Introducing Geographical Perspectives Flashcards
How can you take a geographical perspective to climate change?
- Transcends science and social science boundaries
- Space, time and scale in understanding, framing and addressing
- Place and context matter in creating perspective and in assessment of impacts and implications -> CC is not same everywhere, for everyone
IPPCC definition of CC
“A change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. It refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.”
UN Framework Convention definition of CC
“A change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.”
What is the atmospheric commons?
- Non-excludable good
- Tragedy of the common
- Requires institutions beyond market and individual interest to avoid ‘mutual destruction’
What are the universal causes and effects of climate change?
- Sources of GHG emissions tied to systemic features of global economy and society
- Impacts of CC not tied to places/sources – extended over time and space
What is the problem of framing CC in terms of ‘averages’?
- Creates complexities
- How many category 5 hurricanes need to occur to classify these freak events as ‘normal’?
- Producing simple explanations from a complex system
What is the climate science consensus?
- 80 national scientific academies have endorsed views on human-induced climate change
- 113 nations have signed up to IPCC
- Three independent studies by Doran et al., Anderegg and Cook using three different methods all found 97% agreement amongst climate science
What is the debate between climate science and climate politics?
- “It’s a political debate being made to look like a scientific debate” – Oreskes
- Science denial often driven by social identity, social/political belonging or worldview
What makes knowledge controversial?
- Evidence as a critical form of knowledge - ‘truth’ claim
- Who poses right sort of knowledge to produce the evidence? (Jasanoff, 2013)
What is the merchants of doubt and who theorized it?
- Doubt as a product to compete with “body of fact” that exists in the mind of the general public
- Techniques employed by tobacco industry, coal/oil industries and PR firms
(Oreskes, 2010)
What is the serengeti strategy and who theorized it?
- Often climate deniers target individual scientists rather than take on entire scientific field at once
- Atmosphere of intimidation discourages other scientists from conveying their research implication to the public
- Goal is to attack researchers whose findings are ‘inconvenient’
(Mann, 2015)
What is the FLICC framework for climate denial and who theorized it?
- Fake Experts
- Logical Fallacies
- Impossible expectations
- Cherry Picking
- Conspiracy
Examples of Fake Expert within climate denial?
- Global Warming Petition Project - 3100 ‘scientists’ signing petition but only need an undergrad science degree to sign
- Magnified minority - 0.3% of all Americans with science degree in last 37 years and only 0.1% of these are climate scientists
Examples of Logical Fallacies in climate denial?
- Red Herring – CO2 is colourless gas so how can it have an influence…
- Jumping to conclusions
Examples of Impossible expectations in climate denial?
- Unrealistic standards of proof before action
- Fact that models do not produce perfect predictions but rather instead agree on broad patterns and trends
