In Climate and Cultural Choice, Robert H. Winthrop offers some unconventional answers to two questions. Why are humans losing the fight against the climate crisis? What more can we do?
Scientists and politicians alike have treated climate change as a massive yet conventional environmental problem, caused by polluting greenhouse gases rather than toxic chemicals. In this book, Robert Winthrop demonstrates how this approach made climate change a technical problem for experts to define and solve, leaving citizens unengaged and paralyzed by polarization and inaction. Yet climate change is not inherently an environmental problem—it is a social and political problem. Drawing on anthropology, history, and other disciplines, Robert Winthrop explores the need for social innovation tailored to local conditions and values: a search for ways of life that are more satisfying, more supportive of well-being, and more protective of our climate. He examines case studies of successful and enduring practices, which can help chart a course toward effective climate mitigation. These include increasing local self-sufficiency, conserving resources, gaining greater control over technology, and fostering regional economic networks to supplement growth-focused global markets. To conclude, the book derives strategies from this archive of experience and presents climate-positive innovations that are strongly motivated, enduring, and well rooted in social institutions and practices.
Climate and Cultural Choice will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, social movements, environmental anthropology, and environmental politics.