Paper short abstract:

This paper highlights the problems of connecting scientific interests in climate and nature with local experiences of weather and the environment. While anthropological research on climate change tends to focus on "climate" the paper shifts attention to the "change" part of "climate change".

Paper long abstract:

Anthropological research on climate change has largely focused on the "climate" aspect. This paper presents some results of recent field research conducted in Namibia in the context of the NSF project on "Cultural Models of Nature". It highlights the problems of connecting scientific interests in "climate" and "nature" with local experiences of weather and the environment. The second half of the paper then shifts attention to the "change" part of "climate change" and suggests that this may be where a comparative anthropological perspective has promising insights to offer. This concerns, above all, ways of conceiving time and the future. The paper explores the notion of "temporal frames of reference" and revisits some of the African ethnography in this light.