Reframing climate change : constructing ecological geopolitics / edited by Shannon O'Lear and Simon Dalby.

"Change the system, not the climate" is a common slogan of climate change activists. Yet when this idea comes into the academic and policy realm, it is easy to see how climate change discourse frequently asks the wrong questions. Reframing Climate Change encourages social scientists, policy-makers, and graduate students to critically consider how climate change is framed in scientific, social, and political spheres. It proposes ecological geopolitics as a framework for understanding the extent to which climate change is a meaningful analytical focus, as well as the ways in which it can be detrimental, detracting attention from more productive lines of thought, research, and action.


The volume draws from multiple perspectives and disciplines to cover a broad scope of climate change. Chapter topics range from climate science and security to climate justice and literacy. Although these familiar concepts are widely used by scholars and policy-makers, they are discussed here as frequently problematic when used as lenses through which to study climate change. Beyond merely reviewing current trends within these different approaches to climate change, the collection offers a thoughtful assessment of these approaches with an eye towards an overarching reconsideration of the current understanding of our relationship to climate change.


Reframing Climate Change is an essential resource for students, policy-makers, and anyone interested in understanding more about this important topic. Who decides what the priorities are? Who benefits from these priorities, and what kinds of systems or actions are justified or hindered? The key contribution of the book is the outlining of ecological geopolitics as a different way of understanding human-environment relationships including and beyond climate change issues.

Reframing the climate change discussion / Shannon O'Lear and Simon Dalby -- Postmodern interpretations / Leigh Glover -- The climate of communication : from detection to danger / Chris Russill -- Disconnecting climate change from conflict : a methodological proposal / Emily Meierding -- Climate justice : climate change, resource conflicts and social justice / Paul Routledge -- Climate change and the insecurity frame / Simon Dalby -- Geopolitics and climate science : the case of the missing embodied carbon / Shannon O'Lear -- Technology and politics in the Anthropocene : visions of "solar radiation management" / Thilo Wiertz -- Biofuels : climate solution or environmental pariah? / James Smith and Shaun Ruysenaar -- Novel framings create new, unexpected allies for climate activism / Andrew Szasz -- Catastrophe insurance and the biopolitics of climate change adaptation / Kevin J. Grove -- Resisting climate security discourse: restoring "the political" in climate change politics / Angela Oels -- Towards ecological geopolitics : climate change reframed / Simon Dalby and Shannon O'Lear.

1. Introduction: Reframing the climate change discussion Shannon O'Lear and Simon Dalby 2. Postmodern interpretations Leigh Glover 3. The climate of communication: from detection to danger Chris Russill 4. Disconnecting climate change from conflict: a methodological proposal Emily Meierding 5. Climate justice: climate change, resource conflicts and social justice Paul Routledge 6. Climate change and the insecurity frame Simon Dalby 7. Geopolitics and climate science: the case of the missing embodied carbon Shannon O'Lear 8. Technology and politics in the Anthropocene: visions of "solar radiation management" Thilo Wiertz 9. Biofuels: climate solution or environmental pariah? James Smith and Shaun Ruysenaar 10. Novel framings create new, unexpected allies for climate activism Andrew Szasz 11. Catastrophe insurance and the biopolitics of climate change adaptation Kevin J. Grove 12. Resisting climate security discourse: restoring "the political" in climate change politics Angela Oels 13. Towards ecological geopolitics: climate change reframed Simon Dalby and Shannon O'Lear

Includes bibliographical references and index.