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Communicating Climate Change

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Springer Climate

Silvia Serrao-Neumann
Anne Coudrain
Liese Coulter Editors

Communicating
Climate Change
Information for
Decision-Making
Springer Climate

Series editor
Prof. John Dodson, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Xi’an 710061 Shaanxi, China
Springer Climate is an interdisciplinary book series dedicated to climate research.
This includes climatology, climate change impacts, climate change management,
climate change policy, regional climate studies, climate monitoring and modeling,
palaeoclimatology etc. The series publishes high quality research for scientists,
researchers, students and policy makers. An author/editor questionnaire, instruc-
tions for authors and a book proposal form can be obtained from the Publisher,
Dr. Michael Leuchner (michael.leuchner@springer.com).

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11741


Silvia Serrao-Neumann Anne Coudrain

Liese Coulter
Editors

Communicating Climate
Change Information
for Decision-Making

123
Editors
Silvia Serrao-Neumann Anne Coudrain
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Unité de recherche ESPACE-DEV
The University of Waikato IRD, Universités UM UR UG UA,
Hamilton Maison Teledetect
New Zealand Montpellier
France
and
Liese Coulter
Cities Research Institute Cities Research Institute
Griffith University Griffith University
Brisbane, QLD Brisbane, QLD
Australia Australia

ISSN 2352-0698 ISSN 2352-0701 (electronic)


Springer Climate
ISBN 978-3-319-74668-5 ISBN 978-3-319-74669-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74669-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018930125

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018


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Preface

As we embarked upon the preparation of this edited book, many events unfolded
with implications for global climate change response. In particular, 2015 was
considered a tipping year for humanity to tackle climate change. There were many
initiatives converging to make the Paris Climate Agreement accepted. In the end, all
the countries that signed the Agreement realized that if they were to go ahead and
follow their individual modernization plans, this planet simply would not have been
big enough. And then it came 2017, with spiraling international insurgence of
conservative and protectionist aspirations. One could ask whether 2017 is the
reverse tipping point year. Or is it a year that illustrates how climate change
entangled itself in the period of Great Regression in which we live?
In his preface for the book entitled “The Great Regression”, Geiselberger1 asks:
“How have we ended up in this situation? Where will we be in five, ten or twenty
years’ time? How can we stop the global regression and achieve a turnaround?” The
reality is that despite the amount of information on climate change, there continues
to be a denial of accepting it, and some now frame this denial not in terms of
whether climate change is real, but in their ability to adjust economic development
in the short term. For example, in one of his earlier tweets, President Trump said
that “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to
make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”2 This statement raises doubts as to
whether the origin of the current USA decision to withdraw from the Paris
Agreement lies in the lack of conviction that climate change exists, and recasts the
focus of policies on domestic as opposed to global benefits.

1
Geiselberger, H (2017) Preface. In The Great Regression, Ed. Geiselberger H, Wiley, pp. 7–15.
http://www.thegreatregression.eu/preface-of-the-editor/.
2
Trump, D [realDonaldTrump]. (11:15 AM—6 Nov 2012) The concept of global warming was
created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. [Tweet].
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/265895292191248385.

v
vi Preface

It is a situation well illustrated by Latour3 in the metaphor of the Titanic:


“enlightened people can see the iceberg heading straight for the prow, know that
shipwreck is inevitable, grab the lifeboats, and ask the orchestra to play enough
lullabies so that they can make a clean getaway under the cover of night before the
alarming list of the vessel alerts the other classes! (…) if they want to survive in
comfort, they shouldn’t seem to be pretending that they share their space with the
rest of the world.” Hence, efforts to develop and communicate climate change
information to guide decisions and support proactive adaptation and mitigation
strategies cannot ignore the concerns of parties which deny the information for their
own short-term, self-interested benefits.
Deliberately declining to accept information about climate change clearly
appears to be an expression of selfishness and self-centered interest for organiza-
tions, countries, sectors, and communities. It is a question of extracting oneself from
the burden of solidarity in the face of a future that is frightening: not enough
resources to maintain the resource-intensive lifestyles promoted by the developed
world throughout the twentieth century for all in the twenty-first century and
beyond. However, projections suggest that world population could peak by the
middle of this century, reaching around 8.6 billion people and then declining to 6.9
billion by the end of the century.4 Nonetheless, total world population size tra-
jectories between now and the end of the twenty-first century depend on educational
and health investments, especially for women—as explicitly highlighted by the
solidarity sustainable development goal adopted by the United Nations in 2015.
As argued by Pottier5 (2016), there are different reasons as to why mainstream
economic discourse sets itself apart from reality and largely minimizes the severity
of climate change impacts. Economists are well aware that models based on a
conception of human being as Homo economicus and on a society that can be
stabilized by markets are false, yet they continue to use them in the absence of a
better economic paradigm. The cost-benefit analysis of climate change is proving to
be a triple trap as it gives an innocuous image of climate change, masks uncer-
tainties through the illusion of knowledge, and drives the assessment of climate
change in endless controversies, in which the economist holds the upper hand.
While on June 1 2017, President Trump acknowledged that the USA was pulling
out from the Paris Agreement, during the G20 Summit held in Hamburg on
July 7–8 of the same year the other 19 parties (European Union plus 18 countries)
reaffirmed their commitment to the Agreement. This reaffirmation was supported by
a number of American States (despite the lack of commitment to the Agreement
from their Federal Government) and major corporations, including oil companies.
These latest developments do not make it useless to continue to produce and

3
Latour, B (2017) L’Europe refuge in L’âge de la régression, dirigé par Heinrich Geiselberger, Ed.
Premier Parallèle, Paris, pp. 115–126.
4
KC S, Lutz W (2017) The human core of the shared socioeconomic pathways: Population scenarios
by age, sex and level of education for all countries to 2100. Global Environmental Change
42:181–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.06.004.
5
Pottier A (2016) Comment les économistes réchauffent la planète. Anthropocène Seuil, France.
Preface vii

communicate climate change information. More than ever, these changes reinforce
the need for credible information and examples of how such information can lib-
erate us from the traps of economic and short-sited discourses and project us into a
future of solidarity and respect for one another.

Montpellier, France Anne Coudrain


Brisbane, Australia Silvia Serrao-Neumann
Brisbane, Australia Liese Coulter
August 2017
Contents

Part I Developing Climate Change Information


1 Science and Knowledge Production for Climate Change
Adaptation: Challenges and Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Silvia Serrao-Neumann and Anne Coudrain
2 Science and Evidence-Based Climate Change Policy:
Collaborative Approaches to Improve the Science–Policy
Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Edward A. Morgan and Gabriela Marques Di Giulio
3 Conceptual Analysis of Climate Change in the Light
of Society-Environment Relationships: Observatories Closer
to Both Systems and Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Mireille Fargette, Maud Loireau, Nabil Ben Khatra, Habiba Khiari
and Thérèse Libourel
4 Rethinking IPCC Expertise from a Multi-actor Perspective . . . . . . 49
Maud H. Devès, Michel Lang, Paul-Henri Bourrelier
and François Valérian
5 Computational Constraint Models for Decision Support
and Holistic Solution Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Carmen Gervet

Part II Communicating Climate Change Information


6 Uncertainty and Future Planning: The Use of Scenario Planning
for Climate Change Adaptation Planning and Decision . . . . . . . . . 79
Silvia Serrao-Neumann and Darryl Low Choy
7 Future Climate Narratives: Combining Personal and Professional
Knowledge to Adapt to Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Liese Coulter

ix
x Contents

8 Integrating Research and Practice in Emerging Climate


Services—Lessons from Other Transdisciplinary Dialogues . . . . . . 105
Susanne Schuck-Zöller, Carina Brinkmann and Simone Rödder
9 Communicating Climate Information: Traveling Through
the Decision-Making Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Ghislain Dubois, Femke Stoverinck and Bas Amelung
10 Transforming Climate Change Policymaking: From Informing
to Empowering the Local Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Michael Howes
11 Resilience and Vulnerability Assessment as the Basis for
Adaptation Dialogue in Information-Poor Environments:
A Cambodian Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Chris Jacobson, Stacy Crevello, Chanseng Nguon and Chanthan Chea

Part III Applying Climate Change Information: Case Studies


12 Scalable Interactive Platform for Geographic Evaluation
of Sea-Level Rise Impact Combining High-Performance
Computing and WebGIS Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Agnès Tellez-Arenas, Robin Quique, Faïza Boulahya,
Gonéri Le Cozannet, François Paris, Sylvestre Le Roy,
Fabrice Dupros and François Robida
13 Coral Reef Monitoring Coping with Climate Change,
Toward a Socio-ecological System Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Gilbert David and Jean-Pascal Quod
14 The Experience of the Brazilian Climate and Health
Observatory: Seeking Interaction Between Organizations
and Civil Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Renata Gracie, Diego Ricardo Xavier, Sandra de Souza Hacon,
Vanderlei Matos, Heglaucio da Silva Barros, Maria de Fátima de Pina
and Christovam Barcellos

Part IV Conclusion
15 Informing Decisions with Climate Change Information . . . . . . . . . 207
Liese Coulter and Anne Coudrain
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Editors and Contributors

About the Editors


Silvia Serrao-Neumann is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Waikato, New Zealand, and
Adjunct Research Fellow at the Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Australia. Her
research focuses on climate change adaptation from multiple perspectives, including: catchment
scale landscape planning for water-sensitive city regions; cross-border planning and collaboration;
disaster recovery under a stakeholder-focused collaborative panning approach; natural resource
management; and action/intervention research applied to planning for climate change adaptation.

