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The Sublime of Climate Change A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details !1 The sublime of climate change Nicholas Gallie A thesis submitted in September 2017 in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy SPRU - Science Policy and Technology Research Unit BMEc University of Sussex !2 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been, and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signed: ……………………………………………………………. Nicholas Gallie !3 Thesis summary Thesis title: The sublime of climate change. The category sublime, when applied to the natural world, has long been associated in Western culture, with extremes of vastness and power. When encountered, that which is deemed sublime, by virtue of these qualities, has the effect of overwhelming the mind, such that it is thrown simultaneously into a state of astonishment, admiration and horror. We are both humbled and elevated by what we behold and momentarily struck dumb, such that, in its Kantian formulation, our appreciation of that which we take to be sublime, granted us through the powers of reason, has the effect of ennobling us, as moral beings. The concept of the sublime has continuously evolved from its classical origins right up to its present day post-modern formulations. The diversity of its forms suggests that the sublime can be regarded as polythetic. My thesis examines, how, through its different formulations, the sublime may be meaningfully applied to our perceptions of present day climate change, and the different implications arising from these applications. My thesis asks: what is the sublime of climate change? When we look at climate change through the lens of the sublime, what do we see, and what is obscured? What is the effect on us, of opening ourselves to climate change as sublime? What implications might the sublime of climate change have for the future direction of society and therefore for the construction of climate policy and for its communication? Original research, in the form of in-depth, unstructured, one to one interviews was conducted among senior climate scientists, business leaders and policy makers, writers and academics, inviting them to explore the theme of climate change, science and the sublime. My thesis findings are derived from my analysis of these discussions. !4 Contents Acknowledgements 9 Chapter 1 Introduction 10 Chapter 2 Research methodology 19 The search for method and meaning 19 Context 27 Privacy 28 Dialogue 29 Improvisation 29 Method of analysis 30 Bias in interpreting the interviews 32 An interpretive approach 32 Thematic analysis 34 Group versus individual analysis 37 Analytic narrative 38 Reading as method 40 A note on reflexivity 41 Design limitations 42 Chapter 3 Findings and implications 45 Introduction 45 Findings from theory 46 Implications from theory 48 Findings from the analysis of the first trance of interviews 49 Interviewees present their own versions of climate change 49 The sublime has disruptive potential 50 Interviewees feel themselves cut off or alienated from climate change 51 The delusion of a safe place 51 Climate change as impetus for existential exploration 52 Mobius model of revolutionary change 52 The importance of the individual 52 !5 Findings from the analysis of the second tranche of interviews 53 Interviews confirm multidimensional sublime 55 The long view: at the edge of a radical state change in the Earth system 55 Distancing is a response to the overwhelming power of climate change 55 Climate change is withdrawn and unpresentable 56 The super complexity of climate change militates against a closed Discourse 56 Climate change is not directly presentable 56 Sense of finality tends to close off reasoned debate 57 Interviewees who are more immediately engaged in climate change response projects are less despairing of climate change than climate scientists looking at the big picture. 57 Appreciative sublime motivates a positive response to the challenges of climate change 58 Comparing the findings 58 Implications 59 For science 59 For policy makers 60 For NGOs 61 For business 61 For communities 61 For individuals 62 Chapter 4 The sublime: an evolutionary sketch 64 Introduction 64 Longinus 66 The classical sublime: Kant and Burke 70 The Romantic sublime: Coleridge 73 The technological sublime 74 The post-modern sublime: Jameson and hyper-space 75 The postmodern-sublime: Lyotard, the failure of presentation 78 The sudden intrusion of the excluded: the production of the sublime 82 Example: 9/11 84 The sublime of climate change: hyper-objectivity 88 The sublime of climate change; super complexity and the internet of things 93 Climate change as a wicked problem 95 The Sapphic