Exploring Climate Change through Science and in Society: An anthology of Mike Hulme's essays, interviews and speeches

353 Pages·2013·2.551 MB·English

by  Mike Hulme, Matthew Nisbet

Exploring Climate Change through
Science and in Society
Mike Hulme has been studying climate change for over thirty years and is today
one of the most distinctive and recognisable voices speaking internationally
about climate change in the academy, in public and in the media. The argument
that he has made powerfully over the last few years is that climate change has to
be understood as much as an idea situated in different cultural contexts as it is as
a physical phenomenon to be studied through universal scientific practices.
Climate change at its core embraces both science and society, both knowledge
and culture.
Hulme’s numerous academic and popular writings have explored what this
perspective means for the different ways climate change is studied, narrated,
argued over and acted upon. Exploring Climate Change through Science and in
Society gathers together for the first time a collection of his most popular,
prominent and controversial articles, essays, speeches, interviews and reviews
dating back to the late 1980s. The fifty-five short items are grouped together in
seven themes – Science, Researching, Culture, Policy, Communicating,
Controversy, Futures – and within each theme are arranged chronologically to
reveal changing ideas, evidence and perspectives about climate change. Each
themed section is preceded with a brief introduction, drawing out the main issues
examined. Three substantive unpublished new essays have been specially written
for the book, including one reflecting on the legacy of Climategate.
Taken as a collection, these writings reveal the changes in scientific and public
understandings of climate change since the late 1980s, as refracted through the
mind and expression of one leading academic and public commentator. The
collection shows the many different ways in which it is necessary to approach the
idea of climate change to interpret and make sense of the divergent and discordant
voices proclaiming it in the public sphere.
Mike Hulme is Professor of Climate and Culture at King’s College, London, UK,
having previously worked for 25 years at the University of East Anglia, UK. He
established the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and was its Founding
Director from 2000–2007.
‘I doubt that anyone on Earth can match Mike Hulme’s deep understanding of
both the scientific and social aspects of climate change. Yet of course what really
matters, and what is so clearly on display in this volume, is the way he combines,
with a sensibility that is at once rigorous and enormously generous, these two
knowledge domains to provide insight and, indeed, wisdom into the true and
many meanings of climate change.’
Dan Sarewitz, Arizona State University, USA
‘Climate change was first an issue of climate science.  But climate change is now
mostly a political process, which needs recognition of its diverse cultural
dimensions.  Mike Hulme allows us to follow this development by presenting
himself as an involved person, who has learned that climate change is not a
matter of preaching the truth but of us deciding how we want to live.’
Hans von Storch, Director of Institute for Coastal Research,
Geesthacht, Germany
‘Mike Hulme is reflective, scientifically precise and dispassionate. This engaging
collection traces the 25-year trajectory of the writings of a fine public intellectual,
as science and society become deeply entwined from climate science in the
greenhouse summer of 1988 through to the era of the Anthropocene.’
Libby Robin, Australian National University, Australia and KTH
Environmental Humanities Laboratory, Sweden
‘This is a fascinating collection of articles, providing a unique window on the
inside world of climate change. Mike Hulme has done it all - the research, the
institutions, the reflection, and the public speeches. Through his eyes, the co-
evolution of climate change science and society unfolds, as it moved from the
20th Century into the 21st.’
Corinne Le Quere, Director, Tyndall Centre for
Climate Change Research, UK
‘Mike Hulme’s work is especially valuable because it crosses disciplines; in no field
can this intellectual broadness be more essential than in the complex and bitterly
contested field of climate change. His background as a physical scientist gives
special weight to his insights on climate change as an evolving cultural narrative.
Anyone with an interest in climate should read this book, and read it with a mind
as open as Hulme’s has always been.’
Mark Lynas, environmentalist and author, UK
‘Here is a climatologist who has come to know that his discipline provides woefully
poor impetus for political action. Whatever the prospects of averting the worst
impacts of climate change, Mike Hulme is right: any proportional response must
flow from deep reflection on who we are as humans, and what shapes us thus.’
Tom Crompton, Change Strategist, WWF-UK
Exploring Climate Change
through Science and in Society
An anthology of Mike Hulme’s essays,
interviews and speeches
Mike Hulme
With a foreword by Matthew C. Nisbet
