Category Archives: In the Spotlight

In Israel, the starting date of daylight savings time is a matter of fierce political controversy between its religious Jewish and its secular Jewish citizens. Religious Jews and their political representatives want daylight savings time to end early in the year before Yom Kippur. The Yom Kippur fast ends with sundown, and without daylight savings time it ends an hour earlier. It also enables observant Jews to have sunrise morning prayers before the start of the workday. Secular Jews, by contrast, resent the loss of an extra hour of light and the energy waste it causes.

Daylight savings time used to change according to the political views of the minister of interior affairs, but a few years ago, secular and religious members of the Israeli parliament reached a compromise and enacted a statute that sets a fixed mechanism for determining the length of the daylight savings period. This year, daylight savings happened to end particularly early in the year, and the public controversy heated up again.

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Who exactly can you trust when it comes to climate science? In her 2010 keynote speech at the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science, Evelyn Fox Keller called upon scientists and philosophers of science to engage the public in critical discourse regarding the issue of climate change. She claimed that scientists and HPS’ers (those that study history and philosophy of science), who are best suited to talk about the myriad of complex issues surrounding the subject, have traditionally been reluctant to take their expertise into the mainstream. This blog post, the first in an ongoing series, is designed to answer Fox Keller’s challenge.

As the introductory blog in the series, this entry will be an overview of the multifaceted scientific and political challenges that climate change poses. My goal here is somewhat modest. Simply put, in this post I want to give the basic background needed to enter into a discussion on climate change. Please use the comments section to ask questions about this information. If you already know this information, skip right down to the comments section and ask a question about climate science that you don’t know the answer to. I’ll respond, and maybe even answer it!

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A strong and sustainable global recovery needs to be built on balanced global demand. Significant weaknesses exist across G-20 economies. I am concerned by weak private sector demand and continued heavy reliance on exports…. Our ability to achieve a durable global recovery depends on our ability to achieve a pattern of global demand growth that avoids the imbalances of the past…. In some countries, strengthening social safety nets would help boost low levels of consumption. In others, product and labor market reforms could strengthen both consumption and investment. I also want to underscore that market-determined exchange rates are essential to global economic vitality.

This excerpt from President Obama’s letter to his G-20 colleagues ahead of the summit highlights many of the themes that global financial leaders discuss at such gatherings, but it is also notable for its tone of scientific certitude. There are readily identifiable characteristics of poorly functioning economies (“weak private sector demand”, “heavy reliance on exports”, “low levels of consumption”), and specific policy interventions that will cure these problems (“strengthening social safety nets”, “product and labor market reforms”, “market-determined exchange rates”). Fixing economies, in this view, is much like fixing a car. Take your car to the best mechanic you can find, and he or she will identify and correct the problem. Take your economy to the best economist you can find, and he or she will—in just the same way—identify and correct the problem. So how do we find the best economist for the job? It turns out that this isn’t so easy.

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