Climate Change is Everywhere

Climate change is everywhere. Not only are the physical climates of the world everywhere changing, but just as importantly the idea of climate change is now to be found active across the full parade of human endeavours, institutions, practices and stories. The idea that humans are altering the physical climate of the planet through their collective actions, an idea captured in the simple linguistic compound ‘climate change’, is an idea as ubiquitous and as powerful in today's social discourses as are the ideas of democracy, terrorism or nationalism. Furthermore, climate change is an idea that carries as many different meanings and interpretations in contemporary political and cultural life as do these other mobilising and volatile ideas.

Climate change, then, is to be found everywhere. Just as the transformation of the world's physical climates is inescapable, so is the idea of climate change unavoidable. It is an idea circulating anxiously in the worlds of domestic politics and of international diplomacy. It is an idea circulating with mobilising force in the worlds of business, of law and of international trade. It is an idea circulating with potency in the worlds of knowledge and invention, of development and welfare, of religion and ethics, and of public celebrity. And it is an idea circulating creatively in the worlds of art, of cinema, of literature, of music and of sport.