Resolving the Climate Crisis: Us Social Scientists Speak Out

This book brings together a team of renowned social scientists to ask not why climate change is happening, but how we might learn from its human dimensions to raise public and political will to fight against the climate crisis.

Despite efforts for mitigation, global emission levels continue to increase annually and the world’s wealthiest nations, including all of the G20 countries, have failed to meet their Paris Climate Goals. In the absence of political will, many have called for individuals to act on climate change by mitigating their own carbon footprint through having fewer children, driving less, using LED lightbulbs, or by becoming vegetarians. While compelling, individual lifestyle changes on this scale are unlikely to prevent climate disaster. Resolving the Climate Crisis presents informed solutions for social change that center human behavior and emotions, political systems, and societal structures. Across a series of concise and accessible chapters, authors explore potential solutions to climate change, addressing topics including Indigenous ecologies, LGBTQ+ community engagement, renewable energy technologies, and climate justice. Their expert engagement with the social and behavioural sciences makes this book not only an essential handbook of climate change solutions but also an innovative model for public-facing social science scholarship.

Resolving the Climate Crisis will be an essential resource for students and researchers of climate change, as well as policy makers working to develop meaningful strategies for combatting the climate crisis.

Kristin Haltinner is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Idaho.

Dilshani Sarathchandra is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Idaho.