goals of restoration and conservation, by reconceptualizing what an ecosystem is, in the context of a world threatened by global climate change.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Noll, S., & Goldsby, M. (2020). Climate Change and Conservation Biology as it Relates to Urban Environments. RECERCA. Revista De Pensament I Anàlisi, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.6035/Recerca.2020.25.2.4
Issue
Vol. 25 No. 2 (2020): Philosophy of the city: an interdisciplinary approach
Section
Articles
Author Biographies

Samantha Noll, Washington State University

Dr. Samantha Noll is an Assistant Professor in The School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs (PPPA) at Washington State University. She is also the bioethicist affiliated with the Functional Genomics Initiative, which marshals genome editing to control disease in livestock and feed a growing population. Noll's research and teaching focuses on ethical and philosophical topics in food and agriculture. In particular, she publishes widely on topics such as how values impact consumer uptake of agricultural products, local food movements, and the application of genomics technology. Noll contributes to the fields of bioethics (ethics of biotechnology), philosophy of food, and environmental philosophy.

Michael Goldsby, Washington State University

My core research interests are in the fields of philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of ecology, but much of my work takes me into the neighboring fields of epistemology and environmental ethics. My recent work has focused on the relation between prediction and explanation, the use of models in science, and the peculiarities of natural state models – i.e., models that describe the behavior of a system in the absence of forces. My current CV contains a lot of good information about my recent work, as well as some of my plans for the very near future.

References

Balaguer, Luis, Escudero, Adrian, Martín-Duque, Jose, Mola, Ignacio & Aronson, James (2014). The historical reference in restoration ecology: Re-defining a cornerstone concept. Biological Conservation, 176, 12-20.

Basl, John (2010). Restitutive restoration: New motivations for ecological restoration. Environmental Ethics, 32(2), 135-147.

Bellard, Celine, Bertelsmeier, Cleo, Leadley, Paul, Thuiller, Wilfried & Courchamp, Franck (2012). Impacts of climate change on the future of biodiversity. Ecology Letters, 15(4), 365-377.

Botkin, Daniel, Saxe, Henrik, Araújo, Miguel, Betts, Richard, Bradshaw, Richard, Cedhagen, Thomas, Chesson, Peter et al. (2007). Forecasting the effects of global warming on biodiversity. BioScience, 57(3), 227-236.

Bullock, James, Aronson, James, Newton, Adrian, Pywell, Richard & Rey-Benayas, Jose (2011). Restoration of ecosystem services and biodiversity: conflicts and opportunities. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 26(10), 541-549.

Cairns, John & Heckman, John (2003). Restoration ecology: The state of an emerging field. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 21(1), 167-189.

Climate-change-and-challenges-for-conservation-Briefing-Paper-No-13.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/grantham-institute/public/publications/briefing-papers/Climate-change-and-challenges-for-conservation-Briefing-Paper-No-13.pdf (Consulted 20 September, 2019)

Crooks, Kevin, Suarez, Andrew & Bolger, Douglas (2004). Avian assemblages along a gradient of urbanization in a highly fragmented landscape. Biological Conservation, 115(3), 451-462.

Daviter, Falk (2019). Policy analysis in the face of complexity: What kind of knowledge to tackle wicked problems? Public Policy and Administration, 34(1), 62-83.

Elliot, Robert (2002). Faking nature: The ethics of environmental restoration. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Epting, Shane (2016). Intra-disciplinary research as progress in philosophy: Lessons from philosophy of the city. Philosophia, 44(1), 101-111.

Falk, Donald, Millar, Constance & Olwell, Peggy (1996). Restoring diversity: strategies for reintroduction of endangered plants. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Finch, Deborah, Smith, Max, LeDee, Olivia, Cartron, Jean-Luc & Rumble, Mark (2012). Climate change, animal species, and habitats: Adaptation and issues. In Finch, Deborah (Eds.). Climate change in grasslands, shrublands, and deserts of the interior American west: A review and needs assessment (60-79). Fort Collins: U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2009). Coping with a changing climate: Considerations for adaptation and mitigation in agriculture. Rome, Italy: FAO.

Frost, Pete & Hyman, Glen (2011). Urban areas and the biosphere reserve concept. In Ian Douglas, David Goode, Mike Houck, & David Maddox (Eds.). The Routledge handbook of urban ecology (549-561). New York: Routledge.

Gerber, Leah (2010). Conservation biology. Nature Education Knowledge, 3(10), 14.

Gnanadesikan, Gitanjali, Pearse, William & Shaw, Allison (2017). Evolution of mammalian migrations for refuge, breeding, and food. Ecology and Evolution, 7(15), 5891-5900.

Goldsby, Michael (2019). Paradox in the City: Urban Complications Regarding Climate Change and Climate Justice. In Meagher, Sharon, Noll, Samantha & Biehl, Joseph (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of philosophy of the city (390-400). New York: Routledge.

Gomez, Sergio, Quevedo, Abel & Urrestarazu, Luis (2017). The role of green roofs in climate change mitigation: A case study in Seville. Building and Environment 123, 575-584.

Grimm, Nancy, Chapin, Stuart, Bierwagen, Britta, Gonzalez, Patrick, Groffman, Peter, Luo, Yigi, Melton, Forrest et al. (2013). The impacts of climate change on ecosystem structure and function. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 11(9), 474-482.

Grusin, Richard (Ed.) (2017). Anthropocene feminism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Gusset, Markus & Dick, Gerald (2011). The global reach of zoos and aquariums in visitor numbers and conservation expenditures. Zoo Biology, 30(5), 566-569.

