Title: Social and ecological responses to climate change: towards an integrative understanding

Authors: Dana R. Fisher, Brack W. Hale, Jefferson Hinke, Christine Ann Overdevest

Addresses: Department of Sociology, Columbia University, 813 IAB, Mail Code 3355, 420 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA. Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 550 North Park Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 680 North Park Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Department of Sociology/Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1450 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA

Abstract: A literature review and a survey of professionals whose work deals with climate change indicate that more is known and considered certain by the natural science community concerning responses of natural systems to climate change. There is less of a consensus among social scientists that social systems are directly responding to climate change. The emphasis in the literature on policy and mitigation is corroborated by the survey results, which revealed only social variables that are tightly linked to climate or natural systems. Identifying variables of both natural and social systems that respond to climate change is imperative for a better understanding of the implications of climate change.

Keywords: ecological systems; global climate change; social systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2002.000676

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2002 Vol.17 No.4, pp.323-336

Published online: 14 Jul 2003 *

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