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Dædalus Issue Is “Witnessing Climate Change Dædalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Fall 2020 Witnessing Climate Change Nancy L. Rosenblum, guest editor with Robert Jay Lifton · Naomi Oreskes Robert H. Socolow · Dennis F. Thompson Michael B. Gerrard · Mark A. Mitchell Patrick L. Kinney · Rebecca Henderson David W. Titley · Elke U. Weber · Jessica F. Green Rafe Pomerance · Carolyn Kormann Scott Gabriel Knowles · Antonio Oposa Jr. Dædalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences “Witnessing Climate Change” Volume 149, Number 4; Fall 2020 Nancy L. Rosenblum, Guest Editor Phyllis S. Bendell, Managing Editor and Director of Publications Peter Walton, Associate Editor Heather M. Struntz, Assistant Editor Committee on Studies and Publications John Mark Hansen, Chair; Rosina Bierbaum, Johanna Drucker, Gerald Early, Carol Gluck, Linda Greenhouse, John Hildebrand, Philip Khoury, Arthur Kleinman, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Alan I. Leshner, Rose McDermott, Michael S. McPherson, Frances McCall Rosenbluth, Scott D. Sagan, Nancy C. Andrews (ex officio), David W. Oxtoby (ex officio), Diane P. Wood (ex officio) Inside front cover: Unknown artist, The Dramatic Birth of a Giant Iceberg, originally printed in The Popular Science Educator, Volume 2, edited by Charles Ray (London: The Amalgamated Press, 1935). Contents 6 Introduction: Paths to Witnessing, Ethics of Speaking Out Nancy L. Rosenblum 25 On Becoming Witnessing Professionals Robert Jay Lifton 33 What Is the Social Responsibility of Climate Scientists? Naomi Oreskes 46 Witnessing for the Middle to Depolarize the Climate Change Conversation Robert H. Socolow 67 The Professional Ethics of Witnessing Professionals Dennis F. Thompson 79 An Environmental Lawyer’s Fraught Quest for Legal Tools to Hold Back the Seas Michael B. Gerrard 96 Racism as a Motivator for Climate Justice Mark A. Mitchell 108 From Air Pollution to the Climate Crisis: Leaving the Comfort Zone Patrick L. Kinney 118 Climate in the Boardroom: Struggling to Reconcile Business as Usual & the End of the World as We Know It Rebecca Henderson 125 Task Force Climate Change: A Patron Saint of Lost Causes, or Just Ahead of Its Time? David W. Titley 139 Seeing Is Believing: Understanding & Aiding Human Responses to Global Climate Change Elke U. Weber 151 Less Talk, More Walk: Why Climate Change Demands Activism in the Academy Jessica F. Green 163 A Conversation Nancy L. Rosenblum & Rafe Pomerance 180 The Coral Is Not All Dead Yet Carolyn Kormann 192 Slow Disaster in the Anthropocene: A Historian Witnesses Climate Change on the Korean Peninsula Scott Gabriel Knowles 207 Let Me Tell You a Story Antonio Oposa Jr. Dædalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences The pavement labyrinth once in the nave of Reims Cathedral (1240), in a drawing, with figures of the architects, by Jacques Cellier (c. 1550–1620) Dædalus was founded in 1955 and established as a quarterly in 1958. The journal’s namesake was renowned in ancient Greece as an inventor, scientist, and unriddler of riddles. Its emblem, a maze seen from above, symbolizes the aspiration of its founders to “lift each of us above his cell in the labyrinth of learning in order that he may see the entire structure as if from above, where each separate part loses its comfortable separateness.” The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, like its journal, brings together distinguished individuals from every field of human endeavor. It was chartered in 1780 as a forum “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Now in its third century, the Academy, with its more than five thousand members, continues to provide intellectual leadership to meet the critical chal- lenges facing our world. Dædalus Fall 2020 Advertising and mailing-list inquiries may Issued as Volume 149, Number 4 be addressed to Marketing Department, MIT Press Journals, One Rogers Street, Cambridge © 2020 by the American Academy MA 02142-1209. Phone: 617 253 2866. Fax: 617 of Arts & Sciences. 253 1709. Email: [email protected]. Editorial offices: , American Academy Dædalus To request permission to photocopy or repro- of Arts & Sciences, 136 Irving Street, Cambridge duce content from Dædalus, please complete an MA 02138. Phone: 617 576 5085. Fax: 617 576 5088. online request form at http://www.mitpress Email: [email protected]. journals.org/rights_permission, or contact the Library of Congress Catalog No. 12-30299. Permissions Manager at MIT Press Journals, One Rogers Street, Cambridge MA 02142-1209. Fax: Dædalus publishes by invitation only and 617 253 1709. Email: [email protected]. assumes no responsibility for unsolicited man- uscripts. The views expressed are those of the Corporations and academic institutions with author(s) of each essay, and not necessarily valid photocopying and/or digital licenses with of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) may re - produce content from Dædalus under the terms Dædalus (ISSN 0011-5266; E-ISSN 1548-6192) is of their license. Please go