tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3435517020790830401.post-22493348596772259382008-06-04T11:32:00.000+08:002008-06-04T11:32:00.000+08:002008-06-04T11:32:00.000+08:00Dear Peter,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for engaging in this, which I think is a very interesting discussion. Your comments are appreciated, although I would like to provoke you some more on this topic.<BR/><BR/>While I understand the point you are making regarding sitting and theorising and conceptualising rather than taking action, I am sure you would agree that climate change is an enormously complex issue that pivots around our current development paradigm, which you yourself note by your comments about Burma is highly inequitable, corrupt, power hungry, and designed to keep the poor in poverty (see Ben Wisner’s RADIX website for some good fodder on that: http://www.radixonline.org/). <BR/><BR/>Surely you wouldn’t suggest moving ahead without thinking carefully about the various factors that influence this. One of the most dangerous consequences could be maladaptation – i.e. taking action without thinking through what exactly it is that is the reason behind why people are adversely affected by climate change and eventually ending up with a situation where more people are more vulnerable. This is what my paper tries to address, and the target audience is really the mainstream of adaptation scientists who propose focusing only on the impacts of climate change and not the underlying vulnerability. <BR/><BR/>By the way, I wouldn’t suggest that my paper relies heavily on McEntire’s. His invulnerable development concept is useful for understanding what needs to be achieved to ensure that climate change and hazards do not destroy development progress, but I believe I cite him once only. The works that have been much more influential for me are Blaikie et al 1994 (Wisner et al 2004 in the second edition), Barry Smit’s work, Terry Cannon’s work, Ian Burton’s work, Allan Lavell’s work, Susanna Davies’ work and Tony Oliver-Smith’s work. <BR/><BR/>If you are eager to read any of these papers, let me know and I can share them with you. I have just prepared a Reader on Adaptation for Earthscan and in the process put together what I think are some of the most seminal papers on this topic. Also, I recommend IPCC WG2 Chapter 17 to give you an idea of what the whole mess is about (and why I felt my paper was a necessary contribution). <BR/><BR/>Sincerely,<BR/><BR/>Lisal + m + t + bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10002652359716798716noreply@blogger.com