Showing papers by "Eric Chu published in 2021"

An agenda for ethics and justice in adaptation to climate change

Abstract: As experts predict that at least some irreversible climate change will occur with potentially disastrous effects on the lives and well-being of vulnerable communities around the world, it is paramount to ensure that these communities are resilient and have adaptive capacity to withstand the consequences. Adaptation and resilience planning present several ethical issues that need to be resolved if we are to achieve successful adaptation and resilience to climate change, taking into consideration vulnerabilities and inequalities in terms of power, income, gender, age, sexuality, race, culture, religion, and spatiality. Sustainable adaptation and resilience planning that addresses these ethical issues requires interdisciplinary dialogues between the natural sciences, social sciences, and philosophy, in order to integrate empirical insights on socioeconomic inequality and climate vulnerability with ethical analysis of the underlying causes and consequences of injustice in adaptation and resilience. In this paper, we set out an interdisciplinary research agenda for the inclusion of ethics and justice theories in adaptation and resilience planning, particularly into the Sixth Assessment Report of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR6). We present six core discussions that we believe should be an integral part of these interdisciplinary dialogues on adaptation and resilience as part of IPCC AR6, especially Chapters 2 (“Terrestial and freshwater ecosystems and their services”), 6 (“Cities, settlements and key infrastructure”), 7 (“Health, wellbeing and the changing structure of communities”), 8 (“Poverty, livelihoods and sustainable development”), 16 “Key risks across sectors and regions”), 17 (“Decision-making options for managing risk”), and 18 (“Climate resilient development pathways”).: (i) Where does ‘justice’ feature in resilience and adaptation planning and what does it require in that regard?; (ii) How can it be ensured that adaptation and resilience strategies protect and take into consideration and represent the interest of the most vulnerable women and men, and communities?; (iii) How can different forms of knowledge be integrated within adaptation and resilience planning?; (iv) What trade-offs need to be made when focusing on resilience and adaptation and how can they be resolved?; (v) What roles and responsibilities do different actors have to build resilience and achieve adaptation?; (vi) Finally, what does the focus on ethics imply for the practice of adaptation and resilience planning?

Gender, sexuality, and feminist critiques in energy research: A review and call for transversal thinking

Abstract: This article presents a narrative review of recent energy research that engages with critical sexuality, gender, and feminist theories. We find that these important theories are generally considered by the literature in three ways – through identifying and framing the problem, designing implementation and governance processes, and offering long-term visioning and ideals. Emerging scholarship advances valuable insights on the unequal treatment of women and other minority groups. However, our review also highlights the need for more transversal ways – i.e., reading across disciplinary silos and multiple intersecting social identities – to interrogate the impacts of systemic oppression on energy issues. We argue that such a transversal approach to energy studies should prioritize engendering an epistemic community that promotes a relational awareness of historic and contemporary structures of oppression, facilitate innovative methodological approaches to research, and speak to more radical societal visions through mobilization and activism.

Subaltern forms of knowledge are required to boost local adaptation

Abstract: Evidence shows that current adaptation planning approaches are not always successful in generating actionable knowledge to guide implementation on the ground. There remains a persistent disconnect between the production of (physical) climate science and the implementation of practical, local, and context-specific adaptation actions. We argue for a need to incorporate “subaltern” knowledge (i.e., that which is typically labeled local, traditional, or indigenous knowledge) in climate adaptation science and practice. Building on recent comparative assessment studies, we identify limitations of current local adaptation action in its typical application of scientific knowledge and illustrate key pathways through which the subaltern can be integrated to better inform current approaches. We argue that subaltern knowledge can be a critical source of innovation and can help to broaden the adaptation solution space by enhancing both the effectiveness and the social legitimacy of actions.

Evolving Evocative 2D Views of Generated 3D Objects

Abstract: We present a method for jointly generating 3D models of objects and 2D renders at different viewing angles, with the process guided by ImageNet and CLIP -based models. Our results indicate that it can generate anamorphic objects, with renders that both evoke the target caption and look visually appealing.