Contribuições das Ciências Humanas para o debate sobre mudanças ambientais: um olhar sobre São Paulo

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Abstract

Este artigo pretende contribuir com o debate sobre mudanças ambientais e climáticas no nível local a partir de uma pesquisa qualitativa na cidade de São Paulo. Busca compreender como tais mudanças são entendidas pelos indivíduos e percebidas (ou não) no cotidiano, em particular para aqueles que vivem em aglomerados urbanos bastante adensados, nos quais as questões climáticas podem agravar os riscos aos quais estão expostos. Para a análise, as autoras consideram as especificidades de São Paulo, particularmente das duas localidades estudadas em profundidade, dialogando com reflexões críticas provenientes das Ciências Humanas e buscando destacar, neste movimento de resposta aos problemas urbanos e riscos climáticos, a importância de considerar a população como parte integrante, se não fundamental, para as mudanças socioambientais diante da crise que se aproxima.

Translated abstract

This article aims to contribute to the recent debate of environmental and climate change at local level. Drawing on qualitative research in São Paulo city, we seek to comprehend how people understand and perceive (or not) environmental and climate change in their daily life, in particular whom are living in densely populated urban areas where climate issues may bring a set of hazards that would further exacerbate the urban problems and risks. In this analysis, we consider some specificities of São Paulo (including specificities of two neighborhoods which have been studied in depth), and make references to reflections and critical perspectives from Human Sciences. In this movement of responses to urban and climate issues, we seek to highlight the role of local communities, who are central to the societal and environmental changes to deal with the approaching crisis.

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Transformational adaptation when incremental adaptations to climate change are insufficient.

Robert Kates, William Travis, Thomas Wilbanks (2012)

All human-environment systems adapt to climate and its natural variation. Adaptation to human-induced change in climate has largely been envisioned as increments of these adaptations intended to avoid disruptions of systems at their current locations. In some places, for some systems, however, vulnerabilities and risks may be so sizeable that they require transformational rather than incremental adaptations. Three classes of transformational adaptations are those that are adopted at a much larger scale, that are truly new to a particular region or resource system, and that transform places and shift locations. We illustrate these with examples drawn from Africa, Europe, and North America. Two conditions set the stage for transformational adaptation to climate change: large vulnerability in certain regions, populations, or resource systems; and severe climate change that overwhelms even robust human use systems. However, anticipatory transformational adaptation may be difficult to implement because of uncertainties about climate change risks and adaptation benefits, the high costs of transformational actions, and institutional and behavioral actions that tend to maintain existing resource systems and policies. Implementing transformational adaptation requires effort to initiate it and then to sustain the effort over time. In initiating transformational adaptation focusing events and multiple stresses are important, combined with local leadership. In sustaining transformational adaptation, it seems likely that supportive social contexts and the availability of acceptable options and resources for actions are key enabling factors. Early steps would include incorporating transformation adaptation into risk management and initiating research to expand the menu of innovative transformational adaptations.