Herausforderung Klimaservice

In der Ausgabe 31-32/1014 von Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 31-32/2014 wird "Nachhaltigkeit" von einer Reihe von Autoren diskutiert. Ob mein Beitrag, zur Herausforderung eines Klimaservice, wirklich unter diese Überschrift paßt, sei mal dahin gestellt. In jedem falle findet sich dieser Beitrag nun unter dem Titel

Klimaservice: Nachhaltig "Vorhersagen"?. Der Artikel kann unbeschränkt heruntergeladen werden.

Diethard Tautz : "Neuer Turm in Babel"?

"Publizieren und Zitieren sind die Währungen der Wissenschaft. Aber lesen wir noch, was andere schreiben? Ja, verstehen wir uns überhaupt noch?" fragt der Direktor am Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionsbiologie Diethard Tautz in seinem Beitrag "Neuer Turm in Babel?" im Laborjournal.online.

New blog: Circling the Square

As reported earlier, the University of Nottingham hosted a conference at the end of May with the title 'Circling the Square: Research, politics, media and impact'. It was organized by the Science, Technology and Society Priority Group which I am leading.

The conference explored the role of knowledge in policy making, bringing together international scholars in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, practitioners at the science-policy interface, the public and the media.

Tool boxes and road maps for decision makers

I think blogs can be used to gather information as well as disseminate it.  As such I am asking for the help of readers of this posting. I was asked recently to comment on a proposal for a sustainability tool-box for decision makers and a roadmap to creating a well balance socio-eco system.   On Google, a search for “climate change roadmap” produces “about 5,110 results”; "decision makers toolbox climate change" produces “about 962,000 results”. 

Climate science: the shrinking middle / Wissenschaft in der Klimapolitik: Die Mitte in der Zange der Extremisten

Hans von Storch had been invited to publish in the new journal Technologist the op-ed
Climate science: the shrinking middle. Not online, but in the print version there are also available German and French versions:  Klimapolitik in der Zange der Extremisten and Science et changement climatique – les scientifiques pris en tenaille. The original manuscript was in German, and was edited by the publisher.

"Climate Change and Virtue: An Apologetic" (Mike Hulme)

Mike Hulme is one of the most innovative thinkers in the climate debate. He is a critic of the natural science monoculture that dominated climate discourse for so long; with his work, he has constantly and consistently shifted the center of the debate towards the humanities. In his seminal book "Why we disagree about climate change", he argued that instead of focusing on solutions for the climate problem we should ask what climate change can do for us. This is the starting point for his new article, "Climate change and virtue: an apologetic" (free download).

He takes up a line of arguments from the fringes of the scientific climate debate and develops it further. For example, Sheila Jasanoff pleads in a Nature article for more "humility" in the climate debate, or climate scientist Mike Flannery ends his recent book with the words  "if we do not strive to love one another, and to love our planet as much as we love ourselves, then no further progress is possible here on Earth”. But what do these appeals to love and humility actually mean? When, as Mike Hulme says, "in all the climate models I have examined, used and criticised over 30 years I have not yet come across a variable for love or an equation for calculating humility"? In this article, he provides an answer. Alongside with wisdom, integrity, faith and hope, humility and love are "virtues", and those virtues mark "the most enduring response" to the challenge of climate change.