Climate Crisis: Social Science Crisis

Lohmann, Larry

“Billions wasted on UN climate programme” (Vidal 2008). "European Union’s efforts to tackle climate change a failure” (Snow 2007). “Effort to curtail emissions in turmoil” (Ball 2008a). “(…) may slow the changes needed to cope with global warming” (Kanter 2007). “It isn’t working” (Vencat 2007). “Not effective” (Wheelan 2007). “A charade” (Wall Street Journal 2007). “Will such systems ever work?” (Kanter 2008). “Time to ditch Kyoto” (Prins/Rayner 2007). “Beware the carbon cowboys” (Harvey 2007).

This lecture emanates from reflection and synthesis of my past work which encompasses the history and functioning of global environmental governance and the interaction between the science of climate change and the social forces. It may be termed as a mid-term review of how accurate or how misguided I was in my analysis and predictions. Let me first briefly summarize my previous argument in order to put the matters in context.

and Keywords Understanding the complex set of processes collected under the heading of climate change represents a considerable scientific challenge. But it also raises important challenges for our best moral theories. For instance, in assessing the risks that climate change poses, we face profound questions about how we ought to weigh the respective harms it may inflict on current and on future generations, and on humans and other species. We face, in addition, difficult questions about how to act in conditions of uncertainty, in which at least some of the consequences of climate change – and of various human interventions to adapt to or mitigate it – are difficult to predict fully (Gardiner, 2006). Even if we agree that mitigating climate change is morally required, furthermore, there is room for disagreement about the precise extent to which it ought to be mitigated (insofar as there is room for underlying disagreement about the level of temperature rises which are morally permissible). Finally, once we determine which actions we ought to take to reduce or avoid climate change, we face the normative question of who ought to bear the costs of those actions, as well as the costs associated with any climate change which nevertheless comes to pass. The primary focus of this chapter will be upon this final issue. On the assumption that limiting climate change is morally required, our mitigation efforts are likely to prove costly for some if not all of us. Moreover, even if we mitigate now, some people will incur losses as a result of greenhouse gas emissions to date. We therefore require guidance on exactly how, from the point of view of justice, the associated burdens ought to be shared.

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Climate Crisis: Social Science Crisis (a chapter for Der Klimawandel: Sozialwissenschaftliche Perspektiven , VS-Verlag)

Climate Crisis: Social Science Crisis (a chapter for Der Klimawandel: Sozialwissenschaftliche Perspektiven , VS-Verlag)

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