ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the emergence and maturation of the anthropology of climate change, discussing the work of precursors in the field such as Margaret Mead, Stephen Rayner, and Brian Fagan, and various climate anthropologists. It traces the beginning of the maturation of the anthropology of climate change to a series of short articles on climate change research that appeared in the December 2007 issue of the Anthropology Newsletter. The first two books on the anthropology of climate change appeared in quick succession in 2009, namely Global Warming and the Political Ecology of Health by Hans A. Baer and Merrill Singer and an anthology titled Anthropology and Climate Change edited by Susan A. Crate and Mark Nuttall. In December 2014, the American Anthropological Association released the report of its Global Climate Change Task Force. Over the past 25 years or so, the anthropology of climate change has grown into a vibrant field, closely related to environmental anthropology, but also other fields, such as health anthropology and the anthropology of the future.