to www.copyright published quarterly (winter, spring, summer, .com; CCC, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers MA fall) by The MIT Press, One Rogers Street, 01923. Cambridge ma 02142-1209, for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. An electronic full- Printed in the United States by The Sheridan text version of Dædalus is available from The Press, 450 Fame Avenue, Hanover PA 17331. MIT Press. Sub scription and address changes Newsstand distribution by TNG, 1955 Lake should be addressed­­ to MIT Press Journals Cus- Park Drive, Ste. 400, Smyrna GA 30080. tomer Service, One Rogers Street, Cambridge MA 02142-1209. Phone: 617 253 2889; U.S./ Postmaster: Send address changes to Dædalus, Canada 800 207 8354. Fax: 617 577 1545. Email: One Rogers Street, Cambridge MA 02142-1209. [email protected]. Periodicals postage paid at Boston MA and at additional mailing offices. In January 2021, Dædalus will become an Open Access title. The typeface is Cycles, designed by Sumner Stone at the Stone Type Foundry of Guinda Single issues: $15 for individuals; $38 for CA. Each size of Cycles has been sep arately institutions. Outside the United States and designed in the tradition of metal types. Canada, add $6 per issue for postage and han- dling. Prices subject to change without notice. Claims for missing issues will be honored free of charge if made within three months of the publication date of the issue. Claims may be submitted to [email protected]. Members of the American Academy please direct all questions and claims to [email protected]. Introduction: Paths to Witnessing, Ethics of Speaking Out Nancy L. Rosenblum riting about the threat of nuclear catastrophe in The Fate of the Earth, Jonathan Schell observed: “the act of thinking about it is always vol- W untary, and the choice of not thinking about it is always available.”1 The same can be said for most of us, most of the time, when it comes to the un- thinkable of unchecked climate change. But the choice is not available to men and women whose work is to comprehend the radical dangers of climate change, and to act on what they know. For the authors in this issue of Dædalus–along with many other scientists, doctors, public health experts, social scientists, lawyers, journalists, business consultants, and military officers–climate change shapes their professional identity and expands their sense of responsibility. They find thinking about its many elements within strict disciplinary confines constraining, and the codes of professional ethics that govern day-to-day practice inadequate. The extraordinary challenges they confront require more. They push the bounds of their fields and they push themselves to becomewitnessing professionals. The term witnessing professionals is not part of common parlance. Yet we need a name for those who speak out from the vantage point of their specialized knowledge about the dangers posed by crises like climate change. In this volume, the authors reflect on their paths into climate work and bearing witness to what they know. Each focuses on a different aspect of climate change’s effects and re- sponses to it, so that this constellation of essays helps us grasp that climate change is not one single fearful thing. The familiar phrase obscures its many-sidedness. We may, as Carolyn Kormann writes in her contribution to this collection, “try to see the whole of the moon,” but we must also appreciate the innumerable, dy- namic facets of climate change.2 Its devastation is pluralistic. It ravages the earth as we know it: Arctic ice, rain forests, islands, and reefs; health and habitats; eco- nomic systems and social arrangements; and for many people worldwide, it de- ranges everyday life. Climate change is all encompassing, and so is the domain of witnessing professionals. © 2020 by Nancy L. Rosenblum 6 https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_e_01813 Nancy L. Rosenblum As I write (July 2020), professionals are speaking out about another global threat: a pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, a highly communicable virus causing disease, death, and massive social and economic dislocation. Epidemiologists and public health authorities track the path of the COVID-19 contagion and recommend poli- cies and practices in an attempt to contain its spread. They document the nation’s ongoing unpreparedness: inadequate supplies of tests for the virus and store of protective equipment, ventilators, and ICUs. They issue grim warnings about misinformation coming from government officials in the United States, begin- ning with the president, and they report the erratic, disorganized actions taken by inexperienced political appointees who head the very federal agencies charged with managing national emergencies. A trauma doctor spoke out in The New York Times: “The sky is falling. I’m not afraid to say it.”3 They become witnesses. The authors of “Witnessing Climate Change” address a global phenomenon that is slower moving than viral contamination and has no foreseeable end.
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