Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy (review)

Before reading further in this review, pause for a minute and ask yourself: “Why do we disagree about climate change?” Chances are whatever answer you give will be treated in this comprehensive view of the phenomenon. Mike Hulme (a professor of climate change at the University of East Anglia and founding director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research) presents climate change as an idea as much as a physical phenomenon that can be seen, quantified and measured.

After an exhaustive coverage of various perspectives on climate change Hulme concludes that we “should use climate change both as a magnifying glass and as a mirror” (p. 362). Since much of what we think about climate change is socially constructed and political, we should decide on the basis of our values on how to act in the face of differentially perceived and valued physical phenomenon. But just as the topic of climate change is like a Rorschach test, so is this book: climate change deniers go to Hulme’s web page for support, but people with many different orientations will find inspiration in this book, including those who will continue to work for mitigation of climate change and adaptation to its consequences.

On the phenomenon of climate change itself, Hulme reads the Rorschach this way: risks posed by the physical attributes of climate change are real and problematic, and require a human response. Physical functions of climate are changing as a result of human activities. The changes are important and serious. We should minimize risk by reducing vulnerability. But Hulme does not believe that the way these goals have been framed—through the Kyoto Protocol process—is the only way these issues should be addressed.

This is an important book. How it is used will depend on the reader. For those who have backgrounds in environmental and social policy, reading of the summaries will suffice. But for those, including educators, who wish to use the climate change example to teach a wide range of concepts and perspectives on social and environmental policy and decision-making, slicing the book into small pieces to be covered over a lengthy period, the complete book can be useful. Many now generally-accepted principles of policy analysis can be observed through the lens of climate change; how we frame, narrate, picture and interpret an environmental phenomenon is quite variable. Ideas on sound governance take different forms, from market-based to centrally regulated conceptions. The generalizability of strategies (such as those to address ozone depletion) should be seriously questioned, depending on the nature of the particular environmental condition addressed. Science has an important place in environmental decision-making but it is only one of many factors that need to be considered.

Hulme addresses his topic with an impressive command of many literatures, although one might point to important perspectives in American work not given adequate treatment: Oreskes on the history of scientific consensus in the field,¹ Matthew on the depth of the vulnerabilities of certain regions,² and Revkin on the communication of the science and on journalists’ artificial creation of a sense of balance.³ The British focus also leads to the use of British examples that may not be accessible to audiences elsewhere and that suggest a lack of focus on those populations most vulnerable to climate change.

This book is at times a sermon, in places an introductory lecture in policy analysis, and in parts a description by a scientist of areas in which he has considerable expertise. It will provoke, and in places irritate. In can be skimmed for its general points or used to address major issues in science and society including in the larger debate about the compatibility of science and religious belief, and will introduce unfamiliar information (for instance, that the Chinese National Climate Programme claims credit for the avoidance of carbon dioxide emissions by the avoided births from its population policies). Everyone will find something to discuss in this book. [End...