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<font size="+1"><i>January 27, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[Heat]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/26/in-2017-the-oceans-were-by-far-the-hottest-ever-recorded">In
2017, the oceans were by far the hottest ever recorded</a></b><br>
The second-hottest year recorded at Earth's surface was the hottest
in its oceans...<br>
If you want to understand global warming, you need to first
understand ocean warming...<br>
The fact that 2017 was the oceans' hottest year doesn't prove humans
are warming the planet. But, the long term upward trend that extends
back many decades does prove global warming. <br>
- see graph <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1d5165c25ea0f76c1840a73632380c5ae1320bc2/0_0_553_297/master/553.jpg">https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1d5165c25ea0f76c1840a73632380c5ae1320bc2/0_0_553_297/master/553.jpg</a><br>
The consequences of this year-after-year-after-year warming have
real impacts on humans. Fortunately, we know why the oceans are
warming (because of human greenhouse gases), and we can do something
about it. We can take action to reduce the heating of our planet by
using energy more wisely and increasing the use of clean and
renewable energy (like wind and solar power).<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/26/in-2017-the-oceans-were-by-far-the-hottest-ever-recorded">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/26/in-2017-the-oceans-were-by-far-the-hottest-ever-recorded</a><br>
</font><br>
<br>
[EU skeptic]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/eu-environment-chief-neno-dimov-climate-change-sceptic-meps-questions-global-warming-a8179781.html">'Shocking':
Anger after climate change sceptic becomes EU environment chief</a></b><br>
New president of key European body Neno Dimov previously described
phenomenon as a 'hoax used to scare the people'<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/eu-environment-chief-neno-dimov-climate-change-sceptic-meps-questions-global-warming-a8179781.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/eu-environment-chief-neno-dimov-climate-change-sceptic-meps-questions-global-warming-a8179781.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[New York Times] <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/world/europe/france-paris-floods.html">Floods
Leave Paris Contemplating a Wetter Future</a></b><br>
Although some experts said it was hard to determine whether global
warming was behind the current flood, others warned that a worrying
pattern was emerging. “Because of climate change, we can expect
floods in the Seine basin to be at least as frequent as they are
right now,” said Florence Habets...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/world/europe/france-paris-floods.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/world/europe/france-paris-floods.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[experience]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://theconversation.com/why-climate-change-is-worsening-public-health-problems-86193">Why
climate change is worsening public health problems</a></b><br>
Around the world, the health care debate often revolves around
access...<br>
Yet focusing on access is not enough. The imperative for access must
be paired with a frank acknowledgment that climate change is making
communities around the world more vulnerable to ill health. A <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2817%2932464-9/fulltext?elsca1=tlpr">2017
commission of The Lancet</a>, a leading health research journal,
tracked the effects of climate change on health and found evidence
of harms "far worse that previously understood."<br>
In the past year, the health care debate in the U.S. has centered on
attempts to limit or expand access to care. Meanwhile, the Trump
administration has left the Paris climate accord and unraveled
environmental protections for national and transnational
corporations – with little resistance from health advocates. We
believe that leaders must recognize that environmental policy is
health policy. Rollbacks of environmental regulations will cause far
greater consequences on health, in the U.S. and globally, than any
health care bill.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://theconversation.com/why-climate-change-is-worsening-public-health-problems-86193">https://theconversation.com/why-climate-change-is-worsening-public-health-problems-86193</a></font><br>
-<br>
[full text]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2817%2932464-9/fulltext?elsca1=tlpr">The
Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: from 25 years of
inaction to a global transformation for public health</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2817%2932464-9/fulltext?elsca1=tlpr">http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32464-9/fulltext?elsca1=tlpr</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[the Law]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/01/26/climate-liability-california-lawsuits-ucs/">Climate
Liability Cases 'As American As Apple Pie,' Experts Argue</a></b><br>
By Dana Drugmand<br>
Climate lawsuits are not new, with examples stretching back to the
George W. Bush administration, but the latest batch have a greater
chance of succeeding, said Ann Carlson, professor of environmental
law at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at
UCLA School of Law. She and several other panelists spoke at a
timely discussion Thursday at UCLA co-sponsored by the Union of
Concerned Scientists (UCS), "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://secure.ucsusa.org/onlineactions/A0VxquMJike7XF8MKACffA2">Holding
