Ben Orlove

Focus areas: Climate change adaptation, environmental anthropology, human response to glacier retreat in mountain regions, water management and governance, natural hazards and disaster risk reduction, urban sustainability

Benjamin Orlove , an anthropologist, has conducted field work in the Peruvian Andes since the 1970s and also carried out research in East Africa, the Italian Alps, and Aboriginal Australia. His early work focused on agriculture, fisheries and rangelands. More recently he has studied climate change and glacier retreat, with an emphasis on water, natural hazards and the loss of iconic landscapes. In addition to his numerous academic articles and books, his publications include a memoir and a book of travel writing.

Orlove taught for many years at the University of California, Davis. At Columbia University, he also teaches in the Master’s Program in Climate and Society, for which he serves as Associate Director. He is a Senior Research Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, and is one of the four co-directors of the Center for Research in Environmental Decisions.

Education

• PhD, University of California, Berkeley
• MA, University of California, Berkeley
• BA, Harvard University

Affiliations

• International Research Institute for Climate and Society
• Co-director, Center for Research in Environmental Decisions

Ben Orlove writes about how climate change threatens not only our infrastructure but our cultural and historical landmarks as well.