sublime 101 The Sublime of finitude: Tsang 103 !6 Conclusion: a polythetic sublime 105 Chapter 5 Analysis of the first tranche of interviews 107 Approaching the analysis 107 Introduction 107 Thematic analysis by group and by individual 108 The dialogues 109 The sublime as bias 109 Themes 111 Hegemony 111 Neoliberalism 113 Targets 114 The machine 114 Ideology of the individual 115 Post politics 115 Gesture politics 116 Marxist critique 116 De-growth 117 Desire 118 The sublime 119 Safe place 121 Postponement 122 Deflection 123 Apocalyptic thinking 123 Societal breakdown 124 Moral damage 126 Existential exploration 127 Happiness 128 Review of the major themes 129 Minor themes 130 Interdependence 130 Deep paradigm 131 Discussion 132 Thematic reconstruction of the interviews 132 The limits of thematic analysis: individual narrative reconstructions 134 Individual narratives 134 Individual allegiance 135 !7 KC interview 136 NS interview 137 DT interview 137 QK interview 138 OPK interview 138 LT interview 139 Discussion 140 Chapter 6 Analysis of the second tranche of interviews 142 Overview 142 introduction 143 The mathematical sublime; climate change in the long view 146 The long view and the reverse narrative 148 The sublime of super-complexity: the prospect of system change 151 Responding to the super-complexity of anthropogenic climate change 154 The dynamical sublime and the overwhelming power of climate change 157 Semantic distancing from the dynamical sublime 158 Emotional distancing from the dynamical sublime 160 Denial as distancing from the dynamical sublime 161 The unpresentable sublime: climate change and its representations 163 Risk and post normality as representations of climate change 165 Moral framing as a representation of climate change 167 The apocalypse as a representation of climate change 171 The appreciative sublime and the calling of climate change 172 What we think we know 175 The postmodern sublime and the shifting nature of the safe place 176 Conclusion 179 Chapter 7 Review 181 References 182 Appendices 195 !8 List of figures map of the world at 4 degrees of warming……………………………15 thematic map of first tranche of interviews……………………………33 thematic map of second tranche of interviews……………………….36 Picasso Guernica………………………………………………………139 !9 Acknowledgements I acknowledge first and foremost the support and counselling of my supervisors, Professors Andy Stirling and Jane Cowan. Their guiding hands are present in much of what follows and I am deeply indebted to them for sticking with me throughout a project that sits near the extremes of what would normally count as a credible subject for a thesis on science and technology policy. As I state in my chapter on Research Methodology, the project has elements of both a polemic and an analysis, and this difficult combination of approaches has taken careful crafting and has not at all been straightforward to supervise. The project, of course would be nothing without the input from all those who contributed to the interviews. I would name you in person but have promised to protect your identities. But it is difficult for me to state how indebted I am to you for the insights you shared with me. I am indebted to the University of Sussex Library and the British Library for source materials including access to online academic journals. As I count my practices of meditation and tai chi as parallel and vital sources of insight that have contributed to the project, I give my thanks to my teachers Prem Rawat and Mark Stevenson. Finally to my family, thank you for your inspiration and support over the long haul. The research reported in this thesis was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Science Research Council. Nick Gallie. East Sussex. September 2017. !10 Chapter 1 Introduction Conventionally, a doctoral thesis is written with the aim of bringing some significant new knowledge or insight to bear on a topic of academic importance or concern. This thesis, by contrast, is written with the aim of bringing some significant – hitherto largely unapplied – old knowledge to bear on a major current topic of academic importance and concern: anthropogenic climate change, in order to develop new insights. In the following, anthropogenic climate change is discussed from the perspective of the sublime. Right at the end of my research process, having interviewed some twenty senior climate scientists, policy makers, advisors, lobbyists, NGO principals, business leaders, clerics and academic commentators on climate change, I spoke to a senior environmental ethicist and philosopher DC about her view of the sublime and its possible relevance to present day perceptions of climate change.
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