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

353 Pages·2013·2.551 MB·English
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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 Three substantive unpublished new essays have been specially written for the book, including one reflecting on the legacy of Climategate.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

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