ABSTRACT
Although the poor are not influential in the actions that lead to most anthropogenic climate warming, they pay a colossal price for rising temperatures, revealing the painful nature of contemporary social inequalities that characterize human societies and amplify social suffering. But, despite the powerful forces aligned against them, the poor are not passive beings manipulated by the global capitalist system. While social inequality may be inscribed on their bodies by the diseases and damaging conditions of climate change and the polluting of their environments, the poor are never docile. They develop local knowledge of their circumstances, adopt changes to cope with the risks they encounter, and band together to challenge the causes of their plight. This concluding chapter assesses the agentive response of people to the threat of climate change, particularly people who are marginalized economically and socially by reigning structures of inequality. Anthropologists and other social scientists have roles to play in supporting those at risk based on their on-the-ground research and analyses of social, political, and economic organizations. By providing their skills and insights, the discipline can make a contribution to achieving the transition to a more democratic and sustainable stage in the history of human societies on Earth.
