HOW RESEARCH MAKES DEBATES ABOUT THE CLIMATE WORSE

  • Akhilesh Kallumpurat

Abstract

I use the example of the US presidential election of 2000 to illustrate that political conflicts with technological underpinnings are not settled by technical means. Then I discuss the notion that scientific investigation is implicitly and predictably vulnerable to being politicized in environmental controversies, drawing on cases such as climate change, genetically engineered foods, and radioactive waste disposal. I'm going to explore three explanations for that. Second, science offers important legitimate information about existence to the contesting parties of their own bodies, selected in part because they help make sense of individual desires and moral structures and are made rational by them. Second, conflicting disciplinary approaches can be causally related to competing value-based political or ethical positions to explain the scientific roots of an environmental conflict.

Published
2019-12-25