Culture, Politics and Climate Change

Edited by Deserai A. Crow and Maxwell T. Boykoff
Routledge

March 2014

Reviews & News

This important new book explores the cultural politics of climate change. With dispatches from the front lines of diverse fields and geographies, the authors provide some of the first maps of this fast evolving landscape underlying some of the most important decisions humanity will make in the 21st century.

–Anthony Leiserowitz,Yale University, USA

Climate change is the most important environmental challenge we face yet there has been little political action to address the problem. This volume examines the reasons for inaction, by considering different cultural and ethical perspectives and how the media plays a role in translating and presenting scientific information. It provides the most comprehensive assessment available, by leading experts in the field.

–Raymond Bradley, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

If you can't keep up with the fire hose of daily information and communication about climate change, much less make sense of what it all means and what it tells us about not just our climate, but also about our culture, the media, and the politics that choreograph our dance around the burning question of what to do about the problem, then I recommend you find a comfortable chair, step back from the heat, and read this book. Here are some great people trying to sort out the complex terrain of media and culture that lies between our everyday lives and the "grand stage" of climate change politics and policy-making. It is not all pretty, but it is helpful, and therefore hopeful.

–Susanne Moser, Susanne Moser Research & Consulting, Stanford, USA

The only thing more complex than the climate system is the tangle of meanings we've wrapped around it. The varied perspectives gathered in this important book go a long way toward unsnarling the cultural politics of climate change—the first step in weaving the stories and policies we’ll need to move forward.

–Jean Goodwin, Iowa State University, USA

From citizens' perspectives over the 'old' and 'new' media all the way to politics and decision-making – Crow and Boykoff’s volume is an excellent example of a societal turn in the analysis of climate change, and deals with its most pressing issues.

–Mike Schafer, University of Zurich, Switzerland