Anne Coudrain is an Engineer in water sciences (Ph.D.—Paris School of Mines) and a Doctor of
Sciences and Auditor of the “Institut des Hautes Etudes pour la Science et la Technologie.” She is
currently Honorary Research Director at the research unit ESPACE-DEV in the science societies
field on climate change. Beginning her career in 1980 at the National Mining Industry Company in
Mauritania, she researched the safety analysis of underground nuclear waste repositories, and the
relationships between hydrosphere and climate, before becoming involved in managing research
for development.

Liese Coulter is a Lecturer in Science, Technology, and Society at Griffith University. Her
research focuses on how climate knowledge is used to envision, communicate, and manage
environmental and social issues associated with climate change. Previously, Liese was
Communication Manager for the CSIRO Climate Change Adaptation Flagship, and the National
Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF).

Contributors

Bas Amelung Chair Group Environmental Systems Analysis, Wageningen


University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Christovam Barcellos Institute of Health Communication and Information,
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, (ICICT/Fiocruz), Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ,
Brazil
Nabil Ben Khatra Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel—OSS, Tunis, Tunisia

xi
xii Editors and Contributors

Faïza Boulahya BRGM Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières, Orléans,


France
Paul-Henri Bourrelier Association Française de Prévention des Catastrophes
Naturelles (AFPCN), Scientific Committee, Paris, France
Carina Brinkmann Climate Service Center Germany, Helmholtz-Zentrum
Geesthacht, Hamburg, Germany
Chanthan Chea United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Anne Coudrain Unité de recherche ESPACE-DEV, IRD, Universités UM UR UG
UA, Maison Teledetect, Montpellier, France
Liese Coulter Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD,
Australia
Gonéri Le Cozannet BRGM Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières,
Orléans, France
Stacy Crevello United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Heglaucio da Silva Barros Institute of Health Communication and Information,
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, (ICICT/Fiocruz), Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ,
Brazil
Maria de Fátima de Pina Institute of Health Communication and Information,
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, (ICICT/Fiocruz), Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ,
Brazil
Sandra de Souza Hacon National School of Public Health (ENSP/Fiocruz),
Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Gabriela Marques Di Giulio Departamento de Saúde Ambiental, Faculdade de
Saúde Pública, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Gilbert David IRD, UMR ESPACE-DEV, Maison de la télédétection, Montpellier,
France
Maud H. Devès Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS UMR 7154 &
Centre de recherche Psychanalyse Médecine et Société, CNRS EA 3522, Université
Paris Diderot - Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France; Association Française de
Prévention des Catastrophes Naturelles (AFPCN), Scientific Committee, Paris,
France
Ghislain Dubois TEC Conseil, Marseille, France
Fabrice Dupros BRGM Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières, Orléans,
France
Mireille Fargette IRD, UMR ESPACE-DEV, Montpellier, France
Editors and Contributors xiii

Carmen Gervet Research Unit ESPACE-DEV, University of Montpellier,


Montpellier, France
Renata Gracie Institute of Health Communication and Information, Oswaldo
Cruz Foundation, (ICICT/Fiocruz), Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Michael Howes Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
Chris Jacobson Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast,
Sippy Downs, Australia
Habiba Khiari Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel—OSS, Tunis, Tunisia
Michel Lang Unité de recherche Hydrologie-Hydraulique, Irstea, Centre de
Lyon-Villeurbanne, Villeurbanne, France; Association Française de Prévention des
Catastrophes Naturelles (AFPCN), Scientific Committee, Paris, France
Thérèse Libourel Université Montpellier, UMR ESPACE-DEV, Montpellier,
France
Maud Loireau IRD, UMR ESPACE-DEV, Montpellier, France
Darryl Low Choy Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD,
Australia
Vanderlei Matos Institute of Health Communication and Information, Oswaldo
Cruz Foundation, (ICICT/Fiocruz), Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Edward A. Morgan Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD,
Australia; Climate Change Response Program, Griffith University, Gold Coast,
Australia
Chanseng Nguon University of Battambang, Battambang, Cambodia
François Paris BRGM Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières, Orléans,
France
Robin Quique BRGM Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières, Orléans,
France
Jean-Pascal Quod ARVAM/PARETO, Technopole de la Réunion,
Sainte-Clotilde La Réunion, France
François Robida BRGM Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières, Orléans,
France
Simone Rödder Institute of Sociology, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of
Business, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Hamburg, Hamburg,
Germany
Sylvestre Le Roy BRGM Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières, Orléans,
France
xiv Editors and Contributors

Susanne Schuck-Zöller Climate Service Center Germany, Helmholtz-Zentrum


Geesthacht, Hamburg, Germany
Silvia Serrao-Neumann Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of
Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand; Cities Research Institute, Griffith University,
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Femke Stoverinck Chair Group Environmental Systems Analysis, Wageningen
University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Agnès Tellez-Arenas BRGM Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières,
Orléans, France
François Valérian Conseil Général de l’Economie, CNAM, LabEx ReFi, Paris,
France; Association Française de Prévention des Catastrophes Naturelles (AFPCN),
Scientific Committee, Paris, France
Diego Ricardo Xavier Institute of Health Communication and Information,
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, (ICICT/Fiocruz), Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ,
Brazil
Part I
Developing Climate Change Information
Chapter 1
Science and Knowledge Production
for Climate Change Adaptation:
Challenges and Opportunities

Silvia Serrao-Neumann and Anne Coudrain

After more than two decades of consistent messages emanating from the scientific
community that the climate is changing, there is now recognized urgency for both
climate change mitigation and adaptation. Addressing climate change is not a
straightforward task with the International Panel on Climate Change calling for
substantial and widespread transformational change (IPCC 2014). To enable such
transformational change there needs to be significant advances in scientific, polit-
ical, and social practice (Gillard et al. 2016). At the center of advancements lies the
role of interdisciplinary research, including interactions between scientists and
citizens or representatives of entities at risk (cities, ocean, biodiversity, climate).
One could argue that the climate change challenge offers one of the greatest
opportunities for interdisciplinary research and inherent knowledge production to
establish itself as an instrumental and fundamental form of research. Its role might
not only apply to how it can generate new and more accurate science but also how it
can contribute to the application of scientific, and other forms of, knowledge in
providing much-needed responses to complex challenges such as climate change
threats (Robertson et al. 2017; Obermeister 2017). In fact, embarking upon inter-
disciplinary research to address climate change threats is seen as researchers’
responsibility to increase the usability and applicability of scientific knowledge
outside the academic realm (Moser 2010).

S. Serrao-Neumann (&)
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Waikato,
Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
e-mail: s.neumann@waikato.ac.nz
S. Serrao-Neumann
Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
A. Coudrain
Unité de recherche ESPACE-DEV, IRD, Universités UM UR UG UA,
Maison Teledetect, 500 Rue Jean Francois Breton, 34093 Montpellier 5, France

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 3


S. Serrao-Neumann et al. (eds.), Communicating Climate Change Information
for Decision-Making, Springer Climate, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74669-2_1
4 S. Serrao-Neumann and A. Coudrain

To maximize the applicability and usability of scientific knowledge for


addressing climate change, partnerships need to be established between end users
(policy makers, decision-makers, practitioners) and scientists (Mastrandrea et al.
2010; Dilling and Lemos 2011). It is a critical time for researchers to make their
research and inherent scientific outputs more readily available to end users. Equally
important, however, is how these outputs are communicated. Proactive action to
deal with climate change cannot only be expected from decision-makers, it has also
to start with climate change knowledge production and communication. Thus,
researchers must also seek to transform how they produce and communicate climate
change information.
This book explores many challenges and opportunities inherent in science and
knowledge production and application for climate change adaptation and mitiga-
tion. In particular, it builds on the assumption that there is significant progress in
knowledge generation about climate change, but such progress is largely repre-
sented by individual, or more aligned disciplines. Additionally, despite the avail-
ability of such knowledge, there has been relatively slow progress toward
addressing climate change challenges at the political and policy implementation
levels. Hence, the book offers a reflection and some insights as to how to increase
the application of existing and new generated knowledge about climate change in
practice.
To this end, the book compiles thirteen chapters to provide a snapshot of how
climate change information is generated, communicated, and applied. Contributions
come from different projects, continents, and countries, therefore providing a rich
suite of both quantitative and qualitative perspectives.

