scholarly journals Fluffy metaphors of an overheated debate: Why climate change is neither communicated nor understood as an existential threat?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bálint Forgács ◽  
Csaba Pléh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Specialized Knowledge ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cognitive Limitations ◽  
Metaphors In Science ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Prompt Action ◽  
Fuel Industry

Metaphors of climate change, as many other scientific metaphors, are often inaccurate, if not in their intended content but in their form and emotional valence. A literal ‘greenhouse’ is an eloquent construction designed to preserve heat, ‘warmth’ is an overall positive notion (as opposed to ‘overheating’). First, we are going to overview how metaphors are comprehended, from their neural processing to their use in communication in an attempt to describe their working. Next, we are going to explore how metaphors in science deliver messages and how they spread, focusing on two powerful metaphors: an identical replication theory (memetics), and a vision constant reformulation through viral spreading (epidemiology). The form-content distinction is particularly relevant to how scientific metaphors frame debates via their spreading: it is the form that is transmitted, but which are the analogous parts of the content that should be carried over? We then turn to the challenges of climate communication: the reasons for climate metaphors not fulfilling their purpose (e.g., due to the implications of their literal reading); the hostile environment the fossil fuel industry has created for climate scientists (e.g., disinformation and defamation campaigns); the strategies climate scientist could adapt as a community to inform the public and decision makers of the looming cataclysm (e.g., finding a unitary voice as a group with privileged access to specialized knowledge). Next, we are going to address the dire, literal consequences of climate destruction and present ideas on how metaphors and expressions could be improved to transmit a message appalling enough to prompt action. We conclude by an overview of cognitive limitations of everyday thinking and mechanisms of inferential communication to provide ideas for science communicators in persuading contemporaries. Scientists and science journalists should choose their metaphors particularly carefully regarding climate change, as minor misconceptions are leading mankind towards collective extinction.

scholarly journals Regulatory Chill in a Warming World: The Threat to Climate Policy Posed by Investor-State Dispute Settlement

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyla Tienhaara
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
The Public ◽  
International Obligations ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Warming World ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Investment Agreements ◽  
Trade And Investment

AbstractThe system of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) found in over 3,000 bilateral investment treaties and numerous regional trade agreements has been criticized for interfering with the rights of sovereign states to regulate investment in the public interest, for example, to protect the environment and public health. This article argues that while much of the public debate around ISDS has focused on a small number of cases that have arisen over the regulation of tobacco packaging, there is a far greater threat posed by the potential use of ISDS by the fossil fuel industry to stall action on climate change. It is hypothesized that fossil fuel corporations will emulate a tactic employed by the tobacco industry – that of using ISDS to induce cross-border regulatory chill: the delay in policy uptake in jurisdictions outside the jurisdiction in which the ISDS claim is brought. Importantly, fossil fuel corporations do not have to win any ISDS cases for this strategy to be effective; they only have to be willing to launch them. The article concludes with three options to reform trade and investment agreements to better align them with climate change mitigation efforts: (i) exclude ISDS provisions; (ii) prohibit fossil fuel industries from accessing ISDS; or (iii) carve out all government measures taken in pursuit of international obligations (for example, under the Paris Agreement on climate change) from challenge under ISDS.

The Challenge of Climate Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario J. Molina ◽  
Adolfo Plasencia
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nobel Prize Winner ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Ozone Layer ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Continuous Release ◽  
It Education ◽  
Industrial Compounds ◽  
And Training

In this conversation, Nobel Prize winner Mario J. Molina reflects on the ethical side of science. He explains how several decades ago, together with the scientist F. Sherwood Rowland, he predicted that human activity was endangering the ozone layer. They discovered the mechanisms which could bring about the destruction of the layer due to the continuous release of industrial compounds, such as the so-called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), into the atmosphere. Professor Molina relates how the issue with the ozone layer was the first example of a problem on a truly global scale for science and, as such, had to be tackled, because without the ozone layer, life on our planet would not have evolved as we know it. Education and training are proving a great help with how the present challenge of stopping or mitigating the daunting problem of global warming should be approached. In the dialogue, different courses of action for persuading both decision-makers and the public are proposed. It is however proving rather difficult to achieve and something which, according to Professor Molina, is also related to education.

