After decades of debate about global warming, the fact of the climate crisis is finally widely accepted. People at all scales—from the household to the global market—are attempting to govern climate to deal with its causes and impacts. Although the stakes are different now, governing climate is centuries old. In this book, Zeke Baker develops a genealogy of climate science that traces the relationship between those who have created knowledge of the climate and those who have attempted to gain power and govern society, right up to the present, historic moment. Baker draws together over two centuries of science, politics, and environmental change to demonstrate the "co-production" of climate knowledge and power-seeking activity, with a focus on the United States. This book provides a fresh account of contemporary issues transecting science and climate politics, specifically the rise of "climate security," and examines how climate science can either facilitate or reconcile the unequal distribution of power and resources.
Zeke Baker is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and coeditor of Climate, Science and Society.
ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Governing Climate in the Past, Present, and Future Part I. Climate Change and the Coproduction of Meteorological and Social Order1. Governing Climate in Early America, 1770–1840 2. Meteorological Frontiers: Climate Knowledge, Territory, and State Formation, 1800–1850 Part II. Stabilizing Climate, Economizing Weather3. Climate Does Not Change: Agricultural Capitalism,Climatology, and the Stabilization of Climate, 1850–1920 4. Economic Rationalization of Weather:Risk, Prediction, and “Normal” Weather, 1870–1930Part III. Climate Crisis and the Politics of Climate Expertise5. The Climate State and the Origins of a Climate Science Field, 1930–1980s 6. Governing Climate Futures: Environmental Security and Security Technologies 7. Future Struggles: Climate Security Experts and the Depoliticization of the Climate Future Conclusion: Legible Alternatives? RemakingClimate, Rethinking Climatic Stability Notes References Index
“A great read to stretch the mind. . . Spengler interrogates that idea in conjunction with the core of Darwin’s great idea, when he says. . .’Darwin used domestication as his most compelling case study for convincing humanity that evolution is real’.”
