A Changing Climate for Science SophieC.Lewis A Changing Climate for Science SophieC.Lewis FennerSchoolofEnvironmentandSociety TheAustralianNationalUniversity Canberra,Australia ISBN978-3-319-54264-5 ISBN978-3-319-54265-2(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-54265-2 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017936879 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsof translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Coverimage:Modernbuildingwindow©saulgranda/Getty Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland P : A A REFACE N PPRENTICESHIP I’ve wanted to be a scientist since I was a small child. This book tells my story of becoming a scientist, and of struggling to reconcile this journey with my experience as a climate scientist. This is also my story of carving outanewviewofscience,andeventuallyofcomingtoidentifymyselfasa postmodern scientist. To some, this term seems senseless at best, oxy- moronic at worst; my aim throughout is to make the seemingly senseless become useful. Mystorybeganin1986whenmyparentstookmestargazingasayoung childinthehopeofglimpsingHalley’sComet.Wetrudgedforsometime throughtheopengrassyfieldsandthenwewaited,andwewaited.Itwasa pale, grey night. In our part of the world, thick banks of stratus cloud maskedthecomet’sinfrequentvoyageacrosstheskies.Therewasnothing tobe seenthatnight,butstill Iwasthrilled.Ididn’tknow itatthetime, simplyandchildishlyexcited,butmyinteresthadbeenpiquedbyscience. MyfamilyspentalotoftimeinthefoothillsoftheAustralianAlps.Asa childinthevasteucalyptusbushIcollectedfuriously—old bonesorteeth, snake skins, tadpoles, feathers, leaves, seed pods, river stones, freshwater yabbies, anything mobile and anything sessile. My uncle gave me a micro- scopeandslide-makingkit,andthenafewyearslater,mygrandmothergifted me a small telescope. In my mind, a rock mightreveal a fossil and a starry nightmightgiveupaparticularlybreath-takingmeteorite.Iwashungryfor answers to questions, hungry for new knowledge. The world of my child- hoodwasaplacetobeconsumedonepieceatatime,allinquicksuccession. At high school I studied as much science and mathematics as I could, and later when I started university, the teaching and learning of science v vi PREFACE:ANAPPRENTICESHIP becameincreasinglyformalised.Asmallpocketfullofseedpodsandbeetle casings was replaced by notebook sketches of Bunsen burners, atomic models, calculus, taxonomic ranks, fluid mechanics, general relativity and numbertheory.Istillcollectedfuriously,butnowinsteadofoddbitsand piecesfoundingulliesandfrosthollows,Igatheredinformation,consum- ingandorderingfactsofever-greatercomplexity.Atmyuniversity,asthe years of an undergraduate degree are completed, standard coursework characterised by dense discipline-specific information, models and meth- ods, slowly gives way to specialised research training. Philosophers of science Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper are exalted, the scientific method memorised, logic discussed, and inductive and deductive reasoning delineated. After I finished my undergraduate degree, I eagerly signed up to an Honours year. I decided to specialise in palaeoclimatology, which is the study of past climate change. Palaeoclimatology was located in a notor- iously ambiguous Geography department, where I found myself one of onlytwoyoungphysicalgeographers-in-trainingamongstalargegroupof humangeographystudents.Bysomepeculiaruniversitybureaucratichur- dle,allstudentswererequiredtoparticipateinthesameunitsofHonours coursework, which were impossibly tasked to prepare us equally well as researchersindisparatefields.Wealllearnedaboutthetwentieth-century turns in the social sciences that influenced thinking in the discipline of geography, aswell asthe requirementsofa scientist. Duringtheearlydaysofthatgeographycourse,ourprofessoraskedwho believedintheideaofanabsolutetruth.Putonthespotandfilledwiththe signatureundergraduatefrightofbeingaskedtothinkoract,nooneraised ahand.Theprofessorwentontochidethesmallbandofphysicalgeogra- phersaspoorspecimensofscientists.Whatkindofscientistdoesn’tuphold theideaofauniversal,discoverabletruth?I’mquitesurethatIwentonto hastilynotedownthatascientistbelievesinasingularunderstandingofthe world.Quick!Sophie!That’sascientist!Bethat,dothat! Learning alongside human geography students, I superficially digested positivism, Marxism, structuralism, and postmodernism without any meaningfulunderstandingofwhateachentailed.‘Nomatter,’Ithought! These social scientific curiosities were merely curious. The course was probably a useful experience, and I would at least know some more words that I could repeat in conversation later to seem nonchalantly well read and eloquent. And when the semester snapped shut with our final exams,Iwouldatlonglastbeascientist!Asa‘proper’scientist,mywork PREFACE:ANAPPRENTICESHIP vii was undeniably more important than the rest of my cohort, with their vague, poorly defined theories and methods that characterise research in socialscience. After I submitted my Honours thesis, I moved to a new university to earnmyPhDbyresearchingaslightlydifferenttypeofpalaeoclimatology. AtraditionalunderstandingofthePhDisasanapprenticeshipinscience. A scientist is differentiated from a non-scientist—a non-expert—by these years of apprenticeship to an erudite supervisor, which essentially consti- tutes aspecialised training. A PhD isthe standardprocess through which students are metamorphosed into scientists. When I finished my PhD, I soon began a research fellowship in climatology, which was followed quickly by a second and third fellowship. I had trained to become