scholarly journals Climate and wartalk: Metaphors, imagination, transformation

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rupinder Mangat ◽  
Simon Dalby
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
National Security ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
War Metaphor ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Change Problem

Fossil fuel divestment activists re-imagine how the war metaphor can be used in climate change action to transform thinking around what will lead to a sustainable society. Through the naming of a clear enemy and an end goal, the overused war metaphor is renewed. By casting the fossil fuel industry in the role of enemy, fossil fuel divestment activists move to a re-imagining of the climate change problem as one that is located in the here and now with known villains who must be challenged and defeated. In this scenario, climate activists move away from the climate and national security framing to a climate and human security way of thinking.

Climate Justice: Holding Governments and Business Accountable for the Climate Crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 197-201
Author(s):  
Kristin Casper
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
The World ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

People around the world are already experiencing the impacts of climate change, and their human rights are under threat. Greenpeace's Climate Justice and Liability Campaign is collaborating with a growing number of communities to reclaim their rights through strategic climate litigation. Three themes run throughout these efforts. First, the climate breakdown is a human rights crisis. Second, political and business leaders must take immediate action or risk being sued. Third, there is mounting evidence that the fossil fuel industry is significantly responsible for the climate crisis and will ultimately be held accountable. Before exploring these themes, it is useful to understand the origins of Greenpeace International's climate justice efforts.

Knowledge, ignorance and the popular culture: climate change versus the ozone hole

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheldon Ungar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
Ozone Hole ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Simultaneous Increase ◽  
Specialized Knowledge ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Motivations ◽  
Do So

This paper begins with the “knowledge-ignorance paradox”—the process by which the growth of specialized knowledge results in a simultaneous increase in ignorance. It then outlines the roles of personal and social motivations, institutional decisions, the public culture, and technology in establishing consensual guidelines for ignorance. The upshot is a sociological model of how the “knowledge society” militates against the acquisition of scientific knowledge. Given the assumption of widespread scientific illiteracy, the paper tries to show why the ozone hole was capable of engendering some public understanding and concern, while climate change failed to do so. The ozone threat encouraged the acquisition of knowledge because it was allied and resonated with easy-to-understand bridging metaphors derived from the popular culture. It also engendered a “hot crisis.” That is, it provided a sense of immediate and concrete risk with everyday relevance. Climate change fails at both of these criteria and remains in a public limbo.

A Climate Change Solution Does Exist

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
William John Montague ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Simple Technology ◽  
Fuel Industry

If anyone cares to stop the fossil fuel industry producing countries from destroying the ability of the Earth to support human life, now is the time to demand an alternative. Inaction on eliminating carbon emissions and plastic pollution have all but sealed the fate of our planet. These efforts should have been well underway more than twenty years ago. It is not too late if we act now. I have found a simple technology which can provide a viable solution. This means it is within the means of every nation on Earth to have and implement a simple ‘public domain’ technology.

scholarly journals Climate change and fossil fuel: An examination of risks for the energy industry and producer states

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Krane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Developed World

ABSTRACTThis article compiles and categorizes the various forms of climate risk facing the fossil fuel industry. The type and intensity of risk differs greatly among the three forms of fossil fuels, as well as between countries in the developing and developed world. The paper finds heightened risk for the coal industry and reduced risk for oil businesses, due to its lack of substitutes.Burning coal, oil, and natural gas is the source of two-thirds of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases. Sales of these fuels also represent the economic underpinning of resource-rich countries and the world’s largest firms. As such, steps taken to abate emissions undermine commercial opportunities to monetize fossil fuel reserves. Risks to the industry correlate with progress on climate goals.This article analyzes recent literature on climate action strategy and finds that a new or intensified set of risks has arisen for the fossil fuel industry. These include government policies and legislation, financial restrictions among lenders and insurers, hostile legal and shareholder actions, changes in demand and geopolitics, as well as the onset of new competitive forces among states and technologies.The exposure of carbon-based businesses to these risks and the potential for loss is neither distributed uniformly across the sector, nor adheres to a uniform time scale. Shareholder-owned firms in the developed world will be incentivized to react sooner than large state-owned resource owners in developing countries. The fates of the three fossil fuels also appear likely to play out differently. Demand for oil appears insulated by its lack of viable substitutes, while coal businesses are already undergoing climate-related action, pushed by decreasing social acceptance and constraining financial regulation. At the other end of the spectrum, climate action has improved the medium-term viability of low-carbon natural gas. What appears clear is that, as effects of climate change grow more pronounced, the industry faces a future that is less accepting of current practices.

