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1 - The framing of climate change: why it matters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2011

By
Karen O'Brien ,
Asunción Lera St. Clair  and
Berit Kristoffersen
Edited by
Karen O'Brien ,
Asunción Lera St. Clair  and
Berit Kristoffersen
Karen O'Brien
Affiliation:
University of Oslo, Norway
Asunción Lera St. Clair
Affiliation:
University of Bergen, Norway
Berit Kristoffersen
Affiliation:
University of Tromsø, Norway
Karen O'Brien
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Oslo
Asunción Lera St. Clair
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Bergen, Norway
Berit Kristoffersen
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Tromsø, Norway
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Summary

Introduction

Climate change is now considered by many to be the most complex and serious environmental issue that human societies have ever faced. The science is unequivocal – human activities are influencing the climate system, contributing to increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, the widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising average global sea levels (IPCC, 2007). Well-known economists have shown that there are instrumental reasons to immediately minimise CO2 emissions (Stern, 2007), and these arguments are underscored by global assessments of the potential human impacts (UNDP, 2007/2008; Global Humanitarian Forum, 2009). Some voices argue that climate change is a cultural phenomenon that is reshaping understandings of humanity's place on Earth (Hulme, 2009), while others warn that ‘[w]e do not seem to have the slightest understanding of the seriousness of our plight’ (Lovelock, 2009: 4). Al Gore's famous statement that ‘the truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one that means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives’ (2006: 286) captures the essence of the climate change challenge. The problem is that we have very little idea about what exactly needs to be changed and why.

Although it has taken the global community and the general public many years to acknowledge the inconvenient truth pointed to by Gore, the urgency of responding to the climate crisis is becoming increasingly evident.

Type
Chapter
Information
Climate Change, Ethics and Human Security , pp. 3 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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