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Chargement... Behind the Curve: Science and the Politics of Global Warming (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books) (original 2014; édition 2014)par Joshua P. Howe (Auteur), William Cronon (Avant-propos)
Information sur l'oeuvreBehind the Curve: Science and the Politics of Global Warming par Joshua P. Howe (2014)
Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.  rsutto22 | Jul 15, 2021 |  aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Appartient à la série éditoriale
"In 1958, Charles David Keeling began measuring the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. His project kicked off a half century of research that has expanded our knowledge of climate change. Despite more than fifty years of research, however, our global society has yet to find real solutions to the problem of global warming. Why? In Behind the Curve, Joshua Howe attempts to answer this question. He explores the history of global warming from its roots as a scientific curiosity to its place at the center of international environmental politics. The book follows the story of rising CO2--illustrated by the now famous Keeling Curve--through a number of historical contexts, highlighting the relationships among scientists, environmentalists, and politicians as those relationships changed over time. The nature of the problem itself, Howe explains, has privileged scientists as the primary spokespeople for the global climate. But while the "science first" forms of advocacy they developed to fight global warming produced more and better science, the primacy of science in global warming politics has failed to produce meaningful results. In fact, an often exclusive focus on science has left advocates for change vulnerable to political opposition and has limited much of the discussion to debates about the science itself. As a result, while we know much more about global warming than we did fifty years ago, CO2 continues to rise. In 1958, Keeling first measured CO2 at around 315 parts per million; by 2013, global CO2 had soared to 400 ppm. The problem is not getting better - it's getting worse. Behind the Curve offers a critical and levelheaded look at how we got here.Joshua P. Howe teaches history and environmental studies at Reed College."Scientists have proven to be right about the causes of a warming planet, but they have failed to stop the warming. Stopping it involves politics and economics more than science, and in this important book Joshua Howe examines how scientists and environmentalists--although both live in intensely political worlds--have managed to get the science right and the politics wrong. This is not the usual story of heroes and villains. Howe tells a more nuanced story-- a tragedy--in which a somewhat naive faith in science rendered scientists politically impotent in a complicated world. Few books published this year will tell a more important story." - Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Stanford"How shall we deal with climate change? That is not just an important topic but, from the standpoint of future generations, arguably the most important of all topics. Thorough and wide-ranging, this book puts the history of global warming policy in its full political and cultural context." - Spencer Weart, author of The Discovery of Global Warming"Behind the Curve is a much-needed book on the history of climate science and politics stretching back to the immediate post-World War II period." - Mark Carey, author of In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers"-- Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)363.738Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Other social problems and services Environmental problems Environmental problems PollutantsClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (3.67)
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I found it interesting to learn that some of the impetus for climate studies may be found in the Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Among many other concerns, nuclear arms among them, were concerns with developing a mastery of space in those early years of satellites and beginnings of space travel. Some military planners and scientists worried about Soviets altering the weather to cause drought and flooding, raise sea level, divert the Gulf Stream, and change temperate climates to frigid. Another fear was that the Soviets might spread colored pigments over polar ice, or pump warm water into the Arctic Ocean, ultimately melting the ice caps leading to flooding American coastal cities while creating warm-water Soviet ports.
As a result, studies about climate, and what affects the climate, began in earnest. And aside from military concerns, other environmental problems with potential to impact the climate were noted. Among them were the development of supersonic transport airplanes (SSTs) due to concerns about their environmental impacts. Industrial emissions and aerosols, and carbon dioxide were also identified as potential contributors to a changing climate. These were not local concerns, but were global, and as such, required global initiatives to address. A 1970 Study of Critical Environmental Problems (SCEP) addressed climate as an environmental problem, including CO2 effects, airborne particulates, and SST emissions. This Group focused on making more and better science, thinking better science would result in better solutions to the problems. In 1971, the International Council of Scientific Unions Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) presented a global scientific research plan to the UN that would use the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) to address questions raised by the SCEP report. These studies all required international cooperation since expensive satellites, balloon, ships, and computers were needed. Sharing resources and data enhanced the project, and to some extent, matched the scientists global research self-interests. These early studies and reports became preparatory documents for UN involvement and the UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972.
Also around this time, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a member-driven advocacy organization committed to advancing science in the public interest and the largest scientific organization in the world, decided to make climate change the focus of a long-term international initiative. The multi-disciplinary subject of climate represented the sort of long-range scientific effort of international consequence that could command the interest of a wide segment of the association's membership. University climatologists also promoted further research in this area, sometimes competing and sometimes aiding atmospheric modelers at government and quasi-government institutions. In 1978, AAAS identified at least 10 Federal agencies involved in climatic research, but had not yet developed a mechanism for dealing with the various international groups, mostly UN agencies, interested in climate change.
Mr. Howe then goes on to describe how the UN became a focal group for the various groups studying climate change and causes, leading up to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN-IPCC), and the series of reports issued by the IPCC. He also points out that the recent ideological divide on global warming / climate change is not a new development. President Reagan made severe cuts for the budget for climate and environmental studies, and his appointment of industry backed anti-environmental department heads prompted protests from scientists concerned about environmental dangers. So even back then in the 1980's, conservative "industry first" proponents and progressive "science first" advocates found themselves on opposite sides of the debate.
One sidelight to the story which I found particularly interesting was the discussion on the oft-repeated story of how climate scientists in the 1970's were predicting the coming of the next ice age. That is often used by climate skeptics to reinforce the notion that the science is not settled, and that actions to limit carbon emissions are not warranted at this time. Howe discusses this 'myth', and provides substantial background on this issue. While it is true that there was a small group of climatologists who felt at that time that volcanoes and aerosols, and their cooling effects, would dominate the warming effect of increasing CO2, they were in the minority. This was an era when satellites were just coming into use, and computer models were in their incipient stages. And soon, the increasingly sophisticated computer models, incorporating variables like humidity, seasonality, and tropospheric and stratospheric behavior, reaffirmed the atmospheric scientists initial conclusions that CO2 was the biggest impact on global temperatures and climate stability. It was shown that some aerosols would have a cooling effect, but other aerosols, depending upon their height, distribution, and longevity, would have a warming effect. Reports of the NAS Climate Research Board linked CO2 to warming throughout the mid-1970's, and by 1976 only a few scientists still held to the idea of global cooling.
"Behind the Curve" doesn't provide much in the way of scientific evidence supporting climate change, but provides the historical background making the point that the scientists seem to have gotten the science right, but the politics wrong. Science arguments alone have failed to carry the day, and there's more work to be done, especially in the political arena, which needs to be done to deal with climate change in an effective way. (