Fossil Fuel Companies Liable for Climate Change Harms in
California</a>."<br>
And while opponents of these suits often argue that the courts are
the wrong place to deal with an issue like climate change, the
panelists said it is the proper venue when the legislative and
executive branches of government fail to act.<br>
"This is as American as apple pie. This is part of our system and
we've been doing this for a very long time," said Ken Kimmell,
president of UCS, in regards to using the courts to hold industry
accountable and effect social change. "I do believe these lawsuits
will continue to cause pressure on these companies."<br>
Although New York City caused a splash by filing a lawsuit against
the largest oil companies last week, the heart of this movement is
on the West Coast.<br>
"California is really the epicenter of this new approach to holding
fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change," ...<br>
A handful of cities and counties in the state have filed suit
against fossil fuel companies so far.<br>
<blockquote>The lawsuits are based on public nuisance claims and
some (except for San Francisco and Oakland) also bring product
liability based claims. In all of the cases, the underlying logic
is that the fossil fuel companies not only bear distinct
responsibility for causing the problem, but they also had
knowledge early on about the harm their product would cause and
yet downplayed the risk and worked to promote misinformation to
the public for decades.<br>
<br>
The evidence supporting this argument has become much more solid
in recent years. For one, the science connecting the emissions to
the harm is a lot stronger. Recent studies have shown that a
majority of historical carbon and methane emissions can be traced
to just 90 companies. Secondly, Carlson explained, plaintiffs are
now targeting the extractors of the product and there is growing
evidence about what the companies knew, based largely on
investigative reporting by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles
Times. These newer cases are also steered by sophisticated,
experienced lawyers, she said.<br>
</blockquote>
Beyond acting as a pressure point, the objective is ultimately to
hold the fossil fuel companies accountable for their deceptive
behavior and resulting climate consequences. Corporate
accountability is a key part of climate and environmental justice,
several of the speakers pointed out.<br>
Gladys Limon, executive director of California Environmental Justice
Alliance, explained that low-income communities and communities of
color are most at risk of impacts from climate change, yet they are
often leading the fight on the frontlines. Governments, she said,
should be stepping up to protect their citizens. "We need the sort
of leadership that demands accountability from the oil industry,"
she said.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/01/26/climate-liability-california-lawsuits-ucs/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/01/26/climate-liability-california-lawsuits-ucs/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Politics]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mercers-climate-denial_us_5a6a4661e4b06e253265e832">The
Mercers, Trump's Billionaire Megadonors, Ramp Up Climate Change
Denial Funding</a></b><br>
The New York financiers' donations to climate misinformation think
tanks are finally attracting the scrutiny long reserved for the Koch
brothers and Exxon Mobil.<br>
The Mercers are less well known as patrons of the climate change
denial movement, yet their spending has been equally generous and
appears to be increasing, according to new, previously unreleased
tax filings reviewed by HuffPost.<br>
The Mercer Family Foundation in 2016 gave $800,000 to the Heartland
Institute, a right-wing think tank and major proponent of climate
change denialism, up from $100,000 the previous year. Heartland
received about $5.2 million in average annual income between 2011
and 2015, meaning the Mercers' donation could make up 15 percent of
the organization's funding in 2016...<br>
The foundation gave $200,000 for a second year in a row to the
Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, a discredited medial
research group best known for spreading a hoax petition in 2009
claiming that 30,000 climatologists rejected global warming. Based
on the organization's average income for the last few years, that
donation could make up anywhere from one-third to 62 percent of its
budget. .. <br>
The Mercers made first-time donations to two other prominent groups
last year: the CO2 Coalition, an organization born from the ashes of
the defunct George C. Marshall Institute, which denied global
warming and lobbied against the science behind acid rain and
smoking-caused cancer, received $150,000; and the Arizona-based
Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, an
oil-funded think tank run by former Peabody Energy executive Craig
Idso, got $125,000...<br>
The spending is notable not only for the large amounts, but because
it seems to mark a shift in the world of climate-denial funding,
which was once bolstered mainly by fossil fuel titans like Koch
Industries and Exxon Mobil Corp. but has now become too extreme even
for some of its original benefactors.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mercers-climate-denial_us_5a6a4661e4b06e253265e832">https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mercers-climate-denial_us_5a6a4661e4b06e253265e832</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[invention creation]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/scientists-create-smart-windows-actually-generate-electricity">Scientists
