Constructing Science and Dealing with Denial

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Dryzek ◽  
Richard B. Norgaard ◽  
David Schlosberg
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Satellite Monitoring ◽  
The Us ◽  
Scientific Opinion ◽  
Us Senate ◽  
Svante Arrhenius ◽  
Science Advisory Committee

Climate science has a long history. The Swede Svante Arrhenius in 1896 recognized that the burning of fossil fuels could add CO2 to the atmosphere in sufficient quantities to warm the Earth, though he thought it would take millennia for that to become apparent. Arrhenius himself thought this would be beneficial to agriculture, anticipating some contemporary emphatic climate change deniers for whom CO2 is nothing more or less than “plant food.” The twentieth century saw anthropogenic (i.e. caused by humans) climate change gradually progress from a scientific curiosity likely to arise only in a very distant future to something more pressing (see Weart, 2008 for a history). Charles Keeling began monitoring atmospheric CO2 on Mount Mauna Loa in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in 1958, providing strong evidence that CO2 levels were rising. In 1965 the Science Advisory Committee to the US president raised the specter of changes in the climate appearing by 2000. Climate science gradually grew in extent and prominence, aided by advances in satellite monitoring and computing power. One watershed moment occurred in 1988, on a hot day in Washington DC, when James Hansen of NASA testified to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee of the US Senate that global warming had arrived. The same year British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (who had a degree in chemistry) announced in a speech to the scientists of the Royal Society that she was convinced of the need to act—embracing environmental concern she had until then derided. Since the 1980s climate research has exploded, exploring ever more facets of the issue. The role of the IPCC, established by the United Nations in 1988, has become crucial. The Panel does not actually conduct or sponsor research itself, but rather summarizes the weight of scientific opinion in periodic assessment reports aimed at policy makers, especially those participating in the negotiations of the UNFCCC. With literally thousands of scientists from diverse disciplines participating in the assessment, it has a significant impact on how scientists connect their subsequent research to discoveries by others and learn how to communicate with each other, building an ever greater capacity to both assess and synthesize climate science into a more cohesive whole (Edwards, 2010).

How Must I Explain to the Dolphins?

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-404
Author(s):  
Yvette Abrahams ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Ethical Responsibility ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Traditional Manner

The story of change and growth, i.e., evolution, in the traditional manner, involves an epistemology of indigenous knowledge systems that admits both evolution and the divine—and therefore the human capacity for free choice—that tells us that fossil fuels are a bad choice. Steven Biko’s message of “Black Consciousness” responds to the dilemma of how we belong to the species that is damaging the planetary ecosystem, amd yet how we can deny complicity by saying that reclaiming our culture enables us to see what we have done, so we can refuse complicity with the system that has divided us and take responsibility for giving birth to new life. The uncertainties of climate change can be thought through using race, class, gender, sexual orientation, indigeneity, and disability as categories of analysis. The result is an understanding that through both climate science and lived experience, we can know enough to know we ought to act on climate change. We do not need more research; we need instead an acceptance of our ignorance amid a sense of ethical responsibility. This story speaks of liberation from oppression and of climate action as deeply entangled in

scholarly journals Australia’s 2020 summer shows our changed climate future - a public health preparedness challenge

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Hanna
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Planetary Systems ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Public Health Preparedness ◽  
The Public ◽  
Environmental Determinants Of Health ◽  
National Capital ◽  
Public Health Challenge

Abstract Background Humans have wandered this planet for hundreds of thousands of years, yet in the last 160 years we have dramatically disrupted planetary systems upon which we depend. Humanity has polluted the oceans, rivers, air and soils. Our persistent burning of fossil fuels to power opulent lifestyles is now perilously close to permanently disrupting global climatic systems. Problem It is clear. The problem is us. Australia's summer of horrors provides a terrifying glimpse into our collective future. This rich and exquisitely advantaged nation has voted for governments that have ignored fragile ecosystems, dismantled environmental protection laws, ignored climate science and expanded its fossil fuel exploration, extraction, consumption and exportation. It has systematically silenced science, ignored its duty of care to protect its present and future citizenry. Evidence The 2019-2020 summer brought unprecedented disasters to a country familiar with disasters. After the hottest and driest year on record came the world's largest bushfire, which started in winter, and burned uncontainable for 7 months across 5 states. Billions of animals perished, thousands of homes & businesses destroyed, 33 people burned alive. Continental-wide temperatures of 42oC. Smoke levels exceeded hazardous levels by a factor of 25, lingered 6weeks in the national capital, circumnavigated the southern hemisphere. 80% of Australians were affected by the fires in some way, and the nation fell into a deep grief. The public health challenge As the world faces new climate regimes, the associated health challenges are elevating to unheralded and unforeseen levels. Public health preparedness for past situations will inevitably fail. Events are no longer singular, short lived or readily managed. Today's events are multifaceted, expansive and protracted. Their sheer magnitude and scale prevent response activities, interrupt transport and supply chains and shut down power and communications. Key messages Unfettered human development has degraded planetary systems upon which humanity depends for survival and flourishing. Climate change is disrupting all our key environmental determinants of health. Environmental degradation and climate change now present a rapidly intensifying health emergency. Australia’s summer of disasters demonstrates we need an explosion of public health preparedness.

