Chapter 13 · Resources

A Brief History of Climate Science and Politics

From the Framework Convention to the present — including the organized effort to manufacture doubt about the science.

Update to chapter 13

This chapter, which reviews the history of climate science and politics, ends in the printed book at the beginning of Biden’s term in early 2021. The update brings us through mid-2025.

Chapter 13 update, through mid-2025

drive.google.com ↗

The agreements themselves

Framework Convention on Climate Change Read the text.

unfccc.int ↗

Kyoto Protocol Read the text.

unfccc.int ↗

Copenhagen Accord Read the text.

unfccc.int ↗

Histories

The Discovery of Global Warming Spencer Weart has put together a web version of his book. I used that extensively when I was researching for this chapter.

aip.org ↗

The Charney Report The text of the 1979 Ad Hoc Study Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate. It always amazes me how similar this report is to the latest IPCC reports.

nationalacademies.org ↗

IPCC reports All of the IPCC’s reports can be downloaded here.

ipcc.ch ↗

A view from the future Chapter 13 covered the history of climate science and policy. For a different take, here’s a story written by Oreskes and Conway told from the perspective of a future historian describing how the future views the climate debate of today: The collapse of western civilization: A view from the future, Columbia Univ. Press, 2014. This book dovetails nicely with Jared Diamond’s exposition of how modern-day historians view the collapse of previous civilizations: Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed, Penguin Books, 2011.

ClimateGate

A history of ClimateGate One of the more interesting episodes in the public debate over climate is ClimateGate (an international scandal resulting from the unauthorized release of emails between climate scientists in England and the United States). For a nice summary of the event, look here.

motherjones.com ↗

What the investigations found Several investigations were conducted and it was agreed by all of them that this was much ado about nothing.

skepticalscience.com ↗

Ozone depletion

Basic ozone layer science If you want to know more about ozone depletion, the EPA has a site containing a lot of useful information.

epa.gov ↗

US-China efforts

The Secret Deal to Save the Planet Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone, Dec. 2014. This article describes what may be the turning point of international climate negotiations: the 2014 agreement between the U.S. and China to reduce emissions. A great read.

rollingstone.com ↗

Consensus on climate science, 2016

31 scientific organizations write to Congress A news report about a 2016 letter signed by 31 relevant scientific organizations agreeing with the mainstream view of climate science.

washingtonpost.com ↗

Merchants of doubt

A lot has been written about the efforts various groups have made to sow doubt about climate science. Oreskes and Conway’s book, Merchants of Doubt, is a must-read to understand this.

Merchants of Doubt Oreskes and Conway.

amazon.com ↗

Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air How ExxonMobil uses Big Tobacco’s tactics to manufacture uncertainty on climate science.

ucsusa.org ↗

The Climate Deception Dossiers Internal fossil fuel industry memos reveal decades of corporate disinformation.

ucsusa.org ↗

Recent U.S. efforts

The Paris Agreement If you want to know more about the Paris Agreement, an international agreement to reduce emissions and keep warming below 1.5-2°C, see chapters 3 and 4 of this open-source book.

springer.com ↗

The sunniest climate change story you’ll ever read A fantastic overview of the policy landscape on the eve of the meeting in Paris in Dec. 2015.

nymag.com ↗

As the World Burns R. Lizza, The New Yorker, October 11, 2010. A fascinating article about the ultimately unsuccessful attempt by three U.S. Senators to put together a climate change bill during the 2010 legislative session. It shows why it’s so hard to get anything done on this problem.

newyorker.com ↗