Ecological Tipping Points: Uncertainties and Policy Approaches
dc.contributor.author | Wong, Darren | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2022-01-04T11:37:49Z | |
dc.date.available | 2022-01-04T11:37:49Z | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/331841 | |
dc.description.abstract | Ecological tipping points have captured policymakers’ imaginations for framing local and global environmental change: if an environmental driver becomes too significant, an ecosystem may flip into an alternate state, often with catastrophic and far-reaching consequences. The article first explores the science of ecological tipping points and the uncertainties that limit their validity and value in providing a threshold marking abrupt ecosystem collapse across scales. I then argue that ecological tipping points may be more useful not as a scientific instrument to predict environmental change, but as a gauge of anthropogenic environmental trajectories and a socio-environmental imaginary to mobilise environmental action. Given the complexity and uncertainty of ecological science, I suggest that the science-policy interface of ecological tipping points will benefit from further research in threshold dynamics and ecosystems in transition due to human activity. Furthermore, a pluralistic, deliberative approach to policymaking that brings together different knowledge domains will facilitate adaptive environmental governance to effectively respond to changes in the physical environment and our understandings of it. | |
dc.publisher | Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange | |
dc.rights | Attribution 4.0 International | |
dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
dc.subject | Ecological Science | |
dc.subject | Tipping Points | |
dc.subject | Ecosystems | |
dc.subject | Environmental Policy | |
dc.title | Ecological Tipping Points: Uncertainties and Policy Approaches | |
dc.type | Article | |
dc.publisher.department | Cancer Research Uk Cambridge Institute Student | |
dc.date.updated | 2021-12-27T11:47:36Z | |
prism.issueIdentifier | 2 | |
prism.publicationName | Cambridge Journal of Science and Policy | |
prism.volume | 2 | |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.17863/CAM.79291 | |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2021-12-18 | |
rioxxterms.version | VoR | |
dc.contributor.orcid | Brown, Emma [0000-0002-2153-2992] | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | |
cam.depositDate | 2021-12-27 | |
pubs.licence-identifier | apollo-deposit-licence-2-1 | |
pubs.licence-display-name | Apollo Repository Deposit Licence Agreement |