Relational agility: Visualizing near-real-time Arctic sea ice data as a proxy for climate change

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 802-820
Author(s):  
Mark Vardy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Us ◽  
Science And Politics

This ethnographic study at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) follows a group of scientists and communications specialists as they compose visualizations and analyses of near-real-time Arctic sea ice data. Research participants collectively make scientific judgments about near-real-time data in a highly visible public venue with ‘relational agility’. They balance multiple phenomena including knowledge of how sceptics attack climate science, reflexivity about the conventions through which sea ice data is gathered, the needs of journalists working in a news cycle paced by Twitter, and the liveliness and vitality of sea ice itself. Relational agility, understood as a way of coordinating the social in relation to this plurality of contingent practices and processes, provides insight into the science and politics of nonlinear climate change.

US Green New Deal will evolve piecemeal

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Presidential Nomination ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Lively Debate ◽  
Us Senate

Significance The GND calls for massive changes to the US economy, environment and social policy to make the country fully ‘green compliant’. The March 26 rejection of a GND resolution before the US Senate does not mean the idea is dead: many contenders for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination support the GND or GND-style ideas. While on the Republican side there is more scepticism, this only means that the GND will provide a lively debate down to 2020, and beyond. Impacts Republicans will espouse market-based climate change solutions, and promote more environmental deregulation and fossil fuels. Any pushes to make US industry greener, such as via automation, could alienate labour unions from Democrats. GND-style reforms would need continual follow-up investments, something harder for poorer states and municipalities. While this implies private-sector opportunities, equally, GND-style laws will likely face lawsuits and lawmaker-inserted caveats.

scholarly journals The evolution of the United States Climate Change Policies and missed leadership opportunities

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (198) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
María del Pilar Bueno Rubial
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
The Us ◽  
Political Approach ◽  
The Impact

The main objective of this work lies in exposing the evolution and the main features of the US climate policies expressed in its national, subnational, and foreign dimensions that are naturally interwoven. Thus, we assert some of the main features of traditional political approach to climate change include: an emphasis on costs and the impact of measures to address climate change in the American economy and its economic growth; the questioning of climate science as insufficient to justify the costs of the action; the questioning of the differentiation between developed and developing countries as a valid argument for the US to take the lead in international climate action; the resistance to assume mitigation commitments that collide with the principle of national sovereignty and fundamental freedoms inherited from the founding fathers and the related tension between the role of States and free market value. We also recognize that political ideology and partisanship continue to play a key role in climate change polices in the US. While political and economic denialism has not been able to immobilize subnational governmental and non-governmental climate initiatives, it has undermined the opportunity and the responsibility of the US to sustain leadership as international projection. This contribution follows a qualitative approach based on the analysis of climate change policies at different scales. It is based mainly on documentary and qualitative data analysis.

BP Global Energy Outlook 2030

2013 ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rühl
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Net Energy ◽  
Global Energy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Market Shares ◽  
The Us ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Oil Gas

This paper presents the highlights of the third annual edition of the BP Energy Outlook, which sets out BP’s view of the most likely developments in global energy markets to 2030, based on up-to-date analysis and taking into account developments of the past year. The Outlook’s overall expectation for growth in global energy demand is to be 36% higher in 2030 than in 2011 and almost all the growth coming from emerging economies. It also reflects shifting expectations of the pattern of supply, with unconventional sources — shale gas and tight oil together with heavy oil and biofuels — playing an increasingly important role and, in particular, transforming the energy balance of the US. While the fuel mix is evolving, fossil fuels will continue to be dominant. Oil, gas and coal are expected to converge on market shares of around 26—28% each by 2030, and non-fossil fuels — nuclear, hydro and renewables — on a share of around 6—7% each. By 2030, increasing production and moderating demand will result in the US being 99% self-sufficient in net energy. Meanwhile, with continuing steep economic growth, major emerging economies such as China and India will become increasingly reliant on energy imports. These shifts will have major impacts on trade balances.

Smart Cities and Smart Regulation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Rønne
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Smart Regulation

Increasing focus on sustainable societies and ‘smart cities’ due to emphasis on mitigation of climate change is simultaneous with ‘smart regulation’ reaching the forefront of the political agenda. Consequently, the energy sector and its regulation are undergoing significant innovation and change. Energy innovations include transition from fossil fuels to more renewable energy sources and application of new computer technology, interactively matching production with consumer demand. Smart cities are growing and projects are being initiated for development of urban areas and energy systems. Analysis from ‘Smart Cities Accelerator’, developed under the EU Interreg funding programme that includes Climate-KIC,——provides background for the focus on a smart energy system. Analysis ensures the energy supply systems support the integration of renewables with the need for new technologies and investments. ‘Smart’ is trendy, but when becoming ‘smart’ leads to motivation that is an important step towards mitigating climate change.

The Historiography of Environmental History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. McNeill
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the emergence of environmental history, which developed in the context of the environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but which has since evolved into a full-scale global crisis of climate change. Environmental history is ‘the history of the relationship between human societies and the rest of nature’. It includes three chief areas of inquiry: the study of material environmental history, political and policy-related environmental history, and a form of environmental history which concerns what humans have thought, believed, written, and more rarely, painted, sculpted, sung, or danced that deals with the relationship between society and nature. Since 1980, environmental history has come to flourish in many corners of the world, and scholars everywhere have found models, approaches, and perspectives rather different from those developed for the US context.

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