Disparagement of Climate Change Research: A Double Wrong

Abstract

The engineering profession has a critical role to play in the fight against climate change. It goes much further than risk management and the repair of structures damaged by extreme weather events such as persistent flooding. A crucial task is the development of a robust infrastructure capable of withstanding further weather onslaughts. New ways of working will be necessary to create resilient structures and services aimed at a low-carbon economy and the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Section C-2 of the March 2014 instalment of the fifth IPCC Report, IPCC WGII AR5 SPM, emphasises the importance of the development of adaptive learning in order to develop effective adaptation and mitigation measures to create climate-resilient infrastructures. This also needs to be reflected in the professional education of future engineers. The latest IPCC Report, IPCC WGIII AR5 SPM, stresses the global risk of climate change and the need to take steps to build resilience and sustainability, in urban areas in particular. Undoubtedly, this implies the involvement of the engineering profession. An understanding of the activities of forces committed to dismissal and misrepresentation of the scientific evidence of climate change is essential (see The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC), http://www.apegm.mb.ca/pdf/PD_Papers/cc-eng.pdf, 2014; Lucena et al., Integration of climate change in the analysis and design of engineered systems: barriers and opportunities for engineering education. In: Proceedings of the ASME 54914, vol 5, Engineering Education and Professional Development, pp 199–206, 2011; Parkinson, Tackling climate change – the role of the engineer. In: Women’s Engineering Society annual conference, ‘Proper Practice: Professionalism and Ethics in Engineering and Science’, SGR http://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/tackling-climate-change-role-engineer, 2003; The Royal Academy of Engineering, Infrastructure, engineering and climate change adaptation – ensuring services in an uncertain future. http://www.theiet.org/policy/collaboration/etf/infrastructure.cfm, 2011).

This chapter illustrates the way in which vested interests enable global warming scepticism to push concern over climate change to the background, damaging the reputation of climate science and climate scientists in the process. The first, introductory section explains the processes involved in climate change and the way in which it impacts adversely on human beings as well as the natural world. It also describes the role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the body accepted as defining the consensus view of the phenomenon. This is followed by a description of the preferred modes of those seeking to discredit the science in order to continue ‘business as usual’ and of the concerted efforts of organisations dedicated to this goal and of their sources of funding. The chapter then discusses two authors whose work subtly undermines the authority of climate science and concludes with the reaffirmation that doing one’s utmost to counteract the obfuscation is an inescapable ethical imperative.