Climate ‘Science’: Categories, Cultures and Contestations

Abstract

It is not our intention here, as stated clearly and necessarily in the opening pages of this book, to pit climate change deniers against climate change advocates; it is not our objective to argue who is right. Rather, we are willing to accept that the weight of evidence seems to be heavily in favor of those scientists who do believe that human-induced climate change will become an increasing feature of our global physical and social environments. As social scientists, however, it is not sufficient to simply make a judgment in defense of those advocating a particular scientific position. Rather, we are interested in what kind of ‘science’ (knowledge in all its forms) is being articulated; why it is being pursued; which scientists are advocating these positions; and, what are the geopolitical outcomes of these scientific findings and solicitations. Science is largely a human construct. In this book, however, we acknowledge that there also exist essential ‘natural’, non-human forces, which are larger than the agency of homo-sapiens can allow for, imagine, or control. But where the human agency/essentialist nature balance becomes problematic is when understandings of an ‘essentialist nature’ are used to empower certain minority world communities to the detriment of others living and surviving in majority worlds.