a scientistandwasfinally there.Little Sophie wouldbeso pleased! Throughout my informal and formal education, I loved science and yearned tobe ascientist.Yet ithadnever occurredto meto ask—whatis science and what is a scientist? If I recall my rote-learned course material from those hazy, fun-filled undergraduate days, science constitutes a systemofknowledge.Itisasystematicenterprisethatobtainsknowledge throughaformalisedapproachcalled‘thescientificmethod’.Ahypothesis is posed and tested, and knowledge acquired, but not produced. Science must be reproducible and it must be falsifiable. This was the singular epistemology that defined a scientist, as simply one who enacted science usingthesemethods.ThatHonours’levellectureonthecentralideaofan absolute truth remains the last formal discussion I’ve had about science and its ways of knowing. These helpful guardrails remain in place to stop scientists veeringbeyond thisunderstanding. AfterIcommencedmyfirstrealscientificjobasapostdoctoralresearch fellow,Ibegantofeelvaguelyuneasyaboutmyresearchasascientist.This uneasiness stubbornly refused to pass. It turns out that in my field of research, contemporary approaches often do not subscribe to the techni- ques or methodologies described by my undergraduate training. For example, I spent four years of my PhD reconstructing past changes in climatefromincompletedatasourcesthatlendthemselveswonderfullyto plural interpretations. My research now aims to understand current changes in climate using complex computer climate models that we are possibly unableto falsify. Isthisstillscience?Ifmyscientificdataarenotreadilyreproducible,do they remain useful? Or what if we imagine that rather than positing and testing hypotheses, I generate novel understandings of the world by viii PREFACE:ANAPPRENTICESHIP haphazard datamining? Is thistheninherently ‘unscientific’?Where does this leave scientists? And, crucially, where does this leave science? With great dedication, I dutifully did my apprenticeship, but did I become an actualscientist? Inthisbook,Iproposeanewviewofscience.Thisismyownreappraisal of science, a re-imagining of scientific practise as nuanced, transparent, diverseandcreative.Ultimately,Iposeaplacebeyondcurrentunderstand- ings of science’s ways of knowing. I describe this as a ‘hinterland,’ a conceptual space that allows for diverse practices of science, centred on a flexible and inclusive way of being a scientist. Within this hinterland, I describemyselfasanewtypeofscientistbyusingtheseeminglyoxymoro- nicdescription of ‘postmodernscientist.’ Asacaveat,Idonotprofesstohaveadeepunderstandingoftheoryof knowledge. A philosopher of science or a sociologist could address these questionswithfarmoreintellectualheftthanIcan.Assuch,thefollowing chapters are not deeply rooted in literature. Instead, I describe my own experience of grappling with myself over whether I am a scientist, and eventually comingto reject the universal utilityof the narrow approaches that I rote learned as an ‘apprentice’ scientist. These insights are simply one scientist’sthoughts about beinga particularkind of scientist. Finally,awordaboutwhatthisbookisnot.Thisbookisnotanegative appraisalofscience,climatescienceorclimatescientists.Itismyexperience of science, climate science and climate scientists. In many cases in the following chapters, I highlight particular examples in the literature, or commentaries,butIemphasisethatthisisnotbecauseIviewthesestudies as wrong, or poor, or ill-considered. It is quite the opposite; I present these as examples of valuable contributions to our understandings of the discipline and explore these specifically to demonstrate that science does not exhaust all knowledge. I discuss this literature in good faith, as a member of this community and as a committed climate scientist. In doing so, I hope that these explorations will be viewed as such, as an affirmativecritique. A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS The ideas ofthisbook werenurtured bymany conversations withfriends andcolleagues,whichwere,inequalmeasures,exciting,irritating,uncom- fortableandenergising.Forthis,Iamhumblygratefultomycolleagues.I amgratefulforthelivelyandgenerousintelligenceofmystudentsandmy youngcolleaguesattheUniversityofMelbourne,TheAustralianNational UniversityandmycollaboratorsattheUniversityofNewSouthWalesand Monash University for indulging long discussions on the fringes of our work. I am equallygrateful forthe kindnessof myseniorcolleagues inindul- ging my interests in these fringes of our discipline. While many young researchersareboundsotightlybytherealitiesofprecariousfundingand uncertain salaries that they achieve scientific greatness at the expense of freedomofthought,Ihavebeengiveneveryopportunityandencourage- ment to pursue my own interests through my ARC DECRA funding (DE160100092).Forthisopportunity,Ioffermygratitudetothevision- aries who lead the Australian Research Council funded Centre of ExcellenceforClimateSystem Science. I would particularly like to thank the provocative Julia Jasonsmith, for providing a decade of alternative and challenging viewpoints, and Marie-LouiseAyres,forhereagle-eyedassistance.Finally,Iamindebtedto mybestfriend,CathyAyres,whosepresencefillsmewiththegumptionto try.Sheprovidedendlessenrichingcommentsandendlessenrichingencour- agementontheregularoccasionsmycouragetopursuenewideasfaltered. ix C ONTENTS 1 TheWant of AnyName 1 2 NeitherNecessary Nor Sufficient 9 3 ThePseudo in Our Science 31 4 ATribe of Scientists 55 5 TheNature Peepers 75 6 Intothe Hinterland 97 7 BlueSkiesand OtherShades 117 8 AnInvitationtothe Challenge 137 Index 155 xi