First published 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2013 Mike Hulme
The right of Mike Hulme to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
The author and publishers have endeavoured to obtain permission for the
use of all material included in the book within reasonable limitation.
Any issues please contact the publisher.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hulme, Mike, 1960-
[Works. Selections]
Exploring climate change through science and in society : an anthology
of Mike Hulme’s essays, interviews and speeches / Mike Hulme.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Climatic changes. 2. Climatic changes--Social aspects.
3. Environmental economics. I. Title.
QC903.H85 2013
363.738’74--dc23
2013003206
ISBN13: 978-0-415-81162-0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-81163-7 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-07007-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy by
Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Contents
List of illustrations ix
Foreword by Matthew C. Nisbet x
Preface and acknowledgements xiii
Articles by chronology xvii
Articles by category xix
SECtion onE
the public life of climate change: the first twenty-five years 1
SECtion two
Science 13
Introduction 15
1 Sahel awaits the rain (1988) 19
2 Sea heat fuels hurricanes (1988) 20
3 Cold facts about winters (1988) 21
4 Nuclear autumn danger (1988) 22
5 Generalists in hot pursuit (1989) 24
6 Global warming in the twenty-first century: an issue for
Less Developed Countries (1990) 26
7 How good is technology’s weather eye? 34
8 Introducing climate change (with Elaine Barrow) (1997) 37
9 Climate of uncertainty (1999) 42
10 There is no longer such a thing as a purely natural weather
event (2000) 45
vi Contents
11 Something to clear the air (2006) 47
12 To what climate are we adapting? (2008) 51
13 Do we need better predictions to adapt to a changing
climate? (with co-authors) (2009) 54
14 On the origin of the greenhouse effect: John Tyndall’s
1859 interrogation of Nature (2009) 58
SECtion tHrEE
researching 65
Introduction 66
15 Launching the Tyndall Centre (2000) 69
16 The Tyndall Centre, inter-disciplinary research and
funding (2005) 72
17 The appliance of science (2007) 85
18 Geographical work at the boundaries of climate change
(2007) 89
19 Mapping climate change knowledge (2010) 98
20 Meet the humanities (2011) 106
SECtion Four
Culture 111
Introduction 112
21 Rainbows in the greenhouse (1990) 115
22 On John Constable’s Cloud Study (2007) 122
23 Climate security: the new determinism (2007) 124
24 A cultural history of climate (2010) 128
25 Learning to live with re-created climates (2010) 134
26 A town called Bygdaby (2011) 139
Contents vii
SECtion FivE
Policy 143
Introduction 145
27 Whistling in the dark (with Martin Parry) (1997) 149
28 Choice is all (2000) 151
29 Pie in the sky tops this G8’s wish list (2005) 154
30 A non-skeptical heresy: taking the science out of climate
change (2007) 158
31 The limits of the Stern Review for climate change
policy-making (2007) 163
32 Setting goals for global climate governance (2007) 166
33 Climate refugees: cause for a new agreement? (2008) 170
34 Moving beyond climate change (2010) 174
35 Climate intervention schemes could be undone by
geopolitics (2010) 182
36 On the ‘two degrees’ climate policy target (2012) 187
SECtion Six
Communicating 191
Introduction 192
37 Chaotic world of climate truth (2006) 195
38 Less heat, more light, please (2008) 198
39 What was the Copenhagen climate change conference
really about? (2009) 200
40 Climate change: no Eden, no apocalypse (2009) 204
41 Heated debate (2010) 207
42 You’ve been framed (2011) 210
viii Contents
SECtion SEvEn
Controversy 213
Introduction 215
43 Top British boffin: time to ditch the climate consensus
(2009) 219
44 ‘Show your working’: what Climategate means
(with Jerry Ravetz) (2009) 223
45 The science and politics of climate change (2009) 227
46 A changing climate for the IPCC (2010) 230
47 Climategate, scientific controversy and the politics of
climate change (2010) 233
48 The IPCC on trial: experimentation continues (2010) 245
49 The year climate science was redefined (2010) 249
50 After Climategate … never the same (2013) 252
SECtion EigHt
Futures 265
Introduction 266
51 Forty ways to change a world climate (2001) 269
52 Save the world without being an eco-bore (2004) 272
53 Climate change: from issue to magnifier (2007) 275
54 Amid the financial storm: re-directing climate change
(2008) 279
55 A bleak analysis (2010) 283
SECtion ninE
reactions to Why We Disagree About Climate Change 287
Bibliography 299
Index 310
List of illustrations
Figures
1 ‘Mushrooms: the heralds of autumn’ 22
2 The certificate of the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 275
tables
1 Change in average summer temperature and precipitation –
for the world and for the UK – for a doubling of carbon dioxide
concentration, obtained from five different global climate
models 25
2 Historical changes (c.1890–1990) in global-mean surface
temperature, terrestrial precipitation and global-mean sea-level.
Hemispheric contrasts are provided for temperature and
precipitation. Precipitation units are relative 27