Decision-Support Resources Development & Related Research on Human Contributions and Responses
USGCRP Program Element

Human activities play an important role in the Earth system and are significant drivers of change in the environment at all scales—local, regional, national and global. Humans also have the capability to respond to changes in their environment, and adaptations, when effective, enhance the resilience of both managed and natural systems. At the same time, social and economic systems are changing in a world that is more interconnected than ever. A better integrated understanding of the complex interactions between human societies and the Earth system is needed to identify vulnerable systems and pursue options that take advantage of opportunities to enhance resilience. The National Research Council (NRC) report, Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions concluded that: “In order to address the consequences of climate change and better serve the Nation’s decisionmakers, the research enterprise dealing with environmental change and environment-society interactions must be enhanced.” Such an enterprise should include “…support of interdisciplinary research that couples physical, chemical, biological, and human systems.”

The study of the human interface with change in the global environment is especially important because of its capacity to inform public policy. Decisionmaking, however, is challenged by uncertainties, including risks of irreversible and/or nonlinear changes that may be met with insufficient or excessive responses whose consequences may cascade across generations. The difficulties associated with uncertainty have become increasingly salient given the interest of policymakers in addressing global environmental change. Uncertainties arise from a number of factors, including problems with data, problems with models, lack of knowledge of important underlying relationships, imprecise representation of uncertainty, statistical variation and measurement error, and subjective judgment.

It is well established that human health is linked to environmental conditions, and that changes in the natural environment may have subtle, or dramatic, effects on health. Timely knowledge of these effects may support public health systems in devising and implementing strategies to compensate or respond to them. Federally supported research has thus far provided information on a broad range of health effects of global change, including the adverse effects of ozone, atmospheric particles and aeroallergens, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, vector- and water-borne diseases, and heat-related illnesses and mortality.