The Limits to Capital

Climate strongly influences global wildfire activity, and recent wildfire surges may signal fire weather-induced pyrogeographic shifts. Here we use three daily global climate data sets and three fire danger indices to develop a simple annual metric of fire weather season length, and map spatio-temporal trends from 1979 to 2013. We show that fire weather seasons have lengthened across 29.6 million km2 (25.3%) of the Earth's vegetated surface, resulting in an 18.7% increase in global mean fire weather season length. We also show a doubling (108.1% increase) of global burnable area affected by long fire weather seasons (>1.0 σ above the historical mean) and an increased global frequency of long fire weather seasons across 62.4 million km2 (53.4%) during the second half of the study period. If these fire weather changes are coupled with ignition sources and available fuel, they could markedly impact global ecosystems, societies, economies and climate.

Climate-induced variations in global wildfire danger from 1979-2013

The general perception of small run-of-river hydropower plants as renewable energy sources with little or no environmental impacts has led to a global proliferation of this hydropower technology. However, such hydropower schemes may alter the natural flow regime and impair the fluvial ecosystem at different trophic levels. This paper presents a global-scale analysis of the major ecological impacts of three main small run-of-river hydropower types: dam-toe, diversion weir, and pondage schemes. This review's main objective is to provide an extensive overview of how changing the natural flow regime due to hydropower operation may affect various aspects of the fluvial ecosystem. Ultimately, it will inform decision-makers in water resources and ecosystem conservation for better planning and management. This review analyses data on ecological impacts from 33 countries in five regions, considering the last forty years' most relevant publications, a total of 146 peer-reviewed publications. The analysis was focused on impacts in biota, water quality, hydrologic alteration, and geomorphology. The results show, notably, the diversion weir and the pondage hydropower schemes are less eco-friendly; the opposite was concluded for the dam-toe hydropower scheme. Although there was conflicting information from different countries and sources, the most common impacts are: water depletion downstream of the diversion, water quality deterioration, loss of longitudinal connectivity, habitat degradation, and simplification of the biota community composition. A set of potential non-structural and structural mitigation measures was recommended to mitigate several ecological impacts such as connectivity loss, fish injuries, and aquatic habitat degradation. Among mitigation measures, environmental flows are fundamental for fluvial ecosystem conservation. The main research gaps and some of the pressing future research needs were highlighted, as well. Finally, interdisciplinary research progress involving different stakeholders is crucial to harmonize conflicting interests and enable the sustainable development of small run-of-river hydropower plants.

Ecological impacts of run-of-river hydropower plants—Current status and future prospects on the brink of energy transition

China’s “One Belt, One Road” project is comprised of two components: the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) and the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB)—that were announced separately in 2013. Each component has the potential to transform the global geopolitical landscape through the construction of interrelated infrastructure projects including ports, highways, railways and pipelines. Such hard infrastructure requires the complementary construction of soft infrastructure, such as free trade and investment agreements, and other accords. We introduce a special section focusing specifically on the geopolitics of the MSRI that stems from a workshop hosted in November 2015 in Shanghai. The origins, scope and content of the MSRI are described, along with a summary of the current literature discussing the project, and dominant geopolitical representations. The MSRI is a geopolitical project that involves a number of actors (governments, private companies and Chinese state-owned enterprises) at a number of g...

The Geopolitics of China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative

This paper examines the progress being made in Europe to restore economic growth. It draws on monetary policy theory and economic data. Evidence shows that improvements are being gradually made; but further efforts are required in terms of restructuring to maintain a sound footing.

Planning for growth

Recent extreme fire seasons in California have prompted utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric to pre-emptively de-energize portions of the electrical grid during periods of extreme fire weather to reduce the risk of powerline-related fire ignitions. The controversial policy was deployed in 2019, resulting in 12 million person-days of power outages and widespread societal disruption. Retrospective weather and vegetation moisture data highlight hotspots of historical risk across northern California. We estimate an average of 1.6 million person-days of de-energization per year, based on recent historical climate conditions and assuming publicly stated utility de-energization thresholds. We further estimate an additional 70% increase in the population affected by de-energization when vegetation remains abnormally dry later into autumn — suggesting that climate change will likely increase population vulnerable to de-energization. Adaptation efforts to curtail fire risk can be beneficial, but efforts to prepare affected populations, modernize the grid, and refine decision-making surrounding such policies have high potential to reduce the magnitude of negative externalities experienced during the 2019 de-energization events.

https://internal.iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aba135/pdf

Population exposure to pre-emptive de-energization aimed at averting wildfires in Northern California

An immediate political geographic consequence of the global pandemic is the rapid imposition of national and subnational borders, particularly where cross-boundary openness and integration was prev...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13562576.2020.1773254

Borders resurgent: towards a post-Covid-19 global border regime?

This paper critically analyzes the disjuncture between rural electrification initiatives, utilization and socioeconomic development resulting from development of small hydropower (SHP) operations in rural Yunnan Province. Across China, a contemporary rapid and sustained proliferation of SHP is driven by government-led programs endorsing the technology as a means to provide energy for isolated communities in areas where grid connectivity is deficient or absent. Through SHP development, rural electrification programs (REP’s) are purported to raise quality-of-life indicators in some of the country’s poorest and most marginalized areas. Currently, there is a significant dearth of research critically analyzing the success or failures of SHP based REP’s in China to improve livelihoods for ethnic minority communities in rural and remote areas. This paper adds to a shallow body of China based research by analyzing outcomes of SHP development through a comparative study undertaken in two rural village communities in the upper Nu River Valley. The study analyzed a range of quantitative economic data before undertaking a suite of qualitative methods such as participant observation, household surveys, semi-structured interviews and focus groups, staggered over multiple field visits. Findings indicate substantial scope exists for SHP based REP’s to achieve stated objectives for improving socioeconomic indicators in rural and remote communities. Due to a range of challenges, however, projects often underachieve or further marginalize residents, commonly mired by failures in strategic planning, lack of implementation frameworks and genuine engagement with community members. A number of recommendations are offered as pathways to improve SHP based REP’s as a means to provide conditions for more equitable modes of socioeconomic development across rural and marginal China.

Towards an ethnography of small hydropower in China: Rural electrification, socioeconomic development and furtive hydroscapes

Transboundary flows of energy across Yunnan Province in China and to Southeast Asian states provide insight into the changing nature of borders and border areas. Rather than monolithic symbols of state sovereignty, China’s southwest borders in Yunnan can be more accurately characterised as zones of connectivity and exchange, serving a range of local, national and regional objectives. Energy production and distribution in and across Yunnan can be understood as functioning in a set of dynamic transnational processes that serve as economic and political bridges – increasing interaction and deepening regional integration – while also working to mitigate risk to China’s energy demands. In this article, energy projects in Yunnan and Southeast Asia demonstrate the ways border regions can respond to increasing globalisation, simultaneously strengthening national energy security while promoting regional interconnection and diplomacy. Thus, connections to and through a once peripheral region present an appa...

Thomas Ptak

Papers

Population exposure to pre-emptive de-energization aimed at averting wildfires in Northern California

Borders resurgent: towards a post-Covid-19 global border regime?

Towards an ethnography of small hydropower in China: Rural electrification, socioeconomic development and furtive hydroscapes

The Trans-Political Nature of Southwest China’s Energy Conduit, Yunnan Province

Dams and Development: Understanding Hydropower in Far Western Yunnan Province, China