Beyond Nonpartisan Discourses:Radical Knowledge for Extreme Times

• The majority of scientists agree on climate change and on the most daunting environmental problems humans arefacing today. Moved by a commendable desire to contribute to the solution of these problems, several scientists havedecided to speak up, telling the scientific truth about climate change to decision-makers and the public. Althoughappreciating the commitment to intervene in the public arena, I discuss some limits of these interventions. I arguethat stating the reality of climate change does not prescribe any specific solution and sometimes it seems faint indistributing responsibilities. I ask whether unveiling/knowing the truth can be enough to foster radicaltransformations. Can knowledge move people towards transformative actions if power relationships do not change?Various environmental justice controversies prove that even when science is certain—and this is rarely the case inthat kind of controversies—knowing might be not enough in the face of power structures preventing free choices and radical changes. In the end of my article, I state that it is fair to recognize that scientists have done their parts, and it is now up to social movements to foster the radical changes in power relationships that are needed for transforming societies.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Övrig annan humaniora (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Other Humanities not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Historiska studier av teknik, vetenskap och miljö

History of Science, Technology and Environment

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)