Anthony Giddens • Sociology 5th Edition

Sociology and the Environment

It is the year 2107.

Europe is experiencing yet another year of extreme drought. Across the continent crops are failing, and severe water restrictions are in place. Swimming pools have been drained, cars go unwashed, and use of baths and dishwashers has been banned. The media are in uproar, as hundreds of thousands more environmental refugees pour in from countries devastated by flooding, famine and disease. Due to widespread flooding, Bangladesh is now barely habitable. In countries all across Africa, people are struggling to find adequate water to nourish their crops and to feed their livestock, and millions of people's lives are at risk.

One hundred years from now, is this what our planet will really be like?

Climate scientists argue that unless we take action to prevent further environmental damage, then we are heading for exactly this kind of environmental disaster. 2005 and 2006 - years when the weather was rarely out of the news - were amongst the hottest on record. The scientists predict an average temperature increase of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C over the next 100 years. This doesn't sound like very much, until we remember that for the last 10 000 or so years the earth's temperature has been relatively stable. Scientists say that the rising temperatures will affect weather patterns all over the world, resulting not just in more droughts, but also in more hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather conditions.

In this month's interview, Anthony Giddens explains why sociologists are interested in the environment, and gives his personal views on the contributions politicians and ordinary people can make to tackling environmental problems.

We've also added some tips about using Sociology to research the environment, and have suggested some other material you can explore to learn more about this issue.

Sociology and the Environment

What can sociologists contribute to understanding climate change, and other environmental problems?

Sociology can help us to understand how people are affected by the environment, and how people's behaviour impacts on the environment.

To take the first example, sociology can show us how environmental risks affect people differently. In Britain, we are used to living on a fairly benign island. We're not threatened by tsunamis or earthquakes, but when problems like flooding do occur, people are better equipped to deal with the aftermath. Our homes are usually protected by insurance, which pays for them to be cleaned up and repaired. The NHS looks after the sick or injured.

Often it is the very poorest people in society who are put at greatest risk by the environment, and suffer the direst consequences. Even in a wealthy country like America, when New Orleans was catastrophically flooded in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina it was the poorest and most vulnerable people (those with no where to go and no way to get there) who were left behind in the city, and exposed to the greatest risks.

In poor countries like Bangladesh, people are even less well equipped to deal with the impact of flooding. When their homes are destroyed, they rarely have any insurance or savings to fall back on. They have to rely on relatives for support, but their relatives will probably also be in desperate circumstances. Medical care is beyond the reach of most people. Bangladesh is also a very low-lying country. This means that over time the country will become more and more vulnerable to flooding caused by global warming. 2004 saw the worst flooding for many years in Bangladesh, leaving about 30 million homeless or stranded – that's the equivalent to about half the population of Great Britain. In future, people in countries like Bangladesh will be hardest hit by the effects of climate change. The already enormous gulf between living standards in rich and poor countries will be made even worse by global warming, unless we take action to prevent it.

In looking at all these situations, sociologists would ask (and try to answer) questions such as: Which people are affected the most by flooding and why? How are they affected? How do they try to survive?

To take the second example, sociology also helps us to understand how our behaviour contributes to environmental problems like climate change. Fifty or sixty years ago in the UK and other European countries, few people owned cars. Most people didn't own fridges or washing machines, and houses generally weren't centrally heated. People had to eat food that was grown locally and was in season, as there wasn't any other choice in the shops. They sometimes grew their own fruit and vegetables. Growing affluence means that we have come to consume more and more natural resources for our cars, dishwashers, garden sprinklers, and televisions. We eat foods that have been flown across the globe, using more energy and causing yet more pollution. Sociologists are interested in the ways that changing social trends - in this case linked to Europe 's growing prosperity and also to globalization - have contributed to environmental problems.

Is it really fair to expect developing countries like China and India to take action against environmental problems?

Countries like India, China and other developing nations, want to share in the affluence experienced by wealthier countries. People in developing countries are equally as entitled to live safe, comfortable and healthy lives as people in richer parts of the world. Many developing countries are experiencing rapid industrial growth, which is leading to rising prosperity and better living conditions. At the same time, this growth has serious consequences for the environment. It will be people living in the poorest countries who suffer the most from these environmental problems, even though over time they have done the least to cause them.

