Over the past decade within Hollywood speculative fiction (SF), the natural environment has become more prominent as a cause of societal collapse. Interstellar, Elysium, Wall-E, Mad Max, and Tomorrowland, as a few examples, all include environmental change and deterioration as prominent plot points, rather than merely as settings. I analyze the political and ideological tenor of these films with a discourse framework to assess the influence of certain real-world discourses, as well as their optimism or pessimism in the context of real-world sustainability transformations. Within this genre, one continues to find a degree of ‘Prometheanism,’ or techno-optimism, but the distinctive discursive influence of the past decade and a half has been the rise of ‘Survivalism,’ a more dystopian or post-apocalyptic discourse. When the environment is prominent as a theme, that is, these films more often explore its destruction—often by humans—and the conditions of existence within such environments.

Mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adaptation to climate risk are two essential ingredients of climate change policy. Both are needed and co-benefits may exist. Yet, mitigation and adaptation are not usually pursued together. Part of remedying this shortcoming is understanding the relationship between GHG emissions and climate vulnerability reduction and recognizing when and where they trend together. Here, we compare changes in fossil fuel CO 2 emissions per capita and in climate vulnerability scores over the past two decades in 179 countries. We use climate vulnerability scores from the well-established ND-GAIN Country Index, a composite metric constructed from thirty-six indicators covering three components of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity). We find that 69% of the countries decreased climate vulnerability, while increasing their per capita fossil fuel CO 2 emissions. These countries are successfully reducing climate vulnerability but are increasing their GHG emissions and thus failing in mitigation efforts. In contrast, 23% of the countries have been successful in simultaneously reducing per capita CO 2 emissions and climate vulnerability. Furthermore, in highly vulnerable countries, increasing CO 2 emissions are not correlated with decreasing climate vulnerability. These findings underscore that climate vulnerability reduction may be due only partly to economic development. This finding also changes our prevailing view that increases in CO 2 emissions are associated with vulnerability reduction. Finally, examining mitigation and climate-vulnerability reduction by sector, we show that a majority of countries are able to reduce vulnerability in ecosystem services. Those countries and sectors with positive trends provide examples for others to follow, as solutions at the mitigation-climate vulnerability reduction interface are essential for sustainable economic development.

The Cuban government has implemented a series of agricultural transformations since 2007 to increase the country’s agricultural self-sufficiency and reduce its dependence on food imports. These include the transfer in usufruct, i.e. use rights only, of State-owned land to non-State producers (i.e. cooperatives and private farmers), moderate price reforms, the decentralization of decision making, and the gradual relaxation of existing forms of agricultural commercialization. As a result of these measures, the area planted, as well as physical output and agricultural yields (in selected non-sugar crop categories) have shown mixed results, and still remain below desired levels. There are three fundamental unresolved issues that have prevented Cuba’s agricultural sector from achieving desired levels: (1) the need to achieve the “realization of property”; (2) recognition and acceptance of the market as a complementary economy in coordination with a planning mechanism; and (3) absence of a systemic focus to achieve the successful completion of the agricultural production cycle (i.e. the value chain). These unresolved issues should be addressed through: (1) consolidating markets for inputs, where producers can obtain essential inputs at prices that correspond to the prices they can obtain for their output; (2) granting greater autonomy to agricultural producers to allow them to decide when, where, and to whom they can sell their output, after social contracts have been fulfilled; (3) diversifying types of agricultural commercialization to permit greater participation by non-State economic actors; (4) allowing agricultural producers to freely hire the labor necessary to sustain and increase production; and (5) providing agricultural producers with needed financing and technical assistance. Please refer to Supplementary Materials , Full text Spanish version of this article , for a full text Spanish version of this article .

