The American Sociological Association (ASA) has established a task force to help humanity face the problems caused by climate change. The basic idea is that if you want to know how to mitigate the impact of human behavior on the planet’s climate, you should ask the scientists who know about, well, human behavior. Unfortunately, ASA’s description of sociologists’ possible contribution does at the moment not go any further than stating that “understanding the consequences of human sources of carbon emissions and environmental change are critical to designing and implementing sound policies and regulations to address adverse human impacts.” No hint yet at the type of theories that we should turn to get this understanding.
Apart from using sociological knowledge for understanding human causes of climate change (which is obviously a good idea, although I’m not sure if we sociologists are up for the challenge), I would also be interested in possible predictions on effects of climate change on human societies. Assuming we cannot completely stop climate change, how will societies cope with the huge environmental changes that should supposedly follow from that?