This Must Be the Place: Underrepresentation of Identity and Meaning in Climate Change Decision-Making

TLDR

Climate‑change risk analyses focus on physical, biological, and economic impacts, yet cultural and social consequences remain largely ignored. This article aims to incorporate the risks climate change poses to cultures and social systems by centering on places that provide meaning and value to people. The authors review evidence of observed and projected climate impacts on the Arctic and Pacific island atoll nations to illustrate these place‑based risks. They find that climate change threatens the loss of unique natural and cultural components of these places, argue that irreversible loss must be included in decision‑making, and propose justice‑based, identity‑recognizing approaches that value non‑market risks.

Abstract

The dangers that future climate change poses to physical, biological, and economic systems are accounted for in analyses of risk and increasingly figure in decision-making about responses to climate change. Yet the potential cultural and social impacts of climate change have scarcely been considered. In this article we bring the risks climate change poses to cultures and social systems into consideration through a focus on places—those local material and symbolic contexts that give meaning and value to peoples' lives. By way of examples, the article reviews evidence on the observed and projected impacts of climate change on the Arctic and Pacific island atoll nations. It shows that impacts may result in the loss of many unique natural and cultural components of these places. We then argue that the risk of irreversible loss of places needs to be factored into decision-making on climate change. The article then suggests ways forward in decision-making that recognizes these non-market and non-instrumental metrics of risk, based on principles of justice and recognition of individual and community identity.