Moving beyond Climate Change

Moving beyond Climate Change. Hulme, M. 52(3):15–19.

[Excerpt] The rhetoric leading up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit last December (COP15) was deafening. [...] Copenhagen has shown us the limits of what can be achieved on climate change through centralization and hyperbolic multi-lateralism. Climate change – least of all, the Rubik's cube version of climate change we have chosen to construct – will not be adequately defused through such top-down United Nations processes. Earth-system scientists may have shown us how the physical planetary system functions as a single entity, but we are a long way short of displaying even the minimum attributes necessary for effective earth system governance. [::Refocusing Our Goals] [...] I therefore suggest that our ultimate goal is not to ” stop climate change.” We have mistaken the means for the end. Our goal is surely to ensure that the basic human needs of the world's growing population are adequately met; that we move toward a development paradigm where we are living within our technoecological means and not beyond them; and that our societies are adequately equipped to withstand the risks and dangers that come from a changing climate. [...] [::Redesigning Our Strategies] These should be the goals of an aspirational, morally aware, and survival-oriented species. Refocusing our goals in this way – moving beyond climate change to see what lies on the other side – has implications for how we design our policy frameworks and implement our policy measures. What might an alternative strategic approach to meeting these goals look like in practice? It should be an approach that allows us to take a few small steps that offer demonstrable, quick payback. It should be an approach that is polycentric in structure and pluralist in instinct. And it should be an approach that prizes substantial investment in technology innovation. [...] [::Technologies of Humility] [...] We are beginning to recognize climate change for the wicked problem that it is, and we will now embark on a more diverse, less authoritarian search for clumsy solutions. [\n] In going beyond climate change – lowering our ambitions and seeking small steps in a polycentric world of pluralist views and preferences – we paradoxically increase the likelihood that we can deliver on at least some of our aspirations for a better world. [...] It is [...] the ” technologies of humility” – ” disciplined methods to accommodate the partiality of scientific knowledge and to act under irredeemable uncertainty” – that will offer us the best prospects for taming the risks of climate change.

@article{hulmeMovingClimateChange2010,
  title = {Moving beyond Climate Change},
  author = {Hulme, Mike},
  date = {2010-04},
  journaltitle = {Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development},
  volume = {52},
  pages = {15--19},
  issn = {1939-9154},
  doi = {10.1080/00139151003761611},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1080/00139151003761611},
  abstract = {[Excerpt] The rhetoric leading up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit last December (COP15) was deafening. [...] Copenhagen has shown us the limits of what can be achieved on climate change through centralization and hyperbolic multi-lateralism. Climate change -- least of all, the Rubik's cube version of climate change we have chosen to construct -- will not be adequately defused through such top-down United Nations processes. Earth-system scientists may have shown us how the physical planetary system functions as a single entity, but we are a long way short of displaying even the minimum attributes necessary for effective earth system governance.

[::Refocusing Our Goals] [...] I therefore suggest that our ultimate goal is not to ” stop climate change.” We have mistaken the means for the end. Our goal is surely to ensure that the basic human needs of the world's growing population are adequately met; that we move toward a development paradigm where we are living within our technoecological means and not beyond them; and that our societies are adequately equipped to withstand the risks and dangers that come from a changing climate. [...]

[::Redesigning Our Strategies] These should be the goals of an aspirational, morally aware, and survival-oriented species. Refocusing our goals in this way -- moving beyond climate change to see what lies on the other side -- has implications for how we design our policy frameworks and implement our policy measures. What might an alternative strategic approach to meeting these goals look like in practice? It should be an approach that allows us to take a few small steps that offer demonstrable, quick payback. It should be an approach that is polycentric in structure and pluralist in instinct. And it should be an approach that prizes substantial investment in technology innovation. [...]

[::Technologies of Humility] [...] We are beginning to recognize climate change for the wicked problem that it is, and we will now embark on a more diverse, less authoritarian search for clumsy solutions. [\textbackslash n] In going beyond climate change -- lowering our ambitions and seeking small steps in a polycentric world of pluralist views and preferences -- we paradoxically increase the likelihood that we can deliver on at least some of our aspirations for a better world. [...] It is [...] the ” technologies of humility” -- ” disciplined methods to accommodate the partiality of scientific knowledge and to act under irredeemable uncertainty” -- that will offer us the best prospects for taming the risks of climate change.},
  keywords = {*imported-from-citeulike-INRMM,~INRMM-MiD:c-13617872,climate-change,deep-uncertainty,integration-constraints,multi-stakeholder-decision-making,robust-modelling,rubik,science-policy-interface,semantic-constraints,transdisciplinary-research,uncertainty,wicked-problem},
  number = {3}
}

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