create smart windows that actually generate electricity</a></b><br>
Smart windows that are transparent when it's dark or cool but
automatically darken when the sun is too bright are increasingly
popular energy-saving devices. But imagine that when the window is
darkened, it simultaneously produces electricity.<br>
Such a material - a photovoltaic glass that is also reversibly
thermochromic - is a green technology researchers have long worked
toward, and now, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(Berkeley Lab) have demonstrated a way to make it work.<br>
Researchers at Berkeley Lab, a Department of Energy (DOE) national
lab, discovered that a form of perovskite, one of the hottest
materials in solar research currently due to its high conversion
efficiency, works surprisingly well as a stable and photoactive
semiconductor material that can be reversibly switched between a
transparent state and a non-transparent state, without degrading its
electronic properties....<br>
Halide perovskite materials are compounds that have the crystal
structure of the mineral perovskite. Its unique properties, high
efficiency rates, and ease of processing have made it one of the
most promising developments in solar technology in recent years....<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/scientists-create-smart-windows-actually-generate-electricity">https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/scientists-create-smart-windows-actually-generate-electricity</a></font><br>
-<br>
[Nature Materials]<b><br>
</b><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-017-0006-0">Thermochromic
halide perovskite solar cells</a></b><br>
Abstract<br>
<font size="-1">Smart photovoltaic windows represent a promising
green technology featuring tunable transparency and electrical
power generation under external stimuli to control the light
transmission and manage the solar energy. Here, we demonstrate a
thermochromic solar cell for smart photovoltaic window
applications utilizing the structural phase transitions in
inorganic halide perovskite caesium lead iodide/bromide. The solar
cells undergo thermally-driven, moisture-mediated reversible
transitions between a transparent non-perovskite phase (81.7%
visible transparency) with low power output and a deeply coloured
perovskite phase (35.4% visible transparency) with high power
output. The inorganic perovskites exhibit tunable colours and
transparencies, a peak device efficiency above 7%, and a phase
transition temperature as low as 105 °C. We demonstrate excellent
device stability over repeated phase transition cycles without
colour fade or performance degradation. The photovoltaic windows
showing both photoactivity and thermochromic features represent
key stepping-stones for integration with buildings, automobiles,
information displays, and potentially many other technologies.</font><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-017-0006-0">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-017-0006-0</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Classic Social Insights from 2015]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/slinden/files/ppsfinal.pdf">Improving
Public Engagement With Climate Change: Five "Best Practice"<br>
Insights From Psychological Science</a></b><br>
Sander van der Linden, Edward Maibach, and Anthony Leiserowitz<br>
Nov 17, 2015 - Despite being one of the most important societal
challenges of the 21st century, public engagement with climate
change...these key psychological principles can be applied to
support societal engagement and climate change policymaking. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/slinden/files/ppsfinal.pdf">https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/slinden/files/ppsfinal.pdf</a>
<blockquote><b>Abstract</b><br>
Despite being one of the most important societal challenges of the
21st century, public engagement with climate change currently
remains low in the United States. Mounting evidence from across
the behavioral sciences has found that most people regard climate
change as a nonurgent and psychologically distant risk-spatially,
temporally, and socially-which has led to deferred public decision
making about mitigation and adaptation responses. In this article,
we advance five simple but important "best practice" insights from
psychological science that can help governments improve public
policymaking about climate change. Particularly, instead of a
future, distant, global, nonpersonal, and analytical risk that is
often framed as an overt loss for society, we argue that
policymakers should (a) emphasize climate change as a present,
local, and personal risk; (b) facilitate more affective and
experiential engagement; (c) leverage relevant social group norms;
(d) frame policy solutions in terms of what can be gained from
immediate action; and (e) appeal to intrinsically valued long-term
environmental goals and outcomes. With practical examples we
illustrate how these key psychological principles can be applied
to support societal engagement and climate change policymaking.<br>
</blockquote>
Overview of Key Psychological Lessons and Policy Advice<br>
Psychological lesson Policy guideline <br>
Example policy recommendation<br>
<b>1. The human brain privileges experience over analysis</b><br>
Highlight relevant personal experiences through affective recall,
stories, and metaphors.<br>
The National Park Service (NPS) gives concrete examples of how
climate change has already harmed natural resources in specific
parks.<br>
<b>2. People are social beings </b>who respond to group norms<br>
Activate and leverage relevant social group norms to promote and
increase collective action.<br>
Government climate science agencies could improve efforts to
highlight descriptive norms (e.g., the scientific consensus on
human-caused climate change).<br>
<b>3. Out of sight, out of mind:</b><b> </b><b>reduce psychological</b><b>
</b><b>distance</b><br>
Emphasize the present and make climate change impacts and solutions
locally relevant.<br>
NASA and The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
are supporting efforts to enable TV meteorologists to educate their
viewers about current local climate change impacts.<br>
<b>4. Nobody likes losing but</b><b> </b><b>everyone likes gaining</b><br>
Frame policy solutions in terms of what can be gained (not in terms
of what is lost).<br>
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) "Clean Power Plan"
focuses on cleaning up the nation's fuel supply, which will help
clean up the nation's air and water, providing direct health
benefits to all Americans.<br>
<b>5. Tapping the potential of</b><b> </b><b>human motivation</b><br>
Leverage intrinsic motivation to support long-term environmental
goals.<br>
The President, Congress, and all federal agencies should be openly
aspirational in designing climate policy initiatives that tap into
citizens' deeply<br>
<blockquote><b>Conclusion</b><br>
This memo describes five "best practice" insights from
psychological science to help improve public decision making about
climate change. We argue that climate change has traditionally
been framed as an analytical, temporally and spatially distant
risk that represents an (uncertain) future loss for society. Yet,
psychological research suggests that in order to improve public
engagement with the issue, policymakers should emphasize climate
change as an experiential, local and present risk; define and
leverage relevant social group norms; highlightthe tangible gains
associated with immediate action; and last, but certainly not
least, appeal to long-term motivators of pro-environmental
behavior and decision making.<br>
</blockquote>
Download, view <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/slinden/files/ppsfinal.pdf">https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/slinden/files/ppsfinal.pdf</a><br>
- <br>
[Psychologist's response:]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://psmag.com/environment/in-climate-change-psychology-often-gets-lost-in-translation">IN
CLIMATE CHANGE, PSYCHOLOGY OFTEN GETS LOST IN TRANSLATION</a></b><br>
Why do we only allow a narrow sliver of psychological research to
influence the discussion around climate change?<br>
RENEE LERTZMAN - NOV 24, 2015<br>
...it's now become acceptable to acknowledge that climate change is,
in fact, not only a scientific, political, economic, technical, and
industrial issue, but also a deeply psychological one. To reckon
with this "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11077-012-9151-0">super-wicked
problem</a>" effectively, there is a growing awareness that we
cannot ignore the underlying psychological dimensions that inform
engagement, innovation, and political response.<br>
The authors focus on five main points that many consider to be the
most significant cognitive and communicative challenges to
understanding climate change threats.... <br>
While these are all sound insights, they reflect a particular way of
approaching the problem of climate change engagement, and they fail
to keep in mind two things: Psychology is a very broad field, and
there is no such thing as a "unified" psychological take on climate
change...<br>
Mistaking these parts for the whole of psychology risks limiting our
ability to recognize what the full field can offer in addressing our
most immediate and urgent challenges, whether at government-level
policymaking or community-level grassroots organizing.<br>
There exist other rich traditions in psychological research,
originally focused on clinical and psychotherapeutic contexts, and
these traditions also inform research methods. For those working in
these fields-that is, working experientially and directly with
people in a therapeutic or counseling context-the primary focus
tends to be on how people manage distressing, often threatening
information or experiences. There's a broad recognition in clinical
psychology that humans engage-not only as individuals, but as social
beings-in often less conscious or unconscious strategies to manage
anxieties, losses, and trauma: denial, projection, splitting the
world into good/bad, and so on. These are very human responses to
confronting difficult news, including the unintended consequences of
our industrial practices for life on the planet.<br>
Perhaps particularly salient to climate change, clinical and
psychotherapeutic psychology has a lot to say on the topic of
anxiety, loss, grief, mourning, and despair. Understanding how
humans relate to loss, even if it's anticipatory ("What is going to
happen to my house/children/land?") may also help us appreciate why
more people are not engaging at the levels required to truly turn
the ship around. The response from a more clinical orientation is to
practice compassionate "acknowledgement"- to demonstrate an
understanding of what may be difficult, so that we can move quickly
into solutions...<br>
Perhaps we have trouble grasping the abstract nature of climate
change because it's too scary to contemplate, unless there's a sense
of a solution. Perhaps we need to not shy away from the potential
losses relating to climate change, but to find skillful ways of
acknowledging loss while turning our sights to the enormous
opportunities we have for an even better life if we act accordingly.
