Product Description
Climate change is not 'a problem' waiting for 'a solution'. It is an environmental, cultural and political phenomenon which is re-shaping the way we think about ourselves, our societies and humanity's place on Earth. Drawing upon twenty-five years of professional work as an international climate change scientist and public commentator, Mike Hulme provides a unique insider's account of the emergence of this phenomenon and the diverse ways in which it is understood. He uses different standpoints from science, economics, faith, psychology, communication, sociology, politics and development to explain why we disagree about climate change. In this way he shows that climate change, far from being simply an 'issue' or a 'threat', can act as a catalyst to revise our perception of our place in the world. Why We Disagree About Climate Change is an important contribution to the ongoing debate over climate change and its likely impact on our lives.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 5 reviews)

A path-breaking book by Steven Schwarze (Missoula, MT United States)

5 Stars
October 28, 2009
I'm afraid the one-star reviews are missing the point of Hulme's book. His observations about the disagreements that arise in regard to climate change do a great service in revealing the complexity of this issue. Each of his chapters shows how the *idea* of climate change has become embedded in disputes that are inherent to the human condition--what we value, how we perceive risk, how we should govern--so that disagreement about how to address climate change is likely to persist. For Hulme, the upshot is not that climate change is *merely* a political issue, but that it will never be solved once and for all precisely because it is so embedded in these enduring disputes.

Climate change in a more creative and less pejorative discourse by ROROTOKO (www.rorotoko.com)

5 Stars
October 13, 2009
"Why We Disagree About Climate Change" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Hulme's book interview ran here as cover feature on October 9, 2009.

A truly disturbing look at why global warming alarmists lie about the science by Joseph Bast (Chicago)

1 Stars
July 22, 2009
Having participated in the national and international debate over climate change for more than 15 years, I eagerly bought and read this book in the hope that it would examine the ideas and motives of both sides in the global warming debate. But that is not what this book is about. The author, Mike Hulme, is a professor of climate change at the University of East Anglia, in the UK. He helped write the influential reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and many other government agencies that are commonly cited by alarmists in the debate. He has been one of the most prominent scientists declaring that "the debate is over" and that man-made global warming will be a catastrophe. In this book, Hulme comes clean about the uncertain state of scientific knowledge about global warming, something alarmists almost never admit in public. For example, he writes, "the three questions examined above - What is causing climate change? By how much is warming likely to accelerate? What level of warming is dangerous? - represent just three of a number of contested or uncertain areas of knowledge about climate change." (p. 75) Later he admits, "Uncertainty pervades scientific predictions about the future performance of global and regional climates. And uncertainties multiply when considering all the consequences that might follow from such changes in climate." (p. 83) On the subject of the IPCC's credibility, he admits it is "governed by a Bureau consisting of selected governmental representatives, thus ensuring that the Panel's work was clearly seen to be serving the needs of government and policy. The Panel was not to be a self-governing body of independent scientists." (p. 95) All this is exactly what global warming "skeptics" have been saying for years. It is utterly damning to the alarmists' case to read these words in a book by one of their most prominent scientists. How does Hulme justify hiding these truths from the general public? He calls climate change "a classic example of ... `post-normal science,'" and quoting Silvio Funtowicz and Jerry Ravetz, defines this as "the application of science to public issues where `facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent.'" Issues that are put into the category of "post-normal science" are no longer subject to the cardinal requirements of true science: skepticism, universalism, communalism, and disinterestedness. In "post-normal science," consensus substitutes for true science. Political processes run by government bureaucracies, like the IPCC, are created to determine the views of a majority of carefully selected scientists. Any questioning of their statements and claims is dismissed as coming from the "fringe" of the scientific community. From this reasoning comes the claims of James Hansen, Al Gore, and many other alarmists that "the debate is over" and there is "virtually unanimous consensus" about the causes and consequences of global warming, even though according to the rules of true science, and scientists like Mike Hulme, the debate is definitely not over and there is no consensus. Having freed himself from the restraints of true science, Hulme can indulge his political biases. In another amazing admission, he says his views on global warming are inseparable from his politics--he's a self-described socialist. He writes, "The idea of climate change should be seen as an intellectual resource around which our collective and personal identities and projects can form and take shape. We need to ask not what we can do for climate change, but to ask what climate change can do for us." (p. 326) According to Hulme, climate change can do a lot: "Because the idea of climate change is so plastic, it can be deployed across many of our human projects and can serve many of our psychological, ethical, and spiritual needs." In other words, socialists like Hulme can frame the global warming issue to achieve unrelated goals such as sustainable development, income redistribution, population control, social justice, and many other items on the liberal/socialist wishlist. Like the notorious Stephen Schneider, who once said, "We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts one might have. ... Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest," Hulme writes, "We will continue to create and tell new stories about climate change and mobilise them in support of our projects." These "myths," he writes, "transcend the scientific categories of `true' and `false'." He suggests that his fellow global warming alarmists promote four myths, which he labels Lamenting Eden, Presaging Apocalypse, Constructing Babel, and Celebrating Jubilee. It is troubling to read a prominent scientist who has so clearly lost sight of his cardinal duty--to be skeptical of all theories and always open to new data. It is particularly troubling when this scientist endorses lying to advance his personal political agenda.

