A brief history of usable climate science

Coen, Deborah R.

doi:10.1007/s10584-021-03181-2

Cited by 25 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Yet this is only part of the problem. Along with the criticism of probabilistic and generalized approaches to knowledge production discussed in the Introduction, there has been a growing criticism of the implicit assumption that the impediment to action is insufficient knowledge, and a recognition that what is needed is a better relationship between scientists and publics (Cook and Overpeck 2019;Coen 2021). For example, a new portal for community science (including a journal that will publish case studies) has recently been launched (Fiser et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The gap is apparent in the disconnect between the existential nature of the dangers posed by climate change for human and natural systems (which, without action, will keep getting worse; there is no known self-limiting mechanism) and the general inadequacy of actions being taken both to mitigate the severity of climate change and to adapt to its consequences. There has long been a call for 'useable' (or sometimes 'actionable') climate science in order to overcome the gap (Lubchenco 1998;Meinke et al 2006; see Coen 2021, this issue, for some historical perspective), yet the gap remains. From the climate science perspective, useable climate science is usually interpreted as quantitative, typically as a best estimate with quantified, probabilistic uncertainties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Meaningful climate science

Shepherd

Lloyd

2021

Climatic Change

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Within the climate science community, useable climate science has been understood as quantitative, usually as a best estimate together with a quantified uncertainty. Physical scientists are trained to produce numbers and to draw general, abstract conclusions. In general, however, people relate much better to stories and to events they have experienced, which are inevitably contingent and particular. Sheila Jasanoff has argued elsewhere that the process of abstraction in climate science “detaches knowledge from meaning”. Perhaps useable climate science is, then, meaningful climate science. We argue here that the development of meaningful climate science can be achieved by adopting a storyline approach to climate variability and change. By ‘storyline’ we mean a physically self-consistent unfolding of past events or of plausible future events or pathways. Storylines represent a combination of qualitative and quantitative information, where the qualitative element represents a packaging or contextualization of the quantitative aspects, which ensures that data can be meaningfully interpreted. Viewed from this perspective, we show that physical climate storylines can be aligned with several well-established vehicles for translation of knowledge between diverse communities: narratives, boundary objects, and data journeys. They can therefore be used as a ‘pidgin language’ to enrich the set of tools available to climate scientists to bring meaning to climate knowledge. “And what is the use of a book”, thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?” (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meaningful climate science

Shepherd

Lloyd

2021

Climatic Change

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“…42 Delving into the history of the economic and environmental reveals that politically embedded science is hardly a new phenomenon. 43 Cointe and Cassen survey a range of forecasting studies in the last three decades of the twentieth century, with each one representing a different set of political commitments. Scientists and scholars have a long history of engaging in movements and in public arenas.…”

Section: Historicising a Way Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

European Histories of the Economic and Environmental: Introduction

Nordblad

Vettese²

2022

Contemporary European History

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Five decades after the United Nation's first conference on the environment in 1972, the IPCC warned that ‘any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all’. Faced with steeply rising greenhouse gas emissions, accelerating biodiversity loss and continued degradation of oceans, forests and soil, the situation appears increasingly baffling. Why do we not see effective measures to turn these developments around? As the situation grows dire, it becomes more mysterious: what exactly is this crisis and why has it proven so difficult to solve? If the problem persists, is it because it is not properly understood? Yet, the environmental question has been studied for decades and diagnoses are legion: capitalism, colonialism, overpopulation, economic growth, humanity's inherent short-sightedness, patriarchy, the private property system – or the tragedy of the commons, the disconnect from nature in Western culture, corporate anti-environmental campaigns, the Neolithic adoption of agriculture – or its more recent industrialisation, the miscommunication of environmentalists and scientists, Christianity and neoliberalism have all been proposed as fundamental causes of the crisis. Despite this long and rich history of debate, it may be, as Pierre Charbonnier argues, that we need a more precise understanding of the ‘ecological question’ to find a way out of the present impasse. In line with Katrina Forrester and Sophie Smith's argument, we are convinced that such rethinking of the environmental must be historical, but also that it must pay special attention to economic aspects. Since the end of the Second World War, economics has risen to prominence as a form of expertise in governance at the expense of other kinds of knowledge, and the environment has become closely intertwined with the economic in the ways it has been governed. In that light, it is not surprising that current discussions among scholars, climate scientists, politicians and social movements hold that the environmental crisis calls for a reevaluation of the economic. History is central to this endeavour and can be ‘usable’ in the current crisis, as it, in Deborah Coen's words, can ‘reveal the contingent and often contradictory traces of the past in the present – and to provide clarity for the future’. In this introduction we discuss three partially overlapping ways in which historical perspectives can be helpful to the effort of constructing an ecologically stable society. In contrast to the general tendency in the twenty-first century academy to divide into ever more specialised fields, we call for a broader conversation among historians of the economic and of the environmental to reveal the paths that brought us here – and the ones not taken. We need new histories of thought, institutions, movements and governance that combine the economic and the environmental to reach a better understanding of the present crisis, decode the specific mechanisms of inaction in the face of looming catastrophe, and strive towards more apt formulations of the environmental. We wish to contribute to an emerging conversation located at the intersection of history of economic thought, intellectual history and political history more generally by pointing to strands of research that could be drawn together and that this special issue is meant to engage in dialogue.

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“…Human processes are the single largest driver of uncertainty in the future Earth system, encompassing everything from global emissions pathways to the farmers' decisions that impact future algal blooms. However, most Earth systems research is not designed to estimate humanscale consequences (Coen 2021). Research at human-centric scales is critical for performing, understanding, and executing actionable climate research because we know that the consequences of climate hazards spread far beyond direct geographic impact via economic and infrastructural connections (Figure 9-1; Shughrue, Werner, and Seto 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%