Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity

Citation

Manolas, E. (2011), "Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity", International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Vol. 3 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijccsm.2011.41403bae.001

Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity

Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity

Article Type: Books and resources From: International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Volume 3, Issue 2

Mike HulmeCambridge University PressApril 2009432 pp.ISBN: 9780521727327£16.99

Mike Hulme’s Why We Disagree about Climate Change was published in April 2009. The book is written in an easy, conversational style without sacrificing the scientific part.

Why We Disagree about Climate Change consists of ten chapters. The first two chapters prepare the reader for what is going to follow. Chapter 1 – The Social Meanings of Climate – is about the various ways societies have constructed the idea of climate and about how changes in climate are linked to the rise and fall of civilizations. Chapter 2 – The Discovery of Climate Change – explores how we have come to believe that human actions have affected the physical properties of climate.

Chapters 3-9 discuss the idea of climate change from seven different viewpoints with each chapter providing reasons why we disagree about climate change. Chapter 3 – The Performance of Science – examines the changing nature of science and the importance of this regarding disagreements about the existence, causes and impact of human-induced climate change. Chapter 4 – The Endowment of Value – is about the economic side of climate change claiming that one of the reasons we disagree about climate change is because of our differences on how we value things. Chapter 5 – The Things We Believe – explores another reason of disagreement about climate change, the different things we believe about ourselves, the universe and our place in the universe. In Chapter 6 – The Things We Fear – the reason which is discussed is the different things we worry about, the construction of risk around climate change. Chapter 7 – The Communication of Risk – concentrates on how knowledge is communicated by the media and particularly on the different ways we interpret multiple and conflicting messages. Chapter 8 – The Challenges of Development – the reason discussed is the different ways we prioritize development goals. Chapter 9 – The Ways We Govern – examines the different ways governments and other actors such as nongovernmental organizations have approached the design and implementation of climate policy at local, national and international level.

Chapter 10 – Beyond Climate Change – transcends the categories and disagreements discussed earlier. In this final chapter, Hulme argues that climate change is not a problem which can be “solved” like the problem of ozone depletion (Hulme, 2009). He says that we need to deal with the climate problem in imaginative ways:

[…] we need to see how we can use the idea of climate change – the matrix of ecological functions, power relationships, cultural discourses and material flows that climate change reveals – to rethink how we take forward our political, social, economic and personal projects over the decades to come (Hulme, 2009).

Since its publication, the book has generally been well received. First of all, the book was listed by (The) Economist as one of the best books of 2009 ((The) Economist, 2009). The book has also received several commentaries and reviews the most notable of which are those by Boykoff (2009), Nordberg (2009), Mottershead (2009), Fox (2009), Livingstone (2009), Green (2010), DiMento (2010), Ilnyckyj (2010), Diepe (2010), Kitcher (2010), Knight (2010), Caseldine (2010), Boykoff (2010) and Yearley (2010). These commentaries and reviews either attempt to bring out the value of the book and the ways it differs from the already crowded literature on climate change or engage in constructive criticism suggesting ways in which parts of the book could be improved or recommend the book as a teaching resource for either undergraduate and graduate courses. In this review, I shall pick and work on one of the points mentioned above, the one referring to the teaching value of Hulme’s book. This choice is based on:

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  my personal interest in the teaching of climate change;

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  the positive comments put forward in some reviews of the book (Boykoff, 2009; Boykoff, 2010; DiMento, 2010) regarding the uses of the book for teaching purposes;

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  the fact that Hulme’s book is required or recommended reading in leading higher education institutions such as the University of British Columbia, University of Colorado and the London School of Economics; and

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  the selection and use of the book as a primary resource in a four-day workshop on how to teach climate change which took place in the summer of 2010 at Dickinson College (Sulon, 2010).

Given that the book was published in the spring of 2009 the above can only be counted as successes.

For teaching purposes Hulme’s book is indeed very useful. First of all, Hulme is setting a good example for students to follow by way of personal example. He recognizes his bias right from the start and he also lists and discusses in considerable detail the stages he has gone through as a climatologist until he decided to write the book. It is worth-noting that these stages cover a period of 30 years of involvement with the subject. Rarely do authors involve themselves in such personal discourse before they start their books. This effort shows open-mindedness, humility and courage. Irrespective of whether one would agree or disagree with the views he expresses in the book he is obliged to respect this personal side of his effort. His effort also positively and politely invites the reader to make it to the last page despite the length of the book. Simply, knowing yourself is the most important pre-requisite for writing a book and, in fact, a most important pre-requisite for any serious effort in life.

Hulme’s book is also a detailed account of why climate change is an interdisciplinary issue – a physical, economic, social, political and cultural phenomenon (Fox, 2009; Green, 2010). All these dimensions are taken equally seriously in the book. He shows that debates about climate change are really disagreements about ourselves – our beliefs, our assumptions and prejudices, our hopes, our aspirations, our identity, our ways of making individual and collective decisions. In other words, disputes about climate change are deeply rooted in all aspects of the human condition (Mottershead, 2009; Livingstone, 2009; Yearley, 2010). In that sense, some have even argued that Hulme’s work is not really a book about climate change but a book about human-environment relations in which climate change is used as a metaphor for the world ills (Knight, 2010).

