Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning J. Environ. Policy Plann. 1: 93–98 (1999) REVIEW ARTICLE Human Choice and Climate Change SONJA BOEHMER-CHRISTIANSEN*, DEREK SPOONER, TIM BELLERBY AND BARBARA RUMSBY Department of Geography, University of Hull, Hull, UK HUMAN CHOICE AND CLIMATE CHANGE Steve Rayner and Elizabeth L. Malone (eds), Battelle Press, Columbus, OH, 1604 pp., four volumes, 1998. Volume 1: The Societal Framework. ISBN 1-57477- 040-3. Price: £19.95 (paperback). Volume 2: Resources and Technology. ISBN 1- 57477-044-6. Price: £19.95 (paperback). Volume 3: The Tools for Policy Analysis. ISBN 1-57477-041-1. Price £19.95 (paperback). Volume 4: What have we Learned ? ISBN 1-57477- 043-8. Price £19.95 (paperback). Introduction: getting the science wrong? These volumes are the product of a most ambi- tious project. But is it a success? About 120 authors and contributors (and many more re- viewers), primarily from English-speaking and government-supported research institutions or programmes in the ‘North’, report the ‘state-of -the-art’ of several social sciences asked to ex- amine the threat of global warming. Four densely packaged volumes of over 1600 pages have all the strengths and weaknesses typical of multi-authored compendiums. Some chapters have ten or more authors, though the final volume is the work of the editors alone. The model behind the effort appears to be reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the likely motivation exclu- sion from this other mammoth effort of the globalized research enterprise. We feel strongly that the publication has the wrong title. The term ‘climate change’ is used synonymously with human-induced greenhouse warming, which gives rise to a confusion which permeates the text from the title down. A more rounded introduction to the workings of the climate system, including its spatial and tempo- ral variability, is missing. This unreasonably nar- row focus on anthropogenic warming creates problems with both construction and selection of the central arguments. While the basics of the climate system for internal feedbacks within the earth – atmosphere system are well covered, the role and response of water vapour, of prime importance in cloud formation, is ignored. That cloud processes provide ‘one of the largest un- certainties in determining climate change ex- pected from greenhouse gases’ (II: 6) is soon forgotten and gives a seriously flawed founda- tion to the entire project. Debates about alter- native explanations of ‘global warming’ not involving human causation are entirely omitted, as is recently published material on climate change over longer Quaternary time scales. Nei- ther of the two chapters dealing with science analyse how climate change science is pursued in highly competitive national institutions. The policy focus remains on the effects caused–or claimed to be caused — by industrial emissions; other processes, such as deforestation, are hardly discussed. All this should serve as a warning to social scientists that take on scien- * Correspondence to: Department of Geography, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, UK. CCC 1523–908X/99/010093 – 06$17.50 Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.