Climate change is a global problem requiring a collective response. Grassroots advocacy has been an important element in propelling this collective response, often through the mechanism of campaigns. However, it is not clear whether the climate change campaigns organized by the environmental advocacy groups are successful in achieving their goals, nor the degree to which other benefits may accrue to groups who run them. To investigate this further, we report a case study of the Australian climate change advocacy sector. Three methods were used to gather data to inform this case study: content analysis of climate change organizations’ websites, analysis of website text relating to campaign outcomes, and interviews with climate change campaigners. Findings demonstrate that climate change advocacy is diverse and achieving substantial successes such as the development of climate change-related legislation and divestment commitments from a range of organizations. The data also highlights additional benefits of campaigning such as gaining access to political power and increasing groups’ financial and volunteer resources. The successful outcomes of campaigns were influenced by the ability of groups to sustain strong personal support networks, use skills and resources available across the wider environmental advocacy network, and form consensus around shared strategic values. Communicating the successes of climate change advocacy could help mobilize collective action to address climate change. As such, this case study of the Australian climate change movement is relevant for both academics focusing on social movements and collective action and advocacy-focused practitioners, philanthropists, and non-governmental organizations.

Relocation as an adaptation strategy to coastal degradation remains on the fringes of climate change discourse. Yet, as sea levels are projected to rise, relocating is an inevitable response for vulnerable coastal communities worldwide. In fact, some Fijian villages are facing such severe coastal erosion that they have already begun the process of shifting to higher ground, and many more villages throughout the islands have been slated for relocation. This case study is based on the planned relocation efforts of Narikoso village on Ono Island in Kadavu, Fiji. In Narikoso, regional NGOs, INGOs, and local and national government are working with the community to relocate the village inland. The process of moving the community began in 2012 when Prime Minister Bainimarama sent the Fiji military to Ono Island to clear land for the new village. It came to an abrupt stop due to a lack of funding and ecological degradation caused by the preparation for the new village site. Since the relocation process began, a myriad of issues have arisen ranging from concerns regarding community engagement, availability of financial resources, and resistance to moving inland.

This case explores the Methow Beaver Project (MBP), an ambitious experiment to restore beaver ( Castor canadensis ) to a high mountain watershed in Washington State, USA. The Pacific Northwest is already experiencing weather regimes consistent with longer term climate projections, which predict longer and drier summers and stronger and wetter winter storms. Ironically, this combination makes imperative more water storage in one of the most heavily dammed regions in the nation. Although the positive role that beaver can play in watershed enhancement has been well known for decades, no project has previously attempted to re-introduce beaver on a watershed scale with a rigorous monitoring protocol designed to document improved water storage and temperature conditions needed for human uses and aquatic species. While the MBP has demonstrated that beaver can be re-introduced on a watershed scale, it has been much more difficult to scientifically demonstrate positive changes in water retention and stream temperature, given hydrologic complexity, unprecedented fire and floods, and the fact that beaver are highly mobile. This case study can help environmental studies students and natural resource policy professionals think about the broader challenges of diffuse, ecosystem services approaches to climate adaptation. Beaver-produced watershed improvements will remain difficult to quantify and verify, and thus will likely remain less attractive to water planners than conventional storage dams. But as climate conditions put additional pressure on such infrastructure, it is worth considering how beaver might be employed to augment watershed storage capacity, even if this capacity is likely to remain at least in part inscrutable.

In 2016, thousands of people, led by Oceti Sakowin Tribal members, gathered at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota in an attempt to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The movement aroused international media attention, mass support from a wide range of individuals and environmental groups, and political debates regarding Indigenous rights, climate change, fossil fuel reliance, water protection, and corporate power. Ultimately, 10 months into the movement, it was halted by the US federal government and the pipeline was installed. During the movement, state and federal military forces worked alongside a private military and security contractor (PMSC), TigerSwan, hired by owners of the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners. This case study addresses the ethics of the use of private military against Indigenous-led environmental activists at Standing Rock. Readers will review the modern rise and use of privatized militia, examine specific tactics used by TigerSwan at Standing Rock, and consider the ethics surrounding principles of transparency, accountability, regulation, and the potential risk for increased violence against citizens. A brief historical overview of Oceti Sakowin’s political resistance to US federal land appropriation and corporate exploitation is provided, as well as an analysis of future implications for Indigenous-led environmental justice movements. With this case study, instructors, students, and researchers can debate and analyze the ethical dilemmas regarding the use of PMSCs to target environmental justice movements.

