You'll find this history traced pretty thoroughly in this volume: Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks, Vol. 1: A Comparative History of Social Responses to Climate Change, Ozone Depletion, and Acid Rain, Social Learning Group (Author), William C. Clark (Foreword)
Your sketch of a broad difference between the timing in the science and NGO communities may have something to it, but an alternative view would be worth considering. That is, scientists and NGOs got much more serious about climate change at around the same time, as they both reacted simultaneously to 1) evolving science, especially the work showing how much worse things looked when you considered the effects of all GHGs, not just CO2, 2) dialogues with each other, at major international conferences and in expert groups, and 3) shifting political and public climates driven by heat waves and green political victories. If you consider the 1989 Toronto conference the culmination of the various dynamics over the 1980s, by then NGOs and scientists were more or less equally ambitious in promoting an aggressive climate change agenda. - Marc On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 4:45 PM, Dale W Jamieson <[email protected]> wrote: > > dear colleagues, > > having lived through a particular historical period, i’m once again in the > embarrassing position of looking for studies that confirm my memories (or > show that i was actually elsewhere at the time). > > i experienced the rise of the climate change issue in the 1980s as > science-led, with environmental groups being late to the issue, in part > because (begin speculation) 1)it’s a difficult issue scientifically and > experientiallym so there was a predictable time lag 2)fears that it would > bring in nuclear power 3) fears that it would be a difficult issue to > communicate and raise money around. > > can you suggest sources that show that i’m either right or wrong about these > things? > > thanks, > > dale > > ********************** > Dale Jamieson > Director of Environmental Studies > Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy > Affiliated Professor of Law > Environmental Studies Program > New York University > 285 Mercer Street, 901 > New York NY 10003-6653 > Voice 212-998-5429 > Fax 212-995-4157 > http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/object/dalejamieson.html > > "Talk to people where they're at--not where you're at."--Saul Alinsky > > -
