On the day of the event, visit the My Dashboard page to attend virtually.

Join the planning committee for Integrating the Human Sciences to Scale Societal Responses to Environmental Change: A Workshop as they explore the potential for synthesizing the human sciences (e.g., social, behavioral, psychological, political, organizational) to develop critical societal capacities for and responses to climate change. The 2-day, virtual (public) workshop will consider how to integrate, align, and converge the broad mix of social, behavioral, and cognitive sciences to produce new insights and inform efforts for enhanced human responses to environmental change. Earth System Science increasingly incorporates human systems in its analysis of climate change, but social, behavioral, and social sciences have yet to align internally in prioritizing and addressing the range of challenges faced by individuals and communities in responding to the various stresses and opportunities posed by climate change.

The workshop will highlight case examples, knowledge, practice, tools, and methods that can enable a resilient civic body to be prepared to respond to environmental shifts, uncertainties, and damage. Workshop discussions will identify the socio-emotional and behavioral changes that are entailed in responding to climate change; specific gaps in current practices, tools, and knowledge to empower the collective capability of communities to problem-solve; knowledge, practices, tools, methods, and innovations to realize the social climate and civic capacity society needs to humanely navigate and endure the Anthropocene; the means to implement necessary changes at scale, as well as sustain mutually reinforcing emotional wellbeing and social ties; holistic and integrated ways that may build capacity for the transition to net zero in ways that are feasible, humane, healthy, and just.

The planning committee is formed under the auspices of the Board on Environmental Change and Society at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. A rapporteur’s report will be released after the workshop describing the proceedings.