As climate change is a global problem, the response to it must also be global. We shouldn't bar less developed countries from their own processes of growth, but rapid industrial growth following the model used by countries such as Britain and the USA is not compatible with tackling climate change. Instead, we must work together to find sustainable forms of development that won't lead to further environmental damage. People in developed countries have a responsibility to lead the way in showing how sustainable development can be achieved. After all, for decades we have been the worst environmental culprits.

In October 2006, the British Government published a major report by Sir Nicholas Stern, an adviser to the Government on the economics of climate change and development. How has the Stern report impacted on the way we think about climate change?

The Stern report clearly shows that the economic benefits of decisive and early action far outweigh the costs of not acting. In economic and social terms, the report stresses that failure to address climate change will result in disruption on a similar scale to World Wars One and Two, and the world wide economic depression of the 1930s. This is a frightening prospect, and one I think that has made many people think seriously about environmental issues.

The emphasis in the report on economics is especially important because economic considerations are the main reason why there has been so much reluctance to take action against climate change, in both rich and poor countries.

The report is also important because it doesn't just focus on the problems caused by climate change, but also on practical solutions that can be applied in developed and developing nations. It demonstrates various ways in which we can all achieve sustainable growth. It's important to me that we also tackle the problems with the objectives of social justice in mind.

So what should politicians in the UK and other developed countries do to tackle environmental problems?

It is time we took the issue of climate change out of the hand of the greens. All political parties need to respond seriously to the challenge of the environment, and not just spout meaningless rhetoric when it suits them.

Environmental politics need to be brought into the day-to-day business of mainstream politics. We have to see environmental issues as part of the framework of rights and responsibilities that make up the citizenship contract between governments and citizens. This means we shouldn't think of environmental issues in isolation, but as part of the economic and welfare systems and all other parts of policy-making.

How can we persuade individuals to help the environment, for example by recycling waste, saving water, and making fewer car journeys?

As I have said, environmental principles need to be seen as inextricably linked to the obligations of citizenship. Sometimes draconian measures will be needed, for example to limit car use in order to control vehicle pollution. Governments will also need to find ways of motivating people to change their behaviour, for example by offering tax incentives for people who use ‘greener' cars. We have already seen some movement in this direction in the UK, with higher car tax imposed on the most polluting vehicles.

It isn't going to be easy for politicians to introduce these measures, as we have become used to seeing the environment as a free good. ( ‘Free good' is a term used in economics to describe something which is not scarce, and has no costs to society.) Education and increasing the sense of personal responsibility for the environment should help to promote the changes in lifestyle that will be needed to tackle climate change. Sociologists can play a part by identifying the reasons why people continue to waste water or to rely on their cars. By pinpointing the reasons for this behaviour, we can begin to formulate strategies by which it might be changed. Karl Marx said ‘human beings only set themselves such problems as they can resolve.' Climate change will be the biggest test of that principle yet.

Additional materials

Guide to researching the environment in Sociology

The 5th edition of Sociology devotes a whole chapter to sociology and the environment. This begins on p. 938, with a discussion of the devastating impact of the tsunami that struck on 26 th December 2004. Issues discussed in the chapter include: sustainable development (p. 940-943); consumption patterns (p. 943-944); different types of risks to the environment p.944- 952); climate change (p. 952-958); genetically modified foods (p.959-963); and Ulrich Beck's idea of ‘risk society' (p. 963-965). The ‘risk society' is also discussed in more detail on p. 119-121, in the chapter on theoretical thinking in sociology. You ma also find chapter 11 on global inequality (p. 382) useful in understanding how people's living conditions differ across the world.

Internet links

Other books by Polity

The Environment by Philip W. Sutton

Click here to buy this book

Sample PDFs: Preface | Chapter One

This book shows how questions about the environment cannot be properly answered without taking a sociological approach. It assumes no specialist knowledge of either sociology or the environment, and so is perfect for readers new to this area. The book provides a comprehensive guide to the ways in which sociologists have responded to the challenge of environmental issues as diverse as global warming, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss and marine pollution. Also covered are sociological ideas such as risk, interpretations of nature, environmental realism, ecological modernization and globalization.

Published February 2007
208pp

Copyright © Anthony Giddens 2006

The right of Anthony Giddens to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.