Short Abstract:

This panel examines sites in South Africa, Pakistan, Australia, and the United States to consider the forms of futurity—governmental norms, types of kn.owledge, technologies, ethical orientations, material processes—that are taking shape around climate adaptation, mitigation, loss, and damage

Long Abstract:

We often think of the unfolding of climate futures in terms of the dramas of planning and preparedness for the future(s) of climate change: Ideally, we anticipate climate change and its effects, and address them, either by reducing emissions or by planning adaptation measures that will reduce climate change impacts, as in much discussed and scrutinized climate action plans and climate adaptation plans. The absence of such anticipation and preparatory action is generally understood in terms of failure – failure to anticipate, failure to accept scientific evidence, and failure to act. Yet it is increasingly clear that forms of futurity are already unfolding around climate change that cannot readily be captured as matters of anticipatory knowledge and preparatory action (or its absence). Much adaptation is spurred by extreme events that precipitate unplanned change, or by anticipations of the future that have no explicit relationship to climate change but instead focus on future financial gain or loss, anticipations of economic development (or fears about decline), or “local” disasters. How can STS scholars characterize these increasingly prominent forms of futurity, beyond a negative reference to the absence of planning and anticipation? How are they shaping future trajectories of climate adaptation and mitigation? The papers in this panel examine a diverse range of sites (in Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, and the U.S.) to consider the distinct forms of futurity—governmental norms, types of knowledge, technologies, ethical orientations, material processes etc.—that are taking shape around climate adaptation, mitigation, loss, and damage.