Abstract
Research on the impacts of climate change suggests that developed countries are not immune to the effects of a changing climate. The assumption that because of their high adaptive capacity, developed countries will adapt effectively is beginning to be dispelled by empirical evidence. While advancements in projections have facilitated a move from the study of impacts to concrete adaptation strategies, research that focuses on the social process of adaptation has been relatively neglected. Yet, when viewed as a social process, the psychological, social, and cultural aspects of adaptation are exposed, which brings into focus the effects that values and power dimensions have on actual adjustments and their outcomes for adaptation. This chapter demonstrates that some of the critical barriers to adaptation in developed countries arise from perceptions and values. It argues that these barriers are hindering adaptation now and will continue to do so unless the intricacies of the social processes underpinning adaptation are taken into explicit consideration in research and policy. Drawing on recent theoretical and empirical studies, the examples highlighted here show that narratives of immunity to the impacts of climate change in developed countries, confidence in technology, and perceived lack of immediacy about climate change impacts have resulted in an unwarranted complacency about adaptation. Effective adaptation strategies should be informed by a deeper understanding of the social process of adaptation and need to address a wide range of barriers.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adger WN (1999) Social vulnerability to climate change and extremes in coastal Vietnam. World Dev 27(2):249–269
Adger WN (2001) Scales of governance and environmental justice for adaptation and mitigation of climate change. J Int Dev 13(7):921–931
Adger WN (2003) Social capital, collective action, and adaptation to climate change. Econ Geogr 79(4):387–404
Adger WN, Dessai S, Goulden M et al (2009) Are there social limits to adaptation to climate change? Clim Change 93(3–4):335–354
Bandura A (1977) Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychol Rev 84(2):191–215
Beck U (1996) World risk society as cosmopolitan society? Ecological questions in a framework of manufactured uncertainties. Theory Cult Soc 13(4):1–32
Berkes F, Jolly D (2001) Adapting to climate change: social-ecological resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic community. Conserv Ecol 5(2):18–39
Bickerstaff K, Simmons P, Pidgeon N (2004) Public perceptions of risk, science and governance: main findings of a qualitative study of five risk cases. Centre for Environmental Risk, University of East Anglia, Norwich
Bord RJ, Fisher A, O’Connor RE (1998) Public perceptions of global warming: United States and international perspectives. Clim Res 11(1):75–84
Bryant CR, Smit B, Brklacich M et al (2000) Adaptation in Canadian agriculture to climatic variability and change. Clim Change 45(1):181–201
Bulkeley H (2001) Governing climate change: the politics of risk society? Trans Inst Br Geogr 26(4):430–447
Dessai S, Adger WN, Hulme M et al (2004) Defining and experiencing dangerous climate change. Clim Change 64(1–2):11–25
Eakin H, Tompkins EL, Nelson DR et al (2009) Hidden costs and disparate uncertainties: trade-offs involved in approaches to climate policy. In: Adger WN, Lorenzoni I, O’Brien K (eds) Adapting to climate change: governance, values and limits. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Eriksen SH, Brown K, Kelly PM (2005) The dynamics of vulnerability: locating coping strategies in Kenya and Tanzania. Geogr J 171(4):287–305
Few R, Brown K, Tompkins EL (2007) Climate change and coastal management decisions: insights from Christchurch Bay, UK. Coast Manag 35(2–3):255–270
Grothmann T, Patt A (2005) Adaptive capacity and human cognition: the process of individual adaptation to climate change. Glob Environ Change Part A 15(3):199–213
Höhle E (2002) Chapter 5: global climate change as perceived by the public (Joint working report). Centre of Technology Assessment in Baden-Württemberg and University of Stuttgart, Sociology of Technologies and Environment, Stuttgart
Keller C, Siegrist M, Gutscher H (2006) The role of the affect and availability heuristics in risk communication. Risk Anal 26(3):631–639
Kinney PL, O’Neill MS, Bell ML et al (2008) Approaches for estimating effects of climate change on heat-related deaths: challenges and opportunities. Environ Sci Policy 11(1):87–96
Kirby A (2004) Britons unsure of climate costs – polling results. BBC News Online. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3934363.stm. Cited 20 Jan 2008
Kovats RS, Koppe C (2005) Heat waves: past and future impacts on health. In: Ebi KL, Smith JB, Burton I (eds) Integration of public health with adaptation to climate change: lessons learned and new directions. Taylor & Francis, London, pp 136–160
Lagadec P (2004) Understanding the French 2003 heat wave experience: beyond the heat, a multi-layered challenge. J Conting Crisis Manag 12(4):160–169
Leichenko R, O’Brien K (2008) Environmental change and globalization: double exposures. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Lorenzoni I, Nicholson-Cole S, Whitmarsh L (2007) Barriers perceived to engaging with climate change among the UK public and their policy implications. Glob Environ Change 17(3–4):445–459
Lowe T, Brown K, Dessai S et al (2006) Does tomorrow ever come? Disaster narrative and public perception of climate change. Public Underst Sci 15(4):435–457
Mastrandrea M, Schneider SH (2004) Probabilistic integrated assessment of ‘dangerous’ climate change. Science 304(5670):571–575
Mc Farlane A (1978) Daily mortality and environment in English conurbations: II. Deaths during summer hot spells in Greater London. Environ Res 15(3):332–341
