Das Projekt "Modellierung der Verbindungen zwischen Klima und Gesellschaft: Das CLIMSOC-Modell" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universite de Geneve, Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales durchgeführt. Discussions of the causes and effects of global climate change invariably invoke the interaction between the physical environment and human activities. The increase of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere is widely identified as central to the projected warming trends of the next several generations. These temperature changes will also affect precipitation and sea levels and thus determine amounts and types of land available for cultivation and the kinds of crops appropriate to grow on them, thus influencing population size and density as well as various economic and political arrangements. Human activities in turn contribute significantly to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted so that changes in populations and their ways of life will alter climate trends. There are numerous and complex feedback relations between climate and human behavior. Although these are always acknowledged, their effects are poorly understood. However, until the linkages between the physical and human domains are identified and explicitly introduced into our models, it will be difficult to understand the direction and consequences of change or to make viable policy recommendations. In order to study the impact of climate on human systems and of human behavior on physical systems, we have developed a model called CLIMSOC that focuses on climate-society interactions. The structure is a general and theoretical one that permits empirical studies of specific geographical regions or key linkages at the global scale. A set of basic variables and key social, economic, and political relationships underlie the model's structure.