In the 21st century, climate change has emerged as one of the main threats to the environmental wellbeing of earth as a planet and the ecosystems. The National Academy of Sciences, in its 2009 Ecological Impacts of Climate Change stated that “Climate change is one of the defining issues of the 21st century. Therefore, humans are under a challenge to formulate guidelines, practices and behavioural standards that ensure that economic opportunities and improve quality of life are available to the human population in the long run and also climate and eco-systems are sustainably maintained.
Notably, climate change and in particular the change that has been brought about by the use of anthropogenic substances has led to the happening of various natural cataclysms that have had a huge negative impact on the wellbeing of this planet. Changes in weather patterns, pressures on and reductions of the availability of consumable water and food, changes in the occurrence and severity of diseases, deterioration of the ecological systems as well as extinction of various animal and plant species are some of traits that characterize climate change.
Consequently, the effects of these unprecedented changes of global climate have been felt severely by humans across all spheres of life. However, communities that are most socially vulnerable, especially the poor communities and culturally and politically marginalized communities all over the world are the ones that have felt the brunt of climate change in its fullness.
Climate change, in its entirety has been mainly brought about by human activities. The role played by natural activities is negligible as these activities have been occurring over many millennia that have passed (McCright and Dunlap, 502). Continual human activities that cause these climatic variations bring about social vulnerability in the present times. This vulnerability, if the variations are not curbed, may evolve over a number of years and result in a social problem whose solution could prove to be very expensive. Food, a major necessity for human survival and its availability are greatly affected by the variations in climatic patterns that occur in present times (Bohle, Downing, and Watts, 39). In their research on food insecurity, Bohle, Downing and Watts stated that to cope with current and future changes in climatic patterns, there is the need to have an in-depth comprehension of the multifaceted structures and causes of current susceptibility to food insecurity and how this vulnerability may develop and change over the years (40). They noted that social susceptibility to food insecurity is dependent upon the understanding of human ecology, improved rights, political willingness to recognize the riskiness associated with harmful unrests, a government or a community’s preparedness to manage crises and the likelihood to recover. In their study on susceptible socio-economic groups in Zimbabwe, Bohle, Downing and Watts noted that their vulnerability is brought about by the increased adverse effects that are due to climate change and the inability of Zimbabwe’s government to recognize that climate change is a contributing factor to the occurrence of the problems facing these groups and also its poor preparedness in handling such problems on their occurrence (42).
Therefore, from a sociological point of view, the causes, impacts and mitigation and adaptation measures of climate change should be thoroughly researched and implemented. To address the climate change issue, a global Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established in 1988 to bring to global attention the problems that are associated with the occurrence of climate change. This organisation was tasked with identification of the major causes of climate change, the end result of variations in climatic patterns and the measures that can be put in place to address the emerging problems (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 12). Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent noted that one of the major one of the major players in the contribution to the causes and mitigation of climate change is the political economy (17). Politics, both at international and national levels play a vital role in determining the regulations that are put in place to control various activities, even those contributing to and determining the extent of climate change. The political economy creates a relationship between the national economies, political groups, resource extraction organisations and population demographics and carbon dioxide emissions (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 18). In it approaches; political economy examines data on carbon dioxide emissions from various countries and highlights the dissimilarities among agriculture-based, less developed and highly developed countries’ economic summaries on the basis of their consumption of materials and energy output (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 20). Moreover, to thoroughly explain political economy, there is a need to examine the implications of urbanization, industrialization and the consumerism habits of the global population. Hence, to have an extensive understanding of the patterns and drivers of economic growth that also do enormously affect the environment, research on resource utilization, degree of social consumerism and environment impacts of industrial and industrializing economies need to be carried out.
In addition, studies based on human ecology and environmental impact models have shown that despite being a universal threat, climate change and its effects are severely experienced by populations in their localities and its understanding ought to be improved through the use of data derived from humans’ biophysical environments (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 21).
Additionally, social factors that drive disproportionate production and consumption leading to high-throughput and highly wasteful economies contribute towards propagation of climate change. This is based on the rationale that increased consumption especially of luxury goods that is driven by high powered advertising does not put into consideration the environmental impacts production of these goods will have on the environment (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 22).
Moreover, advertising and public relations have played their role in influencing and framing the perceptions of the human masses on climate change as an issue which is worthy to trigger social, political and economic concerns (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 22).
Climate policy formation, implementation and effectiveness both nationally and internationally are determined by a number of factors that have a sociological basis. Policies such as those governing greenhouse gases emissions of different countries have been drafted with the social issues of every country being considered in the drafting process. To add, the relationships between non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations with a particular government have an influence on the effectiveness of specific government policies on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. These organizations also play a part in shaping the public perspective towards climate change (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 24).
Myriad social perspectives towards impacts of climate change exist worldwide. The negative impacts resulting from climate can be termed as a social environmental injustice. This is pegged on the notion that the first segment of the population that is affected by the negative effects of climate change is composed of the poor, the elderly, children and communities that are discriminated against. Therefore, to ensure that justice prevails upon occurrence of a disaster, it is imperative that efforts should be made to rebuild such vulnerable communities and ensure that resources are distributed equitably to meet the needs of all the affected people (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 31).
Changes in climatic patterns have also led to emergence of problems relating to human health. To address these problems, a vibrant and effective medical sector should be in place to ensure all the affected people are adequately and promptly attended to (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 33).
Conflicts both among humans and between humans and the environment may arise as a result of climate change. For instance droughts and famines may trigger conflicts between pastoralist communities as they contend for minimally available resources such as water and pasture. To solve such conflicts, it is significant that a shift on an economic activity be instigated to eliminate overdependence on an economic activity which is frequently and adversely affected by climate change (Nagel, Dietz, and Broadbent, 36).
Climate change is also a determinant of social demographics and population distribution as human populations tend to migrate from areas that are greatly affected by the negative effects of climate change to areas that are least affected (Zehr, 14).
Summarily, to address the issue of climate change and its relevancy to the social framework of communities, it is necessary to develop and frame questions which may form the basis of further research and formulation of mitigation measures. These questions may include:
Is the number of sociologists currently conducting research on climate change adequate enough to thoroughly handle the subject?
Is there existence of interdisciplinary collaborations between sociologists and other experts conducting research on climate change?
Do the sociologists involved in research on climate change have access to networks that comprises fellow researchers that are working on the topic of climate change?
Is the data and information generated from the researches of sociologists incorporated into the existing infrastructure such as data networks to ensure infrastructural development and capacity building?
Is the funding availed to the research endeavours of sociologists carrying out research on climate change adequate?
Are the social proposals and mitigation measures recommended by sociologists on how to tackle climate change implemented?
References
“Ecological Impacts of Climate Change Report.” National Academy of Sciences. (2009).
Bohle, Hans G., Thomas E. Downing, and Michael J. Watts. "Climate change and social vulnerability: toward a sociology and geography of food insecurity." Global environmental change 4.1 (1994): 37-48.
McCright, Aaron M., and Riley E. Dunlap. "Challenging global warming as a social problem: An analysis of the conservative movement's counter-claims." Social problems (2000): 499-522.
Nagel, Joane., Dietz, Thomas and Broadbent, Jeffrey. "Sociological Perspectives on Global Climate Change."(2010): 1-158.
Norgaard, Karl. Climate Change and the Sociological Imagination. American Sociological Press (2008).
Zehr, Stephen. "The sociology of global climate change." Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 6.2 (2015): 129-150.