McBeath J (2003) Institutional responses to climate change: the case of the Alaskan transportation system. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 8(1):3–28
McCarthy JJ, Canziani OF, Leary NA et al (eds) (2001) Climate change 2001: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability – contribution of working group II to the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
McMichael AJ, Haines A, Sloof R et al (eds) (1996) Climate change and human health. World Health Organization, Geneva
Miller E, Buys L (2008) The impact of social capital on residential water-affecting behaviors in a drought-prone Australian community. Soc Nat Resour 21(3):244–257
Moser S (2009) Whether our levers are long enough and the fulcrum strong? – Exploring the soft underbelly of adaptation decisions and actions. In: Adger WN, Lorenzoni I, O’Brien K (eds) Adapting to climate change: governance, values and limits. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Moser S, Luers AL (2008) Managing climate risks in California: the need to engage resource managers for successful adaptation to change. Clim Change 87(1):307–322
Moser S, Tribbia J (2008) Vulnerability to inundation and climate change impacts in California: coastal managers’ attitudes and perceptions. Mar Technol Soc 40(4):35–44
Næss LO, Bang G, Eriksen S et al (2005) Institutional adaptation to climate change: flood responses at the municipal level in Norway. Glob Environ Change Part A 15(2):125–138
O’Brien KL (2009) Climate change and values: do changing values define the limits to successful adaptation? In: Adger WN, Lorenzoni I, O’Brien K (eds) Adapting to climate change: governance, values and limits. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
O’Brien KL, Eriksen S, Sygna L et al (2006) Questioning complacency: climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation in Norway. AMBIO J Hum Environ 35(2):50–56
Pelling M, High C (2005) Understanding adaptation: what can social capital offer assessments of adaptive capacity? Glob Environ Change Part A 15(4):308–319
Pielke RA Jr, Prins G, Rayner S et al (2007) Lifting the taboo on adaptation. Nature 445:597–598
Rachlinski JJ (2000) The psychology of global climate change. Univ Ill Law Rev 1:299–319
Riedlinger D, Berkes F (2001) Contributions of traditional knowledge to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic. Polar Rec 37(203):315–328
Risbey JS, Kandlikar M, Dowlatabadi H et al (1999) Scale, context, and decision making in agricultural adaptation to climate variability and change. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 4:137–165
Rokeach M (2000) Understanding human values: individual and societal. Free Press, New York
Romsdahl R (2009) Addressing institutional challenges in adaptation planning for climate change impacts in the U.S. Northern Great Plains: a case study of North Dakota. Interdiscip Environ Rev XI(1&2):35–56
Schneider SH, Azar C (2001) Are uncertainties in climate and energy systems a justification for stronger near-term mitigation policies? Paper presented at the Pew Center on global climate change’s workshop on the timing of climate change policies, Washington, DC, 11–12 Oct 2001
Schneider SH, Lane J (2006) Dangers and thresholds in climate change and the implications for justice. In: Adger WN, Paavola J, Huq S et al (eds) Fairness in adaptation to climate change. MIT, Cambridge, MA
Stamm KR, Clark F, Eblacas PR (2000) Mass communication and public understanding of environmental problems: the case of global warming. Public Underst Sci 9(3):219–237
Sydneysmith R (2007) The co-management of climate change in coastal communities of British Columbia: social capital, trust and capacity. University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Tompkins EL, Few R, Brown K (2008) Scenario-based stakeholder engagement: incorporating stakeholders preferences into coastal planning for climate change. J Environ Manage 88(4):1580–1592
Tribbia J, Moser S (2008) More than information: what coastal managers need to prepare for climate change. Environ Sci Policy 11(4):315–328
Wescoat J (1991) Managing the Indus River basin in light of climate change: four conceptual approaches. Glob Environ Change 1(5):381–395
Whitmarsh L (2008) Are flood victims more concerned about climate change than other people? The role of direct experience in risk perception and behavioural response. J Risk Res 11(3):351–374
Wisner B, Cannon T, Blaikie PM et al (2004) At risk, 2nd edn. Routledge, London
Wolf J (2006) Climate change and citizenship: a case study of responses in Canadian coastal communities. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of East Anglia, Norwich
Wolf J, Lorenzoni I, Few R et al (2009) Conceptual and practical barriers to adaptation: an interdisciplinary analysis of vulnerability and adaptation to heat waves in the UK. In: Adger WN, Lorenzoni I, O’Brien K (eds) Adapting to climate change: governance, values and limits. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Wolf J, Adger WN, Lorenzoni I et al (2010) Social capital, individual responses to heat waves and climate change adaptation: an empirical study of two UK cities. Glob Environ Change 20(1):44–52
Wong KK, Zhao XB (2001) Living with flood: victim’s perceptions in Beijiang, Guangdong, China. Area 33(2):190–201
Acknowledgements
This chapter has benefitted from discussions with and comments from Karen O’Brien and Irene Lorenzoni.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wolf, J. (2011). Climate Change Adaptation as a Social Process. In: Ford, J., Berrang-Ford, L. (eds) Climate Change Adaptation in Developed Nations. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 42. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0567-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0567-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0566-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0567-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)