For centuries, thinkers have considered whether and how climatic conditions influence the nature of societies and the performance of economies. A multidisciplinary renaissance of quantitative empirical research has begun to illuminate key linkages in the coupling of these complex natural and human systems, uncovering notable effects of climate on health, agriculture, economics, conflict, migration, and demographics.

Evidence increasingly suggests that as climate warms, some plant, animal, and human populations may move to preserve their environmental temperature. In order to preserve their annual mean temperatures, tropical populations would have to travel distances greater than 1000 km over less than a century if global mean temperature rises by 2 °C over the same period.

There have been dramatic advances in understanding the physical science of climate change, facilitated by substantial and reliable research support. Some advances have been made in understanding and formalizing climate-economy linkages, but knowledge gaps remain. Three areas where research progress on climate economics is both sorely needed, in light of policy relevance, and possible within the next few years given appropriate funding: (i) refining the social cost of carbon (SCC), (ii) improving understanding of the consequences of particular policies, and (iii) better understanding of the economic impacts and policy choices in developing economies.

Clarifying the distinction between “tipping points” in the popular sense, the critical thresholds exhibited by climatic and social “tipping elements,” and “economic shocks.”

Examines the temperature-mortality relationship over the course of the 20th century US both for its own interest and to identify potentially useful adaptations for coming decades.