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SUMMARY:A climate of conspiracy: a heated debate - Professor Davd Runciman
 \, Dr Alfred Moore
DTSTART:20141024T170000Z
DTEND:20141024T183000Z
UID:TALK54444@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Cambridge Festival of Ideas
DESCRIPTION:The climate change debate\, like many political controversies\
 , is riven with accusations of conspiracy. While climate conspiracy theori
 es may seem a distraction from the challenge of dealing with a changing gl
 obal climate\, they provide a starting point for an exploration of a relat
 ed burning issue: the state of democratic politics today\, and the hopes w
 e invest in it. This lecture will begin with an impersonation: a double-ac
 t. Two members of the University’s Conspiracy & Democracy research proje
 ct\, Professor David Runciman and Dr Alfred Moore\, will represent two ver
 y different types of climate conspiracist. Here’s a quick guide to their
  world views. Conspiracy theory one: climate change is a hoax. Environment
 alists and scientists have secretly coordinated to conjure the fear of a w
 arming planet in order to justify their own ideological projects and serve
  their own professional interests. They mask disagreement and present the 
 world with a 'consensus' that nobody is allowed to question. The veil was 
 lifted by the Climategate affair\, which showed leading climate scientists
  colluding to suppress awkward data\, hide their own work from critical sc
 rutiny\, and marginalise dissenters. Climate scientists are bound by membe
 rship in big institutions\, research universities\, and intergovernmental 
 panels. Dissenting experts are free of the pernicious compromises of insti
 tutions. Behind the science of climate change lies conspiracy. Conspiracy 
 theory two: the climate change conspiracy is itself a conspiracy. There is
  no credible disagreement on the science of climate change. The only disse
 nt comes from industry-funded studies\, think-tanks and websites. They are
  following the tobacco industry playbook of manufacturing doubt and emphas
 ising uncertainty\, in order to prevent public action that would cost them
  money. Climategate was a manufactured controversy. Those emails didn’t 
 reveal a conspiracy or a cover-up. They revealed the ordinary backstage of
  scientific life\, conducted under intense pressure from partisan opponent
 s. And is it a coincidence that the emails were leaked just days before th
 e Copenhagen summit on climate change policy? For all their obvious differ
 ences\, these two ways of looking at climate change have a surprising amou
 nt in common. They both focus more on discrediting the narratives of their
  opponents than on identifying an actual conspiracy. They both draw on a c
 onflicted view of science\, seeing it as corrupted and endangered by their
  opponents\, but appealing to the norms and images of science as a way of 
 uncovering the truth. They both present the issue in terms of a Manichean 
 struggle with the highest possible stakes\, the future of a free society a
 nd the future of the planet. And they both express in a new way some long-
 standing anxieties about democratic government. \n\nSee more at: www.festi
 valofideas.cam.ac.uk/events/climate-conspiracy-heated-debate#sthash.
LOCATION:Mill Lane Lecture Rooms \, Room 3\, 8 Mill Lane\, CB2 1RW
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