Drawing on interviews with leading UK climate scientists and communicators, the authors argue that the climate science community's continued attachment to an idealised picture of value-free scientific rationality produces a 'socially constructed silence' - protecting researchers at an unconscious level from the emotional turbulence aroused by the politicisation of climate change, but leaving policymakers poorly served by open conversation about the science.
Socially Constructed Silence? Protecting Policymakers from the Unthinkable
2016
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Drawing on interviews with leading UK climate scientists and communicators, the authors argue that the climate science community's continued attachment to an idealised picture of value-free scientific rationality produces a 'socially constructed silence' - protecting researchers at an unconscious level from the emotional turbulence aroused by the politicisation of climate change, but leaving policymakers poorly served by open conversation about the science.
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