Dr. Tara Quinn:

I am a social scientist and we were working on the adaptation volume. In that volume we have quite a focus on the importance of the social context in which climate change is unfolding, as well as trying to avoid this climate exceptionalism and recognising the value systems that inform which risks are relevant for people and the decisions they make and actions they take to respond to climate hazards.

There is certainly a burgeoning research field globally in thinking about the anthropocene, seeds of change, visioning and what the future can look like. There is particular interest in co-creation. The process of co-creation, such as who is included in the room and how the process is facilitated, is incredibly important. It is then backcasting - you create these visions for 2050 or 2100 and identify the steps you need to take to get to that place. There is work between the arts, social sciences and natural sciences, but the funding directed there is at an EU level. The EPA has funded social science on this topic but the sort of synergy of a community really trying to push it forward and being able to integrate that equity dimension is probably not there because of that resource constraint at the moment. The interest and the ideas nationally and globally are communicated, however.