Introduction: Arguing about the Environment. What Difference Does Culture Make?

In recent years environmental debate has moved from the margins of public and political life to occupy a key position in discussions on the political, social and economic prospects of the human world. Unprecedented media coverage on central environmental problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss has accelerated a dramatic shift in how we view our physical environment and our role within it. This book deals with consequences of an important aspect of this shift that may look unsurprising but has yet to receive sufficient attention from social scientists, politicians, environmental policy-makers and others who contribute to public life: environmental arguing takes place between people who differ from each other in many ways.