The Climate Change: Impacts & Responses Research Network organizes its intellectual agenda around evolving themes that frame both scientific and social inquiry. These themes guide our conference, journal, and book publishing programs.
Fifteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses, UBC Robson Square, Vancouver, Canada (2023)
Advancing research on the dynamics, consequences, and responses to climate change.
Theme 1: The Nature of Evidence
Why the persistent challenge of universalizing evidence based approaches?
Living Tensions:
Equilibria and Disequilibria – change processes and countervailing tendencies
Communicating Measurement – processes, methodologies, and technologies
The Fundamentals – ice cap reduction, glacial melt, sea level change.
Lived Realties – floods, drought, forest fires, hurricanes, and other events
Data Politics – the use of climate informatics
Visons of Progress – contesting underlying economic motivations and offering alternatives
Paleoclimatology – the earth’s climate in short and long views
Regional Variations, Global Change – negotiating and understanding difference
Biomes and Biozones – considering eco-framings of space
Environmental Policies – institutional response to eco-systemic realities
Anthropogenic Factors – understanding and attributing human causes
Debating Scenarios – slow, rapid, abrupt, or episodic
The Future of Everyday Life – weather events, natural disasters, and ecological surprises
Considering Capacity Building – individual, institutional, and systemic
Communities and Nations – established politics of framing responsibility
Human Systems – transport, energy, communication
Public and Private Interest – engaging business stakeholders
Intrenching Inequality - climate change in the developing world
Adaptation and Resilience – private, public, and individual change makers
Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources – technologies, policies, and strategies
Measures of Responsibility – navigating climate ethics
Regulatory Solutions – taxes, offsets, standards, and trading
Climate Finance – valuing nature and actionMotivating Solidarity – global movements, local framings
Theme 2: Assessing Impacts in Diverse Ecosystems
What are the impacts of climate change on natural environments in particular and universal views?
Living Tensions:
Paleoclimatology – the earth’s climate in short and long views
Regional Variations, Global Change – negotiating and understanding difference
Biomes and Biozones – considering eco-framings of space
Environmental Policies – institutional response to eco-systemic realities
Anthropogenic Factors – understanding and attributing human causes
Debating Scenarios – slow, rapid, abrupt, or episodic
Theme 3: Human Impacts and Responsibility
How have we been agents of climate change, what does a politics of responsibility reveal?
Living Tensions:
The Future of Everyday Life – weather events, natural disasters, and ecological surprises
Considering Capacity Building – individual, institutional, and systemic
Communities and Nations – established politics of framing responsibility
Human Systems – transport, energy, communication
Public and Private Interest – engaging business stakeholders
Intrenching Inequality - climate change in the developing world
Theme 4: Technical, Political, and Social Responses
How do scientists, technologies, policy makers, and community members respond to climate change?
Living Tensions:
Adaptation and Resilience – private, public, and individual change makers
Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources – technologies, policies, and strategies
Measures of Responsibility – navigating climate ethics
Regulatory Solutions – taxes, offsets, standards, and trading
Climate Finance – valuing nature and action
Motivating Solidarity – global movements, local framings
