Now more than ever: The need for more societally relevant research on vulnerability and adaptation to climate change

Geographers have a long history of contributing to basic, use-inspired, and applied research on one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced: global climate change. Their contributions cut across all the major traditions and subfields within geography, have aimed at a variety of scales, and have connected to the scholarship of other disciplines. Building on these past accomplishments, this paper argues that geographers must continue their interdisciplinary endeavors and engage now–even more so than before–in practice-relevant research, particularly in the area of the human dimensions of climate change. The paper points to a range of critical research needs in the area of vulnerability and adaptation, particularly focused on the US, and argues for rapid capacity building and far-reaching changes in the incentive structure for geographers to engage in practicerelevant research and in interaction with policy-makers and resource managers at the science-practice interface. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ‘‘We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. [.] You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. [.] At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, ‘‘Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.’’ Sir Winston Churchill (1940)1