Rotation has long been a problem for humans seeking to understand the world. Who or what is rotating? Any sufficiently drunk person or dizzy child sees everything else revolving, yet they both remain static in relation to the world they fall to. A more sober...
Back Soon…
Final exams and babies have preoccupied us editors over the last few months. And a lot has happened in the climate world. We've not gone away. We will be back in a week or so. Please stay tuned.
Against Humanity
Juliette Jowit reports in the Guardian that a "British campaigner urges UN to accept 'ecocide' as international crime". "Ecocide" is defined as "The extensive destruction, damage to or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other...
Political prejudices dressed up as science
Published on Spiked-Online at http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/8508/ Despite the apparent central position of science in debates and policymaking around climate change, more often than not policy responses are tempered by politics first, and science second....
Rock… Paper… Scissors… Science
Regular readers of this blog will know that we’re been trying to develop the idea that a great deal of politics exists prior to the science in the argument for a political response to climate change. This was the basis of our criticism of studies such as the GHF’s and...
The Poverty of the Ambitious
According to the Observer today, Some of the planet's most powerful paymasters will gather in London on Wednesday to discuss a nagging financial problem: how to raise a trillion dollars for the developing world. Those charged with achieving this daunting goal will...
Don’t You Believe in Global Warming?
Venture a doubt about climate change politics or ethics, and you’ll likely be asked, “Don’t you believe in global warming?” If you express suspicion about the prominence and function served by alarm and catastrophe in arguments for political responses to climate...
Do You Want “Ethics” With That?
The desire that things be “ethical” has developed in the same era as climate change anxiety. Naturally, there is some convergence. Things which promise to lessen ‘environmental impact’ are considered ‘ethical’, and the implication is that things that aren’t clearly...
Climate Politics Will Eat Itself
The public opinion expert's opinion on the public's opinion of experts is that the public still have confidence in the experts. (H/t: Roger Pielke)
Trust and Science
One of the things that often emerge from the climate debate is the problem that few people have a sufficient grasp of any aspect of the climate issue to speak with any authority. As far as some are concerned, the fact that we are not climate scientists hangs over...