1.1 Two Evolving Fields: Interdisciplinary Research


and Climate Change Science

Addressing the challenges posed by climate change requires knowledge, but


knowledge generation and applicability are not divested of power relations
(Hagemeier-Klose et al. 2014; Klenk and Meehan 2015). There are power relations
that assume some forms of climate knowledge are more relevant than others. For
example, there are uneven grounds and acceptability concerning knowledge pro-
duction involving natural, technological, and social sciences (Holm et al. 2013), and
prioritization of scientific knowledge over other forms of knowledge such as
indigenous knowledge (Obermeister 2017; Kagle and Baptiste 2017). There are
power relations that influence the type and extent of scientific knowledge used in
decision-making. In particular, proactive decision-making has been hindered by an
assumption that available climate change knowledge is too uncertain to be taken
into consideration (Quay 2010). There are also power relations in framing
policy-relevant knowledge. For instance, while the International Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) consolidated the need for climate change-related research
1 Science and Knowledge Production for Climate Change … 5

undertaken through interdisciplinary approaches, it placed substantial focus on


earth system science research in the first assessment reports and is now shifting its
focus to solutions to climate change impacts such as development pathways
(Spencer and Lane 2017).
Discussions about the need for knowledge integration emerged in the early
1970s. Erich Jantsch’s work is often identified to be a seminal piece in the field,
calling for a systems approach to science, education, and innovation to understand
the society—environment interface (Jantsch 1972). While more than forty years
old, Jantsch’s call is more contemporary than ever when climate change and the role
of anthropogenic activity in it are at stake. Hence, there is a need for shared
understanding to take place to enable the decoding of society–environment system
complexity (Stock and Burton 2011).
The manner through which knowledge integration occurs ranges from being
multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary. Definitions and interpre-
tations of those terms vary widely and continue to evolve as multidisciplinarity,
interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity are pursued and implemented in research,
education, and practice (Stock and Burton 2011).
The top two forms of research seeking knowledge integration comprise inter-
disciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. The first focuses on addressing ‘real problems’
through bridging disciplinary viewpoints and collaboration from the outset of
research problem framing, data collection and analysis. The second expands the
collaborative effort to reach out to include nonacademic participants—that is, policy
makers, practitioners, community members (Stock and Burton 2011).
However, as an evolving endeavor, knowledge integration through interdisci-
plinary and/or transdisciplinary research is confronted with several challenges.
Perhaps, the most recurrent is the difficulty in breaking down discipline silos
concerning disciplinary languages and terminologies and methodologies. Extrinsic
to knowledge integration, epistemological challenges are barriers related to how it
is supported, or not, within research institutions, academic peers, and funding
opportunities (Milman et al. 2017). Hence, knowledge integration for the purpose
of improving the understanding of complex problems to enable the generation of
solutions is not straightforward (Stock and Burton 2011).
There has been a significant increase in climate change-related research across
both natural and social sciences over the last decade, especially within natural
sciences. Scholars point to the role of IPCC’s assessment reports in influencing not
only the amount but also the type of climate change-related research since its
inception in the early 1990s (Vasileiadou et al. 2011). Notably, with time, this
research has also become more interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary, requiring an
application context for its broader evolution (Hellsten and Leydesdorff 2016). There
is also reference to the IPCC’s role in placing climate change at the center of policy
agendas (Vasileiadou et al. 2011). In particular, more recent assessment reports
highlighted the need for seeking adaptation in addition to mitigation and called for
institutional and technological change as well as alternative adaptation pathways to
enable system transition (Rothman et al. 2014).
6 S. Serrao-Neumann and A. Coudrain

Despite the amount of climate change information available, uptake by


decision-makers has been patchy. Several reasons have been identified to explain
the relative low usability and applicability of climate science in decision-making
processes. These include institutional and organizational factors and intrinsic
individual accounts of climate change such as beliefs and values. It also includes
aspects relating to the knowledge generation process with calls for greater inter-
action between knowledge producers and knowledge users to shift from useful
information to usable information (Lemos et al. 2012). To overcome this situation,
new models of knowledge production underpinned by transdisciplinarity are being
advocated such as the Mode 2 model and postnormal science. In particular, these
models treat knowledge as complex in nature which in turn shapes how it is
organized and coproduced as well as communicated, disseminated, and used. They
also accept that science uncertainty is unavoidable hence the need to engage with
stakeholders from the problem definition stage through to data collection and
analyses and the development of usable information (Kirchhoff et al. 2013).
As the climate change science and interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary forms
of research continue to evolve, there is no simple answer to address the pressing
challenges being brought in by climate change. We have no alternative but to
continue to ‘learning-by-doing’ and ‘doing-by-learning’ (Loorbach and Rotmans
2006). This entails making use of the best available information to address climate
change, striving for knowledge integration as much as possible, and learning from
successes and failures to guide transformational change. It also includes creating
more opportunities for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary climate
change-related research now within institutional structures. Indeed, some call for
radical inter- and transdisciplinary research environments to enable progress toward
addressing climate change challenges (Holm et al. 2013). Others highlight the role
of approaches which are in essence based on exploring current and future uncer-
tainties in knowledge to anticipate future changes (Klenk and Meehan 2015).
‘Learning-by-doing’ and ‘doing-by-learning’ are critical to operationalize
much-needed transformational change because society is still learning, and will
continue for quite some time, how to do both developing and applying climate
change information.
While some climate change impacts may already be unfolding, there is indication
that impacts will become more intense and more frequent in the future. It is
imperative thus that action is taken now to avoid future unwanted outcomes rather
than waiting for the ideal suite of knowledge and solutions to emerge. Addressing
climate change demands a degree of pro-action now to effectively manage future
impacts. Many may argue that it is difficult to forecast future climate change impacts
without uncertainty, but it is this uncertainty that places future, strategic, and
long-term thinking at the forefront of climate change adaptation and mitigation. In
particular, future thinking is a transdisciplinary field of enquiry that combines a
variety of methods to explore plausible futures and, therefore, deals with situations
underpinned by uncertainties and low levels of controllability such as climate change
impacts (Bengston et al. 2012). It ranges from predictive/empirical approaches
informed by natural and technological sciences through to participatory and holistic
1 Science and Knowledge Production for Climate Change … 7

approaches supported by social sciences (Gidley 2013). It is therefore a strategy that


can integrate multiple knowledge perspectives for devising multiple futures.
Preparing and planning for multiple plausible futures are perhaps the best, if not
the only, alternative we have to deal with climate change impacts. Several
approaches to develop pathways to navigate plausible futures are being developed
in research and practice, including adaptive pathways and adaptation tipping points
(Bishop et al. 2007; Haasnoot et al. 2013). Scholars point to the benefit in adopting
future thinking to deliver holistic solutions and to encourage decision-makers to
consider the big picture relating to multiple disciplinary perspectives, creative
problem-solving, and account for longer temporal scales associated with the effi-
ciency and robustness of decisions taken at present (Bengston et al. 2012).
In returning to the question of transformational change, it is important to stress
the role of transdisciplinarity and future thinking in enabling climate change
adaptation and mitigation. Transformational change however needs to be guided by
a vision of the future (van der Helm 2009) or take the very long term into account.
It is equally important to accept that we are dealing with dynamic changes that will
continue to challenge how knowledge is developed and communicated (van der
Leeuw et al. 2011). These challenges are here to stay, and the earlier we start to
come to terms with them the better is the chance that we can learn from the past to
anticipate the future.

1.2 Chapters Overview

This book is divided into three main parts of investigating aspects of how climate
change information is being generated, communicated, and applied. Part I provides
a snapshot on how climate change information is bridging natural/technological
sciences and social sciences. It touches on aspects of evidence for policy imple-
mentation and participatory approaches to knowledge generation.
Morgan and Di Giulio investigate the relationship between science and policy to
best guide research design to support decision-making and increase the usability of
research outputs by end users. The authors draw on their research carried out in
Queensland, Australia, and São Paulo, Brazil, to reflect on how more collaborative
approaches can tackle the challenges put forward by uncertainty, complexity, and
politics in decision-making involving climate change impacts.
Fargette, Loireau, Ben Khatra, Khiari, and Libourel explore the connection
between geographical imprints and society–environmental relationships and global
climate systemic functioning. They apply a conceptual systemic framework to
investigate how scientific observatories enable the generation of sound information
while enhancing arenas for democratic discussions and decision-making.
Devès, Lang, Bourrelier, and Valérian reflect on the IPCC’s process of gener-
ating assessment reports in light of new demands placed on the types of expertise
required by those reports. Using the example provided by the French Association
for Disaster Risk Reduction, the authors discuss whether the IPCC needs to review
8 S. Serrao-Neumann and A. Coudrain

its organization to ultimately provide support for effective implementation of cli-


mate change adaptation and mitigation programs that need to be integrated and
operational across a range of spatial and temporal scales and stakeholder spectrum.
Gervet describes how computation constraint models can aid decision-making
and design of holistic solutions. She focuses on techno-economic issues involved in
the implementation of renewable energy parks in Egypt to describe how a com-
putational model was used as a communication and simulation tool between
involved parties to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of their energy
management-related choices.
Part II offers examples of how climate change information can be communicated
to inform decision-making with present and future implications. It covers aspects of
stakeholder engagement to deal with uncertainty in climate change science, com-
munication of climate change information within personal circles, and bridging
research, practice, and decision-making.
Serrao-Neumann and Low Choy report on the suitability of scenario planning as
a tool to inform decision-making and policy implementation in light of high
uncertainty and low controllability. The authors use examples from Australia to
discuss the intricacies of using scenario planning at multiple scales, including
institutional and community scales.
Coulter notes on the difficulties of imagining and talking about a future that will
be affected by climate change impacts. Focusing on Australian and Canadian
examples, she highlights how challenges in communicating about climate change
are not confined to circles of people who do not have access or lack of deep
knowledge about climate change, but exceed knowledge to include emotional
spheres of personal relationships.
Schuck-Zöller, Brinkamm, and Rödder analyze the role of interdisciplinary
research in integrating research and practice. Drawing on the example of the
Climate Services initiative, they argue for the integration between researchers and
practitioners to solve real-world problems and propose a list of criteria to guide best
practice in transdisciplinary dialogues.
Dubois, Stoverinck, and Amelung discuss how visualization can help users to
understand complex and uncertain climate science. Based on the analyses of
European examples, the authors offer important considerations to avoid confusion
and improve understanding of uncertainty when using common visual tools to
communicate climate change, including maps and their need for consistency and
norms.
Howes outlines how policy-making processes to be effective need to enhance
community empowerment. Analyzing three case studies from Australia, the USA,
and the UK, he proposes a three-step approach to policy-making to inform, engage,
and support democratic community-based adaptation.
Jacobson, Crevello, Chanseng, and Chanthan tackle the confronting issue of
adaptation in information-poor situations. Using examples from rural Cambodia
focused on using vulnerability and resilience assessments for policy dialogue, the
authors offer much-needed engagement strategies to enable less resourced actors to
also plan for their adaptation and transformation.
1 Science and Knowledge Production for Climate Change … 9

