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Climategate: the role of the social sciences

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  • Myanna Lahsen

Abstract

As has been widely documented, lavishly funded media campaigns by political and financial elites and corporations with vested interests against climate policy are a central instigator of the climate backlash and a threat to democratic processes. However, it would behoove the environmental coalition, including sympathizing academics, to reflect on how they help create conditions that enable and magnify the impact of the backlash campaigns and incidents such as Climategate. This editorial argues that prevalent idealized understandings of science increase public vulnerability to backlash campaigns, and that academic analysts reinforce these understandings when they avoid to perform critical analyses of the science and scientists promoting concern about climate change. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

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  • Myanna Lahsen, 2013. "Climategate: the role of the social sciences," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 547-558, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:119:y:2013:i:3:p:547-558
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-013-0711-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    10. Lahsen Myanna, 2012. "Climategate and the virtue of the scientific community: an editorial commentary on the Maibach et al. and Grundmann opinion articles," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(3), pages 279-280, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Karin M. Gustafsson, 2019. "Learning from the Experiences of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Balancing Science and Policy to Enable Trustworthy Knowledge," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Diana Liverman, 2016. "U.S. National climate assessment gaps and research needs: overview, the economy and the international context," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 173-186, March.
    3. Naomi Oreskes, 2013. "On the “reality” and reality of anthropogenic climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 559-560, August.
    4. Nils Roll-Hansen, 2013. "A problematic social science approach to the study of climate science," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 561-563, August.
    5. Sujatha Raman & Warren Pearce, 2020. "Learning the lessons of Climategate: A cosmopolitan moment in the public life of climate science," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(6), November.
    6. Ferenc Jankó & Áron Drüszler & Borbála Gálos & Norbert Móricz & Judit Papp-Vancsó & Ildikó Pieczka & Rita Pongrácz & Ervin Rasztovits & Zsuzsanna Soósné Dezső & Orsolya Szabó, 2020. "Sources of doubt: actors, forums, and language of climate change skepticism," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2251-2277, September.

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