“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.” – Saul Bellow
Jem Bendell, for the Deep Adaptation Quarterly, August 2022.
As the heatwaves swept across Europe this summer, mainstream Western media gave some more attention to global heating. With 40+ degrees Celsius in the UK, for instance, many people were unnerved. They wanted to know more about what is happening and how bad it might become. This meant climate scientists were featured in the media. Then a curious thing happened. Some of those scientists began to ‘cherry pick’ the science to promote a particular narrative that the danger will cease to increase if specific policies are pursued. They presented their view as following science, and some experts then admonished people who pointed out the scientific limitations of that perspective. Does this mean there is now an ‘establishment story’ on climate change? If so, why, and what does it preclude?
Continue reading “Don’t be a climate user – an essay on climate science communication”
Professor Jem Bendell 