(Much, Much) More Global Warming Politics

As we mentioned in class discussion last week, the interesting and vitally important question regarding the politics of global warming is whether the just-released 4th assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will "close" scientific debate on the matter. The IPCC report is a massive, multivolume document. But you can read the relatively brief, jargon free summary for policymakers that is generating all the attention.

If global warming becomes widely accepted as a scientifically established fact, this line of query goes, policymakers will be compelled to act. Certainly this was recognized by Repbulican strategists in the Luntz memo which I mentioned in class. Accuweather's blog had an interesting post referencing a Boston Globe article suggesting that the IPCC report has significantly constrained skeptics of anthropogenic global warming, though the blog's author Laura Hannon thinks the Globe article overstates the case.

As should be obvious by now, the "orthodox" STS position (an oxymoronic phrase given STS's penchance for unorthodox positions) is that no amount of evidence is sufficient to close a scientific debate. While evidence is important, it ultimately becomes persuasive only when political and social conflicts are worked out. (So, for instance, maybe Al Gore winning the Nobel Prize would represent the kind of settlement of social/political issues that would make the IPCC report convincing.) This is the point of the right-sided utterances from Latour's double-faced account of science. Issues like global warming (and concern that the Luntz memo amounts to applied STS) has led to some anxiety in the STS community about whether this kind of critique is undercutting any ability to reach compelling ethical and moral positions. Bruno Latour himself expressed such anxiety in a really interesting article that some have seen as repentance for his entire previous scholarly output. I wouldn't say that, but he is clearly struggling to find grounds to turn STS toward ethics. In any case, you should look at this article if for no other reason than to thank your lucky stars that I did not assign it to you. Don't say I never showed you a kindness....