A number of factors in Cuba today contribute to the urgent need to develop family farming based on agroecological practices across the island. These factors include: soil deterioration, high external dependence for inputs and food, damaging effects of climate change, loss of farmer traditions, and the next generation’s disinterest in a farming lifestyle, coupled with the essential contribution that family farming makes to supplying food for the country, often in small spaces, together offer the real possibility of repairing the damage caused by conventional farming practices. Given this urgent need and possibility, it is important to identify and share successful experiences built on innovative practices. The study presented here aims to do just that by sharing the experiences of a farm representative of the cooperative sector in Cuba. This is a longitudinal study of the agroecological transition that occurred in one farm’s socio-ecological system between 1995 and 2015. In particular, the study evaluates the socio-ecological resilience of the family farm during three periods of transition, which are considerably different from one another given the strategies of the family and the design and management of the socio-ecological system. We define socio-ecological resilience as the capacity of agroecosystems to adaptively change in its socio-ecological structure and interactions in order to withstand and overcome disturbances, stress and change, and to maintain production levels in harmony with the culture, social organization, and satisfaction of the needs and capacity of ecosystems, in an ecologically possible and socially desirable context ( Altieri et al., 2012 ; Casimiro Rodríguez, 2016 ; Koohafkan et al., 2011 ). We used the Evaluation Methodology of the Socio-ecological Resilience of family farms (MERS in its Spanish acronym) ( Casimiro Rodríguez, 2016 ), based on the evolution of an array of indicators of efficiency and indexes of food, technological and energy sovereignty, as well as from the transformation process from conventional farming practices to agroecological practices. Based on the results of the study, we show a set of elements that address the need to transform Cuban agriculture by implementing an agroecological base, the importance of family farming, as well as aspects that can come into play in the socio-ecological resilience of other family farms in the country. Please refer to Supplementary Materials , Full text Spanish version of this article , for a full text Spanish version of this article .

We analyze the role biological control plays in the Cuban agri-food system and discuss an experience at the country level that demonstrates that the pest problem can be handled through an ecological and sustainable approach. Biological control is one of the key components of a systemic approach that characterizes pest management. Its implementation has led to the removal of a group of highly dangerous pesticides from the Official List of Authorized Pesticides and reduced use of others. Greater emphasis has been placed on augmentative biological control, which is a tendency repeated throughout the world. In Cuba, rudimentary production occurs in 176 Centers for the Reproduction of Entomophages and Entomopathogens (CREE) located throughout the country; four industrial production plants are in operation, as are pilot plants and facilities in research centers. The biological control agents that are most reproduced are the parasitoids Lixophaga diatraeae (Townsend) (Diptera: Tachinidae) and Trichogramma Westwood (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), the entomopathogens Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bacillales: Bacillaceae), and Beauveria bassiana sensu lato (Bals.-Criv.) Vuill. (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae); the antagonist Trichoderna Persoon (Ascomycota: Hypocreales: Hypocreaceae); and the nematodes of the Heterorhabditis Poinar (Nematoda: Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae) genus. The use of predatory mites in inoculative strategies is limited due to their restricted availability, in spite of the fact that different alternatives have been evaluated for their massive reproduction with encouraging results. The achievements and progress obtained in classical and augmentative biological control and the changes in the understanding and thinking in Cuban agricultural have laid strong foundations for biological control through conservation of natural enemies. This latter strategy is greatly valued in sustainable agriculture. Please refer to Supplementary Materials , Full text Spanish version of this article , for a full text Spanish version of this article .

The main constraint to sustainable agrarian development in Cuba has been a poorly balanced agrobiodiversity in its agroecosystems. This is the result of mainstream agrarian policy that focuses on sugarcane monocropping, following the principles of modern agriculture as promoted over the last 50 years. This paper discusses the development of a new Index of Agrobiodiversity (IDA), a tool used to identify the extent to which agroecosystems are sustainable, based on their agrobiodiversity. It describes the research carried out to identify the index components, how the index was developed and how its efficiency was assessed. The paper also presents a practical experience whereby agroecosystems from Cuba’s urban agriculture movement were measured. Our analysis suggests that the Index of Agrobiodiversity is a valid proposal: its main success lies in the fact that few material and human resources are needed, and that the required information is generated through the work of local farmers themselves. Moreover, the results can encourage farmers to increase agrobiodiversity in their agroecosystems. Please refer to Supplementary Materials , Full text Spanish version of this article , for a full text Spanish version of this article .

This paper presents a review of relevant literature and research on the potential of silvopastoral systems for milk and meat production in Cuba. This work emphasizes the contribution of trees in pasture systems, which are known to improve the plant community as well as increase the productive efficiency of steers, reproductive females and dairy cattle. Results from this research suggest that, due to the association effect, both the availability of dry matter and the total protein content of gramineous plants is increased in pastoral systems that incorporate trees while also maintaining pasture. In systems of gramineous plants that have been mixed with Leucaena leucocephala and that support cows of average potential, it is possible to obtain milk production of 10 kg/cow/day in addition to live-weight gains of 0.500–0.600 kg/animal day –1 in Cebú cattle. This work concludes that the use of silvopastoral systems is a viable option for the production of milk and meat under low-input conditions, such as those in Cuba. Please refer to Supplementary Materials , Full text Spanish version of this article , for a full text Spanish version of this article .

