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Abstract

Light pollution has increased globally, with 80% of the total population now living under light-polluted skies. In this Review, we elucidate the scope and importance of light pollution and discuss techniques to monitor it. In urban areas, light emissions from sources such as street lights lead to a zenith radiance 40 times larger than that of an unpolluted night sky. Non-urban areas account for over 50% of the total night-time light observed by satellites, with contributions from sources such as transportation networks and resource extraction. Artificial light can disturb the migratory and reproductive behaviours of animals even at the low illuminances from diffuse skyglow. Additionally, lighting (indoor and outdoor) accounts for 20% of global electricity consumption and 6% of CO2 emissions, leading to indirect environmental impacts and a financial cost. However, existing monitoring techniques can only perform a limited number of measurements throughout the night and lack spectral and spatial resolution. Therefore, satellites with improved spectral and spatial resolution are needed to enable time series analysis of light pollution trends throughout the night.

Table of Contents Theme issue ‘Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture’ compiled and edited by Anne C. Pisor, J. Stephen Lansing and Kate Magargal Whether we’re facing job loss or extreme climate events, people use cultural solutions to manage risk. By studying the solutions people use to deal with climate change, researchers learn which solutions tend to emerge given different conditions—like local geography, structural constraints, or kinds of extreme event. This theme issue brings together articles from prominent researchers to document what solutions communities have used, past and present; whether these solutions worked or not; and why. Understanding how climate change adaptation unfolds will help researchers, policymakers, and organizations better support communities as they respond.

A collection of data sets associated with this issue can be found here on the Dryad digital repository.

Read a blog post about the theme issue from one of the Guest Editors.

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INTRODUCTION

Introduction Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture Anne Pisor, J. Stephen Lansing and Kate Magargal Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220390 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0390

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Research articles Climate micro-mobilities as adaptation practice in the Pacific: the case of Samoa Anita Latai-Niusulu, Masami Tsujita and Andreas Neef Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220392 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0392

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Research articles The impacts of climate change, energy policy and traditional ecological practices on future firewood availability for Diné (Navajo) People Kate Magargal, Kurt Wilson, Shaniah Chee, Michael J. Campbell, Vanessa Bailey, Philip E. Dennison, William R. L. Anderegg, Adrienne Cachelin, … See all authors Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220394 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0394

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Research articles Socio-economic predictors of Inuit hunting choices and their implications for climate change adaptation Friederike Hillemann, Bret A. Beheim and Elspeth Ready Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220395 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0395

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Research articles Small-scale farmer responses to the double exposure of climate change and market integration K. L. Kramer and J. V. Hackman Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220396 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0396

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Research articles Understanding constraints to adaptation using a community-centred toolkit Danielle C. Buffa, Katharine E. T. Thompson, Dana Reijerkerk, Stephanie Brittain, George Manahira, Roger Samba, Francois Lahiniriko, … See all authors Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220391 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0391

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Research articles Operationalizing cultural adaptation to climate change: contemporary examples from United States agriculture Timothy M. Waring, Meredith T. Niles, Matthew M. Kling, Stephanie N. Miller, Laurent Hébert-Dufresne, Hossein Sabzian, Nicholas Gotelli and Brian J. McGill Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220397 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0397

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Research articles Adaptive irrigation management by Balinese farmers reduces greenhouse gas emissions and increases rice yields J. S. Lansing, J. N. Kremer, I. B. G. Suryawan, S. Sathiakumar, G. S. Jacobs, N. N. Chung and I. Wy A. Artha Wiguna Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220400 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0400

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Research articles Minority-group incubators and majority-group reservoirs support the diffusion of climate change adaptations Matthew A. Turner, Alyson L. Singleton, Mallory J. Harris, Ian Harryman, Cesar Augusto Lopez, Ronan Forde Arthur, Caroline Muraida and James Holland Jones Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220401 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0401

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Research articles Navigating polycrisis: long-run socio-cultural factors shape response to changing climate Daniel Hoyer, James S. Bennett, Jenny Reddish, Samantha Holder, Robert Howard, Majid Benam, Jill Levine, Francis Ludlow, Gary Feinman and Peter Turchin Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220402 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0402

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Research articles Efficiency traps beyond the climate crisis: exploration–exploitation trade-offs and rebound effects Jose Segovia-Martin, Felix Creutzig and James Winters Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220405 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0405

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Review articles Climate change and long-term human behaviour in the Neotropics: an archaeological view from the Global South Vivian Scheinsohn, A. Sebastián Muñoz and Mariana Mondini Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220403 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0403

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Opinion piece Climate change adaptation and the back of the invisible hand H. Clark Barrett and Josh Armstrong Published:18 September 2023Article ID:20220406 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0406

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800914000615

State or societal collapses are often described as featuring rapid reductions in socioeconomic complexity, population loss or displacement, and/or political discontinuity, with climate thought to contribute mainly by disrupting a society’s agroecological base. Here we use a state-of-the-art multi-ice-core reconstruction of explosive volcanism, representing the dominant global external driver of severe short-term climatic change, to reveal a systematic association between eruptions and dynastic collapse across two millennia of Chinese history. We next employ a 1,062-year reconstruction of Chinese warfare as a proxy for political and socioeconomic stress to reveal the dynamic role of volcanic climatic shocks in collapse. We find that smaller shocks may act as the ultimate cause of collapse at times of high pre-existing stress, whereas larger shocks may act with greater independence as proximate causes without substantial observed pre-existing stress. We further show that post-collapse warfare tends to diminish rapidly, such that collapse itself may act as an evolved adaptation tied to the influential “mandate of heaven” concept in which successive dynasties could claim legitimacy as divinely sanctioned mandate holders, facilitating a more rapid restoration of social order.

Climate variability and natural hazards like floods and earthquakes can act as environmental shocks or socioecological stressors leading to instability and suffering throughout human history. Yet, societies experience a wide range of outcomes when facing such challenges: some suffer from social unrest, civil violence or complete collapse; others prove more resilient and maintain key social functions. We currently lack a clear, generally agreed-upon conceptual framework and evidentiary base to explore what causes these divergent outcomes. Here, we discuss efforts to develop such a framework through the Crisis Database (CrisisDB) programme. We illustrate that the impact of environmental stressors is mediated through extant cultural, political and economic structures that evolve over extended timescales (decades to centuries). These structures can generate high resilience to major shocks, facilitate positive adaptation, or, alternatively, undermine collective action and lead to unrest, violence and even societal collapse. By exposing the ways that different societies have reacted to crises over their lifetime, this framework can help identify the factors and complex social–ecological interactions that either bolster or undermine resilience to contemporary climate shocks.