Pearce, W. orcid.org/0000-0001-6884-3854, Grundmann, R., Hulme, M. et al. (3 more authors) (2017) Beyond counting climate consensus. Environmental Communication: a journal of nature and culture, 11 (6). pp. 723-730. ISSN 1556-7400
Abstract
Several studies have been using quantified consensus within climate science as an argument to foster climate policy. Recent efforts to communicate such scientific consensus attained a high public profile but it is doubtful if they can be regarded successful. We argue that repeated efforts to shore up the scientific consensus on minimalist claims such as ‘humans cause global warming’ are distractions from more urgent matters of knowledge, values, policy framing and public engagement. Such efforts to force policy progress through communicating scientific consensus misunderstand the relationship between scientific knowledge, publics and policymakers. More important is to focus on genuinely controversial issues within climate policy debates where expertise might play a facilitating role. Mobilising expertise in policy debates calls for judgment, context and attention to diversity, rather than deferring to formal quantifications of narrowly scientific claims.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Climate change; climate policy; climate change communication |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL ES/N002016/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Jul 2017 16:13 |
Last Modified: | 20 Oct 2023 16:01 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/17524032.2017.1333965 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:119269 |