A Cautionary Tale

摘要

People are causing climate to change and it poses serious risks to society. Although there are many options for dealing with it-including some that could be tailored to fit smoothly with virtually any political viewpoint-decision makers have largely failed to agree on meaningful climate change risk management. Indeed, policy makers even disagree about whether there are risks to manage at all. The scientific community has been largely ineffective at engaging with the broader society, which contributes to the confusion and dysfunction that characterizes public discussions of climate change. This is the situation today. Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, both historians of science, build on it to create The Collapse of Western Civilization, a grim story of catastrophic climate change in the 21st century as viewed retrospectively from the close of the 24th century. From that distant perspective, the narrators look back at this century and analyze why the people of today failed to respond, even as the consequences of climate change became obvious and dire.