Table Of ContentClimate-Challenged Society
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Climate-Challenged
Society
By
John S. Dryzek , Richard B. Norgaard , and
David Schlosberg
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© John S. Dryzek, Richard B. Norgaard, and David Schlosberg 2013
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First Edition published in 2013
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Preface
We offer here a short and, we hope, clear, readable, and accessi-
ble book about the challenges that climate change presents, and
about how societies might respond. It is not a book about the
science of climate change, which we take as more or less given.
Nor is it just a survey of the work of others, though we do build
upon what others have done. This book is intended rather as
a critical and integrative introduction, written “with attitude,”
because we do not think that anyone else has yet really come to
grips with the full range of relevant issues, or set out the pieces
of the puzzle in effective fashion. While we do our best to fi t
the pieces together, the magnitude and inevitable persistence of
the climate challenge means that no once-and-for-all solution
identifi ed by us, or anyone else, is attainable. We synthesize and
deploy cutting-edge scholarship on climate change and society
in ways we hope provide the basis for intelligent thought and
collective action.
The biggest challenges prove to lie not in the science or
technical aspects of climate change itself, but rather in social,
economic, and political systems as they interact with natural
systems: be it in creating climate change, trying to prevent it, or
coping with its effects. Climate change presents us with a mirror
in which we can see the best and worst of human society. If cur-
rently the worst seems to have the upper hand, it does not have
to stay that way.
All three of us have worked on environmental issues, includ-
ing but not limited to climate change, for several decades. We
co-edited T he Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society
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Preface
(Oxford University Press, 2011), and this book is in some ways
an outgrowth of that large effort. The H andbook featured con-
tributions from 69 of the best people we could fi nd to write
chapters on 47 particular topics. What you now have in your
hand (or on your screen) is much shorter. While we cite many
Handbook chapters, this book is more than just a summary of
that much longer collection. As we have already noted, we try
here to put the pieces together (from the Handbook and else-
where), which has led us in signifi cant new directions. We owe
a lot to those 69 authors, and to many others we have worked
with on related issues.
John Dryzek would like to acknowledge in particular Hayley
Stevenson, with whom he has worked on the global governance
of climate change, and Simon Niemeyer, on the deliberative
aspects. He would also like to acknowledge the importance of
the associations he has developed as a member of the Science
Committee of the International Human Dimensions Program
on Global Environmental Change, the Earth System Governance
project, and the Climate Change Institute at the Australian
National University.
Richard Norgaard would like to acknowledge the opportuni-
ties he has had to acquire deeper insight through four decades
of working with faculty and graduate students in the Energy and
Resources Program at the University of California, Berkeley and
through his current service on the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, on climate advisory committees of Tsinghua
and Beijing Normal Universities, and the Delta Independent
Science Board of the State of California.
David Schlosberg would like to acknowledge colleagues at the
University of Sydney, in particular those in the Sydney Network
on Climate Change and Society and the Institute for Democracy
and Human Rights, for the warm and stimulating welcome to
a new environment—where thinking about the challenges of
climate change is, ironically, enjoyable. Thanks also are due
to longtime colleagues and friends in environmental political
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Preface
thought in the US, UK, and Australia for sharing their knowl-
edge and critiques.
We also agree we need to thank each other—it really has been
a thoroughly enlightening process producing both of these
books over the last fi ve years. We have not always agreed, but
the disagreements have always been fruitful.
As always it has been a true pleasure working with Dominic
Byatt, our editor at Oxford University Press, and his team.
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Contents
List of Figures x i
List of Acroynms and Abbreviations xiii
1. C limate’s Challenges 1
2. C onstructing Science and Dealing with Denial 20
3. T he Costs of Inaction and the Limits of Economics 38
4. A ctions that Promise and Practices that Fall Short 56
5. W hat’s Just? 75
6. G overnance 9 3
7. T he Anthropocene 111
8. T ransition, Resilience, and Reconstruction 129
Bibliography 1 49
Index 1 65
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