Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Fossil-Fuelled Climate Crisis

  • 227 Accesses

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change has socioeconomic causes, socioeconomic consequences, and if it has solutions, they will be socioeconomic ones. Since it is a cumulative danger, the terms ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change’ are now too benign to characterize it. This introductory chapter shows why the threat constitutes a creeping crisis. The danger is profound because it is caused by the side effects of the energy that powers everything needed and enjoyed in modern societies. Three perspectives are integrated to analyse climate change: Murphy’s social closure framework, Shove’s social practices approach, and the externalities theory of environmental economists. The chapter argues that a social science investigation of climate change needs to build on the natural science understanding of this foreseeable threat having unforeseeable specific consequences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adam, Barbara. 1995. Timewatch: The Social Analysis of Time. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adam, Barbara. 1998. Timescapes of Modernity: The Environment and Invisible Hazards. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adam, Barbara. 2000. The Media Timescapes of BSE News. In Environmental Risks and the Media, ed. S. Allan, B. Adam, and C. Carter, 117–129. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. 1995. Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benton, T. 1994. Biology and Social Theory in the Environmental Debate. In Social Theory and the Global Environment, ed. M. Redclift and T. Benton, 28–50. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benton, Ted. 2001. Why Are Sociologists Naturephobes? In After Postmodernism, ed. J. Lopes and G. Potter. London: Athlone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berners-Lee, M., and D. Clark. 2013. The Burning Question. London: Profile.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birkland, T.A. 1998. Focusing Events, Mobilization, and Agenda Setting. Journal of Public Policy 18 (1): 53–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blühdorn, I. 2011. The Politics Of Unsustainability: COP15, Post-ecologism, and the Ecological Paradox. Organization & Environment 24 (1): 34–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boström, Magnus, Debra J. Davidson, and Stewart Lockie. 2018. Conclusions: A Proposal for a Brave New World of Conceptual Reflexivity. In Environment and Society: Concepts and Challenges, ed. Magnus Boström and Debra J. Davidson, 351–374. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carolan, Michael. 2014. Cheaponomics: The High Cost of Low Prices. Abingdon, UK: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Catton, W., and R. Dunlap. 1980. A New Ecological Paradigm for Post-exuberant Sociology. American Behavioral Scientist 24: 15–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/000276428112400103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, N. 2011. Inhuman Nature. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Desrochers, Pierre, and Joanna Szurmak. 2018. Population Bombed: Exploding the Link Between Population and Climate Change. Toronto: The Global Warming Policy Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickens, P. 2004. Society & Nature. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickson, Janice. 2019. Chrystia Freeland Says It’s a “Disappointment” Arctic Council Could Not Issue Joint Communique. Globe and Mail, 7 May: A7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunlap, R. 2010. The Maturation and Diversification of Environmental Sociology. In The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology, 2nd ed, ed. M. Redclift and G. Woodgate, 15–32. London: Edgar Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunlap, R., and W. Catton. 1994. Struggling with Human Exemptionalism. The American Sociologist 25 (1): 5–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flannery, Tim. 2009. Now or Never. Toronto: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flannery, Tim. 2015. Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to the Climate Crisis. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster, John Bellamy, Brett Clark, and Richard York. 2010. The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freudenburg, W. 2006. Environmental Degradation, Disproportionality, and the Double Diversion. Rural Sociology 71 (1): 3–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freudenburg, William R., and Robert Gramling. 1993. Socioenvironmental Factors and Development Policy. Sociological Forum 8 (3): 341–364.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freudenburg, William R., Scott Frickel, and Robert Gramling. 1995. Beyond the Nature/Society Divide. Sociological Forum 10 (3): 361–392.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freudenburg, William, Robert Gramling, Shirley Laska, and Kai Erikson. 2009. Catastrophe in the Making. Washington: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, Anthony. 2009. The Politics of Climate Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Global Carbon Project. 2018. Global Carbon Budget Summary Highlights. http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/18/highlights.htm. Accessed 6 December 2018.

  • Gramling, Robert, and William R. Freudenburg. 1996. Crude, Coppertone, and the Coast. Society and Natural Resources 9: 483–506.

    Google Scholar 

  • Homer-Dixon, Thomas. 2006. The Upside of Down. Toronto: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • ICAO. 2018. Traffic Growth and Airline Profitability Were Highlights of Air Transport in 2016. Uniting Aviation: A United Nations Specialized Agency. https://www.icao.int/Newsroom/Pages/traffic-growth-and-airline-profitability-were-highlights-of-air-transport-in-2016.aspx. Accessed 29 January 2018.

  • IIPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). 2019. Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Bonn: IPBES. https://ipbes.net/sites/default/files/2020-02/ipbes_global_assessment_report_summary_for_policymakers_en.pdf. Accessed 10 April 2020.

  • IPCC. 2018. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Global Warming of 1.5 °C. http://report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf. Accessed 8 October 2018.

  • IPCC. 2019. The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Planet. https://report.ipcc.ch/srocc/pdf/SROCC_SPM_Approved.pdf. Accessed 25 September 2019.

  • Latour, Bruno. 2000. When Things Strike Back. British Journal of Sociology 51: 107–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockie, Stewart, and Catherineg Wong. 2017. Risk, Sustainability and Time: Sociological Perspectives. In Social Science and Sustainability, ed. Heinz Schandl and Iain Walker, 187–198. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockie, Stewart, and Catherine Wong. 2018. Conflicting Temporalities of Social and Environmental Change. In Environment and Society: Concepts and Challenges, ed. Magnus Boström and Debra J. Davidson, 327–350. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, Michael. 2016. Cultural Dopes. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos0712. Accessed 31 January 2020.

