Refugia of Futures Past

Start date: 1 October 2018
End date: 1 October 2019
Funder: White Rose Collaboration Fund
Value: £10,400
Partners and collaborators: Colleagues at the University of Sheffield and the University of York.
Primary investigator: 01030950
External primary investigator:
Dr Andrew Beckerman, University of Sheffield and Professor Rob Marchant, University of York
Co-investigators: Dr Alex Dunhill, Dr Daniel Hill, Professor Lindsay C. Stringer
External co-investigators: Dr Tom Webb, University of Sheffield: Dr Deborah Sporton, University of Sheffield: Prof Paul O'Higgins, University of York: Associate Prof Erin Saupe, University of Oxford: Prof Ariane Burke, Université of Montréal: Dr Julien Riel-Salvatore, Université de Montréal

This project is driven by the looming prospect that humanity’s efforts to meet its present climate and biodiversity loss mitigation goals will fail, evidenced by unmitigated biodiversity loss rates, ocean acidification, rising atmospheric CO2 and global temperature averages resulting from the continued failure of countries to meet their Paris Agreement Nationally Determined Contributions for emissions reductions.

These shortfalls raise the prospect of human adaptation to a radically changed future global ecology. We therefore intend to create a new line of adaptation research and knowledge that recognises the deep future adaptation implications of poorly mitigated environmental change. We intend to introduce a research-based discourse on such future adaptations that is currently poorly recognised in the short-term goal focus of international research, policy, and practice toward adaptation and mitigation.

Project website

https://www.whiterose.ac.uk/collaborationfunds/refugia-of-futures-past/