When climate science became climate politics: British media representations of climate change in 1988

Climate politics presents difficulties for study given its interdisciplinary nature and the scientific complexities involved in climate change. Climate change politics had got its start in the mid- to late 1980s, as climate science became more and more accessible to policy makers and the general public. Yet prior to 2008, climate politics was only touched upon in major publications on international relations, with the exception of policy journals. Climate change was frequently referenced in articles on a range of topics, but it was not the primary focus of analysis. The recent years have seen an explosion in literature focusing on the topic, however. The potential for massive economic, political, and ecological dislocation from the consequences of climate change as well as from the potential policies to address the problem have since resulted in an extensive literature, with scholars addressing aspects of climate politics from every paradigm within international relations, as well as drawing on research in numerous other related disciplines. In addition, efforts to address the consequences of climate change have evoked controversial ethical and distributive justice questions that have produced an important normative literature. Overall, the literature on climate politics centers on two issues: how we can explain the international political response to climate change, as well as how the international community should respond to climate change.

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Covering Copenhagen: Climate Politics in B.C. Media

Canadian Journal of Communication ◽

10.22230/cjc.2011v36n3a2367 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Shane Gunster

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Media Coverage ◽

Climate Science ◽

The Political ◽

Changement Climatique ◽

Climate Politics ◽

Ownership Structures ◽

Wide Range ◽

Political Dimensions ◽

Analyse De Discours

ABSTRACT In December 2009, considerable media attention was devoted to climate change as global leaders gathered in Copenhagen for a two-week summit to negotiate an extension to the Kyoto Protocol. This article conducts a discourse and content analysis of how regional media in British Columbia covered the event, with a particular focus on how climate politics was framed. A wide range of sources encompassing different media and different ownership structures was analyzed. Debates about climate science played very little role in media coverage. Conversely, focus on the summit ensured that the political dimensions of climate change played a central role. Climate politics, however, was framed in very different ways by mainstream and alternative media.RÉSUMÉ En décembre 2009, on porta une attention médiatique considérable sur le changement climatique lorsque des dirigeants mondiaux se sont rassemblés à Copenhague pour un sommet de deux semaines afin de négocier une extension du protocole de Kyoto. Cet article effectue une analyse de discours et de contenu sur la manière dont des médias régionaux en Colombie-Britannique ont couvert l’événement, en portant une attention particulière à la manière dont on présenta les politiques sur le climat. Nous avons analysé un vaste éventail de sources comprenant des médias et des structures de propriété différents. Les débats sur la science du climat ont joué un rôle étonnamment restreint dans la couverture médiatique. En revanche, l’attention portée au sommet était telle que les aspects politiques du changement climatique y ont joué un rôle central. Les médias dominants, cependant, ont présenté les politiques sur le climat très différemment par rapport aux médias alternatifs.

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Origins and Theory of Climate Change Politics

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.564 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Loren R. Cass

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

International Relations ◽

Political Action ◽

Physical Phenomenon ◽

Climate Science ◽

Time Frame ◽

Extensive Literature ◽

High Stakes ◽

Climate Politics ◽

Climate Change Politics

Climate change politics refers to attempts to define climate change as a physical phenomenon as well as to delineate and predict current and future effects on the environment and broader implications for human affairs as a foundation for political action. Defining the causes, scale, time frame, and consequences of climate change is critical to determining the political response. Given the high stakes involved in both the consequences of climate change and the distributive implications of policies to address it, climate change politics has been and remains highly contentious both within and across countries. Climate politics presents difficulties for study given its interdisciplinary nature and the scientific complexities involved in climate change. Climate change politics emerged in the mid- to late 1980s, as climate science became more accessible to policymakers and the public. However, scholarship on international climate politics was relatively slow to develop. Prior to 2008, major publications on international relations (except for policy journals) only lightly touched upon climate politics. Climate change was frequently referenced in articles on a range of topics, but it was not the primary focus of analysis. Since 2008 there has been a dramatic increase in literature focusing on climate change. The possibility of massive economic, political, and ecological dislocation from the consequences of climate change as well as from policies to address the problem have resulted in an extensive literature. Scholars have addressed aspects of climate politics from every paradigm within international relations, as well as drawing on research from numerous related disciplines. The international relations theories that shaped the scholarship on climate politics provide the foundation for understanding the ongoing normative debates surrounding domestic and international policies to address climate change.

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An Attack on the Separation of Powers? Strategic Climate Litigation in the Eyes of U.S. Judges

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13158335 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (15) ◽

pp. 8335

Author(s):

Jasmina Nedevska

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Climate Change ◽

United States ◽

Separation Of Powers ◽

The United States ◽

Checks And Balances ◽

Climate Politics ◽

The Social ◽

Domestic Courts ◽

Research Plan

Climate change litigation has emerged as a powerful tool as societies steer towards sustainable development. Although the litigation mainly takes place in domestic courts, the implications can be seen as global as specific climate rulings influence courts across national borders. However, while the phenomenon of judicialization is well-known in the social sciences, relatively few have studied issues of legitimacy that arise as climate politics move into courts. A comparatively large part of climate cases have appeared in the United States. This article presents a research plan for a study of judges’ opinions and dissents in the United States, regarding the justiciability of strategic climate cases. The purpose is to empirically study how judges navigate a perceived normative conflict—between the litigation and an overarching ideal of separation of powers—in a system marked by checks and balances.