Due to a lack of adequate water and sanitation infrastructure, growing, unplanned urban settlements in South Africa and elsewhere have been linked to pollution of critical river systems. The same dynamics undermine local resilience, understood as the capacity to adapt and develop in response to changes, persistent social and ecological risks, and disasters. Water and sanitation challenges undermine resilience by causing and compounding risks to individuals, and to household and community health and livelihoods, in a complex context in which communities and local governments have limited capacity and resources to respond appropriately. Household and community resilience in informal settlements is drawing increasing policy focus, given the persistence of these kinds of neighbourhoods in cities and towns in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa, in particular. This case considers whether bottom-up responses that combine public and private sector resources, including community participation, and use an interdisciplinary approach can support the production of novel resilience-fostering solutions. This article presents an analysis of the case of Genius of Space waste and wastewater management infrastructure in the Western Cape, South Africa. While the process has been imperfect and slow to show results, this analysis reflects on the gains, lessons and potential for replication that this work has produced. The Genius of Space approach adds to a growing area of practice-based experimentation focussed on incrementalism and adaptive development practices in urban environments, particularly in developing countries.

Deforestation is a primary contributor to global climate change. When the forest is felled and the vegetation is burnt or decomposes, carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is released into the atmosphere. An approach designed to stem climate change is Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), a global financial mechanism that requires intricate governance requirements to be met—a significant challenge in the developing areas. In Panama, the government is responsible for designing and implementing a national REDD+ strategy with support from multilateral organizations. This case study is built through the experience of a public hearing on the potential implementation of REDD+ in the highly contested Upper Bayano Watershed in eastern Panama. The Upper Bayano Watershed is composed of vast and diverse forest ecosystems. It forms a part of the Choco-Darien ecoregion, a global biodiversity hotspot, and is home to two Indigenous groups (Kuna and Embera) and populations of migrant farmers ( colonos ), all with different histories, traditions, and worldviews concerning forests and land management, often resulting in territorial conflicts. A major socioecological issue facing the region is deforestation, which is driving biodiversity loss and landscape change and threatening traditional livelihoods and cultures. The public hearing stimulates difficult discussions about access to land, tenure security, biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction, identity, power, trade-offs, and social justice. The case is designed to confront participants with the challenges of implementing ambitious, international, and often-prescriptive natural resource policies at local levels.

Around 600 Mt carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 e) of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) emission originates from energy production and consumption in Indonesia annually. Of this output, 40 Mt CO 2 e comes from cement production. This makes the cement industry a key sector to target in Indonesia’s quest to reduce its emissions by 26% by 2020. Substantial opportunities exist for the industry to reduce emissions, mainly through clinker substitution, alternative fuels, and the modernization of kiln technologies. However, most of these abatement options are capital intensive and considered as noncore business. Due to this, the private sector is unlikely to voluntarily invest in emission reduction unless it saves money, improves revenue, enhances the strategic position of the firm, or unless governments provide incentives or force adoption through regulatory and policy controls. In this study, we review the profile of the Indonesian cement industry and assess the carbon management and climate policy actions available to reduce emissions. The case highlights opportunities for improved carbon management in emission-intensive industries in developing countries.

From 2011 to 2014 fossil fuel corporations trucked tar sands processing machinery along rural Idaho highways. The machinery was bound for the world's largest deposits of tar or oil sands, a heavy crude oil substance called bitumen, located in the western Canadian province of Alberta. These loads of machinery, what became known as megaloads, encountered much resistance. Throughout Idaho and the surrounding region, a network organized opposition. Neighbors, grassroots organizations, nonprofits, and the Nez Perce and other tribes all collaborated. They held information sessions, protested, waged legal battles, monitored the loads, and blockaded highways. What oil companies hoped would be a cost-effective solution for transporting their megaloads became a David versus Goliath, Coyote versus the Monster—to reference the Nez Perce creation story—struggle to protect rural and indigenous ways of life and sovereignty, and the planet.

In New England (United States) climate change models forecast increasingly intense, frequent floods. Communities in this region are already experiencing these changes, along with the negative consequences associated with them, such as inundation, erosion, natural habitat destruction, and property damage. As it is in many places around the world, agriculture in New England is often in floodplains, which means that farmers are at greater risk due to where they farm. These farmers are already adapting to the increased risk of flooding; however, some of their actions may affect communities downstream, both human and ecological. This case study examines the competing perspectives of farmers and other community stakeholders in New England as farmers work to adapt to increasing flood impacts. Our premise is that, considering the intensified pressures of climate change on agriculture near rivers and streams, we must find ways to allow farmers to adapt to protect their farms and downstream communities.