scholarly journals Visualizing the Paris Climate Talks on Twitter: Media and Climate Stakeholder Visual Social Media During COP21

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630511878268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill E. Hopke ◽  
Luis E. Hestres
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
News Media ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Trade Association ◽  
Visual Framing ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Domestic Support

In 2015, meeting in Paris for the Conference of the Parties (COP21), representatives of 195 nations set an ambitious goal to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by mid-century. This research uses the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which took place in Paris during 30 November to 11 December 2015, as a case study of Twitter coverage of the talks by mainstream and alternative media outlets and other climate stakeholders, including activists and fossil fuel industry groups. It compares the British Guardian with other media and climate stakeholders’ visual framing of climate change on Twitter during COP21, because the publication had launched an advocacy campaign in March 2015 promoting fossil fuel divestment in the lead-up to COP21. Findings show that individual activists and movement organizations functioned similarly in climate change visual framing in Twitter posts, as did individual and organizational multinational representatives and scientific experts. The news media categories varied by type of news organization. The major outliers were the fossil fuel industry and trade association accounts. Industry stakeholders largely focused on former US President Barack Obama’s climate policy, promoting the perception of a lack of domestic support for his climate policies in their visual Twitter postings.

scholarly journals The Environment, A Bipartisan Issue?: Partisanship Polarization and Climate Change Policies in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-506
Author(s):  
Valentina Dotto ◽  
Anne Richardson Oakes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry

Abstract Responding to climate change presents significant challenges on both international and domestic fronts. The current U.S. federal government disclaims a connection between climate change, and human activity, and embraces an environmental program that includes withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Agreement at international level and retrenchment from regulation domestically. This Article comments on the rollback of Obama-era environmental regulations now taking place at federal level and locates these policies in the context of the domestic polarization and partisanship that now characterizes U.S. politics. It notes that environmental regulation divides the Republican and Democratic Parties but that the response of individual party members may be more nuanced, particularly amongst younger voters. The Article comments on state level initiatives to counteract the effects of climate change that have gathered bipartisan support but are now subject to partisan actions by the federal government designed to limit their effectiveness. The Article concludes with the observation that as the combination of an aging demographic and alignment with a declining fossil fuel industry shrinks the GOP traditional constituency, it is to be hoped that far-sighted politicians from both parties will embrace credibility on this issue as a key component of enhancing their own as well as the planet’s survival.

Notes from the Editors, June 2016

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
The Editors
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
District Court ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry

buy this issueOn April 8, 2016, in what has already become a historic case on the climate, Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the United States District Court of Oregon ruled against a motion to dismiss, in favor of the youthful plaintiffs in the Children's Trust lawsuit (Kelley Cascade Rose Juliana, et al. v. United States of America, et al.) and against the defendants, consisting of the federal government and the fossil-fuel industry. The twenty-one young people constituting the principal plaintiffs, ranging in age from 8 to 21, insist that the federal government has an obligation to protect the climate for the future on their behalf under the public trust doctrine, based on the fifth and ninth amendments to the U.S. Constitution. They claim, as stated in Coffin's ruling, that "government action and inaction…threatens catastrophic consequences".… The plaintiffs in the suit also include climatologist James Hansen, as a guardian for future generations.… The defendants' argument to dismiss was directed principally at what they contended were limits on the federal government's public trust responsibility. It thus turned on whether the United States was obligated simply to follow capitalist precepts with respect to the natural-physical environment, or whether the government had a public trust to maintain the environment for the population and for future generations, going beyond the rules of the market.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

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