Aaron M. McCright
Michigan State UniversityThe Political Dynamics of Climate ChangeWhat do we know: What does Sociology bring to the table for studying the human dimensions of global
climate change?
What We Know about the Political Dynamics of Climate Change. Scholarship on the political dynamics of
climate change draws theoretical guidance from and contributes to sociological literatures in (a) environmental
sociology, (b) social movements, (c) political sociology, and (d) sociology of science. More importantly, most
existing research integrates insights from two or more of these sub-fields, making for richer and more powerful
analyses. Methodologically, this area of scholarship relies upon narrative comparative/historical work, case study
approaches, frame analysis, and basic statistical modeling.
While the environmental community (i.e., environmental movements, sympathetic scientists, and
environmental policy-makers) and a majority of the general public (e.g., Program on International Policy
Attitudes 1998) have acknowledged the reality of climate change for over a decade, some influential groups in
the United States (and, to a lesser extent, in other countries like Great Britain and Germany) have denied the
existence of climate change, often actively attacking climate science. For the most part, these groups are the
fossil fuels industry and the American conservative movement (e.g., Austin 2002; Luke 2000). Yet, in recent
years most fossil fuels corporations have ceased denying the existence of global warming and have—to varying
extents—begun to “green” their messages (if not always their activities), sometimes via partnering with members
of the environmental community (e.g., Levy and Egan 1998; Newell 2000). On the other hand, the American
conservative movement (and the Bush Administration, in its institutionalized form) has continued its efforts
(though not as vociferously as they were a decade ago) to challenge the reality of climate change—and more
importantly, most substantial policy efforts to ameliorate this social problem (e.g., Mooney 2007).
The American conservative movement has successfully challenged the environmental community’s efforts
via an effective use of the second dimension of power (Lukes 1974; see also Bachrach and Baratz 1970). Actors
exercise this type of power by confining the scope of decision-making to only those issues that do not seriously
challenge their interests. In this case, the American conservative movement—a heavily funded anti-environmental
countermovement that defends corporate interests by promoting free market ideology and condemning
government regulations (e.g., Austin 2002; Austin and Phoenix 2005)—effectively suppressed meaningful policy
Climate Change ManifestoThe Western experience of modernity—e.g., economic growth, urbanization, technological
development, democratic political systems, material prosperity, etc.—was made possible
through globalizing industrial capitalism, which was predicated upon the insatiable extraction
and consumption of vast amounts of fossil fuels for energy. In other words, the “modern” was
made possible through fossil fuels. One effect of the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels
is climate change. Indeed, climate change—arguably the social problem of the modern era—
provides a fundamental critique of the Western experience of industrial capitalism. Given that
“the modern” was sociology’s raison d’etre and given that climate change is the quintessential
social problem of the modern era, climate change should be the problem par excellence of
sociology.