ABSTRACT
In this chapter on theoretical perspectives in the anthropology of climate change, we provide an overview of three theoretical perspectives—cultural ecology, culture phenomenology or interpretivism, and critical political ecology—that have emerged in the anthropology of climate change, which seek to grapple with various aspects of the human–climate change interface over the course of the past century or so, an era which has seen a significant increase in human-induced greenhouse gas emissions which has contributed to an overall warming of the planet accompanied by other climatic changes, While we recognize important contributions on the part of the cultural ecological and cultural interpretive perspectives on climate change and draw from them, we privilege a political ecological approach that we term “the critical anthropology of climate change,” in that it posits that ultimately, the capitalist world system constitutes the most significant driver of climate change in the modern era.