Hulme’s book then encourages reflection and dialogue not only about the complexity of the issue but also about how we want to respond to the challenges it poses on us and on the planet we live in. Such reflection and dialogue can lead to several positive results. Such notable benefits have been identified by Posas (2007) and are of relevance:

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  in areas of disagreement unsupportable conclusions can be clearly identified;

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  compromises among alternatives can play a key role in the formulation of consensus (Brown, 2006);

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  when disagreements are not recognized or addressed properly, important issues are missed;

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  identifying what is really at stake prevents entanglement in side issues that fail to take into account what is at the heart of the problem;

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  disagreement forces values out into the open so they can be discussed and scrutinized; and

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  acknowledging and discussing harm or danger promotes responsibility, if only because of increased awareness due to consequences or impacts.

There are many ways to use Hulme’s book in teaching. One idea is to make use of the many questions contained in the book. Such questions can be used in all sorts of exercises, from small in-class exercises such as one-minute exercises to longer exercises and home assignments such as in-class debates and take-home essays. For example, the question “The Stern review: too radical or too conservative?” could be used as a topic for an in-class debate or as an essay topic. Although Hulme discusses the question, nevertheless, there is always room for updating the subject or even disagreeing with his arguments.

The book also contains cases, dilemmas, statistical data or excerpts from reports or other studies each of which can be used as stimulus for fruitful discussions or take-home assignments (Manolas and Leal Filho, 2004a, 2004b; Manolas et al., 2008; Manolas and Littledyke, 2010). Of course, the author discusses all of the above and sets questions to be asked and answered but all of these can also be updated with new questions and arguments from the current literature. Even entire chapters or segments of chapters can be compared and contrasted with other works such as academic papers from other authors. Of all the chapters in the book the last chapter is probably the most interesting one for such purposes. For instance, one of the sections in the last chapter titled Why climate change will never be solved, could be compared and contrasted with people arguing the opposite or with works which are more optimistic about that prospect.

How can Hulme’s book be improved for teaching purposes? The book already contains a lot of material, which can be used for teaching purposes. However, there is always room for improvement. For example, there is room for the inclusion of more visual material such as maps, graphs, photographs or even cartoons. Although the inclusion of such material will make the book longer that it is already, nevertheless, such an initiative will appeal to students with different learning styles and will give the interested teacher more ideas to use for in-class or out-of-class activities. Such material will also promote the idea of disagreement, the very idea upon which this book is based. Some visuals such as cartoons may be particularly useful for this purpose.

Evangelos ManolasDepartment of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, Orestiada, Greece

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Green, D. (2010), “Why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity”, available at: www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=2274 (accessed 17 January 2011)

Hulme, M. (2009), Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA

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Kitcher, P. (2010), “The climate change debates”, Science, Vol. 328 No. 5983, pp. 1230–4

Knight, J. (2010), “‘Climate-ology’, why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity”, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 176 No. 3, p. 267

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Manolas, E. and Leal Filho, W. (2004a), “The use of cartoons in environmental education: a case study of a learning approach”, Discursos, pp. 399–405, special issue

Manolas, E. and Leal Filho, W. (2004b), “Using cases to promote environmental issues in the training of future business leaders”, Environmental Awareness, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 61–6

Manolas, E. and Littledyke, M. (2010), “The use of excerpts in environmental education: the principles of deep ecology”, Economic and Environmental Studies, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 49–57

Manolas, E., Leal Filho, W., Tampakis, S. and Karanikola, P. (2008), “Who should bear the cost of environmental protection? The use of survey results in environmental education”, Scientific Annals of the Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Vol. 1, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, pp. 471–80

Mottershead, C. (2009), “Why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity”, available at: www.amazon.com/Disagree-About-Climate-Change-Understanding/dp/0521727324 (accessed 14 December 2010)

Nordberg, D. (2009), “Disagreeing about the climate: a book review”, Working Papers in Business and Sustainability, June, available at: http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=donald_nordberg&sei-redir=1#search=“Nordberg, + D.+2009+Disagreeing+about+the+climate:+A+book+review (accessed 14 December 2010)

Posas, P.J. (2007), “Roles of religion and ethics in addressing climate change”, Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, Vol. 7, pp. 31–49

Sulon, B. (2010), “Dickinson hosts workshop for faculty learning how to teach the climate story”, available at: www.dickinson.edu/news-and-events/news/2010-11/Climate-Change/ (accessed 22 December 2010)

Yearley, S. (2010), “Why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity”, The Times Higher Education, 4 March, available at: www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=410661&sectioncode=26 (accessed 14 December 2010)