Review Essay: 'Behind the curve: Science and the politics of global warming' by J P Howe (original) (raw)

2014, Climatic Change DOI 10.1007/s10584-014-1237-6

Climate change forever: the future of an idea

Scottish Geographical Journal, 2020

The idea of a changing climate has been present in most cultural formations throughout recorded history, and yet the latter decades of the twentieth century animated the idea of climate change is new and powerful ways. This essay reflects on the possible future of this idea, comparing approaches to climate change that frame it either as an engineering problem, a new locus of politics or as a human predicament. The idea of climate change seems unlikely to go away – notwithstanding the success or otherwise of polices designed to stabilise the climate. It therefore warrants considered reflection on the possible ways in which this idea accompanies and guides future human development.

Climate Politics: Science and Global Governance (syllabus)

Syllabus. This graduate-level seminar provides a unique perspective on contemporary debates about climate change through a study of their long history. After some background about climate science and a look at how scientists and politicians thought about climate in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, the main body of the course explores the co-evolution of climate science, politics, and global governance since World War II. A series of political issues and debates established the reality of human effects on the global atmosphere: nuclear fallout in the 1940s, weather modification in the 1950s, The Limits to Growth and the supersonic transport in the 1960s and 1970s, the ozone hole and nuclear winter in the 1980s. Meanwhile, climate science made enormous advances, with the rise of computer modeling and global observing systems. We then turn to how climate change rose to the top of the global political agenda in the 1990s and 2000s, and the disinformation campaigns that emerged to delay policy action. In the final weeks of the course, we examine the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and the 2015 Paris agreement. Finally, we’ll look at policy issues likely to arise in the coming decades, including climate refugees, massive adaptation projects, and geo-engineering. The principal assignment is a research paper or policy brief on a topic of your choosing.

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Climate Change: In Context (2009 RUSA Book and Media Award)

Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner, eds. Climate Change: In Context. Cengage Gale, 2008. | 2009 RUSA Book and Media Award ”Timely… Clear… Concise.. Stunning…” An “excellent guide to a vitally important issue” Ref Rev. October 2008.

Climate change studies and the human sciences

Poul Holm, Verena Winiwarter, Climate change studies and the human sciences, In Global and Planetary Change, Volume 156, 2017, Pages 115-122, ISSN 0921-8181, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2017.05.006\. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092181811630306X), 2017