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  • The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate
  • Maria Ivanova
Dessler, Andrew E., and Edward A. Parson . 2006. The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Climate change has generated unparalleled debate around the world and left many confused. Are apocalyptic events such as droughts, flooding, and species extinction really imminent or just Hollywood fiction? Are the economic and social costs of mitigation and adaptation going to bankrupt the world economy or save it? Or is it even reasonable to think that we could do anything to prevent climatic changes and save our species if nature has already dealt the cards?

In this context, Dessler and Parson set out to guide us through the various claims in the climate change debate sifting through the evidence, examining the facts, and dissecting the science and the policy process before outlining the available policy options. They provide perhaps the most comprehensive and comprehensible analysis of the debates around climate change. The book is likely to become a foundational text for students, scholars, policy-makers, and citizens seeking clarity on this topic. The authors are an atmospheric scientist and a law professor with extensive public policy experience, who effectively tackle the rough-and-tumble intersection of science and policy that has led to confusion and inaction.

The culture of science, the authors argue, is one of conservatism, with every statement couched in carefully constructed caveats. The pace of science is generally slow, with conclusions on important problems taking decades to reach. Since science focuses on the new, the controversial, and the interesting, disagreements appear rampant because there is regular discussion. Politics, on the other hand, is entirely different. It demands hard and immediate answers to the problems of the day. With persuasion more important than rational facts, scientific credibility is essentially irrelevant in policy, leaving the door open for misuse of science. The result is an unhappy marriage, with scientists feeling that their contributions have no impact, and policy-makers frustrated by the lack of definitive answers from scientists.

After a short introductory chapter to climate change, Chapter 2 begins by defining positive and normative statements. Positive claims ("The Earth is warming") are the domain of science, and the book explains how the scientific community determines whether to accept a positive claim or not. Normative [End Page 145] claims ("We should take action to stop the warming"), on the other hand, are not amenable to the methods of science. Rather, these value-based claims are resolved through political debate. The book describes the strong incentives for policy-makers to use and misuse science, as well as how scientific assessments have been successfully used to manage the science-policy interface.

The scientific evidence for climate change is presented in Chapter 3, which focuses on answers to the following questions: is the Earth warming (yes), are humans to blame (likely yes), what warming do we expect in the future (possibly severe), and what are the impacts on the environment (wide ranging and possibly disastrous)? The authors present evidence from the surface thermometer record, glacier record, sea level, sea ice, sub-surface ocean temperatures, satellite temperature measurements and climate proxies (tree rings, ice cores, corals, ocean sediments, boreholes, combined proxy climate record). They outline the areas of agreement in the scientific community and issues where our understanding is weak.

Potential impacts of climate change on human civilization are addressed in Chapter 4, which also describes the available policy options: adaptation, mitigation, and geoengineering. The discussion includes an important section about the factors that determine emissions—population, wealth, and technology—and the argument that technological development is the politically acceptable way to reduce emissions. The authors then address the cost of greenhouse gas emission reduction, one of the common criticisms of action. They compare the costs of mitigation and adaptation and attempt to develop a balance between the two when offering options for how to structure greenhouse gas reduction policies at both the national and international level. Along the way, they discuss the economics of climate change impacts, carbon taxes, and cap-and-trade systems.

The final chapter starts off with...

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