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Science communication and mediatised environmental conflict: A cautionary tale

Public Understanding of Science ◽

10.1177/0963662520985134 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 096366252098513

Author(s):

Claire Konkes ◽

Kerrie Foxwell-Norton

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Political Communication ◽

Science Communication ◽

Climate Science ◽

Environmental Conflict ◽

Cautionary Tale ◽

James Cook ◽

Social Sphere ◽

Tenured Position

When Australian physicist, Peter Ridd, lost his tenured position with James Cook University, he was called a ‘whistleblower’, ‘contrarian academic’ and ‘hero of climate science denial’. In this article, we examine the events surrounding his dismissal to better understand the role of science communication in organised climate change scepticism. We discuss the sophistry of his complaint to locate where and through what processes science communication becomes political communication. We argue that the prominence of scientists and scientific knowledge in debates about climate change locates science, as a social sphere or fifth pillar in Hutchins and Lester’s theory of mediatised environmental conflict. In doing so, we provide a model to better understand how science communication can be deployed during politicised debates.

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Media representations of climate change risk to ski tourism: a barrier to climate action?

Current Issues in Tourism ◽

10.1080/13683500.2020.1722077 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Natalie L. B. Knowles ◽

Daniel Scott

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Media Representations ◽

Climate Change Risk ◽

Climate Action

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Estimating economic damage from climate change in the United States

Science ◽

10.1126/science.aal4369 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 356 (6345) ◽

pp. 1362-1369 ◽

Cited By ~ 258

Author(s):

Solomon Hsiang ◽

Robert Kopp ◽

Amir Jina ◽

James Rising ◽

Michael Delgado ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

United States ◽

Climate Science ◽

The United States ◽

Process Models ◽

Economic Damage ◽

Global Mean Temperature ◽

Flexible Architecture ◽

Econometric Analyses ◽

Business As Usual

Estimates of climate change damage are central to the design of climate policies. Here, we develop a flexible architecture for computing damages that integrates climate science, econometric analyses, and process models. We use this approach to construct spatially explicit, probabilistic, and empirically derived estimates of economic damage in the United States from climate change. The combined value of market and nonmarket damage across analyzed sectors—agriculture, crime, coastal storms, energy, human mortality, and labor—increases quadratically in global mean temperature, costing roughly 1.2% of gross domestic product per +1°C on average. Importantly, risk is distributed unequally across locations, generating a large transfer of value northward and westward that increases economic inequality. By the late 21st century, the poorest third of counties are projected to experience damages between 2 and 20% of county income (90% chance) under business-as-usual emissions (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5).

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Alan Betts: Green Energy Times, 2018

10.31219/osf.io/bd462 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Alan Betts

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Energy Policy ◽

Climate Science ◽

Green Energy ◽

Collective Decision ◽

The Public ◽

Systems Perspective ◽

Climate Change Denial ◽

The Earth ◽

The Future

This is a collection of my 2018 articles in the Green Energy Times (http://www.greenenergytimes.org/ ).This series started in 2016. Many of these articles have been edited or updated from articles I wrote forthe Rutland Herald, sometimes with different titles and pictures.They blend science and opinion with a systems perspective, and encourage the reader to explorealternative and hopeful paths for their families and society. They are written so that a scientist willperceive them as accurate (although simplified); while the public can relate their tangible experience ofweather and climate to the much less tangible issues of climate change, energy policy and strategies forliving sustainably with the earth system.The politically motivated attacks on climate science by the current president have sharpened my politicalcommentary this year; since climate change denial may bring immense suffering to our children and lifeon Earth.I believe that earth scientists have a responsibility to communicate clearly and directly to the public1 –aswe all share responsibility for the future of the Earth. We must deepen our collective understanding, sowe can make a collective decision to build a resilient future.

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Climate Change, Uncertainty and Policy

10.20944/preprints202108.0284.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jeroen Hopster

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Science ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Deep Uncertainty ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Moral Uncertainty ◽

Climate Economics ◽

Climate Change Uncertainty ◽

Management Perspective ◽

Climate Uncertainty

While the foundations of climate science and ethics are well established, fine-grained climate predictions, as well as policy-decisions, are beset with uncertainties. This chapter maps climate uncertainties and classifies them as to their ground, extent and location. A typology of uncertainty is presented, centered along the axes of scientific and moral uncertainty. This typology is illustrated with paradigmatic examples of uncertainty in climate science, climate ethics and climate economics. Subsequently, the chapter discusses the IPCC’s preferred way of representing uncertainties and evaluates its strengths and weaknesses from a risk management perspective. Three general strategies for decision-makers to cope with climate uncertainty are outlined, the usefulness of which largely depends on whether or not decision-makers find themselves in a context of deep uncertainty. The chapter concludes by offering two recommendations to ease the work of policymakers, faced with the various uncertainties engrained in climate discourse.

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Community Forests Prepare for Climate Change

Eos ◽

10.1029/2021eo154456 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 102 ◽

Author(s):

Courtney Peterson ◽

Leslie Brandt ◽

Emile Elias ◽

Sarah Hurteau

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

United States ◽

Climate Science ◽

The United States ◽

Tree Planting ◽

Community Forests ◽

Urban Tree

Cities across the United States are feeling the heat as they struggle to integrate climate science into on-the-ground decisionmaking regarding urban tree planting and management.

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