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Reading material for this unit comes from Societal Responses to Regional
Climate Change: Forecasting by Analogy, Michael H. Glantz, editor,
Westview Press, Boulder, Co, 428 pp, and related readings from
Michael Glantz.
The purpose of Glantz's book is to examine how flexible or inflexible societies at different levels can be in dealing with climate-related environmental changes. He uses past seemingly irreversible environmental changes to examine how people have responded and used different societal mechanisms (local, state, national government; non-government organizations, etc.) to cope with the problem. He asserts that by understanding these past events we can draw generalizations on how people will respond to regional climate change.
A brief overview of the book is provided by listing a few quotes. One of the case studies Mickey uses to compare future climate change with past environmental occurrences is the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer.
A second case study is provided by the changes in the Mississippi River system. Study these cases for examples of how people respond to major environmental changes.
Roger A. Pielke, Jr. of the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, National Center for Atmospheric Research and Daniel Sarewitz of the Center for Science, Policy, and Outcomes, Columbia University have co-authored a publication entitled "Winning and Losing the Global Warming Debate". They ask whether there are winners and losers in the global warming debate and offer recommendations to both scientists and policy makers on where we go from here.