There’s no such thing as right and wrong when it comes to tackling climate change, says Mike Hulme. That’s why we need to stop looking for scapegoats and start engaging in honest discussion.
One of the enduring characteristics of public debates and political negotiations about climate change is that the protagonists end up arguing about different things. Political arguments masquerade as arguments about science; ethical arguments become economic ones. Legitimate differences about ideologies and values are reduced to trading blows about the ‘right’ numbers – the decimal points on rates of warming; the number of noughts in the cost of climate change. We are not being honest with one another. The consequence is that the quality of both science and public debate suffers.
Mike Hulme is Professor of climate change at the University of East Anglia. His latest book,Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity, is published by Cambridge University Press
