Article ID: CBB787498022

Climate science, truth, and democracy (2017)

unapi

This essay was written almost ten years ago when the urgency of America's failure as a nation to respond to the threats of climate change first came to preoccupy me. Although the essay was never published in full, I circulated it informally in an attempt to provoke a more public engagement among my colleagues in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. In particular, it was written in almost direct response to Philip Kitcher's own book, Science, Truth and Democracy (2001), in an attempt to clarify what was special about Climate Science in its relation to truth and democracy. Kitcher's response was immensely encouraging, and it led to an extended dialogue that resulted, first, in a course we co-taught at Columbia University, and later, to the book The Seasons Alter: How to Save Our Planet in Six Acts (W. W. Norton) published this spring. The book was finished just after the Paris Climate Accord, and it reflects the relative optimism of that moment. Unfortunately events since have begun to evoke, once again, the darker mood of this essay. I am grateful to Greg Radick for suggesting its publication.

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Authors & Contributors
Powell, James Lawrence
Ken Rice
Dana Nuccitelli
Tatiana Pina
Peter Jacobs
Andrew G. Skuce
Journals
Public Understanding of Science
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change
Science as Culture
Journal of Historical Geography
Historische Zeitschrift
Publishers
Routledge
Columbia University Press
Carocci Editore
Concepts
Public understanding of science
Climate change
Communication of scientific ideas
Science and politics
Global warming
Environment
People
Gore, Albert
Callendar, Guy Stewart
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
20th century, early
Places
United States
Australia
Queensland (Australia)
Sweden
Japan
Italy
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