Part III provides a view on case studies which are applying climate change
information. Selected cases offer examples of application and usability of complex
climate change information through Web-based platforms, citizen science projects,
and virtual laboratories.
Tellez-Arenas, Quique, Boulahya, Le Cozannet, Paris, Le Roy, Dupros, and
Robida discuss the challenges in using large, complex, and heterogeneous datasets
for informing climate change adaptation in coastal areas. The authors address the
interoperability challenges of Web services that integrate multifaceted datasets and
propose a flexible architecture to improve both analyses of complex scenarios by
experts and their communication to the general public.
David and Quod propose an important innovation in monitoring programs for
coral reef health by integrating ecological and social systems. The authors outline
how financial and human resource barriers to carrying out monitoring activities can
be overcome through engaging citizen scientists. They also discuss the dilemmas in
choosing the focus of monitoring programs in terms of their applicability at large
scales, their genericity, or local management application.
Gracie, Silva, Hacon, Matos, Barros, de Pina, and Barcellos report on the
development of a virtual laboratory to inform climate adaptation in the human
health sector. The authors focus on the Brazilian Climate and Health Observatory to
investigate how a ‘one-stop shop’ for accessing information concerning
health-related effects of environmental and climate change can facilitate its appli-
cation by citizens, government agencies, and researchers.
Coulter and Coudrain conclude the book by providing an overall assessment on
how climate change information is being developed, communicated, and applied in
the context of developed and developing countries. Drawing on the various con-
tributions gathered in this book, the authors discuss how climate change informa-
tion is promoting informed action to manage climate change mitigation, adaptation,
and management.
Overall, the contributions collated in this book offer a snapshot of contemporary
developments in the generation, communication, and application of climate change
information worldwide. They provide important insights for researchers and prac-
titioners pursuing the implementation of transdisciplinarity and climate change
adaptation and mitigation. The book targets researchers, practitioners, and citizens
with an interest in climate change and cutting-edge forms of knowledge generation
in many fields of enquiry, including natural sciences through to technologies and
social sciences. Hence, it contributes to the continuous evolution of research and
practice of both climate change science and transdisciplinarity.

Acknowledgements The preparation of this book was inspired by two sessions on Information
for Decision-making (4418a—how to engage in future thinking or plan for the long term, and
4418b—improve availability, access and use of information) held at the Our Common Future
under Climate Change Conference, Paris, July 2015 (http://www.commonfuture-paris2015.org/).
We thank all the authors for their contributions and willingness to provide valuable insights into
advancing climate change adaptation and mitigation.
10 S. Serrao-Neumann and A. Coudrain

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Author Biographies

Silvia Serrao-Neumann is a Senior Lecturer in the Environmental Planning Programme at The


University of Waikato, New Zealand. Her research focuses on climate change adaptation from
multiple perspectives, including: catchment scale landscape planning for water sensitive city
regions; cross-border planning and collaboration; disaster recovery under a stakeholder-focused
collaborative planning approach; natural resource management; and action/intervention research
applied to planning for climate change adaptation.

Anne Coudrain is an Engineer in water sciences (PhD—Paris School of Mines) and a Doctor of
Sciences and Auditor of the ‘Institut des Hautes Etudes pour la Science et la Technologie.’ She is
currently Honorary Research Director at the research unit ESPACE-DEV in the science societies
field on climate change. Beginning her career in 1980 at the National Mining Industry Company in
Mauritania, she researched the safety analysis of underground nuclear waste repositories and the
relationships between hydrosphere and climate, before becoming involved in managing research
for development.
Chapter 2
Science and Evidence-Based Climate
Change Policy: Collaborative
Approaches to Improve the Science–
Policy Interface

Edward A. Morgan and Gabriela Marques Di Giulio

Abstract Science has played a key role in the development of climate change
policy. Although action has been slow to materialize, climate change is firmly on
the policy agenda internationally and domestically in many countries across the
world. Climate scientists have helped put the issue into policy agendas, and climate
change science is expected to provide the basis for policy action on mitigation and
adaptation. However, science and policy sometimes have an uneasy relationship, as
highlighted by fraught political debates over climate change. Issues of uncertainty,
complexity and politics all influence the interactions and result in a range of dif-
ferent roles for scientists. At the same time, it is not simply policy-makers wanting
and using science: campaigners, industry, communities and a range of other
stakeholders all want to use science to influence policy. The interactions are not
one-way, but multifaceted, and the line between science, policy and politics can be
increasingly blurred. As a result, collaborative, co-learning approaches are needed
to improve the use of science in policy. Drawing on the authors’ research, this
chapter will discuss the challenges faced at the boundaries between science and
policy and highlight how collaboration and collective action might be deployed to
manage the interface. This can both help researchers better design their research to
support decision-making and help decision-makers and other stakeholders improve
their use of science for evidence-based policy-making.

Keywords Policy agenda  Stakeholders  Decision-making  Co-learning

E. A. Morgan (&)
Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road,
Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
e-mail: ed.morgan@griffith.edu.au
E. A. Morgan
Climate Change Response Program, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
G. M. Di Giulio
Departamento de Saúde Ambiental, Faculdade de Saúde Pública,
Universidade de São Paulo Avenida Dr. Arnaldo, 715, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 13


S. Serrao-Neumann et al. (eds.), Communicating Climate Change Information
for Decision-Making, Springer Climate, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74669-2_2
14 E. A. Morgan and G. M. Di Giulio

2.1 Introduction

Climate change is on the policy agenda in countries across the world in part thanks
to the work of scientists. The issue of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
accumulating in the atmosphere and impacting the Earth’s long-term climate pat-
terns has long been recognized. Scientists have continued to improve understanding
of the changes that are occurring, develop climate projections and highlight likely
impacts. At the same time, science and research have been highlighting the chal-
lenges of, and providing options for, mitigating and adapting to climate change. The
IPCC reports give a sense of the volume of research into the issue (IPCC 2014).
This science has been used to inform policy at international, national and local
levels. However, action on climate change has still been slow to materialize. The
challenges of negotiating the interface between science and policy have been part of
the reason for this limited action (Lemos et al. 2012; Lawrence et al. 2011).
Now that climate change is firmly on the agenda, concerted action on both
mitigation and adaptation will continue to require science to inform and guide
decision-making (Lemos et al. 2012; Lawrence et al. 2011). However, the
challenges of the interface will still make the use of science in policy difficult.
This chapter will discuss the role of science in policy and science policy
interface, and highlight the challenges that can limit science contributing to
effective policy-making. Then, this chapter will draw on empirical research to
highlight strategies to address these challenges and better negotiate the
interface.
This chapter argues that because climate change is characterized by complexity,
uncertainty and politicization, using science to simply provide knowledge for policy
is unlikely to be effective. Climate change science will be difficult to communicate,
risks being questioned or ignored and can be used to support political positions.
Further, as decision-making is likely to involve a wide range of stakeholders,
science will be used in a wide array of interactions. To overcome these issues, we
suggest that scientists need to become stakeholders in collaborative and participa-
tory processes to help establish a shared understanding through co-learning. We use
case studies from our research to show examples of how this has been done, and
discuss the various barriers that are faced and strategies to overcome them. We
show that these processes can prove effective when the science is uncertain and
complex, and the issue is highly political. Although such processes are often dif-
ficult and resource-intensive, they have a range of benefits. We also suggest that
scientists are well placed to support these processes.
2 Science and Evidence-Based Climate Change Policy … 15

2.2 Science and Evidence-Based Climate Change Policy

2.2.1 The Role of Science

The past few decades have seen the rise of evidence-based policy as a
policy-making approach in many countries (Althaus et al. 2013; Head 2008;
Marston 2003; Nutley et al. 2003). Clearly, evidence had been important to policy
long before this, but evidence-based policy focuses on relying on scientific evi-
dence to help understand the issue and guide decision-making. As Bell (2004,
p. 23) notes, this evidence-based policy approach is based on ‘the application of
science-based, “objective” knowledge—the kind possessed by “experts”—to the
solution of policy problems and the building of governing capacity’. The central
challenge is, therefore, to gather enough evidence to make good decisions, or ‘to
close the “knowledge gap” in relevant policy domains’.
However, the evidence-based policy is in many ways a restatement of the
rational model of policy (Bell 2004), which assumes that all society’s values are
known, weighted and can be compared, that policy outcomes and impacts can be
effectively predicted and compared, and that the policy actors will make a rational
choice based on this knowledge (Dye 2005). Uncertainty and complexity, espe-
cially around complex environmental and social issues, make such an assessment
extremely difficult and complex, resulting in calls for more research to better
understand the issue, which in turn often limits action (paralysis by analysis).
Furthermore, it is clear that there is a range of different types of evidence present
within policy-making, and that they are often treated differently (Head 2008;
Marston 2003). Finally, there is the fact that policy is inherently value-based and
political and evidence is likely to be harnessed to support existing political positions
(Oreskes 2004; van Buuren and Edelenbos 2004), rather than being weighed and
balanced in a rational way.