In this article, I explore four California-based eco-utopias: The Earth Abides ( George Stewart, 1949 ), Ecotopia ( Ernest Callenbach, 1975 ), Pacific Edge ( Kim Stanley Robinson, 1990 ), and Snow Crash ( Neal Stephenson, 1992 ). All four novels were written during, and deeply informed by, the Cold War (Although published in 1992, Snow Crash was clearly written toward the end of the Cold War and in the shadow of Soviet implosion), against a backdrop of imminent nuclear holocaust and a doubtful future. Since then, climate change has replaced the nuclear threat as a looming existential dilemma, on which a good deal of writing about the future is focused. Almost 70 years after the appearance of The Earth Abides, and 40 years after the publication of Ecotopia, eco-utopian imaginaries now seem both poignant yet more necessary than ever, given the tension between the anti-environmental proclivities of the Trump Administration, on the one hand, and the tendency of climate change to suck all of the air out of the room, on the other. And with drought, fire, flood, wind and climate change so much in the news, it is increasingly difficult to imagine eco-utopias of any sort; certainly they are not part of the contemporary zeitgeist—except in the minds of architects, bees and futurists, perhaps. But does this mean there is no point in thinking about them, or seeking insights that might make our future more sustainable? This article represents an attempt to revive eco-utopian visions and learn from them.

We present a quantitative analysis of global and regional food supply to reveal the flows of calories, protein and the micro-nutrients vitamin A, iron and zinc, from production through to human consumption and other end points. We quantify the extent to which reductions in the amount of human-edible crops fed to animals and, less importantly, reductions in waste, could increase food supply. The current production of crops is sufficient to provide enough food for the projected global population of 9.7 billion in 2050, although very significant changes to the socio-economic conditions of many (ensuring access to the global food supply) and radical changes to the dietary choices of most (replacing most meat and dairy with plant-based alternatives, and greater acceptance of human-edible crops currently fed to animals, especially maize, as directly-consumed human food) would be required. Under all scenarios, the scope for biofuel production is limited. Our analysis finds no nutritional case for feeding human-edible crops to animals, which reduces calorie and protein supplies. If society continues on a ‘business-as-usual’ dietary trajectory, a 119% increase in edible crops grown will be required by 2050.

John Brunner’s 1972 novel, The Sheep Look Up , is the story of the year leading up to a global ecological and political catastrophe. Set primarily in the United States in an unspecified near future, The Sheep Look Up tells the story of “death by a thousand cuts”: problem upon problem, malfeasance upon malfeasance, which accumulate, reinforce each other and are met only by a failing political and economic system that ultimately collapses under its own weight. This article reflects on themes and topics of the novel that resonate for social science theorists and teachers in the environmental social sciences, including global environmental politics. First, it provides a type of counterfactual analysis. It opens a window into how the world might have been had certain actions not been taken. Second, it provides a warning: how the world might be if we do not act. Third, it provides a model of how a disastrous transition might unfold as social resilience has been worn down. Looking back on the almost fifty years since the novel was written demonstrates how its scenario was averted through concerted government and societal actions, but the article also points out how Brunner’s work has strong resonance with our present – and at different times in the recent past.

Colleges and universities have played a critical role in the growing social movement to divest institutional endowments from fossil fuels. While campus activism on fossil fuel divestment has been driven largely by students and alumni, faculty are also advocating to their administrators for institutional divestment from fossil fuels. This article characterizes the role of faculty by reviewing signatories to publicly available letters that endorse fossil fuel divestment. Analysis of 30 letters to administrators signed by faculty at campuses throughout the United States and Canada reveals support for divestment from 4550 faculty across all major fields of inquiry and scholarship, and all types of faculty positions. Of these signers, more than 225 have specific expertise in climate change or energy. An in-depth analysis of 18 of these letters shows that a significantly greater proportion of tenured faculty sign open letters of support for divestment than do not-yet-tenured tenure-track faculty (15.4% versus 10.7%), perhaps reflecting concerns among not-yet-tenured faculty that such support might jeopardize their career advancement. This analysis suggests that faculty support for the divestment movement is more widespread than commonly recognized; this movement is more mainstream, and broader-based, than is often recognized. Revealing the scope and scale of faculty support for fossil fuel divestment may encourage additional faculty to engage, support and endorse this growing social movement that highlights the social impact of investment decisions, and calls upon colleges and universities to align their investment practices with their academic missions and values.