Comprehending the crisis
The first step to confronting climate change and building a sustainable future is understanding the problem.
Social science research helps us to see problems differently and gain a deeper understanding of why things happen. This research allows us to rethink our understanding of a problem and find new solutions. The articles below explore a range of different methods and approaches to understanding the crisis, from studies of disaster relief efforts through to historical overviews of changing weather patterns and their effects upon society.
Spotlight on...
James Heydon, an expert in environmental regulation in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham, explains why effective policy intervention is essential to combat rising emissions from wood burning stoves.
Find out more
Find more articles explaining why we need sustainable solutions:
- SHORT ARTICLE: Addressing Modern Slavery
- Description
- Modern slavery has increasingly been linked to the environment; in particular environmental degradation and climate change. Modern slavery can be a driver of environmental change as well an outcome – changes in the environment can push people into situations where they may become vulnerable to modern slavery and vice versa. To address climate change, the impacts of modern slavery must be accounted for.
- SHORT ARTICLE: COVID and companies sustainability commitments
- Description
- Covid-19 has had profound implications for the "role of business in society". One of them is the pandemic's effect on companies' sustainability strategies. We explored this issue by studying how 25 companies responded to the pandemic in four African countries: Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, and South Africa.
- VIDEO: Sustainable gemstone mining in Kenya
- Description
- The Sustainable Artisanal and Small-scale Mining project supports the development of a more responsible and inclusive gemstone mining in Kenya. The project team draw on the local knowledge, skills and technologies of miners and mining stakeholders (i.e. the national and local governments, mining associations, community based organisations, non-governmental organizations, local communities and religious organisations) to co-create context driven bottom-up solutions that mitigate the impact of ASM activities on the natural environment, occupational health and safety, and the social inclusion and well-being of miners and local communities.
- POLICY: Faith for a Safe Climate Future
- Description
- This brief explains why morality-centred solutions which harness the influence of faith institutions are crucial for transformative change and acceleration in individual, community, and international-level responses to the climate crisis.
- Podcast: Modern slavery and the climate crisis
- Description
- Amanda is joined by Dr Bethany Jackson and Dr Jess Sparks from the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham. They dig deep into a discussion on modern slavery within the climate crisis and thus the modern slavery/climate change nexus.
- Short article: Children's rights and climate change
- Description
- On 11 October 2021, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child published its decisions in complaints brought against five states – Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey – by 16 child complainants. This short article examines that decision.
- POLICY PAPER: Addressing Modern Slavery at COP26
- Description
- Achieving the environmental SDGs must address modern slavery, through expanding collaborative action to centre the voices and rights of workers, communities, and survivors of modern slavery at all levels of legislation design and implementation.
- NEWS: Expert reaction to United in Science 2021 climate report
- Description
- Simon Gosling summarises the finding of the United in Science climate report, produced by The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 2021, on the state of the Earth's climate system.