Abstract
We report on anthropological research conducted in three mountain communities (in the USA, Italy and Peru), which have been directly affected by glacier retreat for over 40 years. Our mixed methods include ethnographic research, analysis of transcripts of interviews, focus groups and community meetings, and case studies of adaptation projects. Our findings indicate that local people are acute observers of change. They draw on two frames (climate change and community) in their discussions and projects but rely much more heavily on the latter frame. This pattern of drawing on the community frame, characteristic of all discussions, is most marked in the community meetings. The effectiveness of the community frame in supporting projects calls into question some widely shared notions about the role of belief in climate change as a crucial precondition for adaptation and challenges the “perceive–predict–act” model of climate change response.
Highlights
Society’s incomplete and slow response to climate change has led many to seek explanations for this limited level of action.Within the extensive literature on this subject, two lines of explanation have received a good deal of attention
Framing climate change in frontline communities: anthropological insights on how mountain dwellers in the. Religious systems such as Islam or Buddhism, or on the newer cosmopolitan approach of climate change science and policy. The former can be broadly associated with the community frame which we describe in our three cases; the latter, though differing in some details, correspond to the climate change frame
We show that the residents, though aware of the climate change frame, rely much more extensively on the community frame, using it to construct and carry out responses to the changes which they see in their environment
Summary
Framing climate change in frontline communities: anthropological insights on how mountain dwellers in the USA, Peru, and Italy adapt to glacier retreat. Ben Orlove1 & Kerry Milch2 & Lisa Zaval3 & Christoph Ungemach4 & Julie Brugger5 & Katherine Dunbar6 & Christine Jurt. Received: 17 January 2018 / Accepted: 25 February 2019 / Published online: 7 May 2019 # The Author(s) 2019
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