  • McCarthy, Niall. 2019. Report: The U.S. Military Emits More CO2 Than Many Industrial Nations. Forbes, 13 June. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/06/13/report-the-u-s-military-emits-more-co2-than-many-industrialized-nations-infographic/#52f5901f4372. Accessed 10 April 2020.

  • Murphy, Raymond. 1988. Social Closure: The Theory of Monopolisation and Exclusion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, Raymond. 1994. Rationality and Nature. Boulder: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, R. 1997. Sociology and Nature: Social Action in Context. Boulder: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, Raymond. 2002. The Internalisation of Autonomous Nature into Society. The Sociological Review 50: 313–333.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, Raymond. 2009. Leadership in Disaster: Learning for a Future with Global Climate Change. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, Raymond. 2010. Environmental Hazards and Human Disasters. In The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology, 2nd ed, ed. Michael Redclift and Graham Woodgate, 276–291. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordhaus, William. 2013. The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nye, D. 1998. Consuming Power. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrow, C. 1984. Normal Accidents. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pielke, Roger Jr. 2010. The Climate Fix. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reality Check Team. 2019. Prince Harry and Private Jets: What’s the Carbon Footprint? BBC News, 20 August. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49408915. Accessed 21 August 2019.

  • Redclift, Michael. 2010. The Transition Out of Carbon Dependence: The Crises of Environment and Markets. In The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology, 2nd ed, ed. Michael Redclift and Graham Woodgate, 121–135. Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reguly, Eric. 2018. Bet Big on Big Oil. Report on Business, February: 19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, Richard. 2018. How Will the World Overcome Its Largest-Ever Energy Crisis? Slowly. The Globe and Mail, 16 June: O1, O4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, James, Jessica Dempsey, and Peter Gibbs. 2016. The Power of Fossil Fuel Divestment (and Its Secret). In A World to Win: Contemporary Social Movements and Counter-Hegemony, ed. William R. Carroll and Kanchan Sarker, 233–249. Winnipeg: ARP Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Safran Foer, Jonathan. 2019a. We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Safran Foer, Jonathan. 2019b. ‘A Crisis of Belief’. The Globe and Mail, 28 September: R14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shove, E. 2012a. Putting Practice into Policy: Reconfiguring Questions of Consumption and Climate Change. Contemporary Social Science 9: 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shove, E. 2012b. Energy Transitions in Practice: The Case of Global Indoor Climate Change. In Governing the Energy Transition: Reality, Illusion or Necessity?, ed. G. Verbong and D. Loorbach. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shove, E., and N. Spurling (eds.). 2013. Sustainable Practices: Social theory and Climate Change, 208. Routledge: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shove, E., M. Pantzar, and M. Watson. 2012. The Dynamics of Social Practice: Everyday Life and How It Changes, 240. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Speth, James Gustave. 2009. The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Speth, James Gustave. 2012. America the Possible: Manifest for a New Economy. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steffen, Will, Johan Rockström, Katherine Richardson, Timothy Lenton, Carl Folke, Diana Liverman, Colin Summerhayes, Anthony Barnosky, Sarah Cornell, Michel Crucifix, Jonathan Donges, Ingo Fetzer, Steven Lade, Marten Scheffer, Ricarda Winkelmann, and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. 2018. Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115 (33): 8252–8259. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1810141115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern, Nicholas. 2009. A Blueprint for a Safer Planet. London: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki, David, and Ian Hanington. 2017. Just Cool It: The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do. Vancouver and Berkeley: Greystone Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, B., and N. Pidgeon. 1978. Man-Made Disasters. London: Wykeham.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme). 2018. Emissions Gap Report 2018 Executive Summary. Nairobi: UNEP. https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/26879/EGR2018_ESEN.pdf?sequence=10. Accessed 28 November 2018.

  • U.S. Global Change Research Program. 2018. Fourth National Climate Assessment Vol. II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States. Washington. https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/. Accessed 26 November 2018.

  • Victor, David. 2011. Global Warming Gridlock: Creating More Effective Strategies for Protecting the Planet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watt-Cloutier, Shiela. 2019. If We Protect the Arctic, We Save the Planet. Globe and Mail, 5 October: O11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max. 1946 (1958). From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds.). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, C., and S. Lockie. 2018. Sociology, Risk and the Environment: A Material-Semiotic Approach. Journal of Risk Research 21 (9): 1077–1092.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. 2015. Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption (% of Total). World Bank. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/eg.use.comm.fo.zs. Accessed 1 April 2019.

  • York, R. 2012. Do Alternative Energy Sources Displace Fossil Fuels? Nature Climate Change 2 (6): 441–443.

    Google Scholar 

  • York, R., and J.A. McGee. 2016. Understanding the Jevons Paradox. Environmental Sociology 2 (1): 77–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2015.1106060.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zebrowski Jr., Ernest. 1997. Perils of a Restless Planet: Scientific Perspectives on Natural Disasters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Raymond Murphy

Authors
  1. Raymond Murphy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raymond Murphy .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Murphy, R. (2021). Introduction. In: The Fossil-Fuelled Climate Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53325-0_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53325-0_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-53324-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-53325-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation