Climate Uncertainty and Illuminating Dark Ecology

Abstract

One of the most discussed problems regarding climate science is that the knowledge it claims to have is plagued by uncertainty. Timothy Morton’s dark ecology regards uncertainty as inextricable from any knowledge and also from any relation in general. This approach reveals that a rejection of uncertainty motivates both climate change deniers and their critics who would treat the conclusions of climate science as indisputable facts. Instead of treating uncertainty as a problem, dark ecology proposes that we learn how to live with it. But in order to do so, it recommends not only becoming attuned to the weird, “dark” side of things, but also tacitly suggests that the dark side is the only real one. Dark ecology is therefore bound to disregard those realms of human existence which are dependent upon transparency, such as public and political life. However, the article shows that particular processes in those realms have contributed significantly to the way the weird reality described by dark ecology became perceptible. Many of the features of global warming that dark ecology emphasizes - the impossibility of distancing oneself from it or of defining it completely and controlling it - become apparent only when a broad public controversy about its reality emerges and that controversy can never be resolved by citing allegedly certain facts The participants in such a controversy find that is impossible to convert the knowledge they have into a consensus. The article recommends taking that experience as a step toward attuning oneself to weird reality in which knowledge is more impotence than power.