@Article{TurnhoutLahs:2022:TrEnRe,
               author = "Turnhout, Esther and Lahsen, Myanna Hvid",
          affiliation = "{University of Twente} and {Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas 
                         Espaciais (INPE)}",
                title = "Transforming environmental research to avoid tragedy",
              journal = "Climate and Development",
                 year = "2022",
               volume = "14",
               number = "9",
                pages = "834--838",
                month = "Oct.",
             keywords = "Transformative change, science-policy interface, knowledge.",
             abstract = "According to a recent article in this journal, the failure of 
                         policy action on climate change despite scientific consensus 
                         points to a broken sciencesociety contract. To avoid this tragedy 
                         of climate science, the authors call for a moratorium on its 
                         production. As scholars of, and participants in, global 
                         sciencepolicy interfaces, we recognize the authors assumptions and 
                         reasonings but also see an urgent need for a deeper understanding 
                         of the current limitations of environmental research, and the 
                         challenges of connecting knowledge to policy and society. Rather 
                         than a blanket moratorium, we argue that what is needed is a 
                         profound transformation of environmental research. This entails a 
                         shift in research priorities towards currently marginalized 
                         approaches in social sciences, humanities and participatory 
                         research, to generate a much-needed understanding of obstacles to 
                         action and just and equitable strategies for overcoming them with 
                         due consideration of issues of justice and equity. We also propose 
                         a new sciencesociety contract that recognizes the politics of 
                         environmental knowledge. This is necessary to enable critical 
                         reflection on what interests environmental research serves whose 
                         knowledge needs are excluded, and with what consequences. We 
                         recognize that our proposal can be uncomfortable and that it 
                         challenges deeply held beliefs in the neutrality of science. 
                         However, deep reprioritization in environmental science and 
                         science policy are urgently needed to strengthen the contribution 
                         of environmental research to the transformative changes that it 
                         calls for.",
                  doi = "10.1080/17565529.2022.2062287",
                  url = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2022.2062287",
                 issn = "1756-5529",
             language = "en",
           targetfile = "Transforming environmental research to avoid tragedy.pdf",
        urlaccessdate = "06 jun. 2024"
}