Last Updated on September 12, 2025 by Karl Thompson
Climate change sociology examines how social structures, cultural attitudes, and political systems shape our responses to global environmental risks. British sociologist Anthony Giddens offers one of the most influential perspectives on this issue. He argues that modernity and globalization have created a “runaway world.” In this world, climate change is both one of the greatest threats and one of the most neglected. Through concepts like Giddens’ paradox and future discounting, he explains why individuals and governments delay action until it’s too late. This article explores Giddens’ analysis of climate change, globalization, and possible pathways to sustainable solutions.
Climate Change KEY DATES
- 1900 Modernity continues to spread as nations develop industrial economies and generate economic growth.
- 1952 The Great Smog, a toxic, smoke-like air-pollution event over London, kills an estimated 4,000 people and leads to the Clean Air Act (1956).
- 1987 The Montreal Protocol is agreed, designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of substances responsible for ozone depletion.
- 1997 Agreement of The Kyoto Protocol, a United Nations treaty, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized countries and prevent climate change.
- 2009 A renewed commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is made in the Copenhagen Accord.
- 2015 – The Paris Agreement is adopted, uniting nations to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Read more here
- 2021 – COP26 in Glasgow delivers pledges to cut methane, phase down coal, and increase climate finance for developing countries. Details here
Globalisation, Late Modernity and Climate Change
Giddens has been highlighting the effects of globalisation and how it has been transforming society’s institutions, social roles, and relationships since the publication of his book The Consequences of Modernity in 1990. He notes that the world’s developed and newly industrialized societies are now characterized by experiences and relationships that are dramatically different from those in pre-industrial societies.
This globalization of modernity and its consequences marks a new stage in human civilization, which Giddens calls “late modernity”. He uses the analogy of “riding on the juggernaut” to illustrate how the modern world seems to be “out of control” and difficult to direct. While life in late modernity is at times “rewarding” and “exhilarating,” individuals also confront new uncertainties, place trust in abstract systems, and manage new challenges and risks.
Giddens sees anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change as one of the most important risks, and also one of the most frustrating for humanity. Industrialized societies remain significant amounts of fossil fuels to generate power.
A by-product of this energy production is carbon dioxide, which builds up in the upper atmosphere, leading to “global warming” and extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, and cyclones.
However, people don’t want to accept that their consumer lifestyles contribute to carbon emissions, so climate change is a back-of-the-mind issue.
Giddens’ Paradox: Why Action on Climate Change Is Delayed
In The Politics of Climate Change (2009) Giddens argues that because the dangers posed by environmental degradation and climate change are not obvious or immediately visible in everyday life, many people “…do nothing of a concrete nature about them.” Yet waiting until such dangers become visible and acute — in the shape of catastrophes that are irrefutably the result of climate change — before being stirred to serious action will be too late.
“Giddens’ paradox” is the label that he gives to this disconnect between the rewards of the present and the threat of future dangers and catastrophes.
“People find it hard to give the same level of reality to the future as they do to the present.”
—Anthony Giddens
However, Giddens is optimistic about the future. He believes that the same ingenuity that has seen the human race build high-tech societies can be used to find innovative solutions to reducing carbon emissions. For instance, international cooperation is seeing countries introducing carbon trading schemes and carbon taxes, which use market forces to reward companies that reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
New technologies, based on research, development, and design, could potentially end the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, and provide cheap and clean sources of energy for both developed and developing societies.
Future Discounting and the Psychology of Environmental Inaction
According to Giddens, the concept of “future discounting” explains why people take steps to solve present problems but ignore the threats that face them in the future. He notes that people often choose a small reward now, rather than take a course of action that might lead to a greater reward in the future. The same psychological principle applies to risks.
To illustrate his point Giddens uses the example of a smoker. Why does a young person take up smoking, when the health risks are widely known? For the teenage smoker it is almost impossible to imagine being 40, the age at which the dangers start to take hold and have potentially fatal consequences. This analogy applies to climate change. People are addicted to advanced technology and the mobility afforded by fossil fuels. Rather than tackle an uncomfortable reality, it is easier to ignore the warnings of climate scientists.
Related posts
This material is relevant to theory and methods within A level sociology.
It is also relevant to the topic of Environment and Development within Global Development. Within Global Development you might also like to read this related post on the relationship between industrial development and the environment.
To read more from Anthony Giddens you might like my summary of Modernity and Self Identity