Pseudo-scientific manipulation by Situated Agent (Chicago)

1 Stars
July 17, 2009
Despite the title of this book, Hulme omits arguments that disagree with his own. And then he argues that "Because the idea of climate change is so plastic" (p. 329), it can be used to achieve a wide range of pet political objectives. This turns science on its head. Instead of considering an issue dispassionately, he ignores evidence that would call his position into question. Rather, he wants to use a supposedly scientific issue to manipulate the public on unrelated policy issues. Wasting your money on this book would only further the hoax he is trying to commit.

Excellent, but we are weary of climate change by Brian H. Fiedler (Oklahoma)

4 Stars
July 13, 2009
Here it the last sentence of "A question of balance" by William Nordhaus: "Slow, steady, universal, predictable and boring --- these are probably the secrets for successful policies to combat global warming." A key word here is "boring". This book by Mike Hulme is not boring, it is excellent for what it is trying to achieve, but in 2009 the issue is boring. A reader of this book --- a true reader, a reader that makes it to page 364 --- will likely already be knowledgeable of global warming, in particular the little stub of CO2 radiative forcing (among others), with its small error bars, that we see in the familiar IPCC bar chart. The science about that stub is solid, and yes we recognize a little bit more uncertainty in the feedbacks the bring about the temperature rise associated with that radiative forcing, and more uncertainty in regional impacts, but that has all been analyzed. With the US climate bill now pledging a 17% reduction in US CO2 emissions by 2020, Nordhaus's conjecture is now reality. The climate activist can perhaps take a break, as the public has, and let global warming go the way of social security reform. A 17% reduction in US CO2 emission will be rather painless, and, of course, ineffectual. But the people have spoken and global warming has been appropriately "combated". For the reader browsing this book off the shelf in a bookstore, I recommend turning to page 330, where we find a section 10.2 titled "Why Climate Change Will Not Be Solved". (This is a five star book, save for the "climate change" keyword). On page 336 we read: "This global solution-structure also begs a fundamental question which is rarely addressed in the respective fora where these debates and disagreements surface: What is the ultimate performance metric for the human species, what is it that we are seeking to optimise?" And on the bottom of the penultimate page: "But so too will the idea of climate change keep changing as we find ways of using it to meet our needs. We will continue to create and tell new stories about climate change and mobilise these stories in support of our projects." And at the finish line: "But let us at least recognise that the source of our disagreement about climate change lie deep within us, in our values and in our sense of identity and purpose. They do not reside 'out there', a result of our inability to grasp knowingly some ultimate physical reality." The book is masterfully convincing in supporting those above two sentences. For those aiming to show their class the latest palaeoclimatological evidence in support of the assessment of albedo feedback, or the latest satellite measurements that quantify water vapor feedback, you probably already know that this book will not be helpful for that. But if you want to reflect upon how disseminating such knowledge to a class fits into the grand scheme of things, and how your students might incorporate such knowledge into their own personal climate change narrative, this book is worthwhile reading.

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