The world is not moving fast enough on climate change — social sciences can help explain why

By Minnesota, Candis Callison, University of British Columbia, Elizabeth Marino, Oregon State University

In late 2023 the United States government released its Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA). The NCA is a semi-regular summation of the impacts of climate change upon the U.S. and the fifth assessment was notable for being the first to include a chapter on social systems and justice.

Built on decades of social science research on climate change, the fifth NCA contends with two truths that are increasingly being reckoned with in U.S. popular and academic conversations.

The first is that climate change has the potential to exacerbate health, social and economic outcomes for Black, Indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC) and low-income communities. The second is that social systems and institutions — including governmental, cultural, spiritual and economic structures — are the only places where adaptation and mitigation can occur.

We only have to compare mortality rates for the COVID-19 pandemic disaggregated by race, income, and other axes of inequality to recognize that we are not all in the same boat, despite experiencing the same storm. Today, race and income similarly predict who is likely to be displaced permanently after a major hurricane — and forced relocation can have negative impacts on individuals and communities for generations.

Understanding how existing social systems influence, and are influenced by, climate change is key to not only slowing the effects of an increasingly warming Earth, but also ensuring that society’s transition to a new world is a just one.

And there is no doubt that we are indeed facing a new world.

Not moving fast enough

Decades of scientific research have shown that increasingly devastating and rapid climatic changes are ahead of us, including more intense hurricanes, droughts and floods.

Our recent levels of resource consumption — particularly in the Global North and countries with large developing economies — are untenable.

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