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I am afraid that I would suggest more caution in relation to addressing these issues for a number of reasons: 1) I am profoundly sceptical of any claims for a scientific consensus on any issue. The science behind the claims being made over climate change are much less exact and much more ambiguous than they are being presented to us. Surely this consensus/consent must have been mostly manufactured : "... the major decisions over what happens in [our] society ... are in the hands of a relatively concentrated network of major corporations and conglomerates and investment firms. They are also the ones who staff the major executive positions in the government. They're the ones who own the media and they're the ones who have to be in a position to make the decisions. They have an overwhelmingly dominant role in the way life happens. ... The control over resources and the need to satisfy their interests imposes very sharp constraints on the political system and on the ideological system.... there's two targets for propaganda. One is what's sometimes called the political class. There's maybe twenty percent of the population which is relatively educated, more or less articulate, plays some kind of role in decision-making. They're supposed to sort of participate in social life -- either as managers, or cultural managers like teachers and writers and so on. They're supposed to vote, they're supposed to play some role in the way economic and political and cultural life goes on. Now their consent is crucial. So that's one group that has to be deeply indoctrinated. Then there's maybe eighty percent of the population whose main function is to follow orders and not think, and not to pay attention to anything -- and they're the ones who usually pay the costs." (Noam Chomsky, 1992) Is there a concern that a heavy indoctrination process is going on with us in relation to climate change? I am not denying climate change (that would be on a par with holocaust denial these days), but I am very sceptical as to how this issue has reached the social and political agenda in the way that it has and with the strength that it has. 2) I am deeply uncomfortable with critics being vilified for expressing their views (perhaps through a concern for self-preservation!). It is increasingly difficult to question the truth claims being made around climate change and that is dangerous and foolish given the need for critical rigour in scientific work. Anyone who dares question the veracity of the climate change thesis at any level risks being ridiculed and ostracised. In a recent posting to our list we are being asked to view such critics as "the enemy" - a somewhat combative and devisive metaphor. It is politically very dangerous if we find ourselves unable to question any commonly held belief, whatever that belief might be. 3) For me the concern about 'global warming' and 'climate change' is the wrong place to start and could not galvanise all the people I know in our community psychology networks. If we had taken up this call in our networks, local groupings and our journals we might have found ourselves jimmied into supporting BAE's (UK arms manufacturer) Green initiatives last year to develop lead-free bullets, recyclable explosives, more efficient jet fuel for fighter planes, biodegradable landmines, 'bang free bombs', hybrid engined tanks and so on. Surely, we would have no option but to applaud them for doing their bit if Climate Change became a central concern. Acquiring an 'environmentally friendly' branding now appears to be masking all sorts of ghastly corporate social and state sponsored crimes against our communities. I am reminded of the claim in a TV advert that a certain car manufacturer (I forget which) in the UK had have reduced their carbon emissions from one of their manufacturing sites by around 30% (I forget how much). They failed to point out that this percentage reduction in emissions was exactly the same as the proportion of the workforce who were sacked from the site when it was downsized and production was moved overseas where labour was cheaper! Capitalists are forever looking for ways to dress their reasons for closing down factories and throwing soiled workers onto the scrap heap. The Climate Change lobby could well have landed them one on a plate. I wonder what sort of monstrosities we might find our own adoption of Green credentials might mask.....Incidentally, my university employer has recently decided to use the 'Green' argument as a rationale for moving staff out of their single occupancy offices and into shared offices - apparently better for the environment (co-incidentally saving the university massive revenue at the same time). So, in my institution 'Going Green' is being used to justify what many of my colleagues see as an erosion of their working environment and the use of the green argument gives them little ground for a moral defense i.e., you can't f~~k with the planet. 4) As well as there being powerful vested interests of the petrochemical industry in suggesting climate change is not happening, there are equally powerful vested interests of that industry (and others that act as proxies for the military-industrial complex) in suggesting it is happening. Indeed, I would say the latter are the greater. Carbon credit trading is a tool that is increasingly being tailored to further attack and exploit the poor and the clmate change agenda is increasingly morphing into a potentially powerful future damper on the economies of China and India when they threaten the economic, cultural and military hegemony of the USofAmerica and (less so) Europe in the future. The danger of galvanising around 'climate change' is that we might find ourselves with some very strange bedfellows and wake up on a series of unexpected bandwagons in the future. 5) For me the central issues of concern are the disasterous consequences of unrestrained, free-market capitalism, consumerist culture that encourages waste (both material and human) on a gargantuan scale and social inequalities so naked and noxious that the threat they pose to our sense of collective humanity usurps, in my mind, any concern for the survival of our species. Green issues are embedded in all these concerns (particularly the second), but are not what drives them. p ps 100% of the ideas in my email have been recycled from other sources Paul Duckett Division of Psychology and Social Change Manchester Metropolitan University England Phone +44 161 247 2552 Fax +44 161 247 6364 email: [log in to unmask] ___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on [log in to unmask] or Grant Jeffrey on [log in to unmask]