Resource Management and Geography - Research Publications

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    Adapting to climate change in Pacific Island countries: the problem of uncertainty
    Barnett, J. (Elsevier, 2001)
    This paper investigates the problem of scientific uncertainty and the way it impedes planning for climate change and accelerated sea-level rise (CC & ASLR) in Pacific Island Countries. The paper begins by discussing the problems CC & ASLR poses for Pacific Island Countries, and it explores the limitations of the dominant approach to vulnerability and adaptation. Next, the paper considers the way scientific uncertainty problematises policies aimed at adaptation to CC & ASLR. It argues that the prevailing approach, which requires anticipation of impacts, is unsuccessful, and the paper proposes a complementary strategy aimed to enhance the resilience of whole island social-ecological systems. Recent developments in the theory and practice of resilience are discussed and then applied to formulate goals for adaptation policy in Pacific Island Countries.
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    The Yellow River in transition
    Webber, M ; Barnett, J ; Wang, M ; Finlayson, B ; Dickinson, D (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2008-08)
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    Human rights and vulnerability to climate change
    Barnett, J ; Humphreys, S (Cambridge University Press, 2009-01-01)
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    Climate change, migration and adaptation in Funafuti, Tuvalu
    Mortreux, C ; Barnett, J (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2009-02)
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    Peace and development: Towards a new synthesis
    Barnett, J (SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2008-01)
    This article develops a theory of peace as freedom that explains some important relationships between peace and development. It does this by critically examining and then synthesizing Johan Galtung's theory of peace as the absence of violence and Amartya Sen's theory of development as freedom. Galtung's theory of peace is clear on the meaning and causes of direct violence, but vague on the details of structural violence. Sen's theory helps overcome many of the problems associated with structural violence, although its focus on agents and the state tends to downplay the importance of larger-scale political and economic processes. In the theory of peace as freedom, peace is defined as, and in praxis is enlarged through, the equitable distribution of economic opportunities, political freedoms, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, protective security and freedom from direct violence. The institutions required for peace as freedom are considered, and it is suggested that the pluralist state is the best model for providing and maintaining peace as freedom. Some implications of this theory for existing and future analyses of the causes of violent conflict are discussed.
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    The hazards of indicators: Insights from the environmental vulnerability index
    Barnett, J ; Lambert, S ; Fry, I (ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2008-03)
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    The Worst of Friends: OPEC and G-77 in the Climate Regime
    Barnett, J (MIT PRESS, 2008-11)
    In the climate change negotiations the thirteen countries that are members of OPEC obstruct progress towards reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Although these actions undermine sustainable development in developing countries, the larger Group of 77 (G-77) coalition nevertheless tacitly supports its OPEC members in the climate regime. This article explains the connection between OPEC's interests in oil exports and its inaction on climate change, and the divergence of these interests with those of the G-77. It argues that OPEC's influence within the G-77, and therefore the climate regime, stems from the desire to maintain unity within the G-77. This unity has and is likely to continue to cost the majority of developing countries in the form delayed assistance for adaptation, the possibility of inadequate reduction in emissions under the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, and continued dependence on increasingly expensive oil imports.
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    Pricing China's irrigation water
    Webber, M ; Barnett, J ; Finlayson, B ; Wang, M (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2008-10)