Perhaps, rather than focusing on only the cognitive challenges, we
can come up with innovative ways of measuring the experience of
climate change that include conflicts and dilemmas that can make it
hard to respond, so we can capably support, facilitate, and enable
collective forms of engagement. Then we'd really be on to something
big.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://psmag.com/environment/in-climate-change-psychology-often-gets-lost-in-translation">https://psmag.com/environment/in-climate-change-psychology-often-gets-lost-in-translation</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Book blurb]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1107503051">Climate Change as
Social Drama: Global Warming in the Public Sphere </a></b><br>
Paperback - May 7, 2015<br>
by Philip Smith, Nicolas Howe <br>
<blockquote>Climate change is not just a scientific fact, nor merely
a social and political problem. It is also a set of stories and
characters that amount to a social drama.This drama, as much as
hard scientific or political realities, shapes perception of the
problem. Drs. Smith and Howe use the perspective of cultural
sociology and Aristotle's timeless theories about narrative and
rhetoric to explore this meaningful and visible surface of climate
change in the public sphere. Whereas most research wants to
explain barriers to awareness, here we switch the agenda to look
at the moments when global warming actually gets attention.
Chapters consider struggles over apocalyptic scenarios, explain
the success of Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth, unpack the
deeper social meanings of the climate conference and
"Climategate," critique failed advertising campaigns and climate
art, and question the much touted transformative potential of
natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy.<br>
</blockquote>
<b>Review</b><br>
<blockquote>"Climate Change as Social Drama brings the powerful
theoretical approaches developed by cultural sociology to the
study of climate change. Through a detailed rhetorical analysis of
key areas of contention, Philip Smith and Nicolas Howe provide a
unique and insightful perspective on the contentious debate on
climate change. This intellectual intervention provides a new way
to think about this issue, as well as contributes to the
development of cultural sociology. Kudos to Smith and Howe." <br>
Robert J. Brulle, Drexel University, Philadelphia<br>
<br>
"The climate science community has long been calling for social
analyses of how culture shapes public perception of climate
change. Climate Change as Social Drama launches that conversation
with a beautifully crafted and cogent response." <br>
Kari Marie Norgaard, author of Living in Denial: Climate Change,
Emotions and Everyday Life<br>
<br>
"This is a wonderfully erudite and expositional book rooted in the
new cultural sociology. It is also an exceptional book for our
times. Climate Change as Social Drama provides theoretically
original and penetrating insights into the unfolding dynamics and
possibilities of recognizing climate change as one of the most
serious threats confronting humankind today. Scholars and
students, activists and citizens, and all those who are concerned
not only with the deficiencies of climate change communications
but also their unrealized possibilities should read it." <br>
Simon Cottle, Cardiff University<br>
<br>
"For too long, too many earnest people have believed that the key
to untying the Gordian knot of climate change lay in science -
more science, better science, more consensual science. In this
beautifully written book, Smith and Howe decisively give the lie
to this belief. The key to acting in the world is to be found in
the different ways in which the social drama that is climate
change is made meaningful to people. This book needs to be read by
climate scientists, policy advisors, and activists alike." <br>
Mike Hulme, King's College London<br>
<br>
'I read this book with great interest and enthusiasm. It is well
written and well argued; the authors successfully achieve their
objective of 'generating scholarly debate'. They convincingly
contend that ''tool kits' are only part of the equation' and then
show how context and universal constructions of social dramas
combine in compelling ways.' Maxwell Boykoff, American Journal of
Sociology<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<b>Book Description</b><br>
Climate Change as Social Drama looks at climate change in the mass
media and in public communication. Accessible and provocative
chapters include the rise of the apocalyptic scenario in public
debate, the success of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, climate art
and ill-conceived advertising campaigns, the meaning of recent
climate conferences, and the impacts of climate-linked natural
disasters.<br>
<br>
<b>About the Author</b><br>
Philip Smith is Professor of Sociology and co-Director of the Yale
Center for Cultural Sociology. His work explores the meaningful
nature of social life as it plays out in a communicative public
sphere. He is author of Why War? (2005) and Punishment and Culture
(2008) and co-author of Incivility: The Rude Stranger in Everyday
