Social Sciences, Weather, and Climate Change

Abstract

AbstractFew currently deny that extreme weather and climate change are among the most pressing problems of our times. There is also general agreement that humans are intrinsically part of the problem and of the solution. For the past hundred years, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) has supported weather and climate science, but only recently has it included the social sciences. In this chapter we review a few trends in the social science of climatic impact currently informing understanding of human interactions with weather, hazards, and climate change, including the science of science use, vulnerability and adaptation, and climatic change, health, and security. We argue that the social sciences have been steadily growing within AMS journals and have made an impact on the field (especially after the launching of a specific journal focusing on impact?Weather, Climate, and Society) but still have much room to grow within AMS to represent the many areas of social studies of weather and climate in the literature. One grand challenge that remains is to increase the usability and use of AMS-produced knowledge to inform decision-making in mitigating and responding to climatic change.