Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
The climate-change debate, like all policy debates, is fundamentally an argument over action. How shall we respond to climate change? Do the risks it poses call for action, and if so, how much effort – and money – shall we expend, and on what type of action? Listen to the debate and you will hear many different kinds of arguments – about whether and how the climate is changing, whether human activities are responsible, how much of the change occurring might be natural, how the climate might change in the future, what the effects of the changes will be and whether they matter, and the feasibility, advantages, and disadvantages of various responses. Although these arguments are distinct, when advanced in policy debate they all serve to make a case for what we should or should not do. They aim to convince others to support a particular course of action.
This chapter lays the foundation for understanding these arguments. The next section lays out the differences between the two kinds of claims advanced in policy debates, positive and normative claims. Sections 2.2 and 2.3 then discuss how science examines and tests positive claims, and how participants in policy debates use both positive and normative claims to build arguments for and against proposed courses of action. Section 2.4 examines what happens when scientific and policy debates intersect, as they do for climate change. Finally, Section 2.5 discusses the role of scientific assessment in managing the boundary between scientific and policy debate.
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