Stroud, Austin, and Radical Skepticism

Is ruling out the possibility that one is dreaming a requirement for a knowledge claim? In “Philosophical Scepticism and Everyday Life” (1984), Barry Stroud defends that it is. In “Others Minds” (1970), John Austin says it is not. In his defense, Stroud appeals to a conception of objectivity deeply rooted in us and with which our concept of knowledge is intertwined. Austin appeals to a detailed account of our scientific and everyday practices of knowledge attribution. Stroud responds that what Austin says about those practices is correct in relation to the appropriateness of making knowledge claims, but that the skeptic is interested in the truth of those claims. In this paper, we argue that Stroud’s defense of the alleged requirement smuggles in a commitment to a kind of internalism, which asserts that the perceptual justification available to us can be characterized independently of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. In our reading of Austin, especially of Sense & Sensibilia, he rejects that kind of internalism by an implicit commitment to what is called today a “disjunctive” view of perception. Austin says that objectivity is an aspect of knowledge, and his disjunctivism is part of an explanation of why the alleged requirement is not necessary for a knowledge claim. Since both Stroud and Austin are committed to the objectivity of knowledge, Stroud may ask which view of perceptual knowledge is correct, whether the internalist or the disjunctive. We argue that by paying closer attention to what Austin says about our practices of knowledge attribution, one can see more clearly that it is grounded not only on a conception of objectivity, but also on a conception of ourselves as information agents, a conception that is as deeply rooted as that of the objectivity of knowledge. This gives us moral and practical reasons to favor the disjunctive view of perception

Assessing the financial vulnerability to climate-related natural hazards

National governments are key actors in managing the impacts of extreme weather events, yet many highly exposed developing countries -- faced with exhausted tax bases, high levels of indebtedness, and limited donor assistance -- have been unable to raise sufficient and timely capital to replace or repair damaged infrastructure and restore livelihoods after major disasters. Such financial vulnerability hampers development and exacerbates poverty. Based on the record of the past 30 years, this paper finds many developing countries, in particular small island states, to be highly financially vulnerable, and experiencing a resource gap (net disaster losses exceed all available financing sources) for events that occur with a probability of 2 percent or higher. This has three main implications. First, efforts to reduce risk need to be ramped-up to lessen the serious human and financial burdens. Second, contrary to the well-known Arrow-Lind theorem, there is a case for country risk aversion implying that disaster risks faced by some governments cannot be absorbed without major difficulty. Risk aversion entails the ex ante financing of losses and relief expenditure through calamity funds, regional insurance pools, or contingent credit arrangements. Third, financially vulnerable (and generally poor) countries are unlikely to be able to implement pre-disaster risk financing instruments themselves, and thus require technical and financial assistance from the donor community. The cost estimates of financial vulnerability -- based on today's climate -- inform the design of"climate insurance funds"to absorb high levels of sovereign risk and are found to be in the lower billions of dollars annually, which represents a baseline for the incremental costs arising from future climate change.Hazard Risk Management,Debt Markets,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Banks&Banking Reform,Climate Change Economics

Catalogue and Toolbox of Risk Assessment and Management Tools

The ENHANCE project is concerned with analysing and working towards improved public-private partnerships for managing risks from natural hazards. An important issue for such partnerships is the methods, tools and processes available for assessing risk and risk management options. Risk analysis has long provided useful input to decision-making. At the same time, the field of risk analysis is in motion and an enhanced framing of risk analysis and risk management is being embraced following an iterative cycle organized around notions of learning, innovation and transformation. This broadened vision on risk analysis is a key issue for the ENHANCE project as well, which takes many and different perspectives on analysing, understanding, communicating and managing risk. This report lays out the status quo at the outset of the project regarding risk analytical tools, methods and data that are currently used by project partners in ENHANCE. The task overall develops a catalogue of existing risk assessment and management tools and methods to describe the concepts of iterative risk management and further sets up a toolbox, containing individual models and tools to be used by the case studies in their analyses. While work in the cases study, including methodological development, is in process, we find that ENHANCE partners and cases employ a multitude of models, tools and data ranging from impact analysis, different risk modelling techniques to various decision-support methods. A number of tools that encapsulate these methods are also available with the consortium. We suggest the tools and methods in use can be useful starting points for working towards a broader vision of iterative risk management. While the work so far, and this deliverable, have focussed on populating the technical stages of the risk analytical cycle (visually identified as the inner circle), we suggest in the next phase of ENHANCE, additional efforts should be dispensed to better understand adaptive management aspects associated with using these methods and tools, such as learning, innovation and transformation, which we exhibit visually in an outer circle. This report proceeds as follows: We start with laying out key elements of risk analysis and management in section 2, which also describes the new framing organized around the iterative risk-management concept. Methods for assessing risk and evaluating risk management are discussed in section 3. Then we consider methods, models and datasets that are in use in the ENHANCE case studies at the moment (section 4), before section 5 concludes. Finally and importantly, the annex lists more information on cases studies, for which detailed information was received from the project partners

