1 - The world stage
Cultural politics and climate change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances …
William Shakespeare, As You Like ItAs we progress in the twenty-first century, climate change has become a defining symbol of our collective relationship with the environment. Diagnoses (what it is) and prognoses (what we should do) make for high-stakes, high-profile and highly politicized science and policy deliberations. They cut to the heart of how we live, work, play and relax in modern life, and thus critically shape our everyday lives, lifestyles and livelihoods.
Nowadays ‘climate change’ is no longer thought of merely as an environmental or scientific issue. Rather, the Kautskian ‘climate question’ is considered one that, now more than ever, permeates our individual, as well as shared, economic, political, cultural and social lives. As the notion of climate change has increasingly dominated the contemporary science and policy landscapes, it has also more visibly inhabited public discourse, through news and entertainment media representations and ‘popular’ cultures. Considerations of climate change and reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have become engrained in cultural and social behaviour, where being Politically Correct (‘PC’) has often given way to being Climate Correct (‘CC’).
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- Who Speaks for the Climate?Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change, pp. 1 - 29Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011