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The Ties that Bind: The Connection Between Climate and Society. Glantz, MichaelH. 2003. Climate Affairs: A Primer. Island Press, Washington, DC

There should be little doubt that much of humanity exists at the mercy of MotherNature. In many coastal countries a one-meter rise in sea level will displace millions(Hinrichsen, 1998). Alterations in precipitation or temperature patterns could alterfood availability for 780 million undernourished people worldwide (Rosenzweiget al., 2001; Fischer et al., 2002). And changes in catastrophic climate events willcause billions of dollars in economic losses, even in developed nations (Jarrell et al.,2001). On top of natural and human-altered climate, the globe faces increasing so-cial and economic vulnerabilities to climate factors brought on by human populationgrowth, development in marginally habitable areas, and loss of ecosystem services(those protections from climatic extremes provided by natural ecosystems) (UNEP,2002). The near certainty of impending climate change (IPCC, 2001), compoundedby factors of vulnerability, mean that regardless of who we are and where we live,climate is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives (Karl and Trenberth,2003).

This message of vulnerability to climate and climate change is the topic ofMichael Glantz’s primer, Climate Affairs. This book explores the coming “climatecentury” in a language comprehensible to a lay person, and it tackles subjects asbroad as climate modeling, world politics, history, and geography. The message isone of feedback – how society is altered by climate and how society in turn affectsclimatic processes. These are important and timely issues, as an informed public isessential for any reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Glantz argues that climate dramatically affects our daily lives. Climate can de-termine how many people live in a location or what those people do for work andpleasure. The frequency of natural disasters affects state economies and standardsof living (Benson and Clay, 2004) and even affects the course of history. Glantzmentions several historical examples, including the halt of Napoleon’s world con-quest by the harsh conditions of western Russia and the exacerbation of the GreatDepression by drought. Through case studies of “climate-society-environment,”Glantz discusses the importance of understanding the climate so that we can preparefor the future, and he covers a wide, and sometimes surprising, range of climaticimpacts in a large number of locations around the world.

Glantz also outlines how society alters climate through modification of theland surface and enhancement the global greenhouse effect. In this way, humanityfundamentally changes its most basic and most limiting factor. Glantz explains

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the process of global climate, outlines the differences between climate change andclimatic variability, and explains the drivers of climatic extremes.

Glantz’s principle aim, however, seems to be the definition of an entire field ofinquiry – an emerging, interdisciplinary way of thinking about climate. This field –climate affairs – blends the boundaries of science, impact assessment, policy, law,and ethics. Despite this careful articulation of an important field, Glantz asks littleof his reader and the book contains no call to action.

If society has any hope of improving the human condition with respect to cli-mate, however, Glantz’s readers must understand and engage in climate affairs.The field should inspire individual consciousness and useful policy solutions. Asan attempt to educate, Glantz’s book sets the stage, but others should follow hislead by encouraging the public to act. We pose three areas that represent criticalgoals for climate affairs if it is to positively alter the connection between societyand climate.

First, the field of climate affairs needs to educate the public on ways of knowingand predicting climate change and its consequences. Other fields have shown howto pursue this successfully. For example, medicine and, to a lesser degree, environ-mental biology have had success in teaching the public about the scientific process.The former receives substantial attention which aids in public education, and thelatter puts considerable effort in public engagement and participation in appliedproblems. These fields also communicate how risk scales with the magnitude ofconsequence. Medical doctors frequently combine the probability of occurrencewith the severity of consequences (e.g., heart attack) to make lifestyle recommen-dations to their patients, for example. A parallel in the climate arena to health riskssuch as heart disease is a collapse in the Thermohaline Circulation, a phenomenonpredicted to have low risk under global warming but with severe societal conse-quences if it occurs (Broecker, 1997; Stocker, 2001; Clark et al., 2002; Wood et al.,2003). Such low-probability but high-consequence events deserve serious policyconsideration, but most people understand neither the risk nor the consequence (seeSchneider 2004).

Second, the field of climate affairs should stimulate policy enactment surround-ing climate change and climate vulnerability. Glantz tackles this goal by explaininghow climate information can and is used in decision making. For example, whenforecasters predicted that the 1997–1998 El Nino would be strong, Californian gov-ernments encouraged people to take action in preparing for heavy rains by clearingriverbeds, flood drains and sewers, reducing the risk of flooding in many areas.When the rains arrived, minimal damage occurred thanks to preparations by thestate and by private citizens. In another case (not cited by Glantz), entire countriesare taking measures to prepare for large-scale climate change. The Netherlands,for example, is investing ten to twenty-five billion dollars over the next centuryto prepare for sea and flood defenses. Farmland and pastures are being preparedto stand as temporary storage pools to protect cities and houses. One company iseven preparing floating attractions within towns to accommodate the likely change

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(Woodward, 2001). A third example of action is California’s zero-emission-vehicleprogram, a policy requiring thousands of state-owned vehicles to be powered bynonpolluting batteries or fuel cells (California Code of Regulations, Title 13, Section1962; California Air Resources Board, 2003). The field of climate affairs shouldchampion these and other examples as potential solutions to what many people feelis a hopeless dilemma.

Third, climate affairs should address inequities inherent to climatic problems.Glantz is reserved in addressing the issue of inequities, particularly the imbalancebetween those responsible for and those vulnerable to climate change. However,large and growing populations enhance the likelihood that developing countrieswill find themselves on the loosing end of climate change. These countries lackthe capacity to thrive in the face of adversity (Homer-Dixon, 2000), thus allowingclimate change to exaggerate the economic gulf between the developed and thedeveloping world. It is a social crisis that countless numbers of people are at themercy of those who have the option of preparing for the future. In our opinion,students of climatic affairs must invent just ways of dealing with international (andintergenerational) inequities (see Lane et al., 2005; Schneider and Lane, 2005).

Taking the lead from Glantz, we advocate that individual citizens contributeto the field of climate affairs so that pressing climate problems can be solved. Inparticular, social and natural scientists need to advocate improved education aboutthe state of the climate and its impacts, lead citizens through knowledge to instigatepolicy change, and stimulate understanding about complex topics such as inequities.With a challenge for citizens to take action, perhaps the susceptibility of humanityto the fury of the atmosphere can be reduced.

References

Broecker, W. S.: 1997, ‘Thermohaline circulation, the achilles heel of our climate system: Will Man-

Made CO2 Upset the Current Balance?’, Science 278, 1582–1588.

Benson, C. and Clay, E. J.: 2004, Understanding the Economic and Financial Impacts of NaturalDisasters, World Bank, Washington, DC.

California Air Resources Board: 2003, Fact Sheet: 2003 Zero Emission Vehicle Program Changes,

Sacramento, CA.

Clark, P. U., Pisias, N. G., Stocker, T. F., and Weaver, A. J.: 2002, ‘The role of the thermohaline

circulation in abrupt climate change’, Nature 415, 863–869.

Fischer, G., Shah, M., Velthuizen, H. van, Nachtergaele, F. O.: 2002, International institute for applied

systems analysis (IIASA): Global Agro-Ecological Assessment for Agriculture in the 21st Century.

Hinrichsen, D.: 1998, Coastal Waters of the World: Trends, Threats and Strategies, Island Press,

Washington.

Homer-Dixon, T.: 2000, The Ingenuity Gap, Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): 2001, Summary for Policymakers: ClimateChange 2001: The Scientific Basis, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Jarrell J., Mayfield, M., and Rappaport, E. N.: 2001, The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most IntenseUnited States Hurricanes of This Century (and Other Frequently Requested Hurricane Facts),U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS TPC-1.

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Karl, T. R. and Trenberth, K. E.: 2003, ‘Modern global climate change’, Science 302, 1719–1723.

Lane, J., Sagar, A., and Schneider, S.: 2005, ‘Equity in climate change’, Tiempo: A Bulletin on Climateand Development 55, 9–14.

Rosenzweig, C. E., Iglesias, A., Yang, X. B., Epstein, P. R., and Chivian, E.: 2001, ‘Climate change

and extreme weather events: Implications for food production, plant diseases, and pests’, GlobalChange Human Health 2, 90–104.

Schneider, S. H.: 2004, ‘Abrupt non-linear climate change, irreversibility and surprise’, Global Envi-ronmental Change 14, 245–258.

Schneider, S. H. and Lane, J.: 2005, ‘Dangers and thresholds in climate change and the implications

for justice’, in Adger, W. N., Huq, S., Mace, M. J., and Paavola, J. (eds), Fairness in Adapting toClimate Change, MIT Press, Cambridge, in press.

Stocker, T. F.: 2000, ‘Past and future reorganizations in the climate system’, Quaternary ScienceReviews 19, 301–319.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): 2002, Global Environmental Outlook 3, EarthScan

Publications, London, England.

Wood, R. A., Vellinga, M., and Thorpe, R.: 2003, ‘Global Warming and Thermohaline Circulation

Stability’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series A, 1961–1975.

Woodward, C.: 2001, ‘Netherlands Battens Its Ramparts Against Warming Climate’, Christian ScienceMonitor, September 4.

JAMES BOYLE and JESSICA HELLMANNDepartment of Biological Sciences

University of Notre DameNotre Dame, IN 46556 USA