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The Complexity Trap: Skepticism, Denialism and the Political Epistemology of Climate Science

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Strategies for Sustainability of the Earth System

Part of the book series: Strategies for Sustainability ((STSU))

Abstract

The complexity trap snaps and gives rise to misconceptions and even denialism when scientists leave their narrow field of expertise and uncritically use their well-trained epistemological concepts in areas where they do not apply. This mechanism is rather universal and affects in similar ways non-climate scientists in their assessment of climate science results, specialists in a climate science sub-discipline in interdisciplinary controversies, and climate scientists participating in the complex socio-economic process of policymaking. Awareness of the complexity trap mechanism is the first step to avoid being caught in the trap.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Recently, allegations that this was the case with the chemist Frits Böttcher (1915–2008), a former Club of Rome member, were published by investigative journalists working for the Dutch Platform Authentieke Journalistiek under the headline “Shell Papers”, as was widely reported in international media in February 2020. See https://authentiekejournalistiek.org/portfolio-item/shell-papers-wob-naar-de-wob-want-overheid-zegt-nee/. Accessed 23 Feb 2020.

  2. 2.

    See, in particular, the Climate Opinion Fact Sheets on https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/factsheets/. Accessed 27 Feb 2020.

  3. 3.

    Best known is Stefan Rahmstorf’s webpage Realclimate, http://www.realclimate.org Accessed 14 Feb 2020.

  4. 4.

    Consider, for example, the impact of the 1973 Nobel Prize laureate in physics, Ian Giaever, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_Giaever#cite_note-16 Accessed 27 Feb 2020.

  5. 5.

    See the UN Charter as it was ratified in San Francisco 1945, https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/ctc/uncharter.pdf (last accessed February 25, 2020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

    Franz Mauelshagen & Walter Pfeiffer

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  1. Franz Mauelshagen
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  2. Walter Pfeiffer
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Correspondence to Franz Mauelshagen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Expert Group on Earth System Preservation, TUM Institute for Advanced Study, Garching, Germany

    Peter A. Wilderer

  2. Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection, Water Management and Soil Protection, München, Germany

    Martin Grambow

  3. Institute for Advanced Study, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany

    Michael Molls

  4. HelmholtzZentrum München. German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Neurogenomics, Munich-Neuherberg, Germany

    Konrad Oexle

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Mauelshagen, F., Pfeiffer, W. (2022). The Complexity Trap: Skepticism, Denialism and the Political Epistemology of Climate Science. In: Wilderer, P.A., Grambow, M., Molls, M., Oexle, K. (eds) Strategies for Sustainability of the Earth System. Strategies for Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74458-8_4

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