Improved Methods and Metrics for Assessing Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation

Over the course of the MEDIATION project, Work Package 2 was tasked with "develop[ing] and apply[ing] a toolbox, defined as a set of models, methods, and metrics for the assessment of impacts and vulnerability and adaptation options." As highlighted in Deliverable 2.2, many frameworks and methods for assessing adaptation have been developed over the last 20 years, yet these often have not been adopted in the context of formal adaptation policies in Europe and elsewhere. Reasons and problems include: (i) a fragmentation of methods and tools, (ii) a lack of linkages to actual policy needs, (iii) a lack of understanding and communication of uncertainties, (iv) the often expert-based nature and complexity of methods used versus actual user demands, and (v) a lack of consistent data, definitions and metrics. Deliverable 2.2 put forward a rough prototype for a toolbox of methods for studying impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation. In this deliverable, we discuss subsequent work on the MEDIATION toolbox, and report on application and testing of the improved methods and metrics in selected key European sectors and regions. We present feedback and improvement to methods and metrics based on input from case studies, stakeholders, and focus groups, as well as an overview of case study work and contribution to an improved MEDIATION toolbox. This input resulted in a number of conclusions relating to the development and use of methods and metrics, reducing uncertainty in CCIAV, and led to a number of changes, including the creation of a novel typology for classifying methods and models relating to CCIAV analysis. We provide an overview of the new typology, as well as the final toolbox, and summarize case study contributions towards improved methods and metrics

Äthiopien - ein Reisebericht

Äthiopien ist ein Bauernland, etwa 80 Prozent der Menschen dort leben direkt oder indirekt von der Landwirtschaft. Und trotzdem ist der Hunger allgegenwärtig. Eine Situation, in der die Teilnehmer einer Informationsreise nicht umhin kamen, manche ihrer vorgefassten „Bio-Überzeugungen“ zu hinterfragen

Ökologischer Landbau in Sri Lanka - unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Tee-Anbausystemen (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze)

In Sri Lanka the agricultural structure of smallholder production has changed with population growth and land reforms. In former days a farm family could life from the production of their home garden through subsistence farming and barter economy. Additional income was achieved by selling surplus products like spices on the local markets. Today living standards and life style have changed and monetary needs for housing, schooling, electricity, telephone, household goods and transport facilities are much higher. Many smallholders are involved in single cash crop cultivation and outside employment for income generation. Lack of available arable land and infrastructure are main reasons for the limited economical success of many smallholders in Sri Lanka. This study investigated whether the formation of farmer groups under patronage of an organisation and private company next to adoption of organic agriculture practices can be recommended as an economical viable and ecological sound alternative. Hence a survey was conducted in Kandy District of Sri Lanka, as well as field and laboratory experiments carried out in co-operation with the Tea Research Institute, Talawakele and the Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya. Data from 529 organic tea smallholders (TSHs) were collected between 1997 and 1999. From the findings the study describes the present situation of organic TSHs production systems in Kandy District, Sri Lanka organised under Bio Foods Ltd. Organic Tea and Spices and Gami Seva Sevana (GSS) a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO). Methods applied include taking of farm inventory, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with farmers and key respondents, drawing of land sketches, evaluation of data records from respective organisations and engagement in post harvest processes (extension, processing, packing, export, inspection). Results showed that 92 % of the organic tea smallholders cultivated plots on former tea plantation land with an average size of 0.4 ha and a given agricultural structure. Mainly seedling tea was grown on steep slopes and 70 % of the farmers cultivated less than 1000 bushes. In depth studies at 23 TSH sites revealed 77 plant species of economical value. For about 35 % of the organic holdings animal production served as an additional source of income (milk, meat, drought power). Out of the whole calculated farm income 42 % was generated from tea, 24 % from fruit and spices and 16 % from treacle, nuts, coffee and cacao. If dairy cows are present 18 % of the farm income is generated from milk sales. Through contract farming with experienced organisations, as well as professional processing and marketing of tea as an exclusive organic product, the farmers obtained premium green leaf prices and a stable income. The stable income served as an incentive to improve the performance of agricultural standards. Here the support of a dedicated extension service brings beneficial inputs. Tea production of the investigated organic TSHs rose by 16 % from 1998 until 2000. Including the marketing of organic fruit and spices there is a high potential for resource poor organic tea smallholders to overcome ecological and economical limitations. Next to the evaluation of the production system, maintaining and improving soil fertility is a major issue for the level of production. Organic manuring is often restricted due to the unavailability of recommended organic materials in adequate quantities. Preparation of compost is time consuming and work intensive and without animal faeces less effective and accepted. The dissemination of biogas plants in the project area gave the incentive to carry out investigations regarding the use of bioslurry for organic tea cultivation. Hence field experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of organic amendments, namely bioslurry, goat compost and bokashi, on the establishment, growth and yield of tea (Camellia sinensis). Goat compost was made out of goat manure and the remaining materials from the roughage feed given to the goats. Bokashi is a special fermented fertilizer made according to a Japanese recipe (Ahmed, 1995) using soil (50 %), chicken manure (30 %), pressed rape seed oil cake (15 %), rice bran (2-3 %), charcoal (1 %) and boiled livestock bone (about 1 %). Cow and pig excreta passing through a biogas plant, undergoing an anaerobe digestion process for about 70 days are referred to as bioslurry. These three organic amendments at a rate of 3/48/63 t ha-1 year-1 DM were chosen for planting a new tea field. Growth assessments indicated higher plant growth rates of the bioslurry plots when compared with compost treatments. Nutrient balance of a mature tea field partly manured with bioslurry at a rate of 10 l plant-1 year-1 and 12 kg compost respectively showed that bioslurry in combination with mana grass mulch has the potential to add sufficient amounts of nutrients to the soil in order to replace nutrient loss through harvest material. However considering nutrient uptake for plant growth and volatile losses, especially of ammonia, bioslurry application has to be increased and a combination with compost application is recommended. Since organic agriculture plays a key role in maintaining soil fertility and biodiversity, protecting the environment and keeping social standards a model farm with organic tea cultivation as a cash crop was designed. Research findings and personal experiences were taken as a basis for a location specific model of plant production including fodder cultivation, SALT (Sloping Agriculture Land Techniques) hedges, animal husbandry and operation of a 4m3 biogas plant. As main cash crops about 3,000 tea plants are cultivated in a mixed cropping system with 50 pepper vines (Piper nigrum), 56 betel nut palms (Areca catechu) and 100 gliricidia trees (Gliricidia sepium). Remaining 148 plants are grown around the tea field, along the border and surrounding the house. From an average plant species richness of 41 per 0.47 ha with a total of 3,354 plants a monetary value of about 78,000 SL Rs (1998: 1,054 €) per year from plant production was calculated. The total monetary value of cow and goat milk yield added up to approximately 20,000 SL Rs (1998: 270 €) per year. Generated income from farming covers the costs of production. Initial investments for animals, stables and set up of a biogas plant have to be covered by savings and loans. Systematic conversion of smallholder lands with livestock integration becomes financially viable after three years. Specialisation next to diversification ensures income generation and biodiversity as well as an improved nutritional diet for the farm family. Integration of SALT hedges for erosion control also serves as fodder and mulch material. Cultivation of fodder grass assures continuous fodder supply and cuts down walking hours for carrying fodder material from further distances. Proper use of the biogas plant reduces the need for firewood, increases soil fertility through the distribution of bioslurry and improves the sanitary situation. In spite of favourable climatic and soil conditions, Sri Lanka is not self sufficient in its food crop production. Population growth, land fragmentation, ownership patterns, lack of infrastructure and erosion are main factors for low productivity causing land migration because of high rural poverty rates. Alternatives and different objectives of production are required for the survival of the existing population, to solve shortages of food and feed biomass and threats to sustainability. Organic practices use cheap and locally available resources. The productivity of agricultural systems can be improved in the absence of factors like mineral fertilizer, synthetic pesticides, improved seeds and access to credits over which farmers have little control. Organic agriculture techniques replace external inputs by ecological services and farmer’s management skills. This study investigated the status quo of an organic farming system. The interpretation of the survey results led to the design of a location specific model farm, where production goals were matched as close as possible to the resource base