Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions

Abstract

Climate change is a major threat for society but clichéd messages from the media, mixed policies from governments, denial from corporations, and a dominance of quantitative method in the science reporting have moved together to form a dust cloud that masks the value of qualitative society-based studies. These knowledge-gap implications can cause “significant areas of confusion, ambivalence [with] potential ‘denial’. . .still worryingly prominent” (Anable et al., 2005, p. 5). The growing number of actors and networks taking a variety of positions on climate change, ranging from George Monbiot’s “we have to stop flying” (2009) to corporate obfuscation of the type alleged by Greenpeace (no date) has added to the liquidity of the arguments framing climate change issues. This collection of 24 essays plus comprehensive introductory chapter and epilogue creates something of a landmark in bringing the discipline of anthropology (oftentimes located in development studies) to the wild world of climate change. The book provides a single source that captures anthropology’s interaction with what is increasingly being recognised as the meta-problem facing humanity: climate change. In so doing, it makes a mockery of the managerialism creeping into research monitoring in universities where academics are being told “chapters in books don’t count” or “edited books don’t count”. Be very assured, not only do the chapters in this book count, but Crane and Nuttall have done us all a favour by the value-added they have bought to the scientific community by producing this edited volume. While not straying too far into politicised advocacy, the book does indeed make a ‘call for action’ through the third part. But I am getting ahead of myself; first things first. The introduction maps out the territory with a sweeping literature review and commentary on the state of the art of anthropology as it deals with climate change immediately bringing home the message with insights such as indigenous peoples “seeing insects [for the first time] for which they have no name in their language” (p. 9). Crane and Nuttall suspect that “environment and cultural change, far beyond the reach of restoration, is occurring” (p. 10). They ask questions about the role of anthropologists in observing and reporting human changes, adaptation and resilience as communities respond to the changing weather and climatic conditions. The questions framing the book are about what insights are to be gained as anthropologists try to “translate, advocate, educate, and mediate. . .the complexities of everyday life in relation to climate change” (p. 10). They describe climate change as a “threat multiplier [that] magnifies and exacerbates existing social, economic, Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development Vol. 7, No. 3, 329–331, August 2010