ABSTRACT
SCIENTIFIC ASSESSMENTS ARE integral in identifying and characterizing the social and biophysical manifestations of environmental change. These analyses link European acid rain with dying forests, the ozone hole with dramatic increases in skin cancer, and desertification with African famine. Nowhere have such assessments played a more prominent role than in the area of climate change. Climate impact assessments are social processes aimed at making climate change phenomena tangible and tractable for policymakers, researchers, and the public. Participants in these processes collect, synthesize, interpret, and communicate knowledge about the likely ramifications of climate change. Impact assessments analyze how changes, for example, in temperature and elevated carbon dioxide concentrations are likely to affect matters of more direct concern to human well-being such as weather patterns, crop yields, sea level, disease vectors, and water availability.