IUCN (2013). Invasive alien species: The urban dimension. Retrieved from https://www.iucn.org/content/invasive-alien-species-urban-dimension. (Consulted 11 December, 2019).

Katz, Eric (2003). The big lie: Human restoration of nature. In Andrew Light & Holmes Rolston (Eds.). Environmental ethics (390-398). New York: Blackwell Publishing.

Kirkman, Robert (2004). The ethics of metropolitan growth: A framework. Philosophy & Geography, 7(2), 201-218.

Kousky, Carolyn & Schneider, Stephen (2003). Global climate policy: will cities lead the way? Climate Policy, 3(4), 359-372.

Lepczyk, Christopher, Aronson, Myla, Evans, Karl, Goddard, Mark, Lerman, Susannah & MacIvor, Scott (2017). Biodiversity in the city: Fundamental questions for understanding the ecology of urban green spaces for biodiversity conservation. BioScience, 67(9), 799-807.

Light, Andrew (2001). The urban blind spot in environmental ethics. Environmental Politics, 10(1), 7-35.

Marshall, Ross (2001). Application of mitigation and its resolution within environmental impact assessment: an industrial perspective. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 19(3), 195-204.

McDonnell, Mark (2015). Journal of urban ecology: Linking and promoting research and practice in the evolving discipline of urban ecology. Journal of Urban Ecology, 1(1), 1-6.

McDonnell, Mark, Hahs, Amy & Breuste, Jurgen (2009). Ecology of cities and towns: A comparative approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McPhearson, Timon, Pickett, Steward, Grimm, Nancy, Niemelä, Jari, Alberti, Marina, Elmqvist, Thomas & Qureshi, Salman (2016). Advancing urban ecology toward a science of cities. BioScience, 66(3), 198-212.

Meagher, Sharon, Noll, Samantha & Biehl, Joseph (2019). The Routledge handbook of philosophy of the city. New York: Routledge.

Miller, James & Hobbs, Richard (2002). Conservation where people live and work. Conservation Biology, 16(2), 330-337.

Nelson, Erik, Kareiva, Peter, Ruckelshaus, Mary, Arkema, Katie, Geller, Gary, Girvetz, Evan, Goodrich, Dave et al. (2013). Climate change’s impact on key ecosystem services and the human well-being they support in the US. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 11, 483-893.

Noll, Samantha (2018). Nonhuman climate refugees: The role that urban communities should play in ensuring ecological resilience. Environmental Ethics, 40(2), 23-38.

Ostrander, Calla & Oliveira, Donald (2013). San Francisco: Climate action strategy. San Francisco: Department of the Environment.

Palmer, Clare & Larson, Brendon (2014). Should we move the whitebark pine? Assisted migration, ethics and global environmental change. Environmental Values, 23(6), 641-662.

Rosenzweig, Cynthia, Solecki, William, Hammer, Stephen & Mehrotra, Shagun (2010). Cities lead the way in climate-change action. Nature, 467(7318), 909-911.

Sandler, Ronald (2012). The ethics of species: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Scheffers, Brett, Meester, Luc, Bridge, Tom, Hoffmann, Ary, Pandolfi, John, Corlett, Richard, Butchard, Stuart et al. (2016). The broad footprint of climate change from genes to biomes to people. Science, 354(6313), 719-aaf7671.

Sethi, Mahendra, & de Oliveira, Jose Puppim (2015). From global ‘north–south’ to local ‘urban–rural’: A shifting paradigm in climate governance? Urban Climate, 14, 529-543.

Sharp, Elaine, Daley, Dorthey & Lynch, Michael (2011). Understanding Local Adoption and Implementation of Climate Change Mitigation Policy. Urban Affairs Review, 47(3), 433-457.

Shrader-Frechette, Kristin & McCoy, Earl (1993). Method in ecology: Strategies for conservation. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press.

Smith, Thomas & Smith, Robert (2012). Elements of ecology. San Francisco: Pearson Benjamin Cummings.

Soule, Michael (1996). Conservation biology: The science of scarcity and diversity. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer & Associates.

Staudinger, Michelle, Carter, Shaw, Cross, Molly, Dubois, Natalie, Duffy, J. Emmett, Enquist, Carolyn, Griffis, Roger et al. (2013). Biodiversity in a changing climate: a synthesis of current and projected trends in the US. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 11(9), 465-473.

Taylor, Paul. (1986). Respect for nature: A theory of environmental ethics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Tremblay, Marie & St. Clair, Colleen (2011). Permeability of a heterogeneous urban landscape to the movements of forest songbirds. Journal of Applied Ecology, 48(3), 679-688.

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2017). World population prospects: The 2017 revision. New York: United Nations.

US EPA (n.d.). Climate impacts on agriculture and food supply [overviews and factsheets]. Retrieved from:

https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-agriculture-and-food-supply_.html (Consulted 20 September, 2019)

USGCRP (2018). Impacts, risks, and adaptation in the United States: Fourth national climate assessment, volume II. Retrieved from https://nca2018.globalchange.gov (Consulted 11 December, 2019).

Wang, Rusong, Downton, Paul & Douglas, Ian (2011). Toward ecopolis: New technologies, new philosophies, and new developments. In Ian Douglas, David Goode, Mike Houck & David Maddox (Eds.). Routledge handbook of urban ecology (636-652). New York: Routledge.

World Bank (2010). Cities and climate change: An urgent agenda. Washington D.C.: Knowledge Papers no. 10.

Young, Truman (2000). Restoration ecology and conservation biology. Biological Conservation, 92, 73-83.