2.2.2 Expert Advice, Technocracy and Politicization


of Science

This importance of, and apparent reliance on, scientific evidence in policy is
indicative of an increasingly technocratic style of policy-making, in which
decision-making is strongly based on the advice of experts (Fischer 2009). These
moves towards more technocratic decision-making rely on a positivist view of
scientific knowledge as value-free facts about the world (Fischer 1990). A more
social constructivist view of science highlights that scientists (and also other
experts) are not purely rational thinkers, and that science is not free of values, and
hence, their advice cannot be value-free (Jasanoff 1990, 2003). If experts are not
rational, value-free actors, a technocracy results in an undemocratic system where
16 E. A. Morgan and G. M. Di Giulio

the views of experts override the values and knowledge of the other actors (Fischer
1990; Weingart 1999; Jasanoff 2003).
On the other hand, the difficulties of getting climate change on the policy
agenda, despite its far-reaching and serious potential impacts, suggest that scientific
evidence is not always the technocratic leader of policy, or at least not all experts
are equal within the policy process. Policy processes are in reality highly political,
and scientists and scientific evidence can easily become part of the political pro-
cesses (Oreskes 2004; Weingart 1999). Scientists can become advocates for par-
ticular policies or policy positions, intentionally or otherwise (Lackey 2007; Pielke
2007). Hence, the role of science and scientists in policy is not straightforward
(Morgan 2014b; Spruijt et al. 2014). Although scientific evidence has clearly been
important to the establishing of climate change as an issue, it has also not been
simply a case of presenting science to policy-makers.

2.2.3 The Science–Policy Interface

The traditional view of the science–policy interface is of a one-way knowledge


transfer, where scientists (or potentially other ‘experts’) provide knowledge, or
facts, to policy-makers or decision-makers. This comes with the assumption that
better knowledge will result in better decisions. These traditional knowledge uti-
lization theories (Landry et al. 2001; Weiss 1979) see science as providing
knowledge for policy-makers to use and focus on how the scientific knowledge gets
from the realm of science into the policy process. They imply a supply–demand
relationship between science and policy (Sarewitz and Pielke 2007).
However, simply providing knowledge does not guarantee its use in policy (as
highlighted by inaction on climate change despite the wealth of knowledge).
Furthermore, these theories fail to take into account the messiness of policy by
assuming the knowledge is disseminated neatly and intentionally (Landry et al.
2001; Slob et al. 2007). In response, the interaction or ‘two-communities’ model
sees policy-making and science as two different communities that interact in a
nonlinear way (Caplan 1979; Slob et al. 2007). As Landry states: ‘It suggests that
knowledge utilization depends on various disorderly interactions occurring between
researchers and users rather than on linear sequences beginning with the needs of
the researchers or the needs of the users’. (Landry et al. 2001, p. 335). In this model,
more interaction (greater overlap between the communities) is likely to improve the
interface (Bradshaw and Borchers 2000) and it is the differences between the
communities that create barriers (Landry et al. 2001).
An important aspect that is sometimes missed is that in reality policy and science
are rarely one community. A governance approach to policy highlights the impor-
tance of networks and the wide variety of different actors that are actually involved in
policy-making in a range of different roles (Rhodes 2007). Complex issues, such as
climate change, require governance approaches that involve interactions between
governments, communities, industry and a wide range of other stakeholders (Rhodes
2 Science and Evidence-Based Climate Change Policy … 17

2007; Rijke et al. 2012). Hence, only considering the science–policy interface as a
simple interaction between two communities risks missing a range of other, equally
important, interactions. Recognizing this, Kasperson (2011) proposed a model of the
science–policy interface in terms of a mediating network, or ‘spider’s web’. Rather
than a simple interface between science and policy, he proposed a web of interac-
tions. This implies that there is not one science–policy interface, but many; although
there are likely to be similar challenges, a range of strategies might be needed to
ensure science can be effective within governance. Strategies for successfully nav-
igating the science–policy interface around complex and uncertain issues will need
to be flexible and able to bring together a range of stakeholders, who may have a
range of different knowledge, political views and values.
In summary, if science seeks to inform policy effectively, therefore, there is a range
of challenges to consider. Head (2008) noted that evidence-based policy faced the
challenges that: (a) policy is inherently value-based, (b) information is perceived and
used in different ways, and (c) complex networks are difficult to harness to traditional
forms of knowledge management, policy development and programme evaluation. In
the context of climate change, these challenges are highlighted and exacerbated by
the complexity, uncertainty and political nature of the issue.

2.3 Challenges for Climate Change Science and Policy

The role of scientific knowledge in policy is complex, and climate change exem-
plifies all the issues discussed above. Although there has been long-standing evi-
dence for climate change and its impacts, action on mitigation and adaptation has
been slow to materialize. Clearly, science has struggled to inform policy and result
in effective action.
Recently, Lemos et al. (2012) reviewed a series of studies focused on how
different factors influence climate information uptake in specific contexts. They
highlighted several issues that are critical to the interface between climate change
science and policy, including (1) credible and legitimate information, communi-
cation and dissemination; (2) participatory approaches that bring together producers
and users of knowledge; (3) uncertainty; (4) the negative effect of the highly
politicized context of climate policy-making; and (5) the public value of science.
Many of these issues are overlapping and interrelated, stem from the nature of
the issue, and are not unique to climate change. In this chapter, we argue that the
complexity of the issue, the uncertainty around the science and the politics of the
significant change needed have combined to be major barriers to the use of science
around climate change. Later, we draw on research into other, similarly complex
issues, to highlight some approaches to overcome these barriers.
The complexity of climate change as an issue can mean it is a daunting task. The
presence of both positive and negative feedbacks, as well as the possibility of
tipping points, mean climatic changes and their impacts are nonlinear and difficult
to predict and understand (Barnett 2001; Ruth and Coelho 2007). Significant
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lesion is in the cerebellum, so that, if continuous, it is not likely to
mean that anything worse is coming. It has been said to be strongly
significant if occurring without the digestive derangements or
circulatory disturbances likely to cause it, and be unconnected with
disease of the ear. Unfortunately for diagnosis, but fortunately for the
patients, the so-called vertigo a stomacho læso, may arise in cases
where the stomach trouble is very difficult or impossible to detect,
and it often continues for weeks or months after the most careful
regulation of the diet, and yet is followed by no cerebral lesion.
Although a vertigo for which every other cause can be excluded
certainly justifies a suspicion of cerebral trouble, the tendency to
exaggerate its prognostic importance should not be encouraged by
the physician, as it may exist a long time, and disappear without
another sign of the catastrophe which has been keeping the patient
in dread.

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reckoned paræsthesiæ of the side about to be paralyzed, such as
numbness or tickling. Headache of great severity is often, but not
invariably, present. It has nothing characteristic about it, except that
it may be different from those the patient has been in the habit of
having, or may be of unusual severity, so that the patient says it is
going to kill him. Such a headache in a person in whom there is good
reason, from age, interstitial nephritis, or other symptoms, to suspect
the existence of vascular lesions is likely to be an immediate
precursor of a hemorrhage. Persistent early waking with a slight
headache, which passes off soon after rising, is said by Thompson29
to be a somewhat frequent premonition. Vomiting is hardly a
premonitory, but may be an initial, symptom, especially in
hemorrhage of the cerebellum.
29 N. Y. Med. Record, 1878, ii. p. 381.

Reference is had in these statements chiefly to the ordinary form of


cerebral hemorrhage. Of course if, during a leucocythæmia or
purpura, large hemorrhages occur elsewhere, it may be taken as a
hint that possibly the same thing may take place in the brain.
These signs of arterial disease must be considered as of the highest
importance among the (possibly remoter) premonitory signs, not only
of cerebral hemorrhage, but of the other lesions treated in this
article. Atheroma and calcification of the tangible arteries place the
existence of peri-endarteritis among the not remote possibilities.
High arterial tension has already been spoken of in connection with
etiology, and its presence should be sought for. An irregular and
enfeebled cutaneous circulation has been spoken of as an indication
of value.

OCCLUSION OF THE CEREBRAL ARTERIES may take place from several


causes other than those which concern us here, as from the
pressure of tumors or endarteritis, usually syphilitic. Thrombosis and
embolism are grouped together from their great anatomical
resemblance and their frequent coexistence, but the symptoms
produced, although ultimately the same, are often different enough
to make it necessary to bear in mind the fact that there is a
distinction—that is, that embolism is rapid and thrombosis is slow.

A cerebral artery may be occluded from the presence of a plug of


fibrin more or less intermixed with the other elements of the blood.
This plug may have been formed in situ, and is then somewhat firmly
attached to the walls of the vessel, and partly decolorized at its
oldest portion, while on each side of it, but especially on the side
away from the heart, it is prolonged by a looser and darker clot of
more recent origin. This is a thrombus.

When the plug has been transported from elsewhere it is embolus.30


It may consist of various substances, as described in the article on
General Pathology, but is usually of fibrin which has formed a
thrombus or vegetation elsewhere, and, having been broken off, is
carried by the blood until it comes to a place too narrow for it to pass,
or where it lodges at the bifurcation of a vessel. The piece of fibrin
thus lodged has a strong tendency to cause a still further deposition
—that is, a secondary thrombus—which may progress until it comes
to a place where the blood-current is too strong for the process to go
on any farther. It may in such cases not be obvious at the first glance
whether the whole process is thrombosis or whether it started from
an embolus.
30 The Greek word εμβολος (εν, in, and βαλλω, to throw) signifies the beak or rostrum
of a ship of war. Εμβολον signifies wedge or stopper, and would certainly seem the
appropriate form to be adopted for anatomical purposes. As uniformity of
nomenclature, however, seems more to be desired than etymological accuracy, the
writer has conformed in this article to the general usage.

