The Vital Role of Food Security in Understanding the Climate-Society Nexus: Contemporary and Historical Cases
Tal Ulus, Hebrew University
Please join us for our departmental seminar next Monday on the 26th of June from 15:00 to 16:00.
This will be a virtual session on zoom:
https://tau-ac-il.zoom.us/j/87994870988
The Vital Role of Food Security in Understanding the Climate-Society Nexus: Contemporary and Historical Cases
Tal Ulus, Hebrew University
Abstract
Understanding the complex interconnections and the causal nexus between climate change and human societies is a challenging endeavor. This is especially true when studying past civilizations when information could be scarce and incomplete, but it is also difficult in today's world when we have direct measurements of climate conditions and access to social processes in real-time
My paper suggests that food security is a key factor in understanding the climate-society nexus in past and contemporary societies whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. I argue that constant uncertainty and the lack of control over climatic phenomena, and, consequently, over our food security, have psychological effects (like fear and anger) that trigger human responses, personal and social alike. By examining these psychological effects, we can better understand the complex interconnections between climate change and human society
Since human societies require a constant food supply, which to this day relies on agriculture, our vulnerability to climate changes and climate anomalies is critical. This dependency is exacerbated by the fact that in the past, but also to a large extent today, our ability to forecast or predict seasonal climate changes remains limited. There is no reliable way to forecast precipitation amounts for the following year or the temperatures for the coming winter, especially when considering the fluctuations in these parameters in the past decades as a result of climate change. Having no control over climatic phenomena (and, as a result, food security) triggers anxiety and other psychological responses. The nature of these responses varies depending on culture and context. In some cases, this can lead to social changes, such as political instability, conflicts, and migration. Notwithstanding the importance of each human society's unique characters and historical context, this paper argues that food security is a key factor to consider when exploring the relationship between climate and social processes in current and past societies
My talk will demonstrate the mechanism that ties together climate anomalies and human societies through contemporary and historical cases. The contemporary cases examine the relationship between climatic anomalies, mainly droughts, and political instability, conflicts, and migration in sub-Saharan Africa in the last decades. The historical examples are drawn from the studies of the late Ronnie Ellenblum and his Fragility Theory
Bio
Tal Ulus is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and part of the Wall: People and Ecology in Medieval Mongolia and China ERC-funded project
Tal holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University's Department of Geography and Advanced School for Environmental Studies. Her dissertation title is "The Ripple Effect: Climate Anomalies of the Intermediate-Range and their Influence on Food Availability, Political Stability, and Migration from Sub-Saharan Africa in the 21st Century". The dissertation examines the interconnection between climatic anomalies and migration from sub-Saharan Africa during the last two decades, employing various methods, including quantitative-statistical, qualitative, and historical approaches
Alon Shepon
The Department of Environmental Studies
The Porter School of the Environment and Earth Science
Tel Aviv University | website
The Israeli Forum for Sustainable Nutrition