Life (Cambridge University Press, 2010), as well as a dozen other
books and edited collections.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1107503051">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1107503051</a></font><br>
-<br>
[Book review]<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/2292/31736/Climate%20Change%20as%20Social%20Drama.pdf?sequence=30"><b>Review
of the book Climate Change as Social Drama: Global Warming in
the Public Sphere, by Philip Smith and Nicolas Howe</b></a><br>
Matthewman, Steven<br>
"Here their novel contribution is to suggest that climate change is
more than a scientific fact or a political problem, it is also a
social drama. Indeed, if we see climate change as such, replete with
characters, sets, plots and genres, we stand a chance of shifting
the status quo, to go from knowing about the issue to actually doing
something about it."...<br>
"While there is a world of difference between the plays of classical
antiquity and contemporary social life, the authors assert that a
fundamental point of comparison still holds: 'the world of public
affairs is very much one that is constructed by players, narrated by
observers, and read by audiences in a dramatic mode' (emphasis in
original, p. 36)."...<br>
"It is not simply a matter of what is said, but also of who says it
and how it is received. A compelling performance requires logos
(logical argument), ethos (a speaker of good moral fiber) and pathos
(audience receptivity). Science typically relies on logos, but in
the plausibility stakes Aristotle recognized that pathos and ethos
are more important still. For him, credibility and morality are
fused. To be believable, a speaker must show good sense (phronesis),
good will (eunoia) and good character (arete). When these have not
been on display, as when the University of East Anglia's Climate
Research Unit had its emails hacked and leaked, the results have
been catastrophic for the cause. In this instance the science became
superfluous. Focus fell on the motivations of the scientists
instead."...<br>
Smith and Howe conclude that mobilisation requires convincing genres
and characters. Everything boils down to the question of trust.
Tragedy and satire speak to futility. Romance, with its emphasis on
heroism, triumph in the face of adversity and eventual social
integration, fits the bill. 'Only if we embrace romance and its
associated world-transforming, solidaristic opportunities can we
avoid a hot, unjust, and dangerous future' (p. 40). Activists would
be well advised to deploy their rhetoric thoughtfully and display
the proper ethos. Science is helpful but, as the cases detailed in
the book show, it needs to be supplemented by the alignment of
action, ethos and location. In climate change's social drama, place
matters twofold, as shaper of shared memory and as something
precious to be spared from disaster. While Smith and Howe are
correct to note that we await "the Tahir or Tiananmen Square of
climate change" (p. 168) thanks to them we know the sorts of
performances required of us when we get there.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/2292/31736/Climate%20Change%20as%20Social%20Drama.pdf?sequence=30">https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/2292/31736/Climate%20Change%20as%20Social%20Drama.pdf?sequence=30</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/27/us/a-global-warming-resumed-in-1994-climate-data-show.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm">This
Day in Climate History January 27, 1995</a> - from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
January 27, 1995: The New York Times reports:<br>
<blockquote>"Whatever happened to global warming? The question was
on many lips a<br>
year ago, when the northeastern United States suffered through its<br>
bitterest winter in years. Now an exceptionally warm winter has<br>
whipsawed perceptions about the world's climate once again.<br>
<br>
"An answer has become apparent in annual climatic statistics in
the<br>
last few days: global warming, interrupted as a result of the
mid-1991<br>
eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, has resumed -- just
as<br>
many experts had predicted.<br>
<br>
"After a two-year cooling period, the average temperature of the<br>
earth's surface rebounded in 1994 to the high levels of the
1980's,<br>
the warmest decade ever recorded, according to three sets of data
in<br>
the United States and Britain.<br>
<br>
"The earth's average surface temperature last year closely
approached<br>
the record high of almost 60 degrees measured in 1990. That was
the<br>
last full year before the Pinatubo eruption, which cooled the
earth by<br>
injecting into the atmosphere a haze of sulfurous droplets that<br>
reflected some of the sun's heat."<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/27/us/a-global-warming-resumed-in-1994-climate-data-show.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm">http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/27/us/a-global-warming-resumed-in-1994-climate-data-show.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm</a></font><br>
<br>
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