It is probable that a thrombus forming at one point in a cerebral


vessel may break to pieces and its fragments be carried farther
along, forming a number of small emboli. (See Capillary Embolism.)
Embolism or thrombosis may take place anywhere in the brain or
body generally, but has certain points of preference. Of these, the
most usual in the brain is in the neighborhood where the internal
carotid divides into the anterior and middle cerebral, or in either of
these arteries, especially the middle, beyond this point. The plug
may be situated in the carotid just before this point, or even as low
down as its origin from the common trunk. Emboli lodge in this
region, somewhat more often upon the left side. The brain is said to
be third in the order of frequency with which the different organs are
affected by embolism, the kidneys and spleen preceding it. It has
been found that small emboli experimentally introduced into the
carotids are found in much larger numbers in the middle cerebral
than elsewhere. It is the largest branch, and most nearly in the direct
line of the carotid. Position undoubtedly influences the point at which
an embolus lodges, as it probably moves slowly along the vessels
and along their lower side. It has been remarked that, on account of
this course of the embolus, it is doubtful whether it can get into the
carotid when the patient is standing, but it certainly can do so when
he is sitting up; which, so far as the direction of the carotids is
concerned, is the same thing. The frequency with which a
hemiplegia is observed when a patient awakes in the morning may
perhaps be accounted for by the position favoring the passage of an
embolus into the carotid, which otherwise would reach organs more
remote.
The vertebrals and basilar are not infrequently affected.

The sources whence cerebral emboli may spring are various, but
cannot be found outside a certain range. They may, in the first place,
be torn off from vegetations upon either the mitral or aortic valves;
and this source is probably the most common. The appendix of the
left auricle may furnish a plug from the thrombi formed among its
trabeculæ, or the aorta from an aneurism or from parietal thrombi
formed, upon spots roughened by atheroma. The pulmonary veins
are occasionally the source of the embolus, though this is not very
common.

It is rather doubtful whether an embolus can find its way from the
systemic veins through the lungs to the brain, but it is possible that
small emboli may do so, and increase in size from the addition of
fresh fibrin when floating in the blood-current. The occurrence of
pyæmic abscesses in the brain would suggest the possibility of this,
though it is, on the other hand, possible that the brain abscesses are
secondary to older ones in the lungs. In some cases, however, a
careful examination does not disclose the source of the embolus.

In the blood-current the embolus may give rise to no symptoms


whatever, and even after its arrival in the cerebral circulation it may
lodge in such a way as not entirely to obstruct the current. In most
instances, however, it does not stop until it plugs the vessel
completely and arrests the current of blood beyond it for a moment.
Whether it shall completely deprive the portion of brain to which it is
distributed depends upon its situation as regards anastomoses and
upon the formation of secondary thrombus. Hence the knowledge of
the distribution of the arteries supplying the brain—that is, the two
carotids and two vertebrals—is of more importance in reference to
embolism and thrombosis than to cerebral hemorrhage, where the
effusion takes place from quite small branches.

The anterior portion of the brain, including the anterior and posterior
central convolutions and the first temporal, are supplied with blood
by the two terminal branches of the internal carotid, the anterior and
middle cerebral, the ganglia underlying these portions of the cortex
being supplied, as already stated, by small branches arising near the
origin of these two trunks, and principally the second. The anterior
cerebrals of the two sides are connected by the anterior
communicating, which is a short and usually wide vessel. Sometimes
one anterior cerebral branches in the longitudinal fissure, and
supplies a part of both sides. Hence in plugging of one internal
carotid which does not reach its bifurcation a collateral supply may
be received from the other side. If, however, an embolus or thrombus
has penetrated beyond the origin of the middle cerebral, this vessel
can no longer receive a supply from the anterior.

The posterior communicating arteries are two small vessels which


connect on each side the posterior cerebrals and either the carotid,
just as it gives off its two chief cerebral branches, or else the middle
cerebral close to its origin. These arteries may be of quite unequal
size, that upon the right usually being the larger, and sometimes so
large as to give the appearance of being the principal origin of the
posterior cerebral. When this happens the part of the posterior
cerebral which arises from the basilar may be reduced to a minute
arteriole, and the basilar, almost entire, goes to supply the left side of
the brain. This condition of the posterior communicating may exist to
some extent on both sides in the same brain. It is probable that in
many cases these arteries are too small to be of great value in re-
establishing the circulation in the anterior portion of the brain when it
is suddenly interrupted by an embolus.

When the large trunks leave the circle of Willis to be distributed upon
the surface of the brain, after giving off from the first centimeter or
two of their course the nutrient arteries for the deep-seated ganglia,
they break up into several branches which ramify upon the surface,
but, as Duret has shown, undergo very few anastomoses. Instead of
forming, as was once supposed, a richly inosculating network, small
branches penetrate into the brain-substance perpendicularly from
the superficial vessels, but these do not communicate freely with
each other by vessels larger than capillaries.
From these anatomical conditions it happens that when a vascular
territory is deprived of its normal supply by an embolus, it cannot be
supplied with blood from surrounding districts. A certain limited
amount of collateral supply is possible through the capillaries and the
rare anastomoses, but it is only around the edges, and the centre of
the territory becomes destitute of circulating blood. Thus an embolus
does not in the brain produce, as it does in other organs with more
abundant collateral supply, a large hemorrhagic infarction.

Small hemorrhages may, however, take place around the edges of


the softening, and when a number of small emboli are present, so as
to afford a number of overlapping areas with their borders of
congestion, a red softening may be the result. When the emboli are
very small, and at the same time not numerous enough to occlude all
the ultimate ramifications of a trunk, the vascular compensation may
be rapidly completed.

The change produced in the cerebral substance from cutting off its
supply of blood is known as anæmic necrosis, and includes what has
been known as white softening, with probably some yellow, and
possibly a little red softening, the latter in case where simple
softening has been complicated by hemorrhage.

When the circulation ceases the substance that should have been
nourished loses its firmness and acquires a custard-like consistency.
The gray and white substances are no longer so distinct in
appearance, the latter losing its milky-white color, the whole surface
of a section becoming of a dirty yellowish-white, somewhat shining,
and looking as if it contained more moisture than normal. When a
considerable portion of the interior of the hemisphere is thus
affected, the brain outside, with its membranes, bags down, looks
swollen, and feels to the fingers as if there were present a sacful of
fluid. The boundaries of such an area of softening are marked off
from the healthy substance with some distinctness, though less than
that of a hemorrhage. There may be some hemorrhage around the
edges or into the cavity, so that the presence of a little blood-pigment
is no proof that the original lesion was not softening from occlusion.
In the further progress the contents of the cavity become more fluid,
and finally a somewhat distinct cyst is formed, not unlike that from a
hemorrhage, with an internal areolar structure from the remains of
connective tissue, and contents of a slightly yellowish or brownish
color, or often of a chalky white. These cysts have little to distinguish
them, when old, from similar ones left by hemorrhage, except the
much greater amount of pigment in the latter. The smaller spots of
softening may after a time lose their fluidity, and remain as yellowish
patches as firm as, or firmer than, the surrounding brain. The region
of the brain involved becomes atrophied, the convolutions shrink,
and the membranes become filled with serous fluid, to compensate
for the sinking of the surface.

The microscope shows gradually increasing fatty degeneration,


disorganization of the nervous tissue, and degeneration of its
elements. The pyramidal cells are sometimes distinctly recognizable
by their form, and show gradual transition into the indeterminate
round granulation-corpuscles. The vessels exhibit fatty degeneration
of their coats, as well as accumulation of fatty granules between the
vessel and the lymphatic sheath. The clot which blocks the artery
becomes adherent to its walls, and the vessel with its contents forms
a round solid cord.

In a few instances the thrombi have become perforated through the


centre, so that a channel is formed for a renewal of the circulation.
There is no reason to suppose that this takes place soon enough to
be of any advantage in restoring the nutrition of the necrosed
portions of brain.

The region involved in softening depends upon the artery which is


plugged and the location of the obstructing body. The place of
election seems to be the carotid near its separation into its large
branches, or these branches after the separation, especially the
middle cerebral, this being peculiarly liable because it is the largest
branch and is the continuation in a direct line of the carotid. It is more
frequent upon the left side. Cases have been observed where the
whole of one hemisphere was softened from obstruction of the
carotid at its bifurcation; which may be accounted for, as Charcot
suggests, by an unusual distribution of the arteries, as described
above, the posterior cerebral as well as the other two being derived
almost entirely from the carotid. In a case recently observed by the
writer the whole right cerebral hemisphere, with the exception of the
tip of the frontal and tip of the occipital lobes, was softened to the
consistency of custard, a thrombus extending from the bifurcation of
the common carotid into all the ramifications of the middle cerebral.
The most common form, however, is where more or less of the brain
around the fissure of Rolando and fissure of Sylvius, with or without
the underlying ganglia, is softened. This happens from a lodgment of
the embolus in the middle cerebral. If the obstruction be close to the
origin of the artery, the corpus striatum suffers, from the mouths of its
small nutrient arteries arising in this part of its course being stopped,
while if it have passed along a little farther, these remain open, and
the cortex, to which the larger branches are distributed, alone is
softened.

The anterior cerebral is not infrequently affected, either alone or with


the middle, and in these arteries as well as the posterior the
embolus, if of small size originally, may penetrate so far as to give
rise only to quite a limited anæmia. The basilar is an artery not very
rarely occluded, though more commonly by thrombus than embolus.
This occlusion may be so limited as to affect only the nutrient
arteries of the pons and cause a very limited softening, the parts
before and behind it being supplied by the unobstructed portion or by
collateral circulation from the carotids. Occlusion of the cerebellar
arteries and softening of the cerebellum are among the rarer forms.
The vertebrals themselves are sometimes plugged. A thrombosis
has been observed in the only inferior cerebellar artery which
existed, causing softening in both lobes. There was atheroma of the
heart and arteries, and a thick calcareous plate in that which was
occluded.31
31 Progrès méd., 1876, 373.
In a general way, it may be said, with many exceptions on both
sides, that thrombosis and embolism tend to affect the cortex, and
hemorrhage the central ganglia.

What has just been written applies to the simple mechanical action
of emboli. If, however, they have a septic origin, as notably in cases
of ulcerative endocarditis, the region in which they lodge becomes,
instead of a simple spot of necrosis, a septic focus or abscess, with
its results of compression or irritation. In such a case there are likely
to be abscesses of similar origin in other organs, and the cerebral
lesion is only a part of the general pyæmic condition.

ETIOLOGY.—So far as the lodgment of an embolus in an artery is


concerned, it can hardly be said that there is any etiology, for the
detachment of the plug from its place of origin is purely a matter of
accident, and may take place at any time. As to its origin in the form
of fibrinous deposit on the valves of the heart or a roughened spot on
the aorta, we must refer to the article on General Pathology. The
most important condition for embolism is disease of the valves of the
heart, rheumatic or otherwise. Next comes arterial disease,
producing roughening of the inner coat and subsequent deposition of
fibrin. So far as we can tell, the causes leading to endarteritis or
atheroma are essentially the same as those which produce the
periarteritis described in connection with cerebral hemorrhage, and
we may therefore put down old age, alcohol, and strain as among
the causes of cerebral embolism. Injuries of the lungs leading to
thrombosis of the veins may be considered as possible sources for
the formation of an embolus, and we might suppose that phthisis and
pneumonia would furnish plugs which would lodge in the brain,
though as a matter of fact they seldom do so.

Experience shows that embolism, unlike hemorrhage, is not specially


a disease of advanced life, but is distributed over different periods,
with preference for old age less marked than with hemorrhage.
Andral gives the ages of patients with softening—which, however,
includes thrombosis as well as embolism—as follows: the average
would undoubtedly be displaced in the direction of youth if
thrombosis could be taken out of the list:

Andral: Andral: Cases (with autopsies) of


Beginning of softening Death with softening embolism, thrombosis, and
in 27 cases. in 153 cases. softening—25 cases.
17–20 4 15–20 10 20–30 4
27 2 20–30 18 30–40 3
30–37 2 30–40 11 40–50 3
43–45 2 40–50 19 50–60 1
53–59 4 50–60 27 60–70 5
63–69 7 60–70 34 70–80 2
76–78 6 70–80 30 Young 1
80–89 4 Middle-aged 1
Old 5

In the etiology of cerebral arterial thrombus there seem to be two


factors of prime importance, although there are cases which seem to
demand a third, and Charcot32 suggests the possibility of some
hæmic dyscrasia favoring the formation of a thrombus, and relates a
case of thrombosis of the middle cerebral, with three others of the
same process in other arteries, occurring in patients with uterine
cancer, where all the usual sources of emboli were explored with
negative results. The first of the two is disease of the cerebral
arteries, not necessarily extensive, but sufficient to form a starting-
point on the inner wall for the deposit of fibrin. In this respect the
etiology of thrombosis may be various. Syphilitic endarteritis, for
instance, may very easily give rise to this lesion, but it is likely to be
accompanied by others, and has a symptomatology more or less
peculiar to itself. It is not, of course, to be included with the form we
are considering.
32 Comptes Rendus Soc. de Biol., 1865, p. 24.

The second factor—one which is perhaps capable of giving rise to


coagulation of the blood or deposit of fibrin without any arterial
disease—is weakness of the heart, connected or not with anæmia.
The causes of this condition may be manifold, and are likely to lead
to many other consequences than cerebral thrombosis. A thrombus
may form upon a very small basis of atheroma. Several of these
points are illustrated in the following case: A lady, aged about sixty-
five, had had for many months vague symptoms of want of strength,
fatigue, want of appetite, and so on, with complaints of distress and
fulness in the abdomen, for which no special cause could be found.
On one occasion she was unusually long in dressing, and her
expression was noticed to be changed and her voice altered for a
few moments. The pulse was habitually 60 or less, and at times
irregular, but nothing abnormal could be detected in the sounds or
position of the heart. Fatty degeneration was suspected. One
morning, after going to bed in her usual health, she was found on the
floor of her room unconscious and with left hemiplegia. She lived
about thirty-six hours. The autopsy showed nothing abnormal in the
abdomen except a considerable accumulation of fat; and in the
thorax the heart appeared normal, and was not fatty. There was very
little atheroma. In the end of the internal carotid artery was a
thrombus, of which the lower and firmest part was connected with a
very small spot of roughening just at the point where the artery
comes through the base of the skull. It extended just beyond the
origin of the middle cerebral artery, which was of course occluded.
The corresponding region of the brain was converted into a vast
mass of softened tissue.

The SYMPTOMS of the lodgment of an embolus in the brain may


closely resemble, or even be precisely the same as, those of
hemorrhage. Unless, however, an embolus makes a pause on its
journey, giving rise to a partial obstruction before there is a complete
one, or unless the obstruction is not absolute until after the formation
of a secondary thrombus, the attack may be absolutely sudden.

A thrombus, however, is slower in its formation, and may produce


gradually increasing anæmia of the region of brain supplied before it
is absolutely complete, with a gradually increasing paralysis and loss
of consciousness slowly approaching. Thus we may have the early
symptoms in the form of headache, vertigo, heaviness, and
drowsiness, peculiar sensations in the limbs about to be paralyzed or
in the head, delirium of various kinds, or hysterical manifestations.
Prévost and Cotard33 lay special stress upon the importance of
severe vertigo (étourdissement) as a prodrome or warning of
softening, especially in the aged. It is dependent upon anæmia of the
brain, and this, in its turn, upon atheroma of the arteries, and
sometimes at least upon feebleness of the circulation, both of these
being conditions likely to cause the deposit of a thrombus. As,
however, the thrombus does not necessarily result from these
conditions, and as the vertigo may arise from other sources, as
stated under the head of Cerebral Hemorrhage, it is to be looked
upon with special suspicion chiefly in those cases where other
symptoms might lead in the same direction, and when other causes
can be excluded.
33 Mémoires de la Soc. de Biol., 1865, p. 171.

The same authors also speak of less defined symptoms, like delirium
and stupor, occurring among the inhabitants of the Salpêtrière (old
women), with intervals of comparative health, as being premonitory.

It is possible, however, for the symptoms of thrombus to be


developed rapidly when, as in the case last described, the thrombus
begins to form in a place which does not entirely interrupt the
current, but afterward reached the mouth of a large vessel, which it
closes.

The loss of consciousness, coma, and all the phenomena of the


apoplectic attack, with the possible exception of early rigidity, may be
as fully developed from occlusion of the cerebral vessels as from
their rupture; but it must be said that it is more common to meet with
them in cases of large hemorrhage than with either embolism or
thrombosis.

The general functions are even less disturbed than with a


hemorrhage producing an equal extent of paralysis. The temperature
follows nearly the same course as in hemorrhage, except that the
initial fall, if present—which is not always the case—is said to be less
than with cerebral hemorrhage. To this succeeds a rapid rise, which,
even in cases which are to terminate fatally, gives place to a fall to
the neighborhood of normal, and another rise before death. These
are the statements of Bourneville. The rise is said not to be so high
as with hemorrhage.

The annexed chart is from a man (W. I. W.) who was in the hospital
with ill-defined nervous symptoms, and was suddenly attacked with
convulsions, vomiting, and unconsciousness. He had a small tumor
at the point of the right temporal lobe, and softening of the left corpus
striatum. The apoplectic symptoms occurred on the 15th—that is, as
will be seen by the chart, one day after the temperature began to
rise. The pulse and respiration show no characteristic changes.

FIG. 40.
It is much more common for the embolus or thrombus to give rise to
a set of symptoms less severe than a fully-developed apoplectic fit.
During such a fit—or, more clearly, as it is passing off—we find more
or less marked paralytic symptoms, but these are quite as frequently
present without the loss of consciousness. The patient states that he
waked up and found one side of his body helpless, or that he was
reading the paper when it fell from his hand, and upon trying to walk
found that he could not do so. Loss of speech may be an initial
symptom. It has been spoken of as premonitory, but it is probable
that it is in reality only the beginning, which, in some cases may go
no farther, but is usually succeeded by more extensive paralysis,
which makes its meaning unmistakable. These symptoms may be
hours or even days in developing, with occlusion as well as with
hemorrhage. Very slight attacks may occur which hardly excite
attention, and lesions are found after death in many cases to which
there is nothing in the history to correspond.

Improvement may begin very rapidly in some cases where the lesion
is small, a sufficient amount of collateral circulation being developed
to prevent the structure from being disorganized. In others a
specially favorable anastomosis may preserve even a larger area,
but in others still it is not easy to account on entirely anatomical
grounds for the amount of improvement which takes place.

From this point onward the history of hemorrhagic and of embolic


and thrombotic paralysis is essentially the same, and the description
of the principal phenomena and progress of hemiplegia will apply to
all.

SYMPTOMS AND PROGRESS OF HEMIPLEGIA DEPENDING ON CEREBRAL


HEMORRHAGE OR OCCLUSION OF THE CEREBRAL VESSELS.—The cerebral
cortex represents the centres for many of the higher nervous
functions, spread out in such a way that they may be more or less
separately affected, while the corpora striata and internal capsules
are the regions where the various conductors are crowded together,
so that embolism, when affecting small vessels and limited areas of
the cortex, more frequently gives rise to narrowly-defined groups of
symptoms than hemorrhage, which, taking place oftener in the
central ganglia, is able to cut off the communication from large
masses of cerebral tissue at once. This is a general remark, tending
to explain why aphasia, for instance, is often spoken of as especially
a symptom of embolism, while it is in reality common to all the
lesions that affect the proper locality.

The motor paralysis, more or less complete, which has been


described under the head of Hemorrhage continues indefinitely. It
may disappear rapidly, so that motion begins to return in a day or
two, and goes on to complete recovery in a short time. On the other
hand, it may be months before the flexion of a finger or a toe gives
the slightest token of the will resuming its control. The face often
recovers its symmetry before the limbs are fully restored, but the leg
may be used in locomotion before the complete recovery from
paralysis, since the tone of the muscles is sufficient to keep the knee
straight enough for support, as if the leg were all in one piece, while
it is swung around at each step by the pelvic muscles. We may meet
with all degrees of recovery—from that which is absolutely complete
and comparatively rare, through the case where a little want of play
upon one side of the face, a little thickness of speech, a feeble or
awkward grasp of the hand, betrays what has happened, or that of
the man so often seen in the streets with a mournful or stolid face,
the arm in a sling or dangling straight down by the side, and
swinging one leg awkwardly around, to the helpless paralytic lifted in
and out of his chair or lying almost motionless in bed, and living only
to be fed and be kept clean.

Involuntary movements may take place in limbs entirely incapable of


voluntary ones, and may occur under conditions of excitement or
with other involuntary movements, such as gaping. On the other
hand, the patient often moves the well hand while making utterly
ineffectual attempts on the paralyzed side. Involuntary twitching of
the feet may be annoying. Reflex movements, especially of the feet,
are often exaggerated, and in fact the twitching just spoken of is
often excited by some trifling, perhaps unperceived, irritation. A
touch with the point of a penknife upon the sole of the foot may call
out a movement which the patient is utterly incapable of executing by
the force of the will, and the appearance of volition is often increased
by the grimace or exclamation of pain or annoyance.

Epileptiform attacks may be a sequence of hemiplegia, occurring at


irregular intervals, and not of great severity. Sometimes the patient
seems depressed or less talkative for a day or two previously, and
relieved after the fit has occurred, as in true epilepsy.

Comparatively little attention has been given to the condition of


sensation in hemiplegia. In the more complete apoplectic stupor it is
apparently abolished, like nearly all the functions above those of
respiration and circulation, but it often happens when the patient is
unable or unwilling to make any voluntary response to the voice, and
lies apparently perfectly indifferent, that any moderate irritation like a
pinch will bring out evidence of sensation. It is often stated that in
hemiplegia the sensation is not at all affected; and this is probably
true of many cases, but a more attentive examination will often
disclose a decided diminution on the affected side. Broadbent, who
has tested with pricking, touch, the compasses, and hot substances,
says that it is frequently diminished, and often greatly so, and not
only in the limbs, but in the face, chest, and abdomen. Tripier34 says
that a lesion of the larger part of the fronto-parietal region determines
at the same time a paralysis of motion and a diminution of sensibility;
and one may conclude that this region holds under its dependence
sensitive as well as motor phenomena intimately connected with
each other. The zone called motor, of which the limits are difficult to
fix, may with more reason be called sensori-motor.
34 Revue mensuelle de Méd. et Chir., 1880, p. 18.

Anæsthesia probably in most instances disappears more rapidly


than motor paralysis, which accounts for its being frequently
overlooked. The more common location of lesions causing motor
paralysis—i.e. the corpus striatum and the motor portion of the
cortex—is one not likely, unless extensive, to concern sensation; but
there are cases where a very complete hemianæsthesia, including
the special senses, may be found; and when, in such cases, the
motor paralysis is slight, a picture is presented almost identical with
that of hysterical hemianæsthesia with great diminution or abolition
of the special senses, hearing, taste, smell, with concentric
diminution of the field of vision and of the color-field, or complete
color-blindness on the affected side.

A man aged thirty-five while at work suddenly felt a prickling


sensation upon his left side, and became unconscious. The
bystanders say he was convulsed. On returning to consciousness
after three hours he had lost his speech, which, however, was rapidly
recovered, and his left side was not so strong as his right, though
there was no distinct history of paralysis. Two or three days
afterward it was noticed that sensation was much diminished upon
the left side, two sharp points of the æsthesiometer being felt as one
at two inches on the forearm and three-quarters of an inch on the
tongue. He could feel the touch of a spoon, but could not tell whether
it was cold or hot. Odors were not recognized upon the left side of
the nose, except faintly ammonia and chloroform, and a watch was
heard on that side only when in contact with the ear. The field of
vision was much diminished and color-blindness was almost
complete. A few days later the field of vision had increased, and
there was color-sense, the field of perception for the different colors
being arranged almost exactly as laid down by Charcot, vision for
red being largest, but not so large as for simple perception of
objects; those for blue, green, and yellow nearly the same and
smaller; and that for violet limited to a small space in the centre of
the field.

Less regular forms of anæsthesia may be met with, as well as


hyperæsthesia. These are said to be especially connected with
various lesions of the pons.35 A case is recorded36 of complete
hemianæsthesia in a man, coming on like a blow. There was no loss
of motor power; the face was symmetrical, sight and hearing
unimpaired. Taste was lost and smell doubtful. There was aortic and
mitral disease. Hughlings-Jackson speaks of a man who
experienced a severe apoplectiform attack which it was thought
would be fatal in a few hours. He recovered, however, with almost
complete loss of hearing.
35 Conty, Centralblatt f. d. Med. Wiss., 1878, 571.

36 Med. Times and Gaz., 1871, i. 246.

Neuralgic pains of long continuance are not infrequent


accompaniments of hemiplegia, and may be lasting even after nearly
complete recovery from the paralysis. A peculiar restlessness, a
constant desire for change of position, has been referred to
derangement of the muscle-sense. It is sometimes very distressing,
and causes much annoyance to attendants as well as to the sufferer,
as the patient is no sooner placed in one position, no matter how
comfortable, than he desires to change it.

The mental condition seldom fails to suffer more or less in cases of


hemiplegia, but the limits are very wide between a slight emotional
excitability on the one hand and almost dementia on the other. This
is, of course, applicable to cases where the lesion is a single or
limited one, and not where a hemorrhage or thrombus is merely a
part of a general vascular degenerative change with chronic
meningitis or atrophy of the brain, where the mental decay can
hardly be called the result of any single lesion. In cases of aphasia
the mental condition is harder to make out, from the peculiar inability
to communicate ideas if present. It is very safe to say, however, that
many such patients possess much greater intelligence than would
appear to a casual observer, and yet the apathy with which they
often bear the deprivation of speech and consequent isolation
speaks more strongly in favor of some blunting of the perceptions
than of Christian resignation. A patient whose general appearance is
that of tolerable comfort is likely to cry when attention is called to the
helpless condition of the hand. It is probable that memory suffers in
such cases, if not the reasoning faculties.

Trousseau cites the case of Lordat, who became aphasic, and after
recovery described his own case. The learned professor claims to
have been in full possession of his faculties, and to have arranged a
lecture with the divisions and subdivisions of the subject, and all this
without the thought of a single word passing through his mind.
Trousseau ventures to doubt the possibility of carrying on
complicated mental processes without words, and thinks Lordat may
have overestimated the precision of his mental processes. It appears
in confirmation of this view that after his attack he always read his
lectures, whereas before he had been distinguished as an
extempore speaker.

McCready, in an excellent article in the New York Journal of


Medicine (September, 1857), discusses this subject at length, and
details a number of cases where it was evident that paralytics and
aphasics (who, however, he did not know by that name, nor the
special lesion connected with their condition) possessed not only
ordinary intelligence, but excellent business judgment and ability. He
says that the confusion of mind and difficulty in pursuing a train of
thought of which apoplectics are apt to complain is, to a great extent,
the mere result of diminished nervous energy—that they
comprehend well and judge correctly. It is fair to say that while the
mind is almost certainly impaired, it is not necessarily in exact
proportion to the severity of other symptoms, aphasia included. The
memory, either special or general, is most apt to be impaired.

The testamentary capacity of a person who has had an apoplectic fit


or who is paralyzed at the time of making a will may be called in
question. The only general remark to be made is that these facts
alone are not sufficient to prove incapacity; neither should the
presence of aphasia or agraphia do so without further evidence of
want of comprehension of the meaning of language used by others;
so that if, for instance, a person were seized with hemiplegia and
aphasia between the drawing up of a will and its signature, it should
not be invalidated unless there be further evidence to show that the
testator was incapable of understanding it when read over to him. In
cases of word-blindness, a patient, like one described by Magnan,
may be able to draw up a will with full comprehension of what he is
doing, and yet be unable to read it understandingly. Inability to
signify intelligibly assent or dissent would, of course, entirely
disqualify one from signing a will.

It is seldom that a paralytic attack fails to leave its mark, though


perhaps slight, for years, if not for the remainder of life. An extreme
ease of shedding tears is a very common symptom, and sometimes
laughter comes on very slight provocation.

Among the most interesting groups of phenomena connected with


hemiplegia, and sometimes the sole representative of this condition
—that is, existing alone without any motor paralysis—is that
embracing the means of communicating with the outer world by
means of language spoken or written. Corresponding to, and usually

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