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Jason Alexandra is a writer, consultant, farmer and researcher and has held senior roles in government and the NGO sectors. He researches water governance and climate change and is working with the Traditional Owners who formed the Marduwarra-Fitzroy River Council in Australia's Kimberley.
The aim of this editorial is to explore, conceptualize, and research the need to internalize both animals and ecosystems in our understanding of social citizenship and social policy. This editorial should be seen as a brief overview of the themes that should be covered in the contributions to the Special Issue, “Internalizing Animals and Ecosystems in Social Citizenship and Social Policy: From Political Community to Political Country”. This Special Issue argues the importance of integrating animals and ecosystems as a way to re-politicize humans’ social relation with both animals and our ecosystem as in sustainable development and social policy. If environmental policy becomes social policy, we would re-construct social citizenship to include consideration for animals and ecosystems as integral part of social policy. This expansion in scope is a progression from seeing humans as part of a political community to becoming more involved in their political country. This aligns with the concept of Country—an all-encompassing term in Australia, involving a people’s territory, land, water, biological resources, the complex obligations and relationships involved.
Johan Nordensvard; Jason Alexandra; Markus Ketola. Internalizing Animals and Ecosystems in Social Citizenship and Social Policy: From Political Community to Political Country. Sustainability 2021, 13, 6601 .
AMA StyleJohan Nordensvard, Jason Alexandra, Markus Ketola. Internalizing Animals and Ecosystems in Social Citizenship and Social Policy: From Political Community to Political Country. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (12):6601.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJohan Nordensvard; Jason Alexandra; Markus Ketola. 2021. "Internalizing Animals and Ecosystems in Social Citizenship and Social Policy: From Political Community to Political Country." Sustainability 13, no. 12: 6601.
Climatic events express the dynamics of the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, but are profoundly personal and social in their impacts, representation and comprehension. This paper explores how knowledge of the climate has multiple scales and dimensions that intersect in our experience of the climate. The climate is objective and subjective, scientific and cultural, local and global, and personal and political. These divergent dimensions of the climate frame the philosophical and cultural challenges of a dynamic climate. Drawing on research into the adaptation in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin, this paper outlines the significance of understanding the cultural dimensions of the changing climate. This paper argues for greater recognition of the ways in which cultures co-create the climate and, therefore, that the climate needs to be recognised as a socio-natural hybrid. Given the climate’s hybrid nature, research should aim to integrate our understanding of the social and the natural dimensions of our relationships to a changing climate.
Jason Alexandra. How Do the Cultural Dimensions of Climate Shape Our Understanding of Climate Change? Climate 2021, 9, 63 .
AMA StyleJason Alexandra. How Do the Cultural Dimensions of Climate Shape Our Understanding of Climate Change? Climate. 2021; 9 (4):63.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJason Alexandra. 2021. "How Do the Cultural Dimensions of Climate Shape Our Understanding of Climate Change?" Climate 9, no. 4: 63.
Water extraction is fundamentally altering many of the world’s rivers, floodplains and wetlands, while drying trends intensify competition for water resources. Climate change is challenging integrated water resource management policies that aim to balance human and environmental water needs. This paper explores the challenges of managing natural resources in a regime of climate change. It examines Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin, where national water law requires a Basin Plan based on best available science. However, proactively responding to climate risks is institutionally and politically complex, even though understanding of the Basin’s hydro-climate system has improved. Despite decades of research consistently warning of a drying climate, the Basin Plan relied on historical hydrological data to determine future water resource availability. The paper uses the heuristic of the science-policy interface to examine why there were no significant adjustments to account for climate change. This analysis finds that the science-policy interface is highly politicised, with different risk cultures in the scientific, governmental, political and commercial sectors constraining adaptation planning. These constraints need to be overcome because the changing nature of the Anthropocene’s rivers means adaptive policy and institutional frameworks are needed that can navigate the complexities, uncertainties and indeterminacies of a changing climate.
Jason Alexandra. Navigating the Anthropocene’s rivers of risk—climatic change and science-policy dilemmas in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin. Climatic Change 2021, 165, 1 -21.
AMA StyleJason Alexandra. Navigating the Anthropocene’s rivers of risk—climatic change and science-policy dilemmas in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin. Climatic Change. 2021; 165 (1-2):1-21.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJason Alexandra. 2021. "Navigating the Anthropocene’s rivers of risk—climatic change and science-policy dilemmas in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin." Climatic Change 165, no. 1-2: 1-21.
Around the world cities are responding to environmental imperatives, including climate change, with diverse programs of ecologically inspired design, water re-engineering, habitat restoration and urban reafforestation. These are collectively known as living infrastructure. This paper is based on a review undertaken to identify suitable options for the use of living infrastructure in Australia’s capital city, Canberra. Known as the ‘bush’ capital, Canberra is a medium sized city ringed with forested hills and grassy woodlands and has one of the highest rates of planted trees in the world, on a per capita basis. This paper summarises the lessons from investigating the opportunities for urban forests, and other living infrastructure being used to further enhance Canberra’s amenity and climate adaptation strategies. Canberra is a planned city with a history of afforestation since its inception, but still has many opportunities to build on its status as an urban forest. Trees offer more than a backdrop to the city housing Australia’s parliamentary democracy and national cultural institutions – they form a key part of the city’s infrastructure. Planted forests, surrounding bushland and constructed lakes have cultural, practical and ecological values and provide multiple benefits, including climate conditioning. However, they face a range of pressures including from urban redevelopment and a changing climate, raising questions about how to sustain and enhance Canberra’s living infrastructure, whilst meeting other urban policy goals. Using the case of Canberra, this paper outlines how living infrastructure – including urban forests - can contribute to meeting the twenty-first century’s urban challenges. The experience in Canberra demonstrate that investing in active programs of urban reafforestation and more water sensitive design provide significant opportunities to enhance cities, making them both more liveable and climate responsive. For this to occur at scale, integrated planning is needed that brings together the physical, social and ecological elements of urban systems, including through the integration of different theoretical and practical traditions including from urban planning, energy, transport and water engineering and conservation ecology. At a broader level, this involves reconceptualising the nature of the city and its socio-ecological relationships.
Jason Alexandra; Barbara Norman. The city as forest - integrating living infrastructure, climate conditioning and urban forestry in Canberra, Australia. Sustainable Earth 2020, 3, 1 -11.
AMA StyleJason Alexandra, Barbara Norman. The city as forest - integrating living infrastructure, climate conditioning and urban forestry in Canberra, Australia. Sustainable Earth. 2020; 3 (1):1-11.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJason Alexandra; Barbara Norman. 2020. "The city as forest - integrating living infrastructure, climate conditioning and urban forestry in Canberra, Australia." Sustainable Earth 3, no. 1: 1-11.
Climate change has many disruptive consequences, particularly in large river basins experiencing drying trends and declining water availability. With pressure for more adaptive policies, understanding how institutions governing water are adapting to climate risks has broad international relevance. This paper examines the challenges of climate risk assessments in Australia's Murray Darling Basin, an economically and culturally important basin where national legislation mandates a Basin Plan based on the best available science. However, despite repeated scientific warnings about a drying climate, the current Basin Plan does not reduce estimates of water resources available, and its climate risk management relies on a bricolage of policy mechanisms, which appear insufficient for the magnitude of predicted changes. This paper outlines the findings of original research exploring why this occurred. It draws on interviews with 30 senior public policy professionals and researchers with deep experience in climate and water policy. The interview data indicate that minimising political risks were the principal reasons for abandoning proposed reductions in entitlements and for relying on historical averages for estimating water availability. As the reform process evolved, decisions about water-planning techniques became increasingly politicised, and the adoption of explicit climate adaptation measures became problematic. As a result, the Basin Plan neither reflects the broad scientific consensus about climate change nor makes specific allowances for declining water availability. Climate risks are downplayed while concerns about levels of scientific uncertainties appear overstated. Importantly, lessons emerge from this examination that could contribute to the revisions of the Plan, scheduled for 2026. More generally, the research finds that proactive climate adaptation policies for large river basins require sustained and well-designed institutional reforms, particularly the adoption of legally prescribed procedures for utilising science - and accounting for its use - in controversial environmental reforms.
Jason Alexandra. The science and politics of climate risk assessment in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin. Environmental Science & Policy 2020, 112, 17 -27.
AMA StyleJason Alexandra. The science and politics of climate risk assessment in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin. Environmental Science & Policy. 2020; 112 ():17-27.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJason Alexandra. 2020. "The science and politics of climate risk assessment in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin." Environmental Science & Policy 112, no. : 17-27.
Jason Alexandra; C. Max Finlayson. Floods after bushfires: rapid responses for reducing impacts of sediment, ash, and nutrient slugs. Australasian Journal of Water Resources 2020, 24, 9 -11.
AMA StyleJason Alexandra, C. Max Finlayson. Floods after bushfires: rapid responses for reducing impacts of sediment, ash, and nutrient slugs. Australasian Journal of Water Resources. 2020; 24 (1):9-11.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJason Alexandra; C. Max Finlayson. 2020. "Floods after bushfires: rapid responses for reducing impacts of sediment, ash, and nutrient slugs." Australasian Journal of Water Resources 24, no. 1: 9-11.