Richard York
University of OregonThe Sociology of Global Climate Change: What We Know and What We Need to KnowWhat do we know: What does Sociology bring to the table for studying the human dimensions of global
climate change?
Contemporary global climate change (GCC) is fundamentally a social problem in two senses. First, it is primarily
driven by social forces. Second, it potentially has dramatic consequences for societies. The social nature of
GCC is sufficiently complex – including economic, demographic, cultural, and psychological aspects – that it
requires the full sweep of social scientific analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of it. Thus, due to
the clear social aspects of both the causes and consequences of GCC and due to the traditionally broad scope
of sociological inquiry, it is of the utmost importance that sociologists are active in discussions about GCC.
Sociological research has already contributed to our understanding of GCC, while there is still much we need to
know.
One of the most important assets sociology has for our understanding of GCC is a diversity of theoretical
traditions that provide insights into the structural nature of social processes. This theoretical heritage, when
applied to environmental problems, like GCC, allows for a more nuanced assessment of human-environment
interactions than is typically provided by the natural sciences. Perhaps one of the most general and important
insights that sociologists provide is that GCC is not primarily a technical problem – as it is typically assumed to
be among natural scientists, politicians, and the general public – but, rather, it is fundamentally a social structural
problem.
Typically, discussions about climate change are undergirded with the view that solving the climate
problem is primarily about improving fuel efficiency, developing low- or non-carbon energy sources, and storing
carbon underground. This is what I refer to when I write that GCC is seen as a technical problem, because the
clear underlying assumption is that further technological development is largely sufficient to address GCC and
other environmental problems. When I write that, alternatively, GCC and other environmental problems are really
social structural problems, I mean that our economic structure, demographic factors, and other social conditions
and processes are ultimately the forces behind environmental problems, and that technical factors are only the
proximate (and theoretically superficial) forces driving GCC and other environmental problems. For example,
while over most of the twentieth century energy efficiency (as measured, for example, by GDP output per unit
of energy consumption) improved around the world, energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
increased. Thus, addressing the superficial technical factors that contribute to GCC will not solve the problem,
unless the underlying social structural forces are addressed.
A failure to understand the social factors that influence sustainability more generally can lead us to
generate new environmental problems while trying to solve old ones. Unsurprisingly, given the technical focus
of most GCC discussions, “solutions” such as expanding nuclear power and the use of biofuels are the ones most
popularly discussed. However, environmental sociology has regularly pointed to the complex interconnections
within societies and between society and nature. Thus, technical changes, such as substituting new energy
sources for fossil fuels, will likely have diverse consequences, many of which will be unintended and potentially
undesirable. If only technical changes are implemented (e.g., nuclear power and biofuels), we may find that we
generate a new environmental crisis in attempting to solve the standing crisis of GCC. Thus, GCC cannot be dealt
with in isolation from sustainability issues in general (or in isolation from other social problems for that matter).
Social structure must, therefore, be the focus of our efforts to resolve environmental problems.