Reducing uncertainty about hybrid lay-scientific concepts

Desertification is a prisoner of history: An essay on why young scientists should care

“…Although wet weather had returned to the area by the 1940s (thus calming down the international fury about encroaching deserts, Le Houérou 1996), the term 'desertification' was selected by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). This added a human cause to climatic variation, thereby launching a highly political process (Grainger 2010). Delegates were told that "desertification is the result of land abuse" (Garduno 1977, cited in Rhodes 1991, which reenforced the premise that desertification was caused by indigenous populations who practiced unwise, irrational, and unsustainable land use methods.…”

“…The start date is 1977 when its owner (the UN Conference on Desertification) selected the Lavauden/ Aubreville term, 'desertification,' in its moniker. This effectively "extended the natural hazard of the Sahel drought … into a human hazard by adding a human cause to climatic variation," thereby launching a highly political process (Grainger 2010) and solidified "the international regime addressing desertification around the UNCCD" (Bauer and Stringer 2009). Also, unlike biodiversity and climate change, desertification carries the stigma of confusion, disagreement and misunderstanding.…”

“…In summary, as evident in Table 2 there has been an extraordinary consistency over the past 50 years: what was true in the 1970s is no less true today: there is no acceptable definition. By selecting to use the term 'desertification,' the UNCOD effectively politicized the term (Grainger 2010), which led to the adoption of a sufficiently vague definition that lends itself to be both misinterpreted and misappropriated by different stakeholder interests (Juntti and Wilson 2005;Behnke and Mortimore 2016b).…”

Is Land Degradation Neutrality feasible in dry areas?

“…The emergence of LDN within the political sphere is not unusual. It is merely the latest in a series of hybrid layscientific concepts, which may arise in the lay or science domains and can then be developed in parallel processes in both of them (Grainger, 2010). Desertification and sustainable development are two other examples of this class of concepts.…”

The role of low carbon and high carbon materials in carbon neutrality science and carbon economics

“…Scientists have struggled to keep pace in conceptualizing novel environmental concepts (such as sustainable development) that originate in the government arena or outside it in civil society (18), and the same applies to carbon neutrality. By using physical variables and equations, a new carbon neutrality science could integrate energy and materials analysis, provide a common language for all carbon literatures, test hypotheses about alternative carbon transition paths (19)(20), and support the political process of carbon neutrality by measuring progress towards achieving carbon neutrality (and later zero carbon emissions).…”