Sustainability and Climate Change

Climate change has implications for wildlife survival worldwide. Changing precipitation and temperature patterns increase the frequency and severity of storms with significant impacts on watershed hydrologic processes that change the ecosystem characteristics at a landscape scale. Biota either adapts to the changes, shifts ranges, or becomes extinct or extirpated. Herpetofauna species are particularly vulnerable to these changes due to their physiology and natural history. Since reptiles and amphibians are vital components of ecosystems at large, there is a need to assess the impacts of climate change on their habitat. This study used a watershed-scale assessment of the Connecticut River watershed in the northeastern United States. The SWAT model with the Hydrologic and Water Quality System (HAWQS) interface is used to simulate watershed conditions under three scenarios: baseline, medium climate change (Representative Concentration Pathway—RCP 4.5), and high climate change (RCP 8.5). Species richness modeling from the Gap Analysis Program (GAP) is used as an indicator of herptile habitat suitability. Spatial overlay analysis is used to assess the impacts of precipitation, groundwater, and water quality on habitat suitability of herpetofauna. With the spatial assessment of vulnerable habitats under each scenario, mitigation policies are suggested through climate buffer areas and stream continuity to enable climate migration.

The majority of US colleges and universities have a degree requirement related to the principles of economics. As a result, nearly all college students have some exposure to economics during their undergraduate program. However, the practical applicability of economics to present observable outcomes is not often addressed in standard textbooks. This exclusion limits the opportunity to foster needed and urgent changes in human behavior and further, limits the questioning of the relationship between economics and sustainability. This article reviews the most widely used macroeconomics textbook, Principles of Economics by N. Gregory Mankiw, specific to the discussion of climate change. The article authors argue for the explicit inclusion of climate change in macroeconomics textbooks and conclude with survey outcomes resulting from exposure to an integrated approach of economics and sustainability at the introductory economics level.

In this case report, we present how we have approached the topic of the milpa in rural and indigenous contexts in Mexico as a basis for understanding the impacts of climate change, and as a traditional practice that can inform adaptation from a situated learning perspective in line with the curriculum. This research demonstrated effective ways to address climate change as a global problem that directly relates to local concerns and practices. This case used collaborative qualitative research to develop a training process in which teachers analyze learning progressions in their schools. The process included the design and implementation of relevant project materials.

Anthropogenic climate change currently threatens existing systems of human societies, and psychology has a significant role in exploring and untangling the predictors of sustainable behaviors and environmental concern. The present research identifies several individual demographic factors (age, education, and political ideology) as well as various attitudinal and social factors, such as ecological worldview, social identity, and place attachment, and explores their relationship with pro-environmental concern and behavior. The results of this synthesis indicate that there are complex and dynamic associations between these demographic, attitudinal, and social factors, and environmental variables. Several relevant theoretical models are discussed (e.g., Value Belief Norm theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior), a summative model of behavioral predictors is introduced, and implications for community education and policy support are considered.

This case report details the collaboration and integration of three distinct courses using a service-learning approach for a grant-based environmental project at the University of Southern Maine (USM). The focus of this project was the intersection of food waste, climate implications, environmental stewardship, and food insecurity in light of mitigation and adaptation. Thirty students in the courses Food and Environment, Green Meetings and Conference Management, and Sustainable Business Practicum worked with 14 different community partners to develop plans to reduce food waste and their related environmental impacts. Small multidisciplinary teams of students measured and evaluated food waste, learned regulatory and business environments of food and cooking oils, explored options for better food utilization and donation, developed best practices for local partnerships and technologies, and communicated plans to their respective community partners in written form and summative oral presentation. Both the pedagogical service-learning model and food waste project align with the institutional commitment to climate change education and mitigation while engaging students in experiential learning that directly benefits the local community.

This article is the outcome of a semester-long course project initiated in the spring 2020 offering of Economics of Sustainability, an economics elective at Northeastern University. The course, which has no prerequisite in economics, is interdisciplinary and highlights the relationship between the present domestic economic system and the sustainability of observable economic outcomes. Course participants worked together to create a 19-question survey instrument, which was administered by class members to individuals both on and in the vicinity of Northeastern University's campus in Boston, Massachusetts. Survey respondents (277) ranged from 18 to 25 years of age, with an average age of 20.7 years. The survey responses provided an opportunity to assess the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and specific awareness and knowledge of characteristics related to the environment. The survey outcomes also provided insight into the relationship between recycling action and climate change perceptions, which is the focus of this article. Survey respondents generally had a strong inclination toward recycling but lacked an understanding of the efficiency of recycling. Given the respondents' sensitivity toward climate change relative to their recycling bias, the results highlight a potential opportunity to promote lasting behavioral change through an educational marketing plan and related